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Tag: Gally 2019

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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The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Once more, the year has turned to that most blissful of times: Gallifrey One!

Every year since the blog started (with the exception of that first one, when it was only a few weeks old), I’ve made the pilgrimage to Los Angeles over Presidents Day weekend to rub elbows with Doctor Who creators and just generally have fun with some three thousand other fans, who become my closest friends over those three-plus days (and some of them, beyond!)

This year is no exception. The con runs from this Friday (15 Feb 2019) through Sunday (17 Feb), with a “pre-con” social scheduled for Thursday night, though many attendees extend their stays for extra days before or after those dates. I’ll be among those, giving myself just a smidge of extra time to adjust to the time zone change before things get into full swing.

Each iteration of Gally is unique, awesome in its own particular way. Offerings depend on which guests are present, what’s been going on in the show recently, and obviously which fans are in each panel to share their opinions. For 2019 (“Gallifrey One: 30 Years in the TARDIS”), headliners are Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), and John Barrowman (Capt. Jack Harkness). Pearl Mackie (Bill Potts) had also been slated to appear, but had to cancel a couple of weeks out due to a new work obligation—sad for us, but great for her!

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