We knew it was going to be an exciting year at the convention as we all speculated about and anticipated the forthcoming new Doctor Who series to be produced in 2005. But what started out as a 'typical' year at Gallifrey (a Doctor guest and a companion or two) turned out to be much bigger - and indeed, convention attendance is probably going to turn out to be one of the largest in the convention's history. And it was certainly one of the most fun Gallifrey events ever!

Originally scheduled guests of honor Sylvester McCoy (7th Doctor Who), Janet Fielding (Doctor Who companion Tegan Jovanka) and Yee Jee Tso (companion Chang Lee from the FOX Doctor Who TV movie) were joined by our first Blake's 7 guest: Paul Darrow. But the biggest news of all was the last minute addition of Paul McGann (8th Doctor) for his first U.S. convention appearance and only his second convention attendance ever! The famously private actor had finally apparently overcome his shyness around fandom and agreed to appear for two days (Saturday/Sunday) at Gallifrey. To say we were all a-flutter with excitement would be an understatement.

The brief Gallifrey overview: There were some guests. And some panels. I didn't see all of them. But I still had an amazing time. For more specifics, well, settle in, and I'll tell you everything I can remember from the panels!

I did speak on a few panels and see all three of Mr. McGann's panels. So that's what I can report on. I didn't get to either the Buffy or Angel fan panels (and as a result, did not learn about the announcement of Angel's cancellation until this morning!), nor did I see Robia LaMorte ('Jenny Calendar' from Buffy) & Danny Strong ('Jonathan' from Buffy) on their panel, though I did pass them in the hallway once. I did get to spend a bit of time talking with Farscape's Virginia Hey (Zhaan), who's great fun. I also hung out for a while with Camden Toy who some of you may recognize as one of the Gentlemen from Buffy's "Hush" and he also played the Prince of Lies in this week's Angel episode. He's a really nice guy and I definitely recommend meeting him if he appears at a convention near you. I also had the good fortune to spend some time talking to Susannah Harker, who provided one of the voices ('Claire') in the recent BBCi webcast adaptation of the 'lost' Doctor Who Douglas Adams-penned episode "Shada" and she also co-starred in the brilliant UK vampire mini-series Ultraviolet. She is a very sweet and lovely lady.

My first panel was the "Future of the Trek Franchise" panel, which was lively and well attended. The general consensus (as predicted) was that either the franchise needs a couple of years hiatus and/or new blood on the creative staff and that they needed to stop 'playing it safe' with their storylines, though many noted the current Xindi story arc on Enterprise had revived some of their lagging interest in the show. My second panel was on writing TV tie-in books. That was a fun panel because of the variety of the panelists. I was the only female on the panel, the only American as well, and the only one who had actually started in production before writing books; others had written many official and unofficial tie-in books and one had written a seminal program guide two decades ago that inspired many of the rest of us.

If you're already sensing that this is a shorter than usual summation of an event I attended, you're right. I'm a bit tired from the weekend and I didn't get to many events. And besides, I know the one thing most people want to know is... what was Paul McGann like?

Well, the best way I can sum it up is to say it was one of those extraordinarily rare experiences of meeting someone who is as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside. That's my impression of the man. He is simply charming and delightful and an absolute pleasure to meet.

While he acknowledged his inexperience/shyness with fandom he also explained at a panel (when asked) that he'd had an epiphany and realized that maybe attending these events wasn't as overwhelming as he'd first expected. And by the end of the convention, he'd apparently had such a good time, he indicated a willingness, in fact almost an eagerness to attend future events, such as possibly the Chicago TARDIS convention or one of the SciFi Sea Cruises! Said answer was greeted with a thrilled response from the fans, who spent much of their time over the weekend expressing their gratitude for his presence, having understood and respected his previous reticence towards such functions. This reticence was mentioned again when Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy were asked what advice Sylvester had imparted to his successor during the filming of the FOX TV movie in which Paul first portrayed the Eighth Doctor Who. Sylvester, ever the jokester, commented that his only advice had been 'Learn your lines and try not to bump into the monsters!' This got a big laugh from the audience. The two actors both recalled that Paul had not had questions about the role and that in fact his only concern and questions to Sylvester were about the associated conventions! Sylvester again cracked up the audience by relating how he'd tried to frighten Paul with horror stories about conventions because he knew that 'as soon as they found out Paul would do conventions, they'd never want me [Sylvester] as a guest again and Paul would get all the fun!'

Also during the TV movie panel, the panelists were asked about the various sets, props and costumes. Producer Phil Segal was asked if he'd kept any of the props. He acknowledged that he still had the miniature TARDIS used during the filming as well as the Doctor's bag and sonic screwdriver. This brought up the memory that Sylvester had actually used the sonic screwdriver backwards during his scene with it in the movie, as he hadn't known in which direction to hold it! Sylvester explained that his Doctor never used the sonic screwdriver and Phil hadn't been on set to correct him when that was shot. Phil noted that they had to shoot an extra insert shot to correct it.

