The Five(ish) Fangirls Podcast - Episode 4: Badges? Badges? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges!

This week we're all about Convention Shenanigans! What conventions have we attended? What amazing (and not-so-amazing) things have we seen? Who have we met at these events? (and have we ever embarrassed ourselves in front of celebrities? …guilty…) What advice do we have for con newbies? We're not experts by any means, but we still have plenty to discuss and squee about!

Also, a bumper crop of Doctor Who news, plus your feedback! Enjoy!

For full show notes and MP3 Download, click here: http://thefiveishfangirlspodcast.blogspot.com/2014/06/fiveish-fangirls-episode-4-badges.html

A Comic Con in My Own Backyard - FINALLY!

I've had a day to recover and recuperate and now it's time to give my full-on report of Salt Lake Comic Con 2013!  I had the opportunity to share my experience throughout the con via Traveling the Vortex, who were gracious enough to allow me room on the podcast feed to share some updates and if I haven't thanked them enough for that, let me thank them just one more time.  It was so much fun and I enjoyed it very much (and I hope the other Vortex listeners got something out of it too).  Here are the links to those updates:

Day 0 - Preview
Day 1 - Vendors Hall
Day 2 - Line Dancing
Day 3 - A SHATNER-day Morning

And here is a link to all the pictures I took at Comic Con. I wanted to post them all here, but that's a LOT of pictures for one blog post.  Thank goodness for Picasa Albums!)

If you've listen to all of that and you STILL want more (or you just want to read about it), buckle in because here we go!

Vader encouraging people to sign up for a library card. As all good villains do.

Thursday, I was actually at the con for work (how many people - who aren't celebrity guests - can say they were paid to go to Comic Con?)  Salt Lake County Library and Salt Lake City Public Library shared a vendor booth in the Exhibit Hall and I got to take a shift for the entirety of that day's convention activities.  Thing is, the booth we had wasn't big enough to have four people there all the time, so we took turns wandering around the Exhibit Hall (which I mistakenly called the Vendors Hall in my podcast update - sorry about that).  Thursday was very not-busy, so I pretty much got to see everything I wanted.  I'd only planned on scoping out the area and planning my strategy for getting autographs and making purchases. But there were so few lines, that I decided it would be better to get the autographs I wanted now, rather than risk having to wait in monstrously long lines later (this proved to be one of my best ideas in the history of ever).

Blue was the theme of Thursday, apparently.

I met David Yost, who played Billy in the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (the Blue Ranger has been a personal favorite of mine since age 8) and that was a real treat for me to start out with.  David was so kind and very gracious, even though I was a bit flustered about meeting him (I will say that I was not as flustered as when I met Frazer Hines at Gallifery last year).  Then I went down the Autograph Alley a little further down and there was Simon Fisher-Becker, who was Dorium Maldovar in Series 5 and 6 of Doctor Who and someone I would have made a point to meet on principle, even without the encouragement from the Vortex Boys (Shaun had met Simon at Gallifrey One the year before last and Simon also came on the podcast for an interview soon after).  Simon was very personable and very gracious and remembered meeting Shaun and Mel at Gally.  He was very kind to provide me with a bumper for the podcast and I would have stayed to talk to him longer, but there were a few others who had come up behind me in line and Simon's handler/assistant/saleslady was anxious for the line to move (this lady was a pro - she nearly had me convinced to buy a $50 poster for Simon to sign, but I was on a budget for this con).

My Vendor Badge - that I had to give back at the end of Thursday *sad face*

That was Day 1, pretty much.  I talked a lot about it in the podcast and I don't want to repeat myself too much here because there were some stories from the second day that I forgot to tell.  So, I'm just going to launch into that now.

Manu Bennett in the Hobbit panel

William Kircher sneaking in the side door.

Day 2 (Friday) was very different.  For one thing, I was there as a regular con-goer, not as a vendor.  And it was even more busy the second day, which I decided was going to be my panel day.  I got in to the Unofficial Sneak Peek of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which was run by the guys from TheOneRing.net, which is a JRR Tolkien fansite.  They were there along with Weta Workshop, who are the geniuses behind the props and models and prosthetics in the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies.  It's very difficult for me to pinpoint exactly who or what I was the most excited about having at Salt Lake Comic Con, but Weta Workshop was certainly on the list of Things To See.  I'd seen the Weta display the day before, and I took lots of pictures which would tell the story a million times better than I ever could and this panel was fantastic as well.  The guys from TORn (as they've shortened their site name to) had a whole presentation ready to go, but then Manu Bennett (who played Azog the White Orc in An Unexpected Journey) crashed the party and they let him have the floor for a while.  He talked about doing motion capture work and his initial thoughts about the concept design of Azog.  Then, William Kircher (Bifur the dwarf and Tom the troll) came in and talked for another twenty minutes and that was tons of fun to hear him talk about his experiences.

