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Yes, I know it's late, I've been incredibly busy. ;;;
So yes. I've been to a Gallifrey. Man, that was such a blast.
Friday was...interesting...after a Religion exam, I was certainly ready for the con.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gaelic_bohemian picked me up at about...oh, two, I think. We headed back to the ranch for a bit, picked up corrielle, and left for the con (at the Marriott next to LAX) at about three.
And got stuck in 3 o'clock traffic.
And got stuck in 4 o'clock traffic.
And got stuck in 5 o'clock traffic.
And got stuck in 6 o'clock traffic.
We arrived at 6:45 and just about oozed out of the car. Man alive was that drive ever long.
But Friday was so worth it. I honestly had no idea what to expect walking into the hotel - the only experience I'd had with Doctor Who fandom in any capacity was on the internet, and as is the case with all internet fandoms, it can get creepy/wild/scary/fill-in-the-appropriate-adjective-here pretty quickly. Walking into Gallifrey for the first time as a New Who fan...well, I was a little nervous. Just a little.
It was actually the smallest convention I've ever been to (at closing ceremonies, they announced the con had reached its highest-ever attendance at 1,080). I think it was the first time that somebody I'd never met before called me by name in the Dealer's Hall (after I got over the initial heart attack and realized my badge with my name on it was plain for all to see) that I realized this con was going to be very, very different.
I loved it. I absolutely loved it.
We met up with the Torchwood group (whose names I know but LJs I do not, woe), poked around in the Dealer's Hall for a while, then headed to the Masquerade at 8:30. I'd never been to a Masquerade at a con before, generally because lines were out the door and nobody in my group (myself included) had patience enough to wait. It was a small con and a fast-moving line, though, and we ended up with great seats. The costumes were awesome and the skits were pure fun - there was a kid who couldn't have been over eight years old dressed as a Cyberman ("Cyberboy"), an excellent Martha (with whom we'd eaten dinner earlier), a homemade Dalek, a Drunk!Ten (who was good, but I do think he could've done better so far as the skit went), a hilarious skit with Seven, Two, and Ace (which wouldn't win you a damn thing in poker but was awesome at a Doctor Who con) that involved a piece of tinfoil, a very freaked out Two, and the lines "What's going on, Professor?" "Why, Ace, back then all of my enemies were made of tinfoil!"
But the piece de resistance was Cassandra. There was a full-sized Cassandra (which was made of silicone, I later discovered), complete with frame, brain in jar, and white-suited attendants with spray cans. Their skit consisted of the attendants getting calls from various corporations and slapping stickers onto Cassandra (because hey, living flat surface = opportunity), so by the end of the skit she was advertising FedEx, Budweiser, and about six other products. They had the entire audience in stitches and won Best In Show, for very obvious reasons.
After that, several of the guests (James Moran, Stephen Moffat, Sophie Aldred, and...one of the novel writers whose name escapes me at the moment) were brought up onstage to play a British game called Just A Minute, in which they had to speak for a minute without hesitation, repitition, or deviation on a topic given to them by the host. Most of them were personalized - Moran, who writes for Torchwood, got "Jack's Romantic Affairs" and Moffat, who wrote Empty Child and Doctor Dances (and Blink, of course), got "Are You My Mummy?" Sophie, the only actor of the lot, beat them all out (leaving the score Actors: 3 - Writers: 0, the announcer informed us at the end of the game). I don't think I've laughed that hard in quite a while.
We headed back to the ranch not long after that and watched the newest Torchwood episode, "Reset." It was...certainly an interesting episode to come in on, as I hadn't seen any Torchwood before. I think they handled Martha's showing up rather well. I was not, however, expecting to have a Cloverfield moment in the middle of the episode (although considering there was a gigantic bug in this guy's stomach, I really should have seen the popping-out bit coming. Really).
Character death is also a really interesting thing to come in on. I really didn't know the characters too well, but evidently if one is not the Immortal Captain Jack Harkness, then getting shot is a Really Bad Thing. (Although for the love of all that is holy and most of what is not, Owen should have seen it coming. The "You don't really want to shoot me" line only works on daytime tv, if that.)
So, yes. Very interesting indeed.
...those of you who covered your eyes to avoid spoilers can open them again now.
Saturday, everyone was in full Torchwood costume (except me, but hey, I had a Dalek shirt. Life was good). Accompanied for the day byghettopeach (to whom I was attached at the hip for most of the day), we headed for the live commentary for Blink, which was out of seats by the time we arrived (almost ten minutes late). We were hardcore. We stood in the back.
...okay, so that depends on what your definition of "hardcore" is. But still, we stood.
