Gally 2020 – Confessions of a Neowhovian

The 31 Flavours of Gallifrey One – Day Three

February 17, 2020 Reports

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.

The 31 Flavours of Gallifrey One – Day Two

February 16, 2020 Reports

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.

The 31 Flavours of Gallifrey One – Day One

February 15, 2020 Reports

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.