They sees us, Preciousssss!

By the time Manu and William had to leave, there wasn't a whole lot of time for the TORn guys to do their thing, but they got the important stuff in there.  One thing that I find interesting (and as a bit of a PSA) is that the studios aren't terribly thrilled about doing the Extended Edition DVD/Blu-Rays for The Hobbit.  This surprised me because I thought the Extended Editions were a hit for Lord of the Rings (but maybe that's because I'm a Tolkien nut and I get a kick out of that stuff).  They said that the Extended Edition for An Unexpected Journey will have over 15 hours of extras.  But if it doesn't sell well, the Extended Editions for the next two movies will only have about 2 hours of extras (which, I call that a standard DVD release, not an Extended Edition).  So, if you're a fan of the Extended Editions, here's your call to buy the EE for An Unexpected Journey and to make it a success! (if you're not a fan, well... buy it anyway and give it as a gift to someone you think might enjoy it).

Ray Park with some guy from X96 (forgot his name - sorry! But he was a great interviewer)

The next panel I went to was one I was not intending to see.  I wanted to see the Power Rangers panel at 3:00, which was going to be in the Main Stage ballroom.  I went to see if there was a line for that, but the doors were wide open and there were empty seats in the back for the Ray Park interview (Ray Park played Darth Maul, as well as other characters).  I figured that would be worth seeing while I waited for Power Rangers (better than sitting out in the hall, I guess).  Turned out Ray Park was one of the highlights of my day!  I think I enjoyed it precisely because I wasn't expecting to, but he is someone that I wish I had made time to go meet.  He was a fantastic interview - just listening to all his experiences from how he got into martial arts and physical acting to playing villains like Darth Maul and Toad from X-Men.  And he was so funny!  He said that at one point while shooting The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul was supposed to die by Obi-Wan slicing his head off, but they decided to change it because there was a chance that Darth Maul could come back in the next movie and they didn't want to have to explain how he got his head back.  Then Ray goes, "Everyone else has fake body parts - why couldn't Maul have a fake head?"  It was probably funnier when he said it.  If you're ever at a con and Ray Park is on the guest list speak, I highly recommend making time for any panel or interview he's in.

The only picture I got from the Power Rangers panel - told you I was enraptured by these three!
(the interviewer here didn't have a whole lot to do)

I already talked about my little run-in with miscommunication and misdirection between the Ray Park interview and the Power Rangers panel and I don't want to get into all the negativity with that (I've already left a comment on the Salt Lake Comic Con website and it doesn't need to go any further than that - if you really want to hear about it, it's on the Day 2 update on the podcast).  We were all seated and ready to go for the next panel and when the Power Rangers theme song came over the speakers, we all went nuts!  The audience looked like it was mostly made up of people like me who watched the show when we were little nippers and it was pure nostalgia to have these guys here.  The panel was made up of Cerina Vincent (who was the Yellow Ranger in Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy) and, of course, Walter Jones and David Yost (the Black Ranger and the Blue Ranger, respectively, in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - or, as I called it in my updates, The Original Power Rangers).  And I was glued to everything these three said.  The one thing I regret now is that I didn't take notes or tweet the memorable moments, like I had for The Hobbit or Ray Park panels.  I'm blaming my inner nine-year-old for that one, but I was just so excited to see these guys on stage and I couldn't bring myself to have my face in a notebook or on my iPhone for this. There were a few specifics I do remember.  One started with a question from someone in the audience asking Walter and David how it was acting against a blank wall where post-production would put Zordon's floating head in later.  David said something to the effect of "You hit your mark, say your lines, and you get paid" (he said it much better than that)  Then Walter went on this thing (in his joking, cheerful manner) how it was kind of tough to imagine how they were going to realize this giant floating head giving them instructions and he had to tilt his head and squint at the piece of paper tacked on the wall for them to look at and it was kind of a funny bit.  Then David, who had been the straight man to Walter's comedic persona through this entire panel, completely deadpanned "Well, it would be much easier for a better actor."  And the room roared with laughter because Walter had been completely had by that and it came out of nowhere.  It was like these two had a routine down pat, after doing so many conventions through the years.  Cerina had some good moments too, but I'm not as familiar with her, though now I want to go find some of her episodes because her character sounds pretty interesting (she's sounds a lot like Leela, though less of a warrior and more of a [quote] "hippie, nature chick" from another planet).