And like everything else so far at Gallifrey, it was worth it. The commentary included chatting on Doctor Who's low budget ("If the characters run too much, they eventually run out of corridor, so it includes a lot of what I call Urgent Standing, where the Doctor goes, 'Okay, I'm going to stand here and EXPLAIN THE PLOT!'") and the Weeping Angels in other mediums ("Their TV show would be rather boring because nothing would happen, but the second you turned the channel the whole plot would change. 'Weeping Angels TV: Please don't watch.'"). All in all, the commentary was awesome.
Then it was off to the Torchwood panel, where I sat there and smiled because I had no idea what the hell was going on. :D I did learn a lot, though, so that was something.
My favorite two panels of the day were the afternoon panels we hit after lunch. The first was called "20 Years of Mystery Science Theatre 3000," and - I was not expecting this - Joel was there. Joel, the original creator, was there to talk about his show. With him came the guy who originally voiced Tom Servo. I...yeah, I was squeeing like an idiot. He talked about how it originally started in Minneaoplis, MN, just as a local show and exploded outward from there. Evidently the cast reunited to do a new project called Cinematic Titanic, which they were selling in the dealer's hall after the panel. At least half the panel booked it across the hotel to get to the dealer's hall and get a copy. I bought two: one for me and one forlynxgriffin, both autographed. (Speaking of which, Lynx, I've got to get that to you. At some point when I'm not dead from school. Yup.)
The panel right after that was on Joss Whedon, his works, and what he was doing next. Evidently he's got a new show in the works called Doll House, which is going to air on Fox (which scares the hell out of those of us who can see patterns - Fox + Sci-Fi show = immediate cancellation). Evidently it's to be about this organization (which is vaguely creepy enough to accomplish just about anything) that hires out "blank" humans with interchangeable sets of skills. For example, if somebody wanted to hire a cat burglar, this corporation would instill a burglar set of skills and personality into one of the blanks, send it out to do the mission, and remove the personality and skills once it had returned. The story centers around one of the blanks who is beginning to remember her past missions and retaining some personality...and that's all we know so far.
Well sign me up. Sounds interesting.
We hung around for a while longer, chatting and getting dinner, before heading home for the night and crashing.
Sunday we were going to go to the commentary on Sleeper, the Torchwood episode Moran had written, but we didn't leave early enough to make either it or the fanfiction panel after it. We did, however, make the Torchwood Fan Panel, which was a whole lot of fun (even though I was only marginally more educated on Torchwood as a show). The panel ended up being one huge semi-directed discussion, with everything from Torchwood's immense popularity in America to character personalities and actions to what everybody's favorite pairings were and why. All in all, it was a blast.
After that we headed over to the auction, because evidently they needed more people toplay Vanna White volunteer to show the items being auctioned. There wasn't a whole lot that interested me (because once the Hot Fuzz DVD hit $20 and Wal-Mart became an infinitely better deal, I stopped bidding on it), but the people who liked Star Trek and Star Wars novels sure walked away happy.
We then went to go watch the commentary on Dragonfire, a Seven and Ace episode with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred doing the commentary. Unfortuantely, we hit a snag: as the announcer explained it, "There are some episodes of Doctor Who that are only available on video. Dragonfire is one of them. Guess what the one thing we forgot to bring is: a VCR." They ended up doing commentary on Ghost Light instead, which was...interesting. I had absolutely no idea what was going on in either the episode or the commentary, so we ended up leaving after about forty minutes or so. We did come back in time for the Year in Review video, in which any and all mentions of and interviews about Doctor Who in the British media are included. One of the funniest clips, in my opinion, was an interview with Billie Piper in which she said she cried through most of Runaway Bride, then admitted to being "pretty drunk" at the time. Oh, Billie, how we love you. XD
I'd never attended closing ceremonies at a convention either (my group had always had to leave early for some reason or another), but I think ending the convention off with the rater popular "Wibbly wobbly...timey wimey!" line was a great way to go. Thank you, Moffat.
All in all? I'm so going next year.
And I promise there'll be pictures, just as soon as Life stops eating my face and gives me enough free time to take them off my camera and post them (i.e. Spring Break).
So yes. I've been to a Gallifrey. Man, that was such a blast.
Friday was...interesting...after a Religion exam, I was certainly ready for the con.
gaelic_bohemian picked me up at about...oh, two, I think. We headed back to the ranch for a bit, picked up corrielle, and left for the con (at the Marriott next to LAX) at about three.And got stuck in 3 o'clock traffic.
And got stuck in 4 o'clock traffic.
And got stuck in 5 o'clock traffic.
And got stuck in 6 o'clock traffic.
We arrived at 6:45 and just about oozed out of the car. Man alive was that drive ever long.
