Guests: Nicholas Courtney, Wendy Padbury, Daphne Ashbrook, Philip Segal, Lisa Bowerman, Andrew Cartmel, Gary Gillatt, Gary Russell, Jason Haigh-Ellery, Stephen Cole, Paul Cornell, Keith Topping, Mike Tucker, David McIntee, Bill Baggs, J. Michael Straczynski, Wayne Alexander, Joshua Cox, Robin Atkin-Downes, Jason Carter, Maggie Egan, Casey Biggs, Tucker Smallwood, Gerard Christopher, Mojo, Richard Hatch, Herb Jefferson Jr., Jack Stauffer, Kent McCord, Mark Allan Shepard, Glenn Campbell, John Ainsworth, Tim Saward, Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Dr. Robert Gounley, Bjo Trimble and Eric Hoffman.  (Originally announced guest Elisabeth Sladen could not attend and Andy Lane had to cancel.)

Ten years of Gallifrey Conventions culminated in this tenth anniversary convention, nicknamed Gallifrey: 1999 after the Space: 1999 moniker, a four-day experience which boasted the largest number of guests to date. Though slightly below the attendance figure of the previous event, likely due to the lack of a Doctor (settling this year at 554), it nevertheless continued the upward trend of the late 1990's. It was, however, not without its own disaster. On the Saturday before the convention was to begin, it was faced with the horrific news that Gary Louie, a member of the rotating Art Show team who had no interest in Doctor Who, yet had spent many years with the committee because of his love of conventions, had passed away from a heart attack. A close friend to most of the committee and staff, the shock of Gary's sudden, tragic passing was a severe blow, putting a damper on much of the weekend.

Nicholas Courtney, who had wanted to return to Los Angeles for years, was an early confirmation as a guest of honor, and was delighted to be back. Joining him originally would be Elisabeth Sladen, who had conveyed through various channels that she was quite interested in coming to the convention; sadly, however, Ms. Sladen was unable to attend. This, however, was known early enough to search for a replacement guest, which came in the form of a contact email from the partner of Wendy Padbury, who had since declared that 1999 would be her final year doing Doctor Who appearances. Through the assistance of her partner, Simon Gerard, Padbury scheduled Gallifrey to be her North American swan-song (though she would later appear on the Doctor Who cruise from Miami late in the year).

Also making her first and only appearance to date was Daphne Ashbrook, who had played Grace Holloway in the 1996 TV movie. An extremely shy actress toward her Doctor Who celebrity role, Ashbrook had been contacted by Shaun Lyon two years prior through help from Philip Segal, yet after months of discussions between Shaun and her agent, she agreed this year to appear once on stage. Ms. Ashbrook, joined by Philip Segal, made her appearance on Saturday afternoon to reminisce about her role in the film, then accompanied Doctor Who Magazine editor Gary Gillatt, attending for the second time, to an interview and photo shoot out by the pool (along with her daughter). Since the convention, Ms. Ashbrook has stated that she has no interest in further appearances -- meaning that Gallifrey: 1999 will likely remain her one and only convention appearance in Doctor Who history.

The Doctor Who actor cadre would be rounded out by Lisa Bowerman, who had first starred in a guest role as Karra in the final televised story, "Survival". Since then, Big Finish Productions had cast her in the role of Bernice Summerfield in an audio series based on the exploits of the aforementioned archaeologist, who had been a companion to the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's "New Adventures" series of Doctor Who novels (1991-1997). As Bowerman had appeared at the previous year's Visions convention, Gallifrey also brought her over to Los Angeles to promote the audios and she proved to be one of the con's most popular celebrities. Bowerman also is a professional photographer, and did the Doctor Who Magazine photo shoot with Daphne Ashbrook at the pool.

Big Finish, meanwhile, had been granted the rights to prepare an audio CD/cassette series with the Doctor Who imprint, hoping to secure the services of several of the show's cast members (which, at press time, had come to fruition with a popular audio series starring Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and many other Doctor Who cast members). Gary Russell, who had first appeared two years before, was now back both as the Doctor Who novel author as well as co-producer of the new series with Jason Haigh-Ellery, his business partner. The two made a presentation on Saturday afternoon prior to the Ashbrook/Segal appearance to rave reviews, the first of many such presentations in years to come.

