I always get surprised by how fast Gally is over on Sunday. Objectively, it’s a shorter day, ending after Closing Ceremonies around 7pm instead of programming running into late night hours. But even knowing that and that LobbyCon will still be in full swing into the wee hours like every other night, I can never quite believe it’s time to say goodbye to my friends for another year.

The day started off great, though, as I finally had the chance to spend time with my local friends. We had a lovely time together, and they got me back in plenty of time to go grab my badge and such and head down to the con floor.

Aside from snagging my last couple of autographs, my first event was a panel called Stories from the American Trenches [Panel: Ken Deep, Jan Fennick, Steven Warren Hill, Jennifer Adams Kelley, Shaun Lyon, Robert Warnock]. It covered both the production and contents of the book Red White and Who: The Story of Doctor Who in America. The main goal of the work is (I would say) to collect, clarify, and preserve stories and facts about fandom in the US, from the beginning until 2017. The result is a 700-page tome filled with treasures.

Although when specific experiences were discussed, they were pretty much those of the panelists and thus primarily from the perspective of those who came to the show as children in the Classic era, there is more in the book. I found myself having an odd reaction to the conversation, and realizing I fit in a really weird in-between space. I am of an age with those panelists, and have an innate cultural understanding of things like the public television pledge drives that were such a big part of American fandom in the 1980s—but my own fandom is only ten years old. That made for something of a surreal panel.

Then came one of my perennial favorites: the Verity! Presents: In Defense Of game. Audience members can put their names in to be contestants and/or submit topics that the contestants would have to defend for sixty seconds (e.g., defend: the fanboy reaction to a female Doctor). One of the running themes over the previous day or so had apparently been Verity! co-hosts Erica Ensign and Deb Stanish arguing over the merits of The Ribos Operation; it came up again on the panel. I could hardly believe my luck that I’d chosen to reprint my “Binro was right!” ribbons this year—perfection!

After a small break, it was time for another game panel. This time it was Doctor Who Deathmatch: Seasons Edition, in which panelists had to decide over the span of an hour and a half which is the all-time best season of Doctor Who. There were some brutal cuts, and some painful one-on-one brackets, but in the end Capaldi won the day, as modern Series Nine was declared the winner. (I may have to steal this idea to do myself some time…)

Next I moved into Program A, and stayed there for the duration. First we watched a live commentary on The Pilot [Panel: Steven Moffat (showrunner), Lawrence Gough (director); Edward Russell (moderator)]. Although I didn’t learn a ton of new stuff, I still feel like it was forty-five minutes well spent.

Then came the panel that kind of broke us. (I guess I can’t speak for everyone, but clearly the panelists and all the others I spoke to who were there were affected.) Gallifrey Waits No More [Panel: Sophie Aldred (actor), Lindsey Alford (script executive), Lisa Bowerman (actor), Camille Coduri (actor), Jenny Colgan (writer), Sarah Dollard (writer), Jessica Martin (actor), Chase Masterson (actor), Rona Munro (writer), Hayley Nebauer (costume designer), Wendy Padbury (actor), Jemma Redgrave (actor), Dee Sadler (actor), Rachel Talalay (director); Deborah Stanish (moderator)] was billed as a panel with the women guests about how the industry has changed and how it’s stayed the same. It turned into a discussion of the #metoo movement. Some of the personal stories the panelists told were gut-wrenching. I feel privileged to have been in the room.

Closing out the con was the annual Year in Review video and the Closing Ceremonies. Thus began the painful, drawn out process of saying goodbye to all my friends for another year. Some had to leave even before Closing Ceremonies. Others I had to leave in the lobby when I headed up to bed, knowing I wouldn’t see them before I left for the airport in the morning. This is always the bitter part of the bittersweet end of Gally, because every Gally is last Gally.

But I plan to see them all next year.

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