But Friday was so worth it. I honestly had no idea what to expect walking into the hotel - the only experience I'd had with Doctor Who fandom in any capacity was on the internet, and as is the case with all internet fandoms, it can get creepy/wild/scary/fill-in-the-appropriate-adjective-here pretty quickly. Walking into Gallifrey for the first time as a New Who fan...well, I was a little nervous. Just a little.
It was actually the smallest convention I've ever been to (at closing ceremonies, they announced the con had reached its highest-ever attendance at 1,080). I think it was the first time that somebody I'd never met before called me by name in the Dealer's Hall (after I got over the initial heart attack and realized my badge with my name on it was plain for all to see) that I realized this con was going to be very, very different.
I loved it. I absolutely loved it.
We met up with the Torchwood group (whose names I know but LJs I do not, woe), poked around in the Dealer's Hall for a while, then headed to the Masquerade at 8:30. I'd never been to a Masquerade at a con before, generally because lines were out the door and nobody in my group (myself included) had patience enough to wait. It was a small con and a fast-moving line, though, and we ended up with great seats. The costumes were awesome and the skits were pure fun - there was a kid who couldn't have been over eight years old dressed as a Cyberman ("Cyberboy"), an excellent Martha (with whom we'd eaten dinner earlier), a homemade Dalek, a Drunk!Ten (who was good, but I do think he could've done better so far as the skit went), a hilarious skit with Seven, Two, and Ace (which wouldn't win you a damn thing in poker but was awesome at a Doctor Who con) that involved a piece of tinfoil, a very freaked out Two, and the lines "What's going on, Professor?" "Why, Ace, back then all of my enemies were made of tinfoil!"
But the piece de resistance was Cassandra. There was a full-sized Cassandra (which was made of silicone, I later discovered), complete with frame, brain in jar, and white-suited attendants with spray cans. Their skit consisted of the attendants getting calls from various corporations and slapping stickers onto Cassandra (because hey, living flat surface = opportunity), so by the end of the skit she was advertising FedEx, Budweiser, and about six other products. They had the entire audience in stitches and won Best In Show, for very obvious reasons.
After that, several of the guests (James Moran, Stephen Moffat, Sophie Aldred, and...one of the novel writers whose name escapes me at the moment) were brought up onstage to play a British game called Just A Minute, in which they had to speak for a minute without hesitation, repitition, or deviation on a topic given to them by the host. Most of them were personalized - Moran, who writes for Torchwood, got "Jack's Romantic Affairs" and Moffat, who wrote Empty Child and Doctor Dances (and Blink, of course), got "Are You My Mummy?" Sophie, the only actor of the lot, beat them all out (leaving the score Actors: 3 - Writers: 0, the announcer informed us at the end of the game). I don't think I've laughed that hard in quite a while.
We headed back to the ranch not long after that and watched the newest Torchwood episode, "Reset." It was...certainly an interesting episode to come in on, as I hadn't seen any Torchwood before. I think they handled Martha's showing up rather well. I was not, however, expecting to have a Cloverfield moment in the middle of the episode (although considering there was a gigantic bug in this guy's stomach, I really should have seen the popping-out bit coming. Really).
Character death is also a really interesting thing to come in on. I really didn't know the characters too well, but evidently if one is not the Immortal Captain Jack Harkness, then getting shot is a Really Bad Thing. (Although for the love of all that is holy and most of what is not, Owen should have seen it coming. The "You don't really want to shoot me" line only works on daytime tv, if that.)
So, yes. Very interesting indeed.
...those of you who covered your eyes to avoid spoilers can open them again now.
Saturday, everyone was in full Torchwood costume (except me, but hey, I had a Dalek shirt. Life was good). Accompanied for the day by
ghettopeach (to whom I was attached at the hip for most of the day), we headed for the live commentary for Blink, which was out of seats by the time we arrived (almost ten minutes late). We were hardcore. We stood in the back....okay, so that depends on what your definition of "hardcore" is. But still, we stood.
And like everything else so far at Gallifrey, it was worth it. The commentary included chatting on Doctor Who's low budget ("If the characters run too much, they eventually run out of corridor, so it includes a lot of what I call Urgent Standing, where the Doctor goes, 'Okay, I'm going to stand here and EXPLAIN THE PLOT!'") and the Weeping Angels in other mediums ("Their TV show would be rather boring because nothing would happen, but the second you turned the channel the whole plot would change. 'Weeping Angels TV: Please don't watch.'"). All in all, the commentary was awesome.
Then it was off to the Torchwood panel, where I sat there and smiled because I had no idea what the hell was going on. :D I did learn a lot, though, so that was something.
