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So Long, and Thanks for All the Dish

With the dawning of a new era in Doctor Who comes the end of Confessions of a Neowhovian.

I will admit that the preceding sentence makes me a little verklempt. I’ve been writing this blog continuously for thirteen years—the first five of them weekly—and it has become a part of my identity. But as I explained elsewhere when asked why I was planning to retire the blog, I am Le Tired.

It takes a lot of mental energy to decide on a topic and write a blog post, and as the years drag on, I feel like I have less and less of interest (or at least new) to say. I find myself most interested, and seem to get the most engagement from readers here, when I can talk about a new episode that has just dropped, but especially these last few years, those have been relatively few and far between.

And I’ve covered all the (surviving) Classic episodes now, in one capacity or another. The only episodes I haven’t touched on are parts of Tennant’s Tenth Doctor era (notably, all of Martha’s run in Series Three; that’s rather an oversight on my part). I could keep limping along another year, finally doing Martha some justice and covering Ncuti Gatwa’s first series, but… it’s all become more of a chore than a joy.

So it’s time for me to stop.

There are other creative pursuits I’d like to give more of my attention (notably, my fiction writing; if you’re interested, I do have one published short (flash) story in Nature: Futures, under my pen name). As I’m sure you can imagine, fiction writing also takes a lot of mental energy. There were times this last year when I would’ve liked to spend what few spell slots I had working on my latest novel instead of on blogging, but I made a commitment to myself and my potential readers thirteen years ago, and I wasn’t going to break that commitment.

As my personal life evolves in 2024, with aging parents needing more care and maturing offspring heading off to college in the fall, I hope that my love for Doctor Who will also continue to evolve and grow. I look forward to continuing to share ideas and opinions with other fans, both in person (I will continue to attend Gallifrey One!) and online (I’ll leave the blog’s Facebook page open, at least for now). I’ll miss this space, where I could dish my own favorite little tidbits of fan theory, but the moment has been prepared for.

Thank you for joining me on this amazing journey over the last thirteen years.

Marcia Franklin
The Neowhovian

Gallifrey One 33⅓: Long Live the Revolution — Day Three

Despite the frenzy of the lines for Jodie, this was probably the most all-around low-key Gally I’ve ever had. Never before have I had so much time completely unscheduled from con events.

For example, this year’s final day was the latest Sunday start for me ever. Since we’d scored seats for Jodie’s Saturday interview panel, I made no plans to go see her again on Sunday morning, even though (I’m told) there was still plenty of room to do so. I didn’t think there would be enough different about the panel to make it worth my while (though they did have Janet Fielding and Sophie Aldred on stage with her at the end, which I might’ve enjoyed).

Instead, Kiddo and I met up with some of our friends to peruse the Art Show and wander the Dealers Room again. It was all incredibly casual. The first thing I had scheduled in any way was a brief meet-up with a friend while Kiddo and I ate food-truck lunch on the patio.

This leisurely pace continued until 2:00—absolutely unheard of for me—when our little gang convened in Program A (in the center section, only about seven rows from the front!) for the live commentary on “The Halloween Apocalypse.” Moderator Adrienne Enderle was joined on the couch by Chris Chibnall, director Jamie Magnus Stone, and actor Craige Els, who played Karvanista. I was extremely grateful that the episode was run with captions (in part because that’s how I always watch TV these days), because it made it much easier to follow both the episode and the commentary. Good banter, good details, good fun.

Gallifrey One 33⅓: Long Live the Revolution — Day Two

It has become almost a tradition at Gally for me to spend the majority of the day on Sunday camped out in Program A. This year, weirdly, that was my Saturday instead.

We had a nice slow start to the day, chilling in the Lobby for nearly four hours before programming began. Then we met up with our friends to get into the Diamond Pass line for photos with Jodie. (I have learned that for a popular guest, the lines will be ridiculous, and unless I’m willing to wait interminable hours, a TARDIS Tag (which goes for an insanely large amount of money) or a Diamond Pass (still large, but not as insanely so, amount of money) is really a necessity.) Even so, the scrum in the hallway was both large and confused. It eventually got sorted, though, and the process was relatively smooth. We got out the other end in decent time with photos we actually like.

Our first dip into Program A for the day came as we recovered from the photo op experience, sitting at the very back of the room for the end of “The Second Doctor Era” and beginning of “The Third Doctor Era” Big Finish panels. Mostly that involved Frazer Hines being very Frazer, Katy Manning being very Katy, and Jon Culshaw demonstrating what an incredible impression of the Brigadier he does.