At his first-ever North American convention, Andrew Cartmel, the Doctor Who TV series' final script editor (throughout the McCoy run) made a last minute confirmation to appear. Stephen Cole, still editor of the BBC Books novel series, also made a return visit with a surprise in hand: "The Crusade" episode 1, the only missing episode of Doctor Who to be found in the past seven years, which was shown along with a documentary about the find on Saturday afternoon. Also returning were authors Paul Cornell, David McIntee and Keith Topping from the previous year. In addition, author Mike Tucker, who had also worked on the BBC series as a special effects designer, joined us, as did BBV "Doctor Who" spinoff producer Bill Baggs, assistant producer John Ainsworth and author Tim Saward.

Rounding out the guest list were "Babylon 5" and "Crusade" creator Joe Straczynski, as well as "Babylon 5" regulars and guest stars Jason Carter, Wayne Alexander, Robin Atkin-Downes, Joshua Cox and Maggie Egan, the five of whom appeared in a raucous Sunday discussion panel that many say was one of the best panels ever presented at a Gallifrey event; "Deep Space Nine" co-star Casey Biggs and frequent guest star Mark Allen Shepard, who played Morn the barfly; "Space: Above & Beyond" star Tucker Smallwood and effects designer Glenn Campbell; "Superboy" star Gerard Christopher; "Battlestar Galactica" series stars Richard Hatch, Herb Jefferson Jr., Jack Stauffer and, from the "Galactica 1980" spinoff, TV actor Kent McCord; "Star Trek" historian Bjo Trimble and "Voyager" effects designer Mojo; UFOlogist Dr. Franklin Ruehl, NASA scientist Dr. Robert Gounley and our own Eric Hoffman.

The convention's charity auction raised over $3,100 for the Hurricane Mitch Relief Fund on behalf of Nicholas Courtney. Also auctioned was a copy of the semi-prozine "Perfect Timing" autographed by everyone (including Daphne Ashbrook) for Colin Baker's charity, the Foundation for the Study of Infant Death, for $175. Indeed, it was the only item at the convention that Ms. Ashbrook auctioned.

The year's Cabaret included performances by Nicholas Courtney (who did a Noel Coward reading), Wendy Padbury (who read "excerpts" from her supposed "autobiography"), Lisa Bowerman (performing a Gaelic folk song), Stephen Cole (who offered a parodized sign-off to the BBC, "My Way," as rewritten for a Doctor Who audience), the Dr. Who author group (who performed "highlights" from the BBC's "Perfect Day"), Maggie Egan (who did three selections from her CD) and the wonderful Jack Stauffer (who gave us excerpts from "My Fair Lady" and "Oliver!"). Joining them were fans Amberwolf, NEXUS, the Enigma Players and Eric Hoffman, as well as a "commercial break" video filmed in the months prior to the convention by the committee (see article), and a delightful hosting job from Tadao Tomomatsu. The evening was concluded by a special retrospective of ten years of Gallifrey conventions organized by Shaun Lyon and edited by Greg Hart, concluding a tribute to Gary Louie.

Friday night saw the continuation of Gallifrey's big event party, this year themed a la Casablanca with "Rick's Café Americain". The Enigma Players performed several set pieces during the event. Also, on Sunday, the Masquerade returned to a very popular reception, followed by a video screening which kept nearly 200 people in the main ballroom until well after midnight, watching the UK parody "The Few Doctors," the Star Wars independent video "Troops," a fan-created Dalek effects video and the 1996 Doctor Who movie, shown on the silver screen.

There were several firsts at this convention. On Sunday morning, a brave band of congoers (about 25 in all) joined together at 5:00am for the first Eye of Orion Hike; a car caravan trekked to Runyon Canyon Park in the Hollywood Hills where the intrepid hikers watched the sunrise. Mostly comprised of out-of-towners who had never been to L.A., it was a very welcomely received event. Also a first at this Gallifrey was the Monday morning Cricket Match, held in nearby Louise Park. Originally an idea that developed from a conversation between Paul Cornell and the convention, local cricket enthusiasts Paul Steib and Wendy Wiseman (longtime Gallifrey members) helped develop the event which gathered nearly 50 people. Meanwhile, still going on at the hotel was the game show Whopardy, done for the first time completely with computer display in the main ballroom.

The convention wide game was entitled The Cyberleader's Gold Rush, based on the Cybermen's fear of the metallic element. Attendees would have to visit a variety of locations in order to receive the chance to pull gold pieces out of a cauldron, which were yellow plastic tokens with silver denominations on them; the winner would be the person with the highest amount at the end of the weekend. It was perhaps the most popular con-wide game since the Seven Seals game during Gallifrey 7.