My favorite two panels of the day were the afternoon panels we hit after lunch. The first was called "20 Years of Mystery Science Theatre 3000," and - I was not expecting this - Joel was there. Joel, the original creator, was there to talk about his show. With him came the guy who originally voiced Tom Servo. I...yeah, I was squeeing like an idiot. He talked about how it originally started in Minneaoplis, MN, just as a local show and exploded outward from there. Evidently the cast reunited to do a new project called Cinematic Titanic, which they were selling in the dealer's hall after the panel. At least half the panel booked it across the hotel to get to the dealer's hall and get a copy. I bought two: one for me and one for
lynxgriffin, both autographed. (Speaking of which, Lynx, I've got to get that to you. At some point when I'm not dead from school. Yup.)The panel right after that was on Joss Whedon, his works, and what he was doing next. Evidently he's got a new show in the works called Doll House, which is going to air on Fox (which scares the hell out of those of us who can see patterns - Fox + Sci-Fi show = immediate cancellation). Evidently it's to be about this organization (which is vaguely creepy enough to accomplish just about anything) that hires out "blank" humans with interchangeable sets of skills. For example, if somebody wanted to hire a cat burglar, this corporation would instill a burglar set of skills and personality into one of the blanks, send it out to do the mission, and remove the personality and skills once it had returned. The story centers around one of the blanks who is beginning to remember her past missions and retaining some personality...and that's all we know so far.
Well sign me up. Sounds interesting.
We hung around for a while longer, chatting and getting dinner, before heading home for the night and crashing.
Sunday we were going to go to the commentary on Sleeper, the Torchwood episode Moran had written, but we didn't leave early enough to make either it or the fanfiction panel after it. We did, however, make the Torchwood Fan Panel, which was a whole lot of fun (even though I was only marginally more educated on Torchwood as a show). The panel ended up being one huge semi-directed discussion, with everything from Torchwood's immense popularity in America to character personalities and actions to what everybody's favorite pairings were and why. All in all, it was a blast.
After that we headed over to the auction, because evidently they needed more people to
We then went to go watch the commentary on Dragonfire, a Seven and Ace episode with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred doing the commentary. Unfortuantely, we hit a snag: as the announcer explained it, "There are some episodes of Doctor Who that are only available on video. Dragonfire is one of them. Guess what the one thing we forgot to bring is: a VCR." They ended up doing commentary on Ghost Light instead, which was...interesting. I had absolutely no idea what was going on in either the episode or the commentary, so we ended up leaving after about forty minutes or so. We did come back in time for the Year in Review video, in which any and all mentions of and interviews about Doctor Who in the British media are included. One of the funniest clips, in my opinion, was an interview with Billie Piper in which she said she cried through most of Runaway Bride, then admitted to being "pretty drunk" at the time. Oh, Billie, how we love you. XD
I'd never attended closing ceremonies at a convention either (my group had always had to leave early for some reason or another), but I think ending the convention off with the rater popular "Wibbly wobbly...timey wimey!" line was a great way to go. Thank you, Moffat.
All in all? I'm so going next year.
And I promise there'll be pictures, just as soon as Life stops eating my face and gives me enough free time to take them off my camera and post them (i.e. Spring Break).
Tags:
- con,
- doctor who,
- yay
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
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Incidentally, now I'm not even sure about spring break, either, since the ticket prices have gone up since the last time I talked to you about it.
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You should come next year because it was AWESOME INDEED ♥
JOEL WAS LIKE THE COOLEST GUY EVER. And - story time - he had a cut on his hand that randomly started bleeding in the middle of a panel, and he asked if anybody had a bandaid, and I was the only person in the panel who had one (utility bag FTW), so I got to go and give Joel a bandaid.
That sounds so amazingly trite, but hey. Claim to fame. XD;
And then I asked him if he wanted me to put it on and he said no, you Doctor Who fans have some sense of humor, and he laughed.
I LOVE THE MAN.
Where did your icon come from because a;sogilanslgae THAT'S AMAZING ♥From:
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I WANT TO COME lskfkdj I need money for it though xD And planes, omg *scared of planes*
D: I THINK THAT'S AWESOME. I think I would have died if I got to give Joel a bandaid. He sounds so awesome though. And the fact that they even had an MST3K panel makes me all giddy.
I know, aren't these icons fun?![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shannonsequitur did a series of MST3K/Doctor Who icons. They're so awesomeFrom:
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If I ever pick up a second character for Daisychain, I decided it would be Joel 8D;And yes, I really need to get that DVD from you! Are you going to be working tonight? Maybe I'll pop down for a real quick visit.
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*weeps for Dragonfire* I tracked that down on video last year in preparation for writing Seven + Ace vs. FF7 fic. They're pretty much my favorite Doctor/companion set... and I've not even seen all their episodes. *weeps more*