SHATNER! (my iPhone kept auto-correcting his name like that, which was hilarious)

That was pretty much Day 2.  Day 3 was my quest to meet William Shatner and get his autograph for my friend Brittany, who'd asked me and I was more than happy to do that for her (and my dad said that I ought to, with him having been a fan since he was a little kid).  I spent about 3 hours in lines waiting for a 20-second encounter, but it was so worth it!  I basically tweeted and took pictures of cosplayers during this time (and I talked to a lot of really nice people while we waited in line.  I mean, what else are you going to do?)

A Wreck-It Ralph family - this taken was on the fly as the line was moving into the Salt Palace

Full shot of the homemade Dalek - Instagram kept cropping out parts of it

With this being Saturday and the final day of the con, I think this day came the closest to re-creating the San Diego Comic Con experience for Salt Lake City - tons of lines, tons of people, the completely inability to move anywhere on the convention floor.  When all was said and done, I think at final tally, it turned out that there were 70,000-80,000 people just on Saturday.  I know when I left at 2:00 pm, the line was wrapping around the block (which, the Salt Palace sits on a larger-than-average city block with Abravanel Hall) and was well on its way to the Gateway Mall (I didn't stick around to see if it got down that direction).  Apparently, they even ran out of badges at registration and they finally had to turn people away because the building was at capacity.  There were some complaints about it, but I think the con organizers really didn't expect this big of a turnout (this being a first-year convention and Utah's geek culture not really being at the forefront - that's a whole different discussion that I could spearhead later).

Allons-y!

The funniest thing I heard when I got home was from my roommate, who was telling me that a group of people from my church were thinking about going down to Comic Con yesterday because they heard there was Sci-Fi Speed Dating and they wanted to check it out.  I laughed out loud because (A) These kids had NO idea what they were getting into by going to Comic Con in the first place and (B) By that time, there was ZERO chance of them getting in the convention anyway.  My roommate and I got a good laugh out of that one.

Thor and Loki and a bunch of demigods from Camp Half-Blood

Even with the hiccups and glitches, I think Salt Lake Comic Con was a huge success.  When I very first heard about it, I was hoping that there would be a good enough turnout to make this an annual thing.  But now, I think this could be a premiere convention in the country.  There are so many cons back east - DragonCon, New York Comic Con, C2E2, WorldCon (yes, I consider Texas to be back east.  If you're east of the Rocky Mountains, that's back east) and not a whole lot out here in the Intermountain West.  We're sort of the big empty hole right before you get to California that everyone ignores.  So many people I talked to that were from other states said that they would love to go to San Diego Comic Con, but it's so expensive and always so full - but they could certainly manage a trip to Salt Lake City.  And lots of them did.

Hope this TARDIS really is bigger on the inside!

For me, it's just nice to finally be acknowledged in my own backyard.  I like sports and I don't mind the outdoorsy people (but the froofy scrapbookers and bridal shows, I can ignore) - but I can't really say how much it means to me to have a sci-fi/geek convention in town.  Not only have this convention, but have it be a huge success and shatter all kinds of records.  I honestly don't know what'll happen when this con outgrows the Salt Palace because I think that's the largest convention center in the state (luckily, they still have the other half of the building that they could very well use next year - and they could expand into Abravanel Hall if they needed to - there was another conference going on there while Comic Con was running).

Can I be "Carriage Man" you guys?

I think the success of this convention could be summed up in one last story that I kept forgetting to tell, but it's such a good one.  When I left the convention Friday night, I saw a group of cosplayers being stopped by a guy who was driving one of those horse-and-carriage tours that go around downtown Salt Lake.  The guy had his camera out and was asking them if he could take a picture of them.  He was asking how the convention was going and thanked them for the picture.  And I thought that was a great moment of the convention mixing with the rest of the city.

So, until next year peeps!

Deadpool, out!

