Gallifrey One 2015 - Thursday lobby con

Today’s my first day back in LA for 2015’s Gallifrey One convention.

Each year I’ve been going the convention seems to swell not only in the numbers attending (though that has now been capped) but in the length of the festivities.

Officially the convention runs Friday morning to Sunday late afternoon, but with increasing numbers of fans arriving on the Thursday afternoon, an impromptu mini convention runs where everyone catches up with friends and buddies.

Known as Lobby Con, it’s become an increasing popular steam running in parallel with the main programme.

The Thursday afternoon, running into the evening, is the first chance for cosplayers to get into costume and character ready for the main days.

Here is a little selection of photos I took.



Nice to see the Tenth Doctor’s first costume being kept alive!



These Ten cosplays always have the best fun!



I like the way people take the well established costumes, like the Fourth Doctor’s iconic scarf - and make it their own by selecting their own unique colour schemes.



But there is always space for some high end costumes alongside the innovative creations.



For example this eye-catching reworking of the Sixth Doctor coat using brown fabrics.



As you can see - I had some fun too!
I have some friends who made their own Cookie Monster, so I tactically wore my t-shirt on the off-chance of bumping into them. It worked!

You’ll also notice that today was the first chance for fans to trade ribbons - that curious convention pastime that has progressive grown year on year.

I have joined the craze, with a few of my own to trade, which amassed the long train of ribbons down the side of this posting.

If you’re at Gallifrey One right now - seek me out - I have ribbons to trade!

Including my Sixth Doctor special ribbon, complete with plastic watch chains!
No-one else has done anything like this, so grab them from me while I have them!

Danny Pink goes Barking!

In a pseudo warm-up to next weekend’s big Gallifrey One convention, today I trekked out to Barking for Tenth Planet Event’s first signing session of 2015.

Barking Signing - 7th February 2015

To be honest the guest list was a little light on interest, with Jasmine Breaks, the little girl in Remembrance Of The Daleks; Clem So, the go-to Chinese actor seen in Pond Life, The Angels Take Manhatten, The Day Of The Doctor and notably as a clockwork droid in Deep Breath; and Gregory De Polnay, D84 in The Robots Of Death.


There were also a couple of non-Who also-ran guests who appeared in the likes of Grange Hill and Z Cars, but for me the main draw was Brian Miller, Barney the tramp in Deep Breath and husband to the late, great Elizabeth Sladen.


However, with less than a week to go, the organisers added a surprise guest, Samuel Anderson - Danny Pink himself!

It was a cold morning, and I got there in good time to get the signatures in my book I was after, though sadly Gregory De Polnay was a no-show due to ill health. Hopefully he'll come on a future session.

Samuel came across very well and was interacting with the fans without any reservations, engaging with one and all.

He was happy to sign anything put in front of him including a wonderful portrait done by a fan, who gave him a copy to keep - which Samuel asked him to sign!