When asked about the rest of the materials from the production, Phil Segal said most of the sets and props were gone, either torn down or removed from the storage facility they'd been left in and that some had been sold off. Many ebay jokes were made. He also said that the costumes had probably all been sent back to Universal's costume rental facility. Paul McGann seemed particularly amused by the idea that the Doctor's frock coat was rented out as a party costume. He discussed his love for period costumes, the way they looked and felt to wear and mentioned that he'd liked his Doctor outfit, though he'd refused to wear the scarf that had been made to go along with it. Several members of Paul's official fan club, the PMEBs (or Paul McGann Estrogen Brigade), had questions for him, including asking him to settle a debate on the color of that frock coat. He answered that it was green and they seemed pleased with that answer. Phil Segal added that the cloth that coat had been made from was from a discontinued/closeout lot of material and that he recalled the color was actually called 'heather green'. Paul also briefly mentioned 'the wig' which he did not seem overly pleased with. Apparently he showed up on set of the TV movie with a short, shorn skinhead-style haircut that he quite liked that he'd gotten from a recent role, that he tried to convince Phil Segal would be a great look for the Doctor. Phil didn't agree, but there wasn't time to have a wig made to fit Paul. So a pre-fabricated wig was found and ultimately used for the role.

Sylvester also really liked his costume from the TV movie, pleased that he didn't have to wear the question mark sweater that had been his Doctor's trademark. Phil noted they didn't have permission to use the sweater and had to change the look. Sylvester was happy they did, remembering that the sweater had been the idea of the late Doctor Who producer John Nathan Turner and that Sylvester had always hated that sweater, but hadn't wanted to argue with the producer when he first was given the role and then got stuck wearing it for years! This brought up the story of his original audition for the role of the Doctor - Sylvester wore a hat to the audition that wound up being exactly like the hat he wore on the show. Apparently the producers loved the look when he came in and said the Doctor should wear that hat. Sylvester hurriedly said they had to hire him to get the hat! He also said that wearing the hat was intentional as he'd been given good advice to wear something silly to an audition in order to be remembered - evidently it worked! Sylvester also mentioned how he loved the new console room set from the TV movie with its Jules Verne meets the future look. Phil recalled on the first day of filming how he discovered Sylvester sitting comfortably on the set in the armchair drinking a cup of tea, looking as if he never wanted to leave.

When several fans clamored to know if Paul had plans or was willing to continue his role as the Doctor in the new 2005 series, they were overjoyed to hear that he was open to reprising the part if the scripts were good. He indicated a preference to return to the original darker characterization he and Phil had first discussed for the character when he'd taken the role for the TV movie. He was also willing to do a regeneration scene from his Doctor to the new Doctor if he was asked. But he noted his phone had been silent to that point. Phil Segal knowledgably pointed out that it's the nature of the business that the role would most likely be recast as each production company wants to put its own stamp on any production and that as such, it was unlikely Paul would be offered the role again. This was disappointing news to the fans. However both Paul and Sylvester said they intend to continue doing the Big Finish audio adventures for the foreseeable future and in fact Sylvester joked that he planned to continue doing them until he couldn't read the lines anymore!

When discussing the BBCi production of "Shada", it was noted there was a bit more time in the production process than for the audios, which gave the actors time to rehearse. Whereas in the audio adventures, both Paul and the producers admitted they were often so pressed for time, they just winged it - no rehearsals, just record the lines and what they do is what we hear! Also on the topic of "Shada", much respect was given by the panelists to the late writer Douglas Adams. Actress Lalla Ward, who reprised her TV role as Romana for this recording, had been a longtime friend of the writer and seemed to have moments of melancholy during the production as she thought of her friend. However, Paul recalled that she was extraordinarily helpful in a direction capacity helping to clarify the writer's intent and characters' motivations in various scenes. It was noted that very little rewriting was needed to alter the dialogue originally written for the 4th Doctor (Tom Baker) to fit for the 8th Doctor. Though Paul found the dialogue to be a bit longwinded as Tom Baker could speak lengthy lines and speeches quickly and Paul often found himself out of breath in the middle of sentences! He praised his co-stars and when asked about popular young actor Sean Biggerstaff, said he's a star, just incredibly talented.

The other BBCi webcast "The Scream of the Shalka" was brought up by a Withnail & I fan as it featured Paul's co-star from that cult classic, Richard E. Grant, playing the 9th incarnation of the Doctor. The impression was given that REG is quite a character in person, and oddly has never mentioned playing the role of Doctor Who, nor the "Shalka" production to Paul, though they apparently see each other fairly often! It was jokingly suggested that Paul should play a new version of one of REG's well-known roles, such as the Scarlet Pimpernel and not discuss it with him!