The Gallifrey One Postgame Show - Part 4: The End of the Line

I wanted to embed this video, but embedding's been disabled. So, go to this link here and enjoy Ed Stradling's tribute to Gallifrey One "The End of the Line" (and see if you can't spot a certain somebody at the far right of the screen at 2:23 wearing her Fifth Doctor hat and taking pictures at Freema Agyeman's interview Sunday morning)

All good things must come to an end, sadly.  But before I get all verklempt and sobbing (in my defense - I am an emotional person by nature) - I have a few more things to talk about in my Gally Postgame, so bear with me.

I haven't talked much about the panels yet.  Before I went to Gally, I made a promise to myself that I would sample everything (or as much as I could).  Cosplay, panels, dealer's room, interviews - if it was at Gally, I wanted to experience it.  But when I got there, I realized that there was so much going on that I needed to be cloned or steal borrow a time machine to get it all done.  The panels are a great example of this.  Looking at the panel schedule, I saw that so many great topics would be covered and I wanted to go to all of them!

This is but a mere portion of the things I wanted to accomplish. Not shown: Autograph lines, Cosplay Hall, Pictures with the TARDIS shell and TARDIS console, Browsing the Art Show, Lunch

Well... that didn't happen.  Some were scheduled at the same time, others were during other things I wanted to do.  And there was that little matter of finding food and restroom breaks at regular intervals (Sadly, the "no eating, no peeing" thing only works for Jack Bauer).  But the panels that I did get to go to (with the possible exception of one, but it was still okay) were some very enjoyable discussions and I cam away with some new perspectives on Doctor Who that I hadn't thought of before, but are now my personal headcanon (making the Peter Cushing films part of Handy!Doctor's future continuity actually works very well in my head. That might give someone else heartburn, but I like it!)



Sunday was the day I decided to camp out in the Main Programming Hall (the Ballroom, the Interview Room, Program A - whatever you want to call it) because I hadn't really seen any of the guest interviews - not since the Radio Free Skaro show on Friday.  Those interviews - holy cow - so much fun!  My favorite had to be the one with Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling where they just reminisced about their time on Doctor Who and told stories and joked with each other (of which the Crowning Moment of Awesome/Crowing Moment of Funny I was fortunate enough to be videoing and had the good sense to keep going even after the set-up story was over and was treated with Deborah's very well-thought-out punchline).  It was brilliant watching two people who were still very good friends talk about something they still loved so very much and sharing those experiences with a few hundred of their fans and friends.

Speaking of Radio Free Skaro - this was my favorite picture that I managed to get. Sylvester McCoy realizing just how tall Chris is (yeah, he is that tall. And a super-nice guy to boot).  It was great.

The Dealer's Room: Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt. SO MANY PRETTIES!  They didn't allow pictures in the Dealer's Room, otherwise I could have shown you the complete and total joy of all that Doctor Who merchandise! (someone commented that this year's Dealer's Room didn't have as much as last year's, to which I have to say that I don't know if I could have handled last year's!)  Luckily, I had resolved to look around first before deciding on buying anything.  I didn't want to blow all my money on the first thing I saw and then find something else I wanted more and have no money for it.  I'm not really big on buying action figures, but there was a really cool '60s Dalek figure (the silver and blue ones that are my absolute favorite - for no real reason, actually) that I wanted to buy, but I thought I could find it online for cheaper (turns out I can't - not just the Dalek by itself).  I did get a couple of t-shirts, though.  And I hit up the Big Finish booth, which I would have easily given Big Finish my entire bank account if I hadn't been careful (as it was, I bought three CDs - I would have bought the Big Finish Companion book if they'd had Volume 1 there, but they sold out).  Oh! And I found this really sweet postcard from the 1980s of the Fifth Doctor! It was only a buck, but I was super-excited to find it! (I like old school, throwback stuff)  Pictures:

And a special nod to the Art Show - while not part of the Dealer's Room, there were some very nice things for purchase there as well.  That's where those fez-and-bowtie Eleven Doctors buttons came from (coming home, I realized I'd seen this particular fan art on Tumblr as part of a countdown for Series 6 - damned if I can find it again :/)  But they were cute and I needed something bright and happy after I made Shaun depressed over the buttons I got at LobbyCon that paid tribute to the Who actors we've lost in the recent past (and these were very nice too)

Tributes to Nick, Lis, Carrie and Mary *sniffle*

Speaking of Big Finish - This is somewhat unrelated, but Nicholas Briggs brought the trailer for Big Finish's 50th Anniversary Extravaganza! (they didn't use those words, I did!)  Which I share with you now - the trailer for "The Light at the End" -



Bringing It All Home -

In years past, I've heard lots of people talk about Gallifrey One.  They say it's like a big family reunion - there's so much love between the fans and the guests - it's like coming home - it's just the best little convention a Whovian could ask for.  Everyone says the same things about it.  And there were moments where I wondered if people were getting paid to say this.  From what I saw online from people who went, it looked like it was a blast and I certainly wanted to go, but I was the teensiest bit skeptical that it really was as good as everyone made it out to be.  Trust, but verify.