Gallifrey One 33⅓: Long Live the Revolution — Day One

It’s here again! The most wonderful time of the year, Gallifrey One, is back in swing. This year one of my daughters has come along, which is lending an extra special something to the experience.

We arrived Wednesday evening and crashed early. Thursday morning we slept in a lot (for us), and got up early (for the time zone). The Lobby was still filled with a slight majority of non-Gally folx, but as the morning wore on, there were more of us here.

It was a nice, slow, ramping-up day. The rest of my close Gally friends arrived (some with significant others who are now my new acquaintances), we got our badges (and Diamond Passes! I’ve learned the hard way that I don’t want to wait in a line as long as I’d have to without those), went to dinner at my traditional Thursday-night place (Aliki’s Greek Taverna is fabulous; both the food and the service are top-notch, in my book), and attended the ice cream social (I got a new folding fan!).

Friday morning rolled around, and Kiddo and I were up (local) early again. Bonnie Langford went through Starbucks as we were finishing our own coffee, which set a Gally tone for the day. She was also the first one we saw in the Dealers Room for autographs. We managed to get Bonnie, Katy Manning, and Sophie Aldred all checked off our list early in the day, and wander the Dealers Room for a casual Friday morning.

Welcome to Year Thirteen

Triskaidekaphobes may not care for the idea that I’m highlighting this as the thirteenth year of the blog, but in my household thirteen is actually one of our favorite numbers. Further, we’ve just ended the Thirteenth Doctor’s era, and I can look forward to meeting Jodie Whittaker herself at Gallifrey One next month. I’d say Year Thirteen is worth celebrating.

This year will, as I’ve hinted before, be the last for the blog. Now that I’ve finally sold some fiction (you can find my first published story here, if you’re interested; I use a pen name), I want to focus more of my time and energy on that kind of writing. There are also several other personal stressors that have ramped up recently, and I simply have less energy to dedicate to blogging.

That’s not to say this year will be lax. I hope to be able to announce my part in that project to which I alluded a couple of years ago. I’ll be reporting on my experiences at Gally as usual, with the bonus of having one of my kiddos with me to provide fresh eyes. And I will finish up my Everything Else series of reviews of the Classic adventures.

Given that there are only five of those left, the blog schedule gets a bit loose around mid-year. But here is the schedule for those final five stories:

  • Jan 25: The Dalek Invasion of Earth
  • Feb 08: Enlightenment
  • Mar 22: The Invasion of Time
  • Apr 26: Frontier in Space
  • May 24: The Pirate Planet

Gallifrey One: Thirty-Second to Midnight — Day Three

Thankfully Sunday got off to a smoother start, and I didn’t feel even slightly rushed as I had on Saturday. As is often the case, with extras like autographs out of the way, my final day of Gally was slated to be a day of panels, spent mostly in Program A.

We began with “Remembering Elisabeth Sladen,” where moderator Steven Schapansky interviewed guests Gary Russell, Sadie Miller (Lis Sladen’s daughter), and Tommy Knight. I figured beforehand that I was going to cry a lot in this one, but it never really drifted into the maudlin at all. At worst, there was a vague sense of sadness at the thought that she’d never really believed she deserved to have the success she’d had as Sarah Jane. It is simultaneously encouraging and heartbreaking to realize that even those we look up to suffer from the kind of imposter syndrome that plagues all of us.

Speaking of imposter syndrome, the next thing on my agenda was the panel about the Master, which I moderated. I swear when I first looked at “You Will Obey Me!” there were five panelists and I was not the mod, so I’m really glad I decided to look over the schedule and make some panel notes on Thursday morning! At any rate, there were three of us on the day, and I feel like I did a serviceable job. The audience seemed to enjoy it, and nothing ever went completely off the rails. Maybe I’ll put my name in the hat to moderate again another year.

Gallifrey One: Thirty-Second to Midnight — Day Two

Saturday got off to a bit of a rough start, as I slept about two hours later than I had anticipated. Things worked out in the end, though, as (aside from getting my blog post up on time), I still managed to do everything I’d hoped to do before I needed to be anywhere in particular.

Before I was quite ready to move on my own, though, ConBuddy texted to say he’d already gotten in the autograph line we’d agreed to meet at, because it got long really fast. So I saddled up and headed down to the patio to wait together.

In fact, waiting in autograph lines took up pretty much the entire morning. Things thankfully ran more smoothly than they had on Friday morning (I think the con staff was finally up to speed on what did and didn’t work well), but there were still just a lot of folks who wanted these big-name autographs. There were a couple of panels I’d considered going to, but neither was compelling enough that I felt sad to miss them in order to get the autographs I really, really wanted.

