Guests: Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Janet Fielding, Paul Darrow, Yee Jee Tso, India Fisher, Jason Haigh-Ellery, Gary Russell, Susannah Harker, Philip Segal, John Ainsworth, Helen Baggs, Lee Binding, David Bishop, Bill Blair, Jonathan Blum, Arnold T. Blumberg, Julie Caitlin Brown, Paul Cornell, Jon de Burgh Miller, Christa Dickson, Paul Ebbs, Samantha Eggar, Nigel Fairs, Michael Forest, David Gerrold, Virginia Hey, Clayton Hickman, David Howe, Steve Johnson, Robia LaMorte, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, Bob May, Mojo, Iona Morris, Kate Orman, Stuart Pankin, Lars Pearson, Tessa Shaw, Robert Sheckley, Jill Sherwin, Brinke Stevens, Danny Strong, James Swallow, Caroline Symcox, Andrea Thompson, Keith Topping, Camden Toy, Robert Trebor, Len Wein and Eric Hoffman.

The fifteenth anniversary of Gallifrey One was met in sufficient style... with a quartet of headlining guests that were as improbable as the idea that the convention would have lasted this long and still be going strong! Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor, was a frequent request in the eight years since he'd last been with us (all the way back in 1996) and had actually confirmed with us twice before, including the previous year, only having to cancel closer to the date due to performance schedules. Once McCoy had confirmed, the first of this year's two pipe-dreams-into-reality was proposed: to bring Janet Fielding to Los Angeles. McCoy and Fielding had been the headliner guests back in 1987 when the BBC's Doctor Who Traveling Exhibition had come to L.A., and the thought of reuniting them here was improbable, to say the least... it was only when Fielding had returned to the convention fold after a decade of not appearing, visiting Australia's Whovention convention, that it suddenly became a reality. Likewise, when the Tenth Planet store had, virtually out of the blue, suggested they might increase their participation in the convention by sponsoring a visit by Paul Darrow -- whose ties to Doctor Who only served to complement his familiarity throughout science fiction as Avon from "Blake's 7" -- it seemed that this was going to be the year to beat all previous years.

But then came the news, just less than a month out from the convention: Paul McGann, the Eighth Doctor, whose limited appearances had been the UK's Panopticon convention and a few scattered autograph signings, would be coming to Los Angeles. In an appearance arranged by Jason Haigh-Ellery and Gary Russell of Big Finish Productions, McGann's North American convention debut would eventually include three discussion panels -- one with his Big Finish co-star India Fisher; one about the Shada audios with Haigh-Ellery, Russell and his co-star Susannah Harker; and one featuring McGann, McCoy, TV movie Philip Segal and actor Yee Jee Tso ("Chang Lee"), making his second and Segal's seventh appearance at Gallifrey One -- and two autograph sessions. (One of which would be rather unique, in that McGann, who had previously arranged to autograph photos as part of his contract, was stunned to find that the photos had not arrived; Tenth Planet, which had graciously offered to bring them over, had part of their inventory stuck at Federal Express! Ah, the joys of international shipping...)

With four heavy-hitter guests joined by Fisher, Tso, Harker, Segal, the Big Finish guys and a host of Doctor Who and other celebrities, Gallifrey prepared for its largest convention ever. And then reality set in: the same day McGann confirmed, the hotel filled up to capacity. Having a long-standing contract to provide out-of-town tourist services to other companies on our weekend, only half of the hotel's rooms had been available... and while the convention attempted to direct people to other hotels, there was simply not enough space. The result: a lower-than-expected attendance of only 720, where the convention had originally expected over 800. Needless to say, it was a disappointment to the committee, although the numbers were only a handful off from the previous year (and still rated one of the highest-attended Gallifreys in fifteen years)... yet what lacked in overwhelming masses was made up by comments that it was the best, smoothest-run and most interesting Gallifrey to date.

