Guests: Jon Pertwee, John Nathan-Turner, John Levene, Larry Stewart, Eric Hoffman, Ronald D. Moore, Hilary J. Bader, John Vornholt, Don Franklin, Gerry Conway, Peter Greenwood, Steven Stockbarger, Jonathan Post and Jean-Marc Lofficier. (Gerry Davis was invited, but could not attend)

"Doctor Who Returns To L.A. For the First Time in a Decade" was the slogan used by the committee of Gallifrey One as it exploded onto the Doctor Who fan scene. Nearly 650 people gathered at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton & Towers Hotel -- despite the bad economy, relatively little publicity and competition from various conventions near and far -- for the first Gallifrey convention. Until the year 2000, it was the most well-attended Gallifrey, and to a few it still reigns as their most fondly remembered.

Jon Pertwee appeared as the convention's first Guest of Honor, after having made a committment eight months before to attend, and was a resoundingly popular choice. His appearance at the Saturday evening Cabaret, in fact, was the most substantial portion of the evening, his legendary nightclub act being performed to many of the convention's attendees. His appearance at the convention was complemented John Nathan-Turner, who had telephoned the convention two months prior. The longest serving producer of Doctor Who made the trip from England as well, and his appearance proved that the man behind the scenes running the show was just as popular as the actors on stage. And if that weren't enough, John Levene made a visit as well, having moved recently before the convention to the southern California area. The nickname "John-Con" stuck after the three were confirmed.

Due to a miscalculation of scale, the necessary 600 room nights weren't met, and the convention was hit with a major bill afterwards. But that didn't stop everyone from enjoying themselves with the three Jo(h)n's and the other guests. Larry Stewart was brought in as Fan Guest of Honor, a Canadian artist who would be a mainstay throughout the con's first seven years. Ronald D. Moore, at the time a Senior Staff Writer (and later Producer) on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, made his first ever convention appearance at Gallifrey, and brought Hilary J. Bader, one of the other staff writers, in to a panel as well. Popular Trek novelist John Vornholt put in an appearance, and prop designer Peter Greenwood brought in Don Franklin and Gerry Conway, two of the stars of "Land of the Giants" for a special retrospective panel.

Jean Airey, the renowned writer/fan who for many years ran the APC Net in the U.S. and wrote such books as "Travel without the TARDIS", was invited and sadly could not attend, but she did send her best wishes to the event. Likewise, Gerry Davis had been invited to join the weekend, but a confusion in dates led to his inability to attend; he would sadly never get the chance to visit Gallifrey, as he passed away shortly after the second convention. Jean-Marc Lofficier, who had scribed the infamous Programme Guides for Doctor Who fans, also joined the guest list as the last minute as it was mentioned by several committee members that he and his wife Randy were Los Angeles residents; they would later attend many of the Gallifrey conventions and become good friends to the committee.

With the shortage of attendees, there was a major glut of programming, much of which was focused on discussions. There were indeed a few times with as many as eight panels at once, while no one attended anything other than the Doctor Who programs. There also had been advertised a "San Dimas Room," named so after the Southern California town that featured heavily in the film "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" (a time travel film much akin to "Doctor Who" complete with the traveling phone booth), though the program in this room was a fake, and several fans didn't appreciate the joke and were upset enough to complain.

Both Pertwee and Nathan-Turner were good sports during KCET's call for repayment of its help in advertising (which had been comprised of a single advertisement). Both were invited to KCET to tape promos for on-air broadcast during Doctor Who, but when they arrived, Nathan-Turner's participation was refused, as the telephone contact at KCET had gotten her wires crossed. Despite this, Nathan-Turner was very cordial about the whole thing. Pertwee did end up taping a single promotional advert which was used in a later pledge break.

The convention's Ice Cream Social was one of the weekend's most popular events, judging from the disappearance of all the ice cream about twenty minutes into the program. It gradually metamorphosized on Friday night into an eclectic dance nicknamed the "Time Meddler Cotillion" -- for the episode, not the club -- hosted by local deejay Kelly Wand, though his eclectic selection was a bit too eclectic for the tastes of many of the assembled. Also extremely popular was the Liar's Panel, a panel idea used at countless Doctor Who and other conventions in the past (it would be abandoned after Gallifrey 3, when it was discovered that the participants actually hated doing it!) Interestingly, however, nearly a hundred people opted to not attend the Cabaret, as by a twist of scheduling, the L.A. premiere of the third season of the series "Red Dwarf."

Individual events had separate names for this event: the Con Suite was the Zero Room, the Art Show was the Carnival of Monsters, Information was the Matrix, the Fan Lobby was the Celestial Crossroads, and so forth. This began a trend that was retired for the middle of the decade then brought back into full force late in the 1990's with themes dedicated to Babylon 5, Buckaroo Banzai, Space: 1999 and other series. Gallifrey One also had a space for Exhibits, the Space Museum. Peter Greenwood brought a few original props in, including the full size Uncle Martin's spaceship and a large model of the Flying Sub from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, as well as others.

A hearty selection of dealers from all over joined us for the weekend, including Doctor Who dealers John McElroy (a dealer for every year of the 10), Alexandra Loosely-Saul's Who Shop UK and Ken Barr & Diane McClamma's Ambrosia Comics & Collectibles, which would go on to become L.A.'s only Doctor Who shop and the largest Who importer in the western U.S.

After the convention, Gallifrey chose to honor three individuals for their financial contributions to this and future events. Ric Goldman, Sherri Benoun and Rick Young were all given the titles of "Cardinals of Gallifrey" to thank them for their generosity.

The first Gallifrey was a crossroads of Doctor Who fandom. Fans from all over the country attended, as well as a man named Bob McLaughlin. Already in the planning stages of his own convention, Chicagoan Bob McLaughlin would go on to make that convention, Visions, a reality in his home city from 1990 to 1998; in the process, Bob made close friendships with many of Gallifrey's commitee and staff, which permanently cemented Gallifrey and Visions as the sister Doctor Who conventions of North America in the 1990's.