So the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff has now officially closed its doors. I read today that they ended with a marriage proposal taking place. None of that sort of thing yesterday when I went.
For a weekday afternoon, after the kids have gone back to school - and their parents are back at work - it was extremely busy. This is no doubt due to the fact of the closure. There were people from the US and from around Europe, judging from the accents I overheard, as well as people like me who just wanted to catch it before it went.
I went to Cardiff on a day trip, by coach - so that meant about 7 hours total travel time, with 7 hours in the city. Arriving late morning, I had time to spend an hour or so in the Welsh National Museum - which has often doubled as Britain's National Museum in London, in both
Doctor Who and the
Sarah Jane Adventures. It also featured as the 3W establishment in Series 8's finale. From the outside, it looked like they were filming a new
Doctor Who story - but it was just a gimmick to lure people into a dinosaur exhibit.
The weather along the M4 had been atrocious, but Cardiff remained warm and sunny all day. I therefore decided to walk down to the Bay, rather than get the water taxi, which you can pick up in the park next to Cardiff Castle. On my walk, I saw a number of people coming in the opposite direction, and the plastic bags full of merchandise showed that they were mostly coming from the DWE.
I arrived in good time for the 2.30 - 3pm admission slot, so made use of the Experience's cafe for the last time. They had moved a lot of the costumes and props from the foyer which I had seen the last time I was there. Remaining was the facsimile of Matt Smith, and a number of cast hand prints, as well as the big red Lego Dalek.
As mentioned, the place was busy, and mostly adults. In the area where you wait to go in to the "adventure" part of the Experience were a number of props and costumes relating to the Time Lords, as the theme of the adventure is the Gallifreyan Museum. There was the 1983 version of Omega, some Time Lord robes and collars, Timothy Dalton's Rassilon outfit, and that worn by the TV Movie Master. There was also a Key to Time. I shan't go into detail about the actual adventure section. Hopefully a new Experience will open in another location one day. Suffice to say it involves Daleks, Weeping Angels, piloting the TARDIS and Time Squids, with specially shot footage of Peter Capaldi in various TARDIS console rooms showing as you move from section to section. Despite the fact that it was closing, there was still a camera / video ban in force, though this is as much about safety and the need to move folks through before the next lot are allowed in.
Once through, I entered the main exhibition space, where you can snap away to your heart's content.
The downstairs section hasn't changed much, being dominated by a number of TARDIS console room sets - the one created for
An Adventure in Space and Time, the one which premiered in
The Five Doctors, and the Eccleston / Tennant one. Bessie was till there, along with a variety of Police Boxes, and K9. Also here is the green screen area where you can get a picture taken, superimposing you on a TARDIS set, with 3D specs or screwdriver accessories. By the
AAISAT TARDIS were a number of props from this drama - including a Menoptra and a Dalek, plus the first
Doctor Who annual cover mock-up. As this area had not altered since my last visit, I headed upstairs to where the main costume collection is housed.
On my first visit, I mentioned how sparse this area was, and hoped that more older costumes could be brought in. Well, someone must have been listening. The collection has obviously grown with each new series, and many of these costumes are still present - grouped together on stands. As I had already captured these on previous visits, I only took a few new snaps - the Skovox Blitzer, the Mummy, the Sandman, Scarecrow, Ood, Abzorbaloff, Peg Dolls, the Teller, and so forth.
Images of these have featured in posts of my previous visits. What I really wanted to see were items from the most recent series, and the creatures from the classic era of the programme. Regarding the latter, I was pleased to see that there were a large number of new exhibits. Recently added have been the Morbius Monster, and a Mandrel - which I had read about. I was pleased to see a number of other costumes present from the 1980's. On one stand stood a 1983 Sea Devil, next to a Tractator, a Cheetah Person, a Vervoid head, and a prone 1983 