Greetings from Gallifrey One! With the current series still airing and my Hidden Gems series already in progress, I haven’t had much time to hype this year’s trip to my favorite con, but I’m here nonetheless! So without further ado, I’ll get right to my recap of the first part of Gally 2020.
As has become my habit, I arrived Wed to start adjusting to the time change. Since most of my friends either arrived after me or had other plans for the day, it was a very low-key afternoon and evening for me, mostly spent quietly watching videos in my room.
By Thursday, more folks were around. A few of us sat around in the Lobby at one point putting together our respective goodies: my “Human Kits,” a friend’s Kerblam! boxes, and another’s valentines with temporary tattoos. It was very companionable, mildly silly fun. Then my local friend arrived for our usual lunch meet-up, which was the highlight of the day for me.
The rest of the day involved coordinating meeting my final roommate and getting him settled in before badge pick-up time. I’m really glad that I thought to look through the program guide when I picked it up at registration, too, since that’s how I learned—surprise!—that I’m moderating the panel I’m on first thing Sunday morning. At least I have had some time to prepare, including over dinner Thursday night, since one of my friends is also on that panel. Wish me luck!
Aside from the ice cream social on Thursday night (which was nice-but-not-fabulous as usual), Friday is the official beginning of the con. For me, the day was all about Pearl Mackie (Bill Potts) and Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair). After breakfast and some note-taking for panel prep in the Lobby, my first event of the day was getting autographs. I had hoped to get both Pearl and Tosin during the same time slot, but Tosin’s was only a half an hour long, and Pearl was twenty minutes late starting. I’m glad I started in Pearl’s line, because it was immense, but that did mean I had to go back later.
It did allow me time for a leisurely lunch and a call home to my family before attending the Verity! “In Defense Of” panel. I don’t even know how to describe how gloriously it concluded, other than to let you know that one contestant’s on-topic rendition of “Defying Gravity”—belted out at full volume, and eventually joined by first her competitor and then much of the audience—was a truly, truly epic Gally moment that I won’t soon forget.
From there I went back to the autograph lines, where I reconfirmed my original decision to start with Pearl had been the right one. My wait for Tosin was much shorter and I had plenty of time to duck back to the room to stash my treasures before going off to the TARDIS Talks academic track. I only stayed for the keynote, since my friend Dr. Anita Sengupta was the speaker, but it was cool to see people thinking and talking about the intersection of science, science fiction, and art.
The end of my formal con day was all in Program A. One roommate and I joined the other roommate there, where he’d saved seats, and we got to watch the last half of the panel for “The Fifth Doctor’s TARDIS Team,” including guests Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and Mark Strickson. That’s not my personal favorite era of the show, but I’ve seen all these guests before (with the possible exception of Sarah Sutton, but I’m not 100% sure), and they’re all lovely. I’m happy to sit and listen to them.
Next came the interview panel with Tosin Cole, who came across as a cheerful, fun-loving guy. It was kind of hilarious watching him squirm when people asked him questions about things he wasn’t allowed to answer directly (like whether or not he thought there was, or ever would be, anything romantic between Ryan and Yaz). He did a nice job of trying to turn it back on the audience, but I think the crowd was just too big for anyone to come back with answers.
Then came the main event of the day, and a big reason we’d camped out in Program A for the previous hours: the Pearl Mackie interview. Con Ops packed as many people into that room as possible, and then—after three years of trying (she had to cancel her appearances in both 2018 and 2019)—we finally got to see her in person.
I was absolutely delighted by pretty much everything that came out of Pearl’s mouth. She is absolutely lovely, and funny, and real. She was gracious with all the fans who came up to ask her questions, even letting the panel run a little long to get through everyone who was in line at the cutoff time. The thing that filled my heart most was the way she talked about Bill Potts. Perhaps because Bill is so dear to me, it touched me to realize how dear she was to Pearl, too.
After that I was kind of done for the day. A couple of us had dinner at the taco food truck (there was also a Thai truck and a lobster truck), but none of the late-night/adult/drunken programming that one or more of my friends were interested in appealed to me. I ended up retreating to my room and, with the exception of meeting up with someone to pick up something she had for me, spent the rest of the night watching videos.
Today my con is all about Eccleston. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s report!