The 29th annual Doctor Who convention known as Gallifrey One took place at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott February 16-18, 2018. Follow along as we recount our experience at this year’s convention, starting off with Steven Moffat’s solo panel!
It was Gallifrey One time for Violet and myself, and we had to work on Friday, but we decided to head down after work. We headed up the 405 to the Marriott near LAX, where Gallifrey One is held every year. I really do not enjoy driving around LA but luckily this drive was not too bad. We got to the hotel and checked in at a couple minutes to 5pm. Given we were all the way down in Santa Ana and driving to LA on a Friday afternoon, I think the drive went pretty well.
Since the first panel we were going to see was Steven Moffat, once we checked in and got through registration (no line there luckily!), we headed to the main room, where Steven Moffat would be having his solo panel. For those unaware, Steven Moffat has been the showrunner for Doctor Who for the past several years, and is now leaving Doctor Who to work on his own projects.
This panel felt like a farewell of sorts for Stephen, as all of the episodes he has worked on have now aired, so he is literally done with Doctor Who for what seems to be a permanent thing. Even when asked in the panel if he would write an episode for Doctor Who or if he has created a new monster for the show, Moffat said he has had thoughts in his head, and probably will for a while given his long tenure and love of Doctor Who, but that those thoughts would likely remain inside his head, so that the new showrunner, Chris Chibnall, could move forward with his own direction.
Stephen Moffat’s panel focused a lot on the Day of the Doctor episode as well, specifically regarding who would be included in it. For those needing a refresher, Day of the Doctor was the 50th year anniversary special a couple years ago that included both Matt Smith and David Tennant, along with a few other surprises in it.
One person that Steven Moffat pretty quickly discussed was Christopher Eccleston. He played the 9th Doctor, and the first Doctor when the series returned to the air after a long hiatus. Fans were hoping to see him in the episode, given it was such a big fanfare. Unfortunately, it did not happen, but Moffat finally gave us a little insight as to what happened.
According to Moffat, Eccleston actually wanted to meet with Moffat in person to discuss the role, and Eccleston graciously declined the offer, saying that it was not something that he thought would be good for him at his time in his career. Moffat asked Eccleston to hear him out, and did, and Moffat thinks he had a pretty good shot of convincing Eccleston, but the 9th Doctor remained steadfast, not changing his mind.
Moffat said that the two were very amicable in their discussions and doesn’t feel there was any animosity on Chris Eccleston’s end, but that it just wasn’t the right time for Eccleston.
Moffat also talked about how it was getting Matt Smith and David Tennant on board, and apparently even getting those two on board was a fairly last minute thing. Moffat even joked he was worried he would have to tell a Doctor-less Doctor Who story for the 50th anniversary.
Tom Baker was talked about as well. Moffat said that the end sequence that Tom Baker filmed was actually supposed to be Billie Piper’s scene, but since Tom Baker was available, Moffat thought that would be a perfect fit for his character.
There were a couple interesting fan questions that came up during the panel, and by interesting, I mean pretty awkward. A couple of women had a bone to pick with Steven Moffat in regards to his portrayal of female characters.
One woman’s question asked Steven Moffat why he writes all female characters the same. Moffat was pretty determined to set what he thought was the record straight, though. Steven Moffat explained that he feels he has portrayed various female characters in a wide variety of ways, and used such characters as Lady Vastra as an example. He did concede that the Doctor’s companions can be fairly similar to each other, but he explained that that is an inherent issue with the Doctor’s companions—they all have one big thing in common. That thing being, they want to hang out with the Doctor.
The audience seemed to be pretty clearly on Moffat’s side with this one, cheering his answer. Moffat did remain pretty calm regarding the answer he gave, but was pretty emphatic about it.
The Steven Moffat was a fitting panel to have this year at Gallifrey One, as it was his final season working on Doctor Who. He reiterated quite a bit through the panel that he would be passing the reins on, and didn’t seem to have plans to have any further involvement.
Click here to continue to our next Gallifrey One 2018 article: a recap of The Eaters of Light episode commentary!
You can see more of our photos from Steven Moffat’s panel below:
