Guests: Sylvester McCoy, Deborah Watling, Richard Franklin, John Levene, Larry Stewart, Barbara Hambly, Larry Niven, Jonathan Post, John Vornholt, Gar & Judith Reeves-Stevens and Eric Hoffman.

Gallifrey One: The Sequel had a lot to live up to -- both a stellar first year to its attendees, and the realities of the financial problems that had arisen because of it. The biggest problem right off the bat was, of course, the dire straits Gallifrey had worked itself into as a result of negotiations with the LAX Hilton. The committee knew that the convention would have to move, and so the Pasadena Hilton, site of Loscon for eight years, was chosen. It turned out to be an excellent setup, with more than enough space for the event, but there was a certain amount of begrudging in accepting what was obviously a "step down" for Gallifrey. The convention was downsized as well, to three days instead of the more challenging four.

The problems began there, and got subsequently worse. It was during the late summer of 1990 that Colin Baker and Nicholas Courtney had confirmed as guests of honor for the second event. Rather disastrously, both would eventually have to cancel. Nick was forced to back out when he received confirmation that he would join the traveling company on "Busybody," an acclaimed British stage production that would be sent for six months to the Far East. Colin, meanwhile, was also forced to cancel because of work commitments on the UK production of "Take My Wife, Please." The guest difficulties, followed by an unfortunate situation involving a booking at the Pasadena Hilton and other pressures on the convention committee, caused the only change of date in the convention's history. Originally having been planned for February, the convention was moved in the fall of 1990 to the first weekend of May. Unbeknownst to the convention at the time, however, the new date was in direct competition with Anglicon, an established British media convention in the Pacific Northwest.

Also affecting the convention was a death at home. Cathy Watson, one of the matriarchs of the Time Meddlers (the club that, while separate, provided the backbone of the committee), had died suddenly the previous November. She and husband Bill Watson had been mainstays of L.A. Doctor Who fandom for years, and her passing was a tragic blow. Later, the second Gallifrey would be dedicated to her memory.

The guest problems were largely solved through the efforts of Robbie and John Levene, who had volunteered to help. Robbie was able to get Sylvester McCoy to return to L.A. for the first time since his brief appearance with Janet Fielding at the traveling Doctor Who Exhibition in West Hollywood in October 1987, while John made a few phone calls and confirmed both Richard Franklin and Deborah Watling at the last minute, so little time to spare that a separate mailing (ostensibly titled Progress Report Four) was sent only three weeks before the event changing the entire guest lineup!

Meanwhile, Christian McGuire and new co-chairman Matthew Mitchell, who had been talked into the event after Robbie's decision to step away (instead focusing on hotel liaison), encouraged the committee to take this a bit less seriously on site than it had the previous year; after all, this was the second convention, not the first! From fake radio reports (from "KSMG, K-Smeg, All Gallifrey, All the Time") to its committee photo (done in the style of "Christian and his 19 Committee Dwarves" with Christian as "Scapegoat" and everyone else as "Gropey", "Pennypinch," "Sleazy," etc.), it was a time to lighten up and have some fun.

Sylvester, wanting to experience more of America, took a train from the East Coast across the country, and had caught cold in the Rockies; he spent most of the time he wasn't living up to what he thought were our expectations in bed, though he performed admirably! Richard and Debbie were entertaining and enchanting, spending large amounts of time with the assembled fans. John Levene himself had only originally planned to attend on Sunday (hence the day was nicknamed "Levene-Day" in the convention's program) due to a work commitment, but he was able to stop by early Saturday evening during the Banquet to put in an appearance.

The guest of honor Banquet, meanwhile, was the subject of problems at the convention. Late Saturday afternoon, the Pasadena Hilton was hit with a fire alarm that caused the evacuation of the entire building, right in the middle of the convention. While the convention itself had nothing to do with the false alarm, it did hit the event in that some attendees left and did not return. Banquet sales were low as a result, causing a financial strain on the convention. On the bright side, however, it did provide an entire day of fun with "Alarm-Con" badges displayed throughout the convention. (The Alarm-Con moniker would return briefly at the ninth convention in 1998 when a fire alarm hit the Airtel Plaza Hotel at 5:30am Sunday morning. Rather coincidentally, Deborah Watling was also at that convention.)

