This Doctor Who Blog correspondent must be upfront in saying that he was only able to make the latter half of 2006’s Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles. The details as to why this occured for this would take up too much space, but can be summarized thus: Air Canada Sucks.

Nonetheless, for what I was able to attend of Gallifrey One in the 17th 1/2 Century was quite enjoyable (although the Dealer’s Room had 2/3 of their new series merchandise sold out by then!).

As ever, Shaun Lyon and his team put on what must be the premier Doctor Who convention in the world. A great sampling of new series guests (all the non-RTD writers from Season One and Noel Clarke, plus Alan Ruscoe and the guy who said the lock had a billion combinations in Dalek) and some great classic series guests (Louise Jameson, mainly) were in attendance and the programming was superb.

Unlike last year, where the new series was the elephant in the room no one wanted to talk about (and the guests with any knowledge likely had to sign non-disclosure agreements), there was a great excitement and energy around the new series this time. That said, this Gallifrey marked the very real shift between pre-and-post 2005 world of Doctor Who.

Back in the days when Doctor Who was run by a variety of cottage industries, Gallifrey (like other big cons, following the tradition in comic book fandm) was the place of the Big Announcement: who can forget the Gallifreys where the BBCi/Big Finish agreement was announced, or the trailer for online Shada debuted, or the big news about novel or audio releases for the year ahead was given.

Now with a new TV series and an age where it seems to be official BBC policy to not court the fans, Gallifrey is no longer the place of the Big Announcement. I think this is a shame. Other SF programs have learned that organized fandom and cons are a worthwhile thing, or at least are a necessary evil—while fans probably only make a percentage of the 9 million or so viewers watching Doctor Who, fans are often the first people interviewed by newspapers for reactions, so you would think it would be in their best interest to keep fans ‘sweet’. Would it really hurt to send some clips from series 2, or even a rep from the press office? Obviously the powers that be disagree with me, and I think that’s a shame: such an effort would cost comparatively little and would result in a lot of goodwill. Leaving that aside, the new series guests were absolutely delightful—Noel Clarke is a powerhouse of energy and Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss were a nice new addition, and it was great to have Paul Cornell and Rob Shearman now able to talk in greater depth on their work.

Some other random observations:

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• A Dealer’s Table had the new series box set (the R1 Canadian import) for $150 US. (It retails for roughly $90 Canadian).  You would think people would avoid such a staggering mark-up and just wait till the US release in July (or order it online from amazon.ca or even whona.com)...but they sold steadily all weekend.
  
• Best moment of the con: when Mark Gatiss read a text message from David Tennant to those present in the closing ceremonies!
  
• The new location is far better located than the Airtel Plaza in Van Nuys, but the ground floor facilities at the Airtel allowed for better interaction with the outside environment (a big plus for non-west coast people) than the lower-level facilities at the LAX Marriott.
  
• Following from Luca’s post a few weeks ago, general—and often willful—ignorance of Canada’s contribution to the new series while crowing about the US broadcast continues to abound.
  

Nonetheless, Gallifrey 2006 was an excellent time and continues to be the jewel in the crown of Doctor Who conventions. Here’s hoping next year’s is even bigger and better.