Well, I can verify that Gallifrey One is everything they say and more (and no money changed hands. Except in the Dealer's Room, but that's for entirely different reasons).  Even after four blog posts gushing about how great it was, I'm still not entirely sure how to describe it fully.  Before I got there, I felt a little bit like an outsider - much the way I felt when I first started watching Doctor Who.  There was an established fanbase and to intrude on that sense of family felt wrong somehow.  But even before I got to the Marriott - when I got on the shuttle from the airport - I met Gally people and I was welcomed like a long-lost friend.  Much the same as I felt soon after I really got into Doctor Who.  It was like The Greater Cosmos was saying "Here you go kid. This is what you've been looking for. This is your tribe. Go have fun."  It was a gorgeous feeling - and still is.  But it's difficult to put into words.  The entire time I was running around the Marriott, I had this voice in the back of my head going "How are you going to tell people about this?  How are you going to explain why this means so much to you?"

And the Sunday afternoon at Gally, I had my answer.  From the most unlikely of places (for me, anyway).

Sunday afternoon, I sat in on the Mark Sheppard panel.  I'm not particularly a huge fan of Mark Sheppard, though I do like his characters in Doctor Who and Firefly (the man isn't lacking for fangirls, I'll say that much).  Toward the end of his panel, he said something to the effect of being a geek and coming to conventions takes bravery.  To come and wear your fandom on your sleeve and to dress up and talk to the actors and do the things fans do takes courage.  While I appreciate the sentiment, I'm afraid I must diverge from Mr. Sheppard on one point - it does not take bravery to be a geek at a convention.  It takes bravery to be a geek in reality.

Here's what I mean about that: Coming to a Doctor Who convention, I finally feel like I can let loose and be the insane, crazy, free-spirited, Whovian - just letting myself love this show with reckless abandon because I have such an intense love for it ... and because there are 3000+ other people doing the exact same thing.  It is not hard to be a geek at a geek convention - no matter what that convention is (though San Diego ComiCon is it's own animal, which I may discuss in another post).  I can walk around in a Femme!Five cosplay and people appreciate the work and love I put into it.  They ask to take my picture - they ask me to be in their group cosplay photo - they ask how I made it and where I found the pieces.  And I ask about their costumes and they proudly share their work.  If I were to wear that costume to a work Halloween party, people would just think I was supposed to be a crazy old gardener lady (while a bunch of other girls would come in their underwear and bunny ears).  But at Gally, I can talk Who with random strangers and they get it! Standing in autograph lines or out in the hall - we can talk about our favorite Doctors and companions and stories.  We can debate canon and things we'd like to see and how we came to Who in the first place.  We all speak a common language.  With real people - face to face.  These Twitter handles and podcast voices and LiveJournal userpics and bloggers have real names and real faces and they're real friends. And it's glorious.

So, leaving Gallifrey One and leaving my new friends - yeah, I shed a few tears (okay more than a few tears, - hell, I broadcasted that to the entire internet on Gally Update 4 -_-')  But I left feeling like this was all worth it.  The weird looks I get and the dopey questions and the teasing at home - it doesn't matter.  Because there is a place where I am the most normal person in the room (where the standards of "normal" have been thrown out on their ears).  I still can't describe what that means to me, but maybe you already get it.

I still think the Two-Minute Time Lord segment from the Radio Free Skaro show at Gallifrey 2012 sums it up the best - Gallifrey is our childhood and our home:



Yup - Gallifrey is home. And I'm going back next year.

The Gallifrey One Postgame Show - Part 3: You're...A Fan

Do you know how long I searched for a gif or a video clip of just the Fifth Doctor saying to the Tenth Doctor "You're... a fan!" from "Time Crash?" Apparently, people like the Master's Beard joke more (nothing wrong with that - but when I'm trying to find something else... *sigh* Oh well).

