Guests: Elisabeth Sladen, Nicholas Courtney, Katy Manning, Richard Franklin, Terrance Dicks, Barry Letts, Robert Shearman, Paul Cornell, Jason Haigh-Ellery, Gary Russell, Lisa Bowerman, Amber Benson, Toby Longworth, Simon A. Forward, Craig Hinton, Martin Day, Keith Topping, Scott Alan Woodard, Caroline Symcox, Darin Henry, Nev Fountain, Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, David Gerrold, David J. Howe, Arnold T. Blumberg, Nigel Fairs, John Binns, John Ainsworth, Bill Baggs, Virginia Hey, Tessa Shaw, Ursula Burton, Bob May, Erin Gray, Mark Donovan, Peter Ware, Arne Starr, Bill Blair, Lars Pearson, Christa Dickson, Celeste Yarnall, Jack Donner, Leonard Stone, Jill Sherwin, Stephen Austin, Paul Lawrence and Eric Hoffman. (Previously confirmed guests Caroline John and Geoffrey Beevers, Big Finish's Caroline Morris and Conrad Westmaas, DWM editor Clayton Hickman, actor Yee Jee Tso, and writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat all had to cancel due to sudden schedule conflicts.)

For the two weeks prior to Gallifrey 2005, everyone in the country was making the connection: Los Angeles and a very, very wet rainy season. Nevertheless, in spite of the very bad weather, that had caused mudslides and road closures all over California, The Sixteen Swashbucklers went off without a hitch with considerable style, a fabulous guest lineup and quite possibly the smoothest execution of any Gallifrey convention in history.

For years, there had been ideas to invite groups of guests who had worked together in the past on Doctor Who, but there were always other considerations to be made (not the least of which was scheduling.) After the Gallifrey 2004 convention, when the planned Jon Pertwee tribute had been delayed for various reasons, it was decided to focus fully on this era of the show - despite the approach of the new series (which, to be fair, wouldn't be on the air yet.) The planning of the convention's guest lineup therefore circulated around the UNIT era of Doctor Who, with its lynchpin Nicholas Courtney, making his third visit to Gallifrey (having previously visited in 1992 and 1999). Courtney was in fact the first guest to be confirmed, followed soon thereafter by first-time guest Caroline John... who, sadly, was later forced to withdraw (as well as her husband, Geoffrey Beevers, due to a last minute change of scheduling). Meanwhile, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts were confirmed, both having visited before -- Dicks several times, and Letts making his second trip over after his previous 1994 excursion. Later, Gene Smith of Alien Entertainment, a long-time Gallifrey dealer and organizer of the ChicagoTARDIS convention, offered to sponsor Richard Franklin to visit this year's convention, and plans long in the making eventually led to Tenth Planet's support of bringing Katy Manning over from Australia. Franklin had been with Gallifrey in 1991 -- in fact, a longer gap between visits than any previous Gallifrey guest, fourteen years -- though Manning had never made it to LA, despite being invited repeatedly in the past (unfortunately, her schedule on television and in film never allowed her the opportunity.) Ms. John's withdrawal sadly left a gap, which was filled by a guest who had originally been on our 2006 invitation prospectus, Elisabeth Sladen -- her first visit to a Gallifrey convention. (In fact, it was due to Caroline John's request that Ms. Sladen was able to fill her shoes and join the ticket this year.) With now six Jon Pertwee-era guests, Gallifrey 2005 was ready for a warm reception.

And warm it was, despite the wet weather. All six guests of honor did, in fact, spend the entire weekend with our attendees, chatting, participating in game shows or other events, and sitting through a lengthy two-hour photo studio on Friday. Their panels were often raucous and very entertaining, most especially the one time all six were together on stage, the UNIT Reunion panel on Sunday afternoon, which packed the ballroom to standing-room-only capacity.

There were many other Doctor Who related guests throughout the 2005 weekend. Paul Cornell and Rob Shearman, both of whom had been with us before (in Paul's case, many times) now joined us as official Doctor Who television series writers... unfortunately able to say absolutely nothing about their respective episodes. Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery of Big Finish brought with them the lovely Lisa Bowerman after a three year absence, as well as Nigel Fairs and John Binns who have worked on various projects for them, while John Ainsworth -- now on his own with a new company, Noise Monster -- treated us to the company of voiceover artist Toby Longworth. The writer contingent was filled out with a few Gallifrey perennials, Keith Topping, Nev Fountain, David Howe and Caroline Symcox; returnees from several years before, Craig Hinton and Martin Day; and new faces Simon Forward, Darin Henry (who attended with his wife, actress Ursula Burton) and Scott Woodard (the latter being a long-time Gallifrey attendee, but his first time as a guest.) Lars Pearson, Arnold Blumberg, Bill Baggs, Mark Donovan, Eric Hoffman and DWM Time Team member Peter Ware filled out the Doctor Who guest lineup. And there were lots of science fiction guests as well: Marv Wolfman and Len Wein turned up to talk about their latest projects; David Gerrold joined us for a Q&A; on Sunday; Virginia Hey and Erin Gray spent time at their tables greeting fans; Tessa Shaw returned from the previous year, now with a Big Finish audio under her belt; artist Arne Starr made a great first impression on the convention; old friends Bill & Toni Blair, Celeste Yarnall and Stephen Austin reminisced and enjoyed themselves; Jill Sherwin discussed her "Andromeda" book; Paul Lawrence, Jack Donner and Leonard Stone experienced Gallifrey for the first time; and Bob May was... Bob May. Always a pleasure.