In fact, Gallifrey 2004 possessed a smaller invited guest list for one reason: sitting only three months after Doctor Who's fortieth anniversary, it was intended to bookend that special event with the largest discussion panel program in the convention's history, and a host of special events. (Two guests who'd hoped to make it only a week before as surprise guests were unable to make it: director Waris Hussein, who had recently returned "Marco Polo" telesnaps to the UK, had to fly out of LA only a few days before the event; and Daphne Ashbrook left town the day before the convention started to shoot a commercial, unhappy that she'd missed McGann's visit.) There were a number of first-time appearances, although Samantha Eggar and Stuart Pankin decided to simply sign autographs and not take the stage as they'd originally intended. But audiences were wowed by Buffy guests Danny Strong, Robia LaMorte and late-minute guest Camden Toy, who reminisced with Lars Pearson of their days filming the show; Tessa Shaw, Michael Forest and Bob May joined Eric Hoffman for a lively discussion about their memories of television and film in the 60's and 70's; and Virginia Hey, Julie Caitlin Brown and Robia LaMorte delighted the audience with their impressions of the roles of women in television.

But for the most part, it was all Doctor Who, all the time. There were presentations from Clayton Hickman on Doctor Who Magazine; James Goss, Rob Francis and Daniel Judd on BBCi, joined by writer Paul Cornell to discuss the recent webcast of "The Scream of the Shalka," followed by a big-screen airing of the serial; Big Finish's Russell & Haigh-Ellery were joined by producer John Ainsworth and India Fisher for several discussions on their various lines, from the Bernice Summerfield series to the Short Trips books and their Doctor Who range. Mad Norwegian's Lars Pearson and Christa Dickson presented their 2004 lineup and focused on the "Dusted!" volume they'd recently released. David Howe was joined by several writers to discuss the now-ending Doctor Who novella range as well as their future plans, especially for the Time Hunter spinoff series. And there were discussion panels galore, from "Sacrificing the Past to Save the Future" to "Writing Media Tie-In Books," "Buffy: A Retrospective," "One Ring Ruled them All," "Not Quite Gone or Far-gotten," "As American as Doctor Who" and "I [heart] VidFIRE". While a few were sparsely attended, mostly due to the timing (such as the 10am panels), most of them actually had sizeable audiences and several, including the Buffy and Angel panels, the "TV Shows on DVD" panel and the Babylon 5 discussion -- which was programmed opposite McGann's first appearance -- actually filled their rooms. Loose Cannon Productions discussed their reconstructions on Saturday, followed by the convention premiere of the "Daleks Master Plan" recon.

There were some experimental events this year. Friday's Karaoke Night started late with plenty of chaos, but eventually settled down into an evening everyone enjoyed (so much that we're bringing it back next year!) The American Red Cross joined the convention on Saturday for its first Blood Drive. Paul Darrow brought several fans together for an evening's discussion on Sunday, while Virginia Hey held a meditation therapy workshop that went through the evening. And there were fan videos in the main ballroom for the first time, which attracted huge numbers of people. But there were tried and true favorites, too, such as the return of The $25,000 Pyramid of Mars (this one done by our friends from the Chicago area), the return of Temporal Vortex Theatre on Sunday night (with a presentation of material from UK Gold, BBC1 and others celebrating the anniversary), and the annual Charity auction -- benefiting the Afghan Women's Mission -- which raised over $4,500... largely through the efforts of Janet Fielding, who donated a piece of clothing she had worn in "Castrovalva" and who auctioned off several items including a TARDIS video case and a complete set of Virgin New & Missing Adventures novels. The audience was delighted to welcome Paul Condon and Jim Sangster on Saturday evening, bringing their dance that had been met with raves at Panopticon to Los Angeles, while the guys from Mysterious Theatre 337 could not help but play the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie as their 'victim' this year... to very positive reviews. Indeed, Saturday night was full of fun -- the Masquerade, the debut of the Sci Fi Sea Cruise video "Death Takes a Holiday," Mysterious Theatre and the dance -- so much so that many didn't miss the Cabaret, which had ended the previous year after fourteen successive years (mostly due to wanting a change!)