One of the big draws about Gallifrey One is meeting the stars of "Doctor Who."  Before I even got on the plane for Los Angeles, I was a bit nervous about how I was going to comport myself in front of these famous people, who I admire so much.  I certainly wanted to meet them, but I didn't want to get tongue-tied and make a complete ass of myself.  I'd heard plenty of stories from fans at Gally who just struck up semi-normal conversations with these actors and even kept in contact with them afterward.  Then there's me thinking "Pfft - right! I could never do that!"

I made it to LobbyCon and was definitely feeling starstruck when I spied Frazer Hines and Nicholas Briggs across the way that first night.  But I had the good fortune to fall in with some new Gally friends - Sara and Sarah from Texas (I need to find them on Facebook or Twitter or something) - and they coaxed me into asking Nicholas Briggs for a photograph, which he was only too happy to do!

I posted this on my first Gally recap - but I'm posting it again. It's that cool!

Oh, and of course, my infamous antics (at least, I felt like they were antics. Anyone watching probably wouldn't have noticed) trying to corner Frazer Hines for a photograph.  Getting Frazer's autograph was easy, even though was babbled like a nutty fangirl the entire time (Glenn can attest to this - that's why he got pictures of it. Actually, I'm glad he did).  There were so many times I'd see Frazer in the hall and try to talk to him, but he always had somebody else cornering him (I got to talk to Deborah Watling after the interview she did with Frazer on Sunday because of this, though. And I regret not getting her autograph too. She is like the sweetest, sweetest version of your grandmother, but with a hint of mischief in her eye.  So wonderful). Finally - FINALLY - on the last night, Mel pretty much dared me to go out there and ask Frazer for a picture.  And I'm damn glad she did because I would never have had the guts to do it without someone playing wingman - and Mel was a fantastic wingman (wing-lady).

Look how insanely giddy I am! I had to run back into the hotel before
I squee'd so much that I embarrassed myself. I mean, more than I already had

Here's a roundup of the autographs and pictures I got with the various guests -

The Dalek's a celebrity, right?

with Dan Starkey (Strax) before he even got his coffee.

Mel, Shaun and I found Neve McIntosh (Madame Vastra) - Love her!

Ian McNiece (Winston Churchill)

Also - Autographs!

Mark Strickson (Turlough) - This was a special treat for me because, well, Turlough's awesome!

I was so excited to get Frazer Hines' autograph that I had to run up to the lobby and tweet about it.

I had not initially planned to get Peter Purves' autograph, but as the con went on, I realized that I really needed to meet Steven - he was one of my favorites from the First Doctor's era.

Freema Agyeman - she was such a treat to talk to.

Sylvester McCoy - love this guy.

(These are all going up on my wall as soon as I can find decent picture frames)

It's funny, but every time I met Doctor Who actors at Gally, the only thing I could think of to say is that I loved their work on the show.  Which was very much true!  Jamie is one of my very favorite companions of the Classic series, as is Turlough (I maintain that if Tegan had left earlier on in the Fifth Doctor's run, the Doctor and Turlough would have made an awesome team on their own).  Steven Taylor is another gem of Classic Who and I love Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones (as well as in some of the other things she's been in).  The point is that I wish I could have thought of something much more profound to say than simply "I love your work!"  But I quickly found out that often, that was the best thing you could say to these actors. 

This really hit me on Saturday night during the Classic Companion Panel (plus the Valeyard, but he's loveable anyway).  The first of two Freema Agyeman interviews was scheduled for that night in the main ballroom and they were encouraging people to pick one or the other so everyone had a chance to see Freema.  I had decided to go see Freema on Sunday morning so I could see the Classic Companion Panel (actually, it was called Legends and Lore in the program guide).  Mel kept talking about wanting to see Turlough (Mark Strickson) and Glenn and Shaun couldn't figure that out until Mel and I spelled it out for them.  So, we all went to that on Saturday.  We talked about it on one of our Gally Updates (I think it was Gally Update 3), but I can talk about it here.

The "Legends and Lore" panel - I can't get over how awesome this panel was.

All of the panelists were fantastic.  There were so many great stories from all of them about being on Doctor Who and their work since then - can I remember them all? Of course not! (note to self - bring a notebook next year!)  But the feeling in the room was one of genuine love and admiration, both from the fans and from the actors to the fans.  I think it was Mark Strickson who talked about how amazed he was that so many people would come see a panel of people talking about a show that they did thirty, forty, fifty years ago when they could have gone to see Freema Agyeman (i.e. - someone more modern) downstairs.  The rest of them more or less agreed that they didn't think there would be so many people in the room - and it filled up fairly well.  A running theme throughout the entire panel was that, it might have been an embarrassment at one point to admit you'd been in "Doctor Who," but the fans made it all worth it.

