November 29, 2012
On October 14, 2005 the Doctor Who crew hosted a Galactic Dinner and auction of Doctor Who memorabilia in aid of Children in Need. David, Billie Piper,Camille Coduri, Noel Clarke, Russel T Davies, Phil Collinson and Julie Gardner were there and even a Dalek and the TARDIS. The evening was held at the MacDonald Holland House Hotel in Cardiff, a black tie affair included a pre-dinner drink reception and a three course meal for guests. The evening started at 7:30 and in addition to the auction there was a Q & A session for the fans and a raffle, tickets cost £100 a head. Everyone also got a goodie bag filled with Doctor Who items and they were able to fill out a request to get a signed Christmas card from David and Billie.
David and Billie arrived together to the event and guests had to sign in before being allowed to enter. All of the tables were assigned, like a wedding, and named after characters in the show. Also, just like a wedding, all of the cast were lined up to greet the guests as the entered and each table had free bottles of wine.
The menu items all had a Doctor Who name - First course was a vegetable pâté called Vegetable Terrine Cassandra in a Balsamic Moisturiser. The main course was rump steak named The Mighty Rump of Jagrafess in Mascarpone, with the Vegetables of Cheem. And for vegetarians, Pumpkin Autons and for the dessert, Parfait Margaret in a Slitheen Sauce and coffee with the Mints of Balhoon.
The Master of Ceremonies the evening, BBCWales’ Jason Mohammed, announced how far all of the fans had come for the evening, some from as far as Jersey and Canada. Radio Wales even ran a contest for a lucky fan to win a pair of tickets and an overnight stay.
The event raised £20,000 pounds for the charity, which included one bid of £4,000 raised by the auction with Davies acting as the auctioneer.
"We always knew it was going to be a fantastic event, but it exceeded all our expectations," said David. "Everyone had an amazing night. Thank you so much to all the generous people who were there raising so much money," said Billie.
Menna Richards, controller of BBC Wales, said: "The Doctor Who team made a fantastic contribution towards raising a huge sum of money for Children in Need.
"But they couldn't have done it without the amazing support of all those Doctor Who fans who bid for prizes and gave so much money to the event."
