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.

I finally got to my photo op right around noon, as they were working hard to sling us through as fast as humanly possible. We’d been instructed not to regale him with stories or anything, so in my flustered state, all I could say was, “You were my first Doctor. Thank you!” before the shutter clicked and I was out the other side. There’s so much more I wanted to say to him, but I’d have had to save that for the autograph table, and I have officially given up on standing in that long a line again this con.

Instead, I had my lunch by the pool. The friends I planned to sit with later had been good Gally citizens and given up their seats in Program A for “This or That” with Tosin Cole, Pearl Mackie, and Michelle Ryan, since we had seen Tosin and Pearl in their interview panels yesterday, but partway through, we all sidled into the back of the room and watched the end of the panel from the back wall.

When “This or That” finished, we moved up and found seat for the Peter Davison interview panel. Peter was as charming as ever, and happily agreed to retell old stories because there were plenty of people in the room who’d never heard them before, even if he’s told them a million times.

Conveniently, we could simply stay in our seats for the next two panels, which were packing in as many attendees as possible. First there was the live commentary of “Demons of the Punjab” with writer Vinay Patel and Tosin Cole, moderated by Joy Piedmont, which was a great way to enhance my experience of my favorite episode from Series 11. Then there was the marquee event, the Eccleston interview.

Steven Schapansky of Radio Free Skaro was the interviewer, and he did a lovely job, using the progression of the thirteen episodes as a basic framework through which to guide his questions. For his part, Eccleston was open and honest, to the point of engaging in a short rant about the BBC—which I appreciated, because it helped me understand better what he had gone through and why he might feel so negatively toward the BBC—while keeping things primarily positive.

When prompted about possible future work with Big Finish, Eccleston tried to deflect. Steven tried again to get a more direct answer (giving Eccleston another chance to say he “hate[d] Canadians,” a running joke through the panel), at which point he said he felt that the relationship he has with fandom is based on the thirteen on-screen episodes he did, and he doesn’t want to change that. He did promise to return to the screen for the 100th anniversary, though, so we only have another 43 years to wait…

The rest of my night was the mellowest Saturday night I’ve ever had at Gally. We had dinner at the food trucks, including a conversation with a random passerby who had seen said food trucks and just popped in to eat. She had lots of questions for us about the con, but when she moved firmly into sports territory (she works for Major League Baseball), we decided we were ready to move on.

For the first time ever, I skipped the Masquerade. Like many things this year, it just didn’t feel important to me anymore. Instead, I did a little bit of Lobbycon, and bowed out early.

More tomorrow, after Gally 2020 has wrapped for the year!