Similarly, there was an early afternoon panel I’d been considering, but lunch ran well into that time slot, and I wasn’t feeling any urgency to get to the panel. So my friend group decided to have a little down time before meeting up again later.

Gallifrey One: Thirty-Second to Midnight — Day One

After two years of essentially holing up inside my house, it feels weird to travel, and I’m suffering some serious cognitive dissonance on this trip. On the one hand, it’s a freaky step outside my COVID comfort zone (people? setting foot in buildings that aren’t my house for more than a couple of hours? madness!). On the other, it feels familiar and joyous.

From waiting at the gate to get on my outbound plane, where I came across a local(ish) Doctor Who friend, it’s felt almost like a regular Gally. The roommate situation is a little sparser than usual, but after I arrived on Wednesday, I got in my visit with my SoCal-based friend whom I only ever get to see when I come for Gally, and the Lobby already had that good ol’ LobbyCon feel.

Thursday my primary ConBuddy arrived, and as he is one of only two close friends who are attending this year (the other didn’t arrive until Friday), and there are no official con events until the opening social on Thursday evening, it was a pretty low-key day of hanging with ConBuddy in between stretches of chilling in my hotel room. We even managed the now-traditional visit to Aliki’s Greek Taverna! Then it was time for the Social.

The 31 Flavours of Gallifrey One – Day Three

Contrary to the mellow vibe of most of the rest of my con schedule, Sunday started out more stressful than I’d have liked. Having briefly woken an hour before I was ready to get up, I then woke up an hour later than usual, which left me feeling pressed for time.(I had plenty, but try telling my brain that.) I got my morning blogging and language practice routine out of the way and had sufficient time to get nervous before I gave moderating a panel at Gally a go for the first time.

The panel, “A Doctor for Divided Times,” was about how the show, and the Doctor, have addressed “political” issues over the entire run. (Suffice to say that yes, Doctor Who has always been political.) I’m not really the best one to judge how it went, but a couple people told me it was a good panel and I did a good job as a moderator, so I’ll choose to believe the positive feedback. I might even volunteer to mod more in the future!

With the nerve-wracking part of my day out of the way, all I had left on my schedule was a long day in Program A. After an early lunch on the patio with my roommates before one of them had to leave to catch his flight, the other roommate and I spent some time in the Dealers Room. Since I’d decided on Saturday that I wasn’t going to sacrifice that many hours of my con to standing in line for an Eccleston autograph (which makes me sad, but Chris has told other attendees here that he plans to return to Gally, so I’ll cross my fingers for next time!), I had a little extra cash, and splurged on something I’d had my eye on.

Then we moved into Program A, where “Doctor Who Blu-Ray: Behind the Scenes” was just ending. We saw maybe five minutes of the panel before it was time for the next one (a screening of “The Daleks’ Master Plan, Episode 2: Color Edition”), and we took advantage of the break to move to better seats. They were well enough placed that we stayed there the rest of the day.

The 31 Flavours of Gallifrey One – Day Two

I should’ve expected the first time a modern Doctor showed up at Gally to result in some ridonkulous logistics, but somehow I didn’t expect it to be as bad as it was.

After my usual morning of breakfast and blogging (including starting to leave my Human Kits around the Lobby to be found), I headed down to the Dealers Room for a few minutes before it was time to get in line for my photo op with Eccleston. Heading off to line, I got the first inklings of exactly how bonkers having him here was going to make the con.

There was a green-screen photo op session scheduled for a half an hour at 10:30, and my ticket was for the hour-long regular photo op at 11:00. Usually one can line up five minutes before the scheduled time, but they didn’t even finish the green-screen folks until 11:10. At that point the Diamond and TARDIS pass holders got to begin their regular photo op, to be followed by other ticket holders, in batches as assigned at the time of purchase.

Because there were so many of us, they had to be sure the hallways stayed clear, so we either had to cram to the side, or keep circulating ourselves. Since I was in Batch 5 (of 7), I tried to circulate for a while first. I found one of my friends in the autograph line waiting for the 12:00 slot, and learned that people had lined up for the half-hour-long 10:00 autograph session starting at 7:30. Since not all of them got through the line, they just stayed there, and the line for the noon session was several hundred people long. I think Eccleston ended up signing pretty much non-stop, save a 15-minute lunch break, from after the photo shoot until 3:30 or 4, just to get through everyone.