Michael Jayston (who played the Valeyard in "Trial of a Time Lord") said that something that impressed him about "Doctor Who" fans was that we are in love with the stories.

Deborah Watling (who played Victoria Waterfield in the Troughton era) was absolutely lovely.  She told a story about writing her autobiography and how that was one of the hardest things she's done.  She spoke her time on "Doctor Who" with such fondness and love - even when Frazer Hines was teasing her a little bit (you could tell that those two are the best of best friends - more on that in a bit).  Speaking of Frazer - he and Mark Strickson both talked about coming back to do Big Finish and they both gave a little performance as Jamie and Turlough, which made the crowd go nuts.  It was great - at first, they both were acting like they were dragging in the morning and tired and whatever and once it was time to be the character - they both became their characters.  I mean, it's one thing to meet these actors and know who they played back-in-the-day, but to actually hear the characters' voices coming out of their mouths and realizing - "Holy crap, that's Jamie!" or "Holy crap, that's Turlough!" - it was so cool!

But the best part of the entire panel (and I could have listened to all of them go on and on for hours) was at the end when they were wrapping up.  And I talked about this on the podcast, but it still stuns me that this happened and that I was even there to see it - all of us fans stood up as one entity and gave these actors a standing ovation.  It wasn't just one person here, one person there - ALL of us stood and applauded.  And if that wasn't enough, the panelists stood up together as well and gave us, the fans, a standing ovation right back.  Shaun later said that he saw Deborah Watling tear up a bit at the reaction.  Make no mistake - it was a powerful moment.

Something I love about British actors - and I didn't quite realize this until the end of Gally - is how genuinely humble they are.  I don't think this happens with "mainstream" American actors because of this disgustingly ridiculous celebrity culture we have.  The actors I got to talk to at Gally were so gracious and so easy to speak with (once I got over my "ZOMG - IT'S YOU!" fangirl nuttiness).  Even Freema Agyeman, who's been in "Doctor Who" more recently and has other shows she's been in that are running now, was so sweet and gracious and genuinely touched that I loved the things she's done (I saw her in Law and Order: UK and thoroughly enjoyed it. Which, I don't even watch the Law and Order series in America).  None of them seemed like, say, Mark Sheppard (who had a panel Sunday afternoon) who had this air about him of "Yeah, I know I'm amazing and I know you all worship me. Bow down before me, peasants!" (and then all the slobbering fangirls did exactly that, which earned a massive eye roll from me).  Even when they were onstage - they were just there to entertain their fans and share in the love and joy of this little show that didn't seem like much at the time, but has expanded to include everyone who falls in love with it.

You know, people give me grief over my interest - nay, obsession - with science fiction and fantasy, particularly "Doctor Who" (let's face it - how many people choose to spend a weekend a convention - any kind of fan convention?  With the possible exception of San Diego ComicCon, which has been taken over by the industry as a glorified advertising campaign and the media pretending to respect geekdom for a week and makes my bullshit detector goes haywire). But these moments are what make it all worth it.  It's the best kept secret in the world - whether you're a Whovian or whatever makes you SQUEE! - you know what it's like to love and love deeply.  The Not-We (for lack of a better term) may have their socially accepted interests and know how to be calm and cool for the in-laws and the boss and the rest of the world, but very few of them will ever get to experience a love for something that only they get.

(Did I just piss some people off with that line? Good. After all the crap I've taken from some of you, I feel justified).

And that seems like a good place to leave this recap for now.  I think all I have left to talk about is the Dealer's Room and my sentimental-type reaction to the convention as a whole.  Bring tissues.

The Gallifrey One Postgame Show, Part 2: Playing Dress Up

Our "Deck of Cards" Cosplay Photo - Ace, Two, Three, Four, Five (me!),
Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Jack, Romana as the Queen, Master as the King

