The Doctor Who Experience: a review
Wales has been uncannily fortunate when it comes to Doctor Who exhibits. Long before the revived series began filming in Cardiff, we were home to the Dapol Doctor Who Experience in Llangollen — an interactive museum run by the model company that held the toy licencing rights, housing props and costumes from the classic era of the series in various themed displays. When the show returned in 2005, a spare corner of the Red Dragon retail centre in Cardiff Bay played host to a small collection of items from the Ninth and Tenth Doctor eras. But it wasn’t until 2013, and the arrival of the new Doctor Who Experience, that the city could lay claim to a proper, dedicated Doctor Who attraction.
Alas, even that claim has proved to be short lived, as the local council, which owns the land on which the Experience stands, announced last year that it would not be renewing the lease. Despite healthy visitor numbers, the Doctor Who Experience is due to close its doors forever on 9th September 2017. I decided to pay it one last visit before it dematerialises.
Housed in a sweeping, TARDIS-blue structure adjacent to the Roath Lock Studios in which the show is filmed, the Doctor Who Experience is divided into two distinct halves. In addition to the exhibition of props, costumes and sets, it incorporates an interactive, themed walk-through — the closest we’re ever likely to get to a proper Doctor Who theme park attraction.
Designed by Sarner Ltd, a British company specialising in multi-sensory displays and rides, the walk-through begins with the clever conceit that it is itself an exhibition, welcoming us to the Cardiff branch of the Gallifrey Museum — an archive of the Doctor’s home planet, in which relevant items from all eras of the show are on display, masquerading as genuine historical artifacts. In true theme park fashion, Something Goes Badly Wrong during our visit, and our tour group, accompanied by a museum attendant, finds itself conscripted by the Doctor (played by Peter Capaldi, who appears via screens), to round up a series of “time crystals” and help him save the universe.
What follows is a 20 minute journey through a few scaled down recreations of the show’s most famous settings, from the TARDIS console room (the original Matt Smith era one), to the Dalek homeworld of Skaro, and on to the Totter’s Lane scrapyard where the show began in 1963, taking in a few Weeping Angels along the way.
By theme park standards, it’s not particularly strong stuff — the sets are nicely detailed but small, and the interactive elements are sadly limited; younger visitors get to waggle some joysticks to “fly” the TARDIS at one point, and someone is selected to retrieve a time crystal in each scene, but that’s about it. The finale in Totter’s Lane is also a little underwhelming, as we slip on 3D glasses to watch a projection of monsters getting sucked into a swirly vortex.
But it seems churlish to complain when the walkthrough undoubtedly achieves its goals. It’s a broad, family-friendly romp through the touchstones of the series, with a fun central performance from Capaldi, who clearly enjoys barking orders at our hapless attendant, and stays just the right side on tongue-in-cheek. I enjoyed it, although I’d probably choose to pay a lower entry fee if I could skip it and head straight to my real reason for visiting — the Exhibition Hall.
Spread over two floors, the hall is a treasure trove for Doctor Who fans. Sets, costumes and props from across the show’s 54 year run have been lovingly restored and put on open display — hardly anything is behind glass, and you can get within inches of some really iconic pieces.
Its location next door to the Roath Lock Studios ensures the exhibits are always bang up to date. Some items go on display within hours of appearing on screen. This means the Exhibition Hall is constantly evolving and, despite many key items such as the Doctors’ costumes remaining on permanent display, two visits several months apart can yield quite different results.
Most excitingly, it also has access to the cast — Peter Capaldi has been known to pop over between takes and surprise visitors, while various writers, actors and VFX artists have also hosted special events here.
Most of the hall’s ground floor is taken up with recreations of the various TARDIS console rooms, and it’s a wonderful feeling to be able to walk from one to the other, from a recreation of the 1963 original (as used in the docu-drama An Adventure in Space and Time), through the ’80s version, and into the darker, more detailed set used by Christopher Eccleston’s and David Tennant’s Doctors. There’s also a chance to have a souvenir photo taken against a green screen, with a choice of Doctor Who backgrounds.
The upper floor is reserved for the costumes, both classic and modern. You’ll find a rogues’ gallery of monsters, as well as a whole section dedicated to some of the Doctor’s most popular companions, and the man himself, of course. I’m not usually interested in costume design, but there’s an undeniable excitement in seeing pieces of television history brought to vivid life before one’s eyes.
The hall is also home to a largely unsung, but vitally important part of the Doctor Who Experience — the restoration project. For several years now, the Experience has commissioned visual effects outfit The Model Unit to lovingly restore famous monster costumes from the show’s original 26 year run. Some of these costumes were in danger of being lost forever, as they were originally made quickly and cheaply, and for just a few days’ use. Latex rubber, fibreglass, and other materials perish over time if not properly cared for, so it’s a minor miracle that so many of these costumes have been brought up to display standard.
Thus, we now get to see two original Davros costumes, the giant robot from Tom Baker’s debut story, an original Ice Warrior costume worn by British comic actor Bernard Breslaw, the Morbius creature and, most recently, a Yeti from The Web of Fear, made way back in 1968. But with the Experience closing down, a question now hangs over the future of the many costumes still awaiting restoration. Nor is it known what will happen to the existing displays, although discussions are apparently underway to rehouse them elsewhere in the country.
A final key aspect of the Doctor Who Experience is the guided tours it runs to nearby filming locations. The show is shot in and around Cardiff, and the officially licenced 75 minute walking tour takes in every part of Cardiff Bay to have appeared on screen, from the futuristic hospital on New Earth (in reality the Wales Millennium Centre), to the lonely diner where Peter Capaldi’s Doctor and Clara said their last goodbyes (an American theme restaurant on a busy shopping promenade).
Best of all, however, is the tour of the Doctor Who studio itself, and the huge, multi-storey TARDIS set. The tour only runs when the show isn’t filming, and tickets sell out very quickly, but I was lucky enough to get one last year and finally fulfilled a lifelong dream of setting foot in the TARDIS. We were given plenty of time to look around (although we weren’t allowed to touch the delicate central console), and pose for photos. We also got a short explanation of the studio, and how it’s set up. It was great stuff, and so far it remains the only way for the public to see inside one of the most secretive studios in the UK. Again, we don’t yet know if the tours will continue in some capacity once the Experience closes down, but I certainly hope so.
There’s no denying that the Doctor Who Experience is a high quality attraction, and it’s been a huge boost to tourism in Cardiff, drawing visitors from across the UK and beyond — there have been American, Australian and New Zealand families in every tour group I’ve been on. I’m still astounded at the decision to close it, but it seems they’re going out with a bang — the press release for the Experience’s final summer season hints at enhanced live elements in the walk-through, a number of special themed events in the exhibition hall, the addition of several sets and costumes from the latest series, and a huge cosplay event on 5th August. Tickets are available now, so if you haven’t already treated yourself to a visit, don’t hang around.
Meanwhile, I can only hope that, like its eponymous hero, the Doctor Who Experience will somehow, somewhere, regenerate.