KCET had been convinced to participate in the convention a second time after the first year's debacle. After a great deal of discussion between Robbie & Shaun and the KCET marketing department, the station offered cabaret tickets as a pledge break premium during their April drive. Out of several hundred tickets offered, about 130 people attended from the promotion, and only two of them bought memberships to the following day's events. Frustrated with the lack of enthusiasm by and difficulty in dealing with the broadcaster, the committee opted to divorce itself from any further dialogue with the station. (Meanwhile, KCET pledge drive host Rich Capparella, who was on air during the Dr. Who programs on the station, had been invited to come to the con but had to cancel at the last minute.) For the rest of Gallifrey's long history, the convention would thrive without support from public TV.

After the confusion surrounding the first year's program, there was a conscious effort to create a more cohesive program. In the middle of the year, original programming director Nicholas Cravotta handed off the scheduling chores to Shaun Lyon, who had put together much of the convention's framework in year one and would heretofore become the permanent program director and PR representative throughout the rest of the convention's long run. With a mission to create a more user-friendly program, some actual fan discussion panels developed. "The Age of Comics" welcomed local LASFS enthusiasts Charlie Jackson & Phil Castora; "Conventions Can Be Fun" had Eric Hoffman talk about the best and worst cons he'd been to; and "SF on Television: A Personal View" had John Vornholt and several fans. Also presented were discussions on making fan videos; "Editing Fanzines the Impressive Way"; "Doctor Who: The Animated Show" (yes, an actual discussion about someone's plan to do it, before the silliness of 1997's attempt); "Time Space Theory"; and "'Who' am I?," Larry Stewart's personal view of a brand new Doctor. Some of the pros got together in "Writing Star Trek the Amusing Way," "Writing Mainstream vs. Media Fiction," "Characters That Write Themselves: Star Trek Over 25 Years," "Script Writing the Less Complicated Way" and "Science Fiction vs. Fantasy". Eric Hoffman presented several tribute panels including "Bats in Your Belfry," "Barbarians in Bondage" and tributes to Sylvester McCoy, Debbie Watling and UNIT.

There were also some new and unusual program ideas. Sylvester McCoy and company got together for "The Villains of Our Lives," while Richard Franklin and John Levene mused on their time on the show in "Together Again with the UNIT Duo". A local group who had produced a cable access show called "Science Fiction Los Angeles" talked about their struggles, while Charles Lee Jackson II of LASFS gave us "Science Fiction trailers & serials". Larry Stewart also held a panel called "Stump the Doctor".

At the Cabaret, Sylvester performed three separate acts, one involving a long elastic band with Eric Hoffman on the other end of the room; one concerned shuffling sausages, and one with him playing the spoons on himself, the back of a chair, and on the person of his guest liaison, Michele Hoffman. Michele performed with Patsy Rethore a short ditty called "How to Handle the Doctor" as Melanie and Peri, respectively, while Linda Harpe performed two filksinging numbers. Deborah Watling read from a story and did a scream session (Bill Watson was the guinea pig during this event), Larry Stewart did stand up comedy, and Richard Franklin performed his famous "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow" number with Tea-Bag, his stuffed cat.

Committee member Alan Hale designed the program book’s cover (for the second year in a row) as well as invented an entire alphabet in the book. Each page featured a border with sayings in the strange alphabet, with the only clue to solving the code a strange table at the bottom of one of the pages. The booklet was edited by Shaun Lyon (taking over from Matt Mitchell who had done the first year’s book). Flyers were done by both Shaun and Tony Benoun, who also designed the badge graphics for each of the conventions from #1 to 7. Meanwhile, this was the final year for Elayne Pelz as our treasurer; Elayne, from the SCIFI group, had been ill the first year, much sicker the second, and a running joke crept up that a third Gallifrey convention would kill her!

After an initial run at 660 its first year, Gallifrey's attendance reached to just below 500 this time around. It was a downward trend that would continue through the first half of the decade.