One thing that has eternally impressed me in all my "from afar" observations of Gallifrey One is the cosplayers.  Actually, any cosplay from any fandom has my undying respect because it takes talent to put together a costume.  Most of my cosplay was purchased with some add-ons, the exception of which is the skirt, which I made from scratch from some awesome fabric I found from Mom's Craft in Delta, Utah (Mom's a small Mom-and-Pop craft store in my hometown that nevertheless has a fantastic variety of stuff there you're not going to find in chain stores, so I wanted to give them a plug).  Ever since I discovered that Femme!Doctor cosplay was A Thing, I wanted to try my hand at it.  And I wound up with a really great Femme!Five outfit that I'm quite pleased with.  I bought the tan coat from an online clearance sale (which was a tremendous case of serendipity that I found out about that at all) and added red trim (partly by machine and partly by hand and I had the sore fingers to prove it).  As I said in my previous Gally recap, I bought the hat from Wal-Mart and replaced the hatband.  The sweater was from a group purchase on LiveJournal (there was no way I was going to find or make anything comparable). The celery was from FreckledCrafts on Etsy and I wore red socks and white Not-Converse low-tops that I bought at Payless.

What I loved about cosplaying was that people recognized how much effort I put into my costume.  I'm not a particularly crafty person (though I enjoy cross-stitching from time to time), so this was a big deal for me.  Some people go all out and have four or five costumes they wear over the course of a weekend.  And, of course, there's this -

A Dalek cosplay made of cardboard and Styrofoam.
There's a twelve-year-old kid walking around in that thing.

And this -

Clockwork Droid cosplay - also had a kid inside it. And it moved  just like a clockwork droid
that I actually though it was a robot.

And these -

Not a Femme!Four - but a Fourth Doctor's Scarf Dress. Completely knitted.  I have nothing more to say.

Cat Nun with a Gun. Very realistic makeup.

Snowman cosplay. It was cool to see costumes of characters from  a Doctor Who
episode that only came out two months ago

Impossible Astronaut with River inside. I wish I got a better picture of this, though.

These were on display with the Eighth Doctor's console, but they were costumes in the Masquerade - I'd actually seen the Adipose roaming around during the con.

While I was in my cosplay, I wanted to find some of the Fifth Doctor's companions.  Sadly, I didn't find many (I found more on Sunday when I wasn't in costume), but I did run into a Peri and a Tegan in the Cosplay Hall (and Tegan was actually from Australia, which I thought was fabulous!)

Sadly, my regeneration showed up and took Peri away :(

But really, anyone who can make a Sixth Doctor coat has my eternal respect.  I was surprised to find so many people with that coat, really.

And, really, if you're going to be photographed as Six, what other pose are you going to do?

Also - my friend Lizz cosplayed as Femme!Ten (and she did a fantastic job!). So, of course, a Time Crash picture must be taken (I love our faces in this) -

"You mostly went hands-free, didn't you?"

No Fifth Doctor tribute would be complete without an appearance from the Master.  There were quite a few  different incarnations of the Master wandering around the Marriott, but I found a particularly good Ainley!Master.

I'm smiling like a dope and the Master looks ready to cause trouble.
The Fifth Doctor's era summed up in one cosplay photo.

Just to round out my gallery of cosplayers -

As well as being a fantastic Eight, John was a top-notch panelist on the "Trial of a Time Lord" discussion panel.

These two were behind me in line for Sylvester McCoy's autograph. This was not an opportunity to pass up!

Anyone who can pull off a Leela costume deserves heaps of praise.

The plushie was a nice touch and I told her as much.

I loved finding fellow Fives!

There were so many kids dressed up at Gally, but I was a little hesitant to take pictures of them because I know parents are iffy about pictures displayed of their kids on the internet. But I figure this one was okay since you can't see their faces.  There was an absolute adorable nurse!Rory and a little Amelia in her nightgown and red Wellies that I didn't get.

This was a nice behind-the-scenes snapshot of the Cosplay Hall. It was organized chaos back there, but so worth it.

There weren't many Threes. I suspect there will be more next year since Katy Manning has been confirmed.

This one made my inner twelve-year-old go nuts! I was a huge Sailor Moon fan back in the day and I'm super-excited that there will be a new reboot this summer. There was a time I would not admit to this, but I've since grown up.
So there.

I'm always amazed at the amount of detail that goes into these things.  But no more surprised at the amount of hooped skirts and corsets that made an appearance. Holy cow. (I liked my sweater, thank you very much).

I think that was the extent of my cosplay pictures, but it is by no means a complete sampling (that's a strange phrase, but there you go).  Keep an eye out for other pictures on Twitter and Facebook and blogs because there were so, so, SO many great cosplays.  I don't know if I'll make another one, but it was so much fun to be stopped in the hallway for pictures and to get compliments for my handiwork - and to compliment other people on their creativity as well.  If you can manage a cosplay, do it!