Outpost Gallifrey - Main Site

Main Site

Launched on December 11, 1995, the site was created and administered by Shaun Lyon. The site was based in the United States, and was primarily created to promote the annual Los Angeles Doctor Who convention Gallifrey One.

In January 2005, SciFi.com named Outpost Gallifrey its "Sci-Fi Site of the Week", noting its comprehensive coverage of all things Doctor Who. In March 2006, the Los Angeles Times referred to Outpost Gallifrey as "the premier Doctor Who website" in America. In November 2006, an interviewer for bbc.co.uk recommended Outpost Gallifrey as a "terrific fan site", along with the BBC's official Doctor Who website. Its front page claimed that the website received over 25,000 readers every day, rising to up to 50,000 at times of peak interest in the show such as a series premiere or finale.

The site had numerous sections such as an episode guide (giving cast and crew details and story outlines), feature articles and a reviews section. Reader and member submissions were accepted by Lyon.

On October 9, 2006, Lyon announced that he would no longer be updating the news pages due to the fact that his "heart was no longer in anymore." The initial plan was that most of the website would be archived, with only the forum and pages related to the annual Gallifrey One convention continuing to be updated regularly. However, on November 2, 2006, Lyon announced that the site's news page would be returning in a new form, with Lyon as editor-in-chief and a committee of reporters from the US, UK and beyond. The news page was relaunched on 1 December, along with the newly-incorporated Web Guide to Doctor Who, a manually maintained listing of Doctor Who websites. Previously this web guide had been a separate site, edited by Paul Harman over ten years.

On January 21, 2007, the website became affiliated with the popular Doctor Who podcast Doctor Who: Podshock.

On August 27, 2007, Lyon announced that the majority of the site would no longer be updated; its most active parts would split into four separate websites, with the rest of the site to be archived. Specifically, the Outpost Gallifrey News Page was relaunched as the Doctor Who News Page (at www.doctorwhonews.com); the Outpost Gallifrey forum became the Doctor Who Forum (at www.doctorwhoforum.com); the address www.gallifreyone.com was retained for the Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles; and the Web Guide to Doctor Who continued at www.doctorwhowebguide.com. However, it was not until December 1, 2007 that those changes came about, when the front page became a single links page to the various new sites, and Outpost Gallifrey was formally closed as a one-stop site. As of 2008, the component sites of the former Outpost Gallifrey were still referred to by the site's old name.

On June 2, 2009, Lyon announced that the site, including the news page and forum, would close completely on July 31, 2009, save as the portal for the Gallifrey One convention. The closure was noted by Charlie Jane Anders of io9, who described Outpost Gallifrey as "the best Doctor Who fansite".