gallifrey one: 21 - recap, part 2

After the amazing Wee Beastie revelation of the Costumers Reception Panel we all headed to the main hall for the Opening Ceremonies. The ceremony was simple and to-the-point. Shaun Lyon, the organizer, came out to introduce the many guests of honor. And may I say, the lineup this year was absolutely incredible. Katy Manning, Tommy Knight, Georgia Moffett, Graeme Harper, Louise Page, Deborah Watling, Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, John Levene, Bob Baker, Andrew Hayden-Smith, Nicholas Briggs, Phil Ford, John Fay, Colin Teague, Alice Troughton, Rob Shearman, Paul Cornell, Gary Russell ... and oh so many more. Shaun welcomed quite a few of them on stage, letting the fans see what they looked like in real life (or IRL, though I'm not cool enough to use internet acronyms and not sound totally lame), and giving us all an opportunity to welcome them for coming.

After some descriptions of what was going on, we were treated to some fantastic video hellos from well-known members of the DW family. Shaun was vague about the first one, but I totally nailed it! The conversation went something like this:

Me: I wonder who it is?
Iko: Well it wouldn't be anyone in the new series ... maybe DT?
Me (ignoring what she said, clearly): Matt Smith?
Iko: Naw ... RTD?
Me: I bet it's The Moff!
Iko: He's way too busy for that ...

Then the video came on and it was Teh Moff! What a lovely man!



Absolutely fantastic. And let me say here that I am not ashamed in how TOTALLY F'IN EXCITED I AM FOR MATT SMITH/ELEVEN/TEH MOFF. WOO!

Ahem.

There was also a fantastic video from Peter Davison, with guest appearances that I'm sure you've all heard about at this point. I don't have video for that one, because I didn't get the chance. Sorry! Look it up on youtube or something. It's pretty funny!

Afterwards we did a lot of wandering around, hung out and depressurized in our room, then headed out to the Titanic Party. Which was brilliant. The room was decked out with props, toys, accessories, and posters remeniscent of the Xmas special "The Voyage of the Damned." The hosts/hostesses were dressed in tuxes and maid dresses similar to those in the series, and there was a mock control panel made from an old touch-tablet PC.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Life Saver"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="375" caption="Touch screen control"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="375" caption="Who turned out the lights?"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Guests of honor"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="375" caption="A guest from the 51st century"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="375" caption="Arthur Dent stopped by"][/caption]

If you don't know who Arthur Dent is ... well ... you need to go find out. And I give you a giant bracket frown.

:[

After that, Iko and I headed over to the Casino to see what was going on. Iko grabbed some chips and sat down at a blackjack table.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="375" caption="Blackjack with The Master as dealer"][/caption]

I can't imagine it went well, what with The Master dealing. They did confront each other afterwards ...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="375" caption="The Master and Eleven face off"][/caption]

After retrieving Iko from the casino I believe we went up to our room and crashed. We were knackered. And that was only after the first day ...

Up next, Saturday!