On the subject of other roles... there were many fans in the audience of Paul's role in the Horatio Hornblower series of TV movies, who asked for stories about the productions. Paul talked about joining the movies after the first one or two had been shot at sea where the entire cast got seasick, so by the time he went to film one of these, they'd moved the production to Spain. Now you might ask how naval scenes were filmed in Spain (no, not along the coast). Paul related that the ship was actually suspended from the side of a cliff (!) to simulate the free motion of a ship. But the director soon discovered that the motion wasn't obvious enough so the actors were asked to perform their lines while shifting back and forth to imply they were on a moving ship. Unfortunately, none of the actors moved in synchronicity with any of the others, so people were swaying in all different directions! Since that didn't work, one of the assistant directors got a tall stick and told the actors to follow the swaying motion of the stick as he stood behind the camera moving it back and forth. I wish I could do justice to the description of Paul illustrating trying to speak his lines convincingly to the other actors while keeping an eye on a swaying stick ten feet up in the air! It was hysterical! After that attempt at conveying motion was unsuccessful, too, the cameraman finally spoke up and suggested that he simply gently rock the camera back and forth during the scenes and doing so (obviously) worked! Paul also said that during that production, he had a few days off in the midst of filming as they'd shot all the scenes with the ship facing in one direction, then it took a few days to turn the ship around (while suspended off the cliff) so they could shoot all the scenes from the other direction! When asked if Paul was willing to do further Hornblower movies, the answer was an enthusiastic yes! He noted that there were several more books in the series with untapped story potential and that he wanted to continue the adventures of his character - 'I want to lose a leg! And get married and get my own ship!' Unfortunately, while he said they'd actually been due to make another Hornblower movie this spring, it looks like it won't happen as the star Ioan (which if I recall correctly, Paul pronouncd 'Yowon' which I'd wondered about) has moved to Los Angeles and is busy filming (and apparently quite enjoying) his new series (Century City) and probably won't have time to do more Hornblower movies for the foreseeable future. Finally, on the topic of Hornblower, one of the PMEBs struck up the courage to ask Paul if he would give one of his famous "Fire!" lines in character from those films. Very graciously he agreed to do so and put down his microphone (so he didn't blow out the sound system), took a bit of a military stance and from deep within his chest absolutely bellowed the word "Fire!" He later joked that yelling like that had given him a headache!

There were also some Queen of the Damned fans in the audience who asked for his recollections of working on that film and working with the late singer Aaliyah. Paul explained that he really was only down in Melbourne, Australia on the set for a few weeks and that he wished he'd been able to stay longer. He also confessed that he hadn't known who Aaliyah was when he was filming, though he thought her to be very sweet and very talented. When he returned home from that shoot, his kids told him who Aaliyah was as they were fans of hers. His main memory of the shoot was of the large desert concert scene. He recalled a notice being put out for all the local goths to be extras in this scene and that ten thousand or so showed up! He said that was an amazing scene to film.

Off-topic, Phil Segal was asked if he could recast Paul and Sylvester into other films, such as the Lord of the Rings films or the Harry Potter films, what roles would he put them in? Phil didn't really have an answer, explaining that casting was a complex process, as much about the chemistry of the actors during the auditions as the roles themselves. Sylvester jumped in to note he actually had been in the running for the Lord of the Rings films to play the role of Bilbo. He had been seriously considered and the films' representatives kept in touch with his agent for months to make sure he was still available, and eventually learned the casting decision for the role was down to the final two. And apparently they went with the other guy. On a serious note, Sylvester said he felt honored to be in the same consideration as Ian Holm (who got the role), but then in a moment of mischief he added 'But why couldn't he have been unavailable and doing another role at the time?' This got a big laugh from the audience. Paul said that he thought he'd have liked to play Alan Rickman's role (Snape) in the Harry Potter films as that looked like fun, getting to play all dark and brooding all the time. This also received a roar of approval from the crowd.

Another question that pulled some fun answers from the panelists was 'What television show are you embarrassed to admit you were a fan of?' Phil Segal acknowledged he watched little TV, but was a fan of the history/archeology show Time Team, Sylvester admitted he'd had to pull the curtains closed late at night so nobody knew he watched the Aussie soap opera Prisoner Cell Block H, Yee Jee recalled watching far too much Star Trek when he was younger, but probably the biggest laugh was reserved for Paul McGann's confession that he enjoyed watching cartoons Johnny Bravo and The Powerpuff Girls!

Yet to come are one or two more stories including on the McGann acting family...