Doctor Who fandom in North America suffered another loss just prior to the event, however. Bob and Patti McLaughlin, dear friends to Gallifrey and the organizers of the Visions conventions, made the decision to retire Visions. Ostensibly ceasing for 1999 only, they have yet to return. This would leave only the Sci-Fi Sea Cruise, sailing with a small contingent each year in October, and November's United Fan Con in Massachusetts, which because of the diligent efforts of Paul Scott Aldred and the members of the U.S. Branch of UNIT club featured one Doctor Who actor each year, as other representatives of Doctor Who conventioneering. (Thankfully, within 2 years Doctor Who was back in Chicago for the annual Chicago TARDIS conventions.)

Crazed and confused at times because of the mass of people, The Tenth Planet of Gallifrey One was nevertheless well attended, well programmed and well received. With the loss of Visions, it would fall to Gallifrey to maintain the banner of the annual Doctor Who fan reunion, setting the stage for a second decade of fun.

After the successful reception of the first direct-to-convention Gallifrey committee video in 1998, plans soon developed for an encore. It was soon decided by committee to base them on an aborted cabaret sketch idea from years prior: commercial breaks, originally discussed after the fake "news broadcast" from the eighth year which were to be live. Greg Hart, who had directed the first video, would return to direct and edit the second. Shaun Lyon spearheaded the project as producer, with the input of many members of the committee eventually assisting with the writing of each sketch.

With the framework set as four commercials, interrupted halfway by "station identification" from KSMG-TV ("K-Smeg, All Gallifrey, All the Time!"), the usual Gallifrey 'broadcaster,' filming commenced in October and November 1998 at the Time Meddlers meetings. The first commercial, "The Bank of Robbie," was a tribute to Gallifrey treasurer Robbie Cantor (now Bourget) featured testimonials by Arlene Satin (referring to the Stonehenge blocks she'd led the committee to build the previous year), Cathy Beckstead (who was "building a Dalek") and Carol Loessin (who had just bought a car, chairman Christian McGuire's beat-up Falcon), and was done in the style of the "First Change Bank" sketch from Saturday Night Live. Robbie's taped segments from the previous video were used again (as she was now living in the UK); David Keller's "Robbie Cantor got me 2.1 million" tag was of course based on the long-running L.A. "Larry Parker" law office ads. The second ad, "The Gallifrey Labs," was intended as an homage to the hidden video commercial, showing lab tech Shaun Lyon introducing a variety of "improvements" the committee was making to the convention, including Greg Hart's electroshock of subject Scott Beckstead ("up the voltage!"); Joyce Sperling watching subject Deanna Bayless, being eaten alive by stuffed animal bugs ("More bugs, definintely more bugs"); Wendy Wiseman and Roberta Hart cooking Tadao Tomomatsu alive in a cauldron ("Needs more Tadao!"); and Michael Mason being beaten by a variety of people in a variety of ways... including by, yes, Michael Mason.

The third commercial, arguably the most popular of them all, was a very simple ad showing five people (Ken Barr, Christina Shuy, Katherine Seddon, Diana Dougherty and Kit Russell) lighting candles to the tune of Pachabel's Canon, always featured in the local Charter Hospital ads, with the headline "Are You a Fan?" and the eventual tagline being the company's name, "The Get-A-Life Foundation". (Indeed, this part was so popular, it was run at the 1999 Loscon convention). The fourth and final ad for "TARDIS Express," a play on FedEx (and using the TARDIS Express logo from long-time T-shirt designs popular in Whofandom), featured Ingrid Oliansky, sick of her marriage to Christian McGuire and screaming children Patrick Beckstead and Shannon Hart, calling the delivery service. Along comes delivery lady Jill Sherwin, who takes a message and a package back in time to Ingrid & Christian's wedding. To the surprise of everyone, including pastor Eric Hoffman, Ingrid is told that Christian is "not the one!" and is handed a box, the Condoms of Rassilon. Enter the tagline: "When it absolutely, positively has to be there… before."

The video played as a huge success at the convention, along with a special retrospective of photos put to the tune of "You've Got a Friend in Me" from "Toy Story" and Louis B. Armstrong's rendition of "It's a Wonderful World," celebrating ten years of the convention.