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Tag: Gallifrey One

Confession #151: I’m Going for It

It’s February again, which means it’s the season for Gallifrey One. When I last blogged about the possibility of going to Gally this year, I don’t think anyone had even heard of the omicron variant yet, but I was still nervous and dubious about the advisability of going to an in-person con by February. I think I was equal parts hoping that things would be vastly better by now and that force majeure would kick in and the con would get canceled again.

But here we are beginning the downward slope of the omicron surge, no force majeure in sight, and just about as much uncertainty about the further spread (and mutation) of COVID as ever. The decision about how to proceed has plagued me for weeks, with some of my best friends deciding definitely to go, and others deciding definitely to stay home. In the end, I’ve decided to go for it.

I think one of the turning points was reading something about how one end of the American political spectrum tends to underestimate the risks involved in the COVID pandemic, and the other tends to overestimate them. As I’m clearly in the latter political camp, that statement made me sit back and think, “Am I being overcautious?”

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Confession #149: I’m Dubious About a February Convention

My kids go back to school this week. Like the vast majority of their classmates, they were ready to be back in the classroom alongside their friends, so they will be in their school building for classes again for the first time in eighteen months (to the day, now that I think of it). In July, I felt pretty good about that decision. They’re old enough to be vaccinated (and have been), and although distance learning worked well for them, reconnecting with their friends over the summer reminded us all how very much they need those social interactions at this age, too.

Now, of course, with the more virulent delta variant raging across the country (with who knows what kind of new variant in its wake), our calculated risk to send our kids back into the school building seems like a greater risk (with fewer available calculations). I think that, with the exception of the students who are as yet too young to qualify for the vaccine, this particular school should have a fairly high vaccination rate. There is also a mask mandate in effect, but students still need to eat at some point, and if this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that no precautions are perfect. (Which is not to say they should not be taken! I am extremely grateful for the thoughtful planning our school and the district as a whole have put into the new school year, and you can be sure if there were less stringent measures in place, we would not be sending our kids back.)

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Confession #142: I Miss Gally

It’s February! Usually right about now I’d be spamming my readers with all the thoughts about how I’m looking forward to my annual visit to Los Angeles for Gallifrey One and letting you all know when to expect my upcoming daily recaps. However, thanks to the US’s dismal response to the COVID pandemic so far, Gallifrey One has long since made the responsible decision to cancel this year’s con, postponing Thirty-Second to Midnight until 2022.

So instead of being on a plane (or at least at an airport) when this posts, I’ll be at home—like all of my Gally friends—thinking about all the things I love about going to that con, and keeping my fingers crossed that things will go to plan next year. Since I won’t have that Gally content to share this year, I’ll just share a short list of the things that make Gally so special to me. Maybe some of you will see familiar themes, too. (Feel free to share some of your favorite parts of attending your favorite con in the comments.)

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Confession #138: I Hope Gallifrey One Goes Virtual

A few days ago I had the pleasure of chatting with some of my Gally friends over video chat, which—let’s be honest—is a higher frequency of synchronous face-to-face (if not in-person) interaction than we get in a usual year. Due to the fact that we all know each other exclusively thanks to that con, and the continuing uncertainty and weirdness of the times, we naturally got to wondering about how Gallifrey One would likely proceed for its upcoming convention, scheduled for February 2021.

Frankly all of us believe an in-person con will not be happening next year (in fact, the topic came up in conversation in the form of “what are the bets for when they’ll be cancelling?”). Given how irresponsible Americans in general are being about containing COVID (see, for example, a recent study about the impact of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally having gone forward this year), I can’t even conceive of a way it will be safe to gather three-to-four thousand people in a hotel convention center within the next five months.

So what might the concom do instead? It’s a tough call. A great many conventions have pivoted to making their cons a virtual experience. Given how new the 100%-online concept is for conventions, and how much in-person cons vary anyway, it is unsurprising that such events have met with various degrees of success. (For example, I heard vastly different reactions within the SFF writing community as to how the Nebula Conference and WorldCon were executed.)

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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.

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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.

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The 31 Flavours of Gallifrey One – Day One

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.

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Gallifrey One: 30 Years in the TARDIS – Day Three

This year I got an early morning flight home on Monday, and didn’t have time to finish this post before leaving. After a full day of travel, I didn’t have the mental fortitude to finish it off once I got home, either. My apologies for the tardiness.

Sunday got off to a bit of a rough start, when the hotel room alarm—that none of us had set—went off at 6 a.m. I’d been keeping a pretty early schedule anyway, so I just got up and headed for the lobby for breakfast and blogging.

After that leisurely start, I headed to Program A for the commentary on “Heaven Sent” with director Rachel Talalay. She was joined by writer Sarah Dollard, who wrote on Series Nine and Ten. Aside from the full cut of the episode, Rachel showed us a few other goodies, like deleted scenes and a pre-visualization clip. My favorite moment, though, was Sarah’s comment as we watched the Doctor break his hand on the wall over and over again: “Narratively speaking, this is the Doctor practicing to punch a racist in ‘Thin Ice.'”

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Gallifrey One: 30 Years in the TARDIS – Day Two

Saturday was cosplay day for me! Ever since last year, when the usual suspects got together on Sunday night and said, “What’s our group cosplay going to be next year?”, I’ve been looking forward to wearing this costume. Having already done TARDISes, K9s, Doctor Who/comics mash-ups, and one of us (with a different group) Daleks, we decided it was time to try Cybermen.

Our different decades approach worked well for the TARDISpod, so we decided to go that route again for the CyberSquad. Unfortunately, a couple months later, one of our number decided she wouldn’t be able to make it to the con this year, and I kind of stopped talking about it with the others. Another of us sadly had to skip Gally entirely due to a death in her family, and the remaining two of us never really coordinated anything. We saw each other briefly in the hallway before the Masquerade.

However, I enjoyed the hell out of my ’60s-themed Cyberman, which I dubbed the Cyber-hippie. I’m particularly proud of the Cyber-paisleys on my tunic, which I designed, and my fabulous husband (who constructs all my costumes) translated into a pattern and stitched on his embroidery machine.

It was very gratifying to have so many people smile, comment, or ask for pictures. A few people clearly liked the costume, but didn’t clue into the “hippie” part until I made the peace sign; watching their eyes light up as realization dawned never failed to delight me. It all made for a good reminder of why I enjoy original cosplay.

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Gallifrey One: 30 Years in the TARDIS – Day One

Gallifrey One 2019 got off to a slightly rocky start, with LA weather creating a bit of difficulty for folks flying in. Luckily for me, the worst of my travel was turbulence. And everyone I talked to who came in on Wednesday said the same—a few flights never even turned off the “fasten seatbelt” sign. By Thursday, things were even more dodgy; the skies opened.

As a Midwesterner, I tend to roll my eyes fondly at places that freak out over a little bit of rain or snow, but this time LA had real reason for concern. There was flash flooding and some serious nastiness (which sadly prevented me from getting together with local friends). But of course inside the Marriott, all of us nerdy types kept doing our own thing, and LobbyCon was effectively rolling by midday. (Okay, if I’m honest, it was rolling on Wednesday.)

The Thursday night ice cream social kicked off the officially sanctioned events. To my surprise, I couldn’t just walk into the ballroom when I got to the con floor. By the time I got there, a queue snaked and stretched well down the hallway. I didn’t actually want any ice cream—I only wanted to get in and find my friend Jeff to get one of his commemorative coins—but I played by the rules and stood in line until I got into the room. I made it to Jeff in the nick of time.

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