I did a bad job taking my own photos this year. In fact, as I was packing up, I realized I'd never even taken my actual camera out of my bag. While I do have a few taken with my iPod, they're low quality and exceedingly sporadic. Therefore, it is only through the generosity of others that I am able to bring you a photographic recap of the 26 Seasons of Gallifrey One.
In previous years when we've done our group cosplay, we've taken the opportunity to get a photo of all of us with one of the guests. Due to the pricing changes for those photo ops, we weren't up for it this year (though now we can plan ahead for next year). So although several of us have individual shots with Barrowman (and goodness are they fun), we don't have the entire League of Doctors (our Who character/comic character mashups) with him, which is a shame, as he's been both Who and DC characters himself.
However, one of our friends (Andy Staats) had agreed to be our "official" photographer. With his kind permission, I've included a few of my favorites here. (Unless otherwise noted, all these are his; see more at flickr.) First up is the whole group of us.
We've got our Fifth Doctor/Power Girl mashup, our Poison Ivy/Amy Pond ("Poison Amy"), our Harley Quinn/Fourth Doctor, our Loki/Eleventh Doctor ("Elevki"), our River Song/Catwoman, and our Eighth Doctor/Thor ("DocThor," which is me).
Of course, then we had to have some fun with posing. Most of the ones I was in involved messing with Sonic Mjolnir:
What happens when two sonic hammers do battle?
Or when a bunch of villainous ladies try to pick up Mjolnir?
Probably the best part of cosplaying, in my opinion, is walking the con floor and having others appreciate the costume. Especially with several of us together, the mashups were a hit. (I particularly like this shot because you can see that Sonic Mjolnir lights up.)
Comic artist and Gallifrey One guest Christopher Jones was perhaps most appreciative of all (understandably). And several of us were only too happy to acquire one of his awesome "Bat Wolf" prints. It was mashup heaven.
Aside from the awesome guests, seeing others' cosplays is always one of the highlights of Gally for me. The creativity is insane. Obviously, one sees a lot in the Masquerade, but many of those people are walking the halls in their entries earlier in the day on Saturday. A few that I didn't see on the con floor were among the winners of the Masquerade.
In the Journeyman category, the winner was this awesome entry, titled "Praise Him!":
It had to have been really awkward to walk in, but it was beautifully creepy.
The winner of the Master level category was impressive in a different way. Here's "The Girl Who Waited":
here are undoubtedly photos taken from closer to the stage floating elsewhere around the Internet, but even here you can see some of the insane detail. If I'm remembering what I heard correctly, this is screen accurate, using the same materials as the actual costume.
Best in Show was won by an entry titled, "A Queen's Words Win Wars":
Although she was not the only Elizabeth I in the Masquerade (see the other below—herself winner of the scholarship to Costume College), her delivery of part of Elizabeth's famous speech ("I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too") brought the house down. It was a well-deserved win.
The other Masquerade entry that was on my personal list of favorites (performance included) was some folks I'd actually chatted with on a Facebook thread before Gally even began. Their costumes were wonderfully obscure to many fans, but for those familiar with the Hartnell era, were beyond awesome. Here, fresh from The Web Planet, are the Menoptera (photo credit: Marcia Franklin):
Finally, I leave you with one of the most brilliant infant cosplays I've ever seen. Behold, the exposed innards of a Dalek:
Until next year, Gally. I can hardly wait!