Surprise guest Amber Benson of "Buffy" fame turned up Sunday to join us for a rather raucous auction which raised the largest-ever amount for a Gallifrey event: $5,270 for the Starlight/Starbright Children's Foundation, a children's non-profit group -- with $170 of the proceeds donated by Julie Scott, who did massage therapy in the Dealers Room. (Benson appeared courtesy one of our attendees, Scott Armstrong.) The auction was put together in conjunction with the folks at Liningup.Net, an organization here in Los Angeles that has turned the fine art of waiting in line for the next Star Wars film into a fundraiser! We considered many possibilities for our charity auction this year. Many of us were struck by the recent horrifying tragedy in South Asia that claimed so many thousands of lives, but after careful consideration was given, the thought crossed our minds: with so many giving to the worthy cause of tsunami aid charities, other needy groups may not be so fortunate (remember, after all, the drop in contributions to so many charity foundations in the wake of September 11 when all of the donations were going toward the Red Cross and other aid groups.) In the end, we thought a children's charity would be an ideal target for our charity auction this year, especially insofar as that Doctor Who was, for its entire life on television, considered a children's program.

Some of the highlights of the convention included a special hour-long video preview of the new Doctor Who series on Sunday, which included all of the press coverage in Britain from the previous year and ended with the official series trailer; the world convention premiere of Loose Cannon Productions' newest reconstruction, "The Ice Warriors"; the first-ever Gallifrey live Doctor Who commentary session, with Nick Courtney, Gary Russell and Katy Manning adding their comments to two Doctor Who episodes; a screening of the independent film "Surge of Power" with the producers and director of the film joining us for the presentation; the "Totters' Lane Smarts" game show on Sunday afternoon, which pitted fans at Gallifrey against fans at our sister event, ChicagoTARDIS 2004, with footage filmed at the earlier event; tributes to Jon Pertwee and Anthony Ainley as well as a retrospective on the UNIT era companions by Eric Hoffman; the lively Match Game on Saturday night with many of our guests battling wits against our attendees, and Friday evening's "Just a Minute" game starring several of our guests during the Masquerade half-time; and the Mysterious Theatre 337 presentation of "Terror of the Autons". In addition, several fan videos were shown including the Federation's short "Six Minute Larry Pinger," MEV Films' "Reversing the Polarity" and the debut of the Sci-Fi Sea Cruise fan video "The Crystalline Conundrum." There was both a rock dance on Saturday and Karaoke on Friday, but sadly, this year's Cricket Match was not to be... the weather just didn't let up during the weekend.

The event saw the return of the convention's infamous weekend-long games... after all, what's a pirate-themed event without a treasure hunt? Chairman Robbie Bourget and green room director Rebecca Barber this year put together an elaborate treasure hunt with verbal clues scattered throughout the convention. The winners of the treasure hunt this year were Beth Korman, Jeff George and Veda Urias.

The convention was attended by producers Gillane Seabourne and Adam Page of BBC3, who taped live segments during the convention for "Doctor Who Confidential," the documentary series airing after each episode (the footage is scheduled to be included in episode 12), while representatives of both CBC Television and BBC Radio 2 were also on hand to conduct various interviews (the former for the CBC Doctor Who series debut, the latter for the "Project Who" radio show.)

While everything was truly upbeat throughout the weekend, with the forthcoming new series to look forward to, there were a few looks back... Jon Pertwee's life and legacy was celebrated throughout the weekend, with much of the program and all of the video programming focusing on his era. The late Master actor Anthony Ainley was given a hearty salute, and two members of the Gallifrey family were fondly remembered: legendary SF illustration Frank Kelly Freas, who had passed away on January 2 after a long career, and Michael Mason, one of the original Gallifrey conventions committee members, who had died suddenly in late December and left the entire committee and staff in shock; a lively wake was held in his honor by his friends on Saturday night in the hotel.

On the cusp of a brand new series, it was, all in all, a smashingly successful, if slightly wet, Gallifrey convention to mark the end of an era... and the beginning of another.

Gallifrey 2005 photos contributed by Victor Kosuda, Carrie Herfendahl, Mark Askren, Erik Engman, Scott Armstrong, Arnold T Blumberg, Justin Olson, Lisa Bowerman, Neal Meyering, Yochanan & Veda Urias, Tony Kenealy, Taza McDoom, Rebecca Barber, Keith Topping, Wendy Wiseman, Suzanne Campagna, Shaun Lyon, Paul Steib, Magdalena Dadela, Robert Franks, Jeri Massey, Shane Trowbridge and the folks at LiningUp.net. All photos are used with permission and may not be reproduced elsewhere without express permission from the photographer.