The Doctor Who Experience

Today is one of those days where I get to report on a visit to somewhere exciting. In fact I’m not sure I’ve been as excited to be somewhere since I was a child. Last Friday myself and my friend Louise took the epic journey across to Cardiff, Wales, the home of Doctor Who since it’s revival in 2005. This time round we went to the Doctor Who Experience, a sort of museum dedicated to the show. And it was awesome!

After the long train journey, which involved several changes at some of the tiny stations in Cardiff, we arrived in Cardiff Bay amongst a mass of graduates from Glamorgan university. They were all dressed up in their robes with the silly hats and we had to meander through them to get some lunch. I became jealous of these lucky few who do not have to suffer another year of lectures and assignments as I do.

We sat eating lunch looking over the lovely view of the bay and then approached the weird warehouse that is the Doctor Who Experience.

The first section of the experience is interactive. Basically you get to travel through space and time whilst the Doctor (Matt Smith) appears on a screen telling you what to do. Unfortunately you weren’t allowed to take photos in the first section so I will have to use my excellent writing skills to put the relevant images in your head. Blimey, this might be testing!

The experience began in the museum of Starship UK (from The Beast Below). There are loads of props from the show like the telescope from Tooth and Claw. A node (from Silence in the Library) shared some of the props with us and then something dramatic happened and the Doctor appeared on screen, live from the Pandorica 2. “They had another one just lying around!”. I would have like a little bit more time here to spot some of the props but the large number of people in one go and the short time spent there meant you didn’t have chance to have a proper look.

Things got more exciting then when the TARDIS appeared in a puff of smoke and the Doctor insisted we went on board. It is a replica of the Eleventh Doctor’s first TARDIS console although sadly a barrier meant you couldn’t actually touch the console. There were some levers to pull attached to the barrier and the Doctor told us that it would be best if children used these. My immediate thought was “I am a child, no-one is stopping me using this lever!”. I loved it when I got told to use the lever and the TARDIS floor moved. For a moment a dream had come true.

Next thing we knew we were on board a dalek spaceship and daleks rolled out to face us. Despite knowing they weren’t real I was still a little worried they would exterminate me! What if the whole thing had all been an elaborate plan by the daleks? Fortunately before we were exterminated the old daleks turned up and there was a battle between the paradigms.

After a quick run through a forest full of weeping angels, which was quite frankly terrifying, we got to watch a 3D film where loads of monsters were floating through the time vortex. This looked pretty spectacular but all too soon it was over. Next was the museum part of the experience.

Keeping up so far? If you have never seen Doctor Who the whole last bit probably made very little sense to you. To be honest I’m just indulging my memories here more than anything else. As you might imagine, I took quite a few photos in the museum section so here are a few highlights.

Costumes! They had costumes for all Eleven Doctors (although some were replicas rather than originals)!

^{Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)}

The TARDIS! The console that the Ninth and Tenth Doctor used is in the experience and it is awesome. I loved being in there. As well as being an integral part of the show it is a work of art! It was restored but it is still showing some wear and tear after it was blown up in The End of Time.

Monsters! Lots of monsters from the show appear, although most of them are from the new series!

^{Varga (from The Ice Warriors), New series Sontaran, Cyber controller, Silence, Weeping Angel and Skaldak (from Cold War)}

There were also various other costumes and props used in the show and various bits about how Doctor Who is put together, like how they make the costumes and props. The bit I found most interesting in this was the set designers who design what they want the set to look like through small cardboard models. It was fun to see how these little models became massive sets on TV.

All in all the experience was great fun, if a little expensive for what it was. I imagine children would really love it though as that is the audience in mind for the interactive bit. I would have liked there to have been more from the Classic era of the show because there was very little at all but I suppose that was to be expected with the experience being right next to the current Doctor Who studios. Also I got to control a dalek which was awesome. Great day out!

After the experience we explored Cardiff a bit. I have been several times before but I particularly love the bay area and think the whole city is lovely now that a lot of work has been put into modernising it. As a Doctor Who novel I once read said: “Never been to Cardiff? You haven’t lived?”

That’s all for today,  thanks for reading!