There were almost no program changes throughout the weekend and very few difficulties. Besides the aforementioned snafu with Tenth Planet's shipment and McGann's autograph materials, only one event on the schedule was changed (Gary Russell's one-on-one, which the programming department had forgotten to post a sign about). Monday's photo session ended early because the line played out and the guests were uncomfortable with the bright lighting (and therefore a couple of people arrived to find it was over), while MT337 began a bit earlier than planned. But these difficulties were few and far between. In fact, the biggest problem facing the attendees that weekend had nothing to do with the event... it was the announcement on Friday that "Angel" had been canceled by the WB! And there was one other issue... this Dalek that was sitting in the hall watching everyone's move. Waiting for the moment to strike. Or get its picture taken. (Our special thanks to the folks from the Intergalactic House of Daleks in Texas for bringing out that wonderful Dalek model!)

The "sixties" theme of the convention was played out in some locations, with fun signage and costumes, but didn't quite take as much as the Halloween or tropical themes of the past. Indeed, the convention had been so exhausting at the last minute due to the many changes at the last minute to accommodate McGann that the schedule had been altered nearly every day until the program book's printing, and some of the arcana usually associated with the convention, like the themes, were lessened a bit. Also removed this year was a planned tribute to Jon Pertwee, when the guest lineup suggested that it might be better served by a delay; the Pertwee tribute was then pushed to 2005 (where it will be complemented by guests from that era.)

Four guests were presented with special commemorative business card cases from the convention, for their long-standing support of our event: Gary Russell & Jason Haigh-Ellery, Philip Segal and Julie Caitlin Brown. All four have been responsible for promoting the convention, helping procure guests and being good friends to the convention and its staff.

The convention was dedicated to three people who had been long-time members and supporters of the convention, all of whom passed away within a few weeks of each other in late 2003. Jim Cryer and Diane Elliott had both been members of Arizona fandom and Doctor Who fans; Diane had worked the con suite and nearly rescued one year's ice cream social when the staffing had gone awry, while Jim was a mainstay of Gallifrey's main ballroom for many years, remaining behind his video camera taping some of the con's best moments. Ruth Rigel, on the other hand, had moved away to Seattle many years before after being a staff member and convention fixture for its first eight years; she had also been the only private individual who had bought one of the convention's bonds to bail out the event after the first year's dramatic final bill. All three will be missed.

Gallifrey 2004 was notable for many things. It was Paul McGann's convention debut in North America, and would be remembered as the first moment where he met American fans head-on; it marked Janet Fielding's long-awaited return to the continent; and it took place in the shadow of something great: the impending return of Doctor Who to television in early 2005. Indeed, everyone was talking about the forthcoming series all weekend, and that perhaps marked the most important thing about the year -- the sense of hope and anticipation. Meanwhile, this year was originally to mark the convention's final year in the Airtel Plaza Hotel, but it proved not to be so, as there was still live in the old place yet...

Gallifrey 2004 photos contributed by Victor Kosuda, Wendy Wiseman, Erik Engman, Suze Campagna, Jeff George, Keith Topping, Emily Friedman, Athena Stamos, Chris Kocher, Lee Whiteside, Shane Trowbridge, Justin Olson, Mark Askren, Tina Stitzer, Benjamin Harrison, Scott Vaughn, John & Judi Heath, Scott Armstrong, Cathy Udovch, Tony & Jane Kenealy, Jenny Parks, Robbie Bourget, Shaun Lyon, Jennifer Lowden, Shel Wolf, Jonathan Dennis, Chad Knueppe, Reuben Herfendahl, Trina Short, Mary Alice Ladd and Rebecca Barber. All photos are used with permission and may not be reproduced elsewhere without express permission from the photographer.

For the very first time we are delighted to present all eight issues of the Gallifrey daily newsletter, The Black Scrolls of Rassilon, this year edited by Susan "Arizona" Gleason. You can download each; they are in PDF format so you'll need Adobe Reader to view them.

Issue #1
Issue #2
Issue #3
Issue #4
Issue #5
Issue #6
Issue #7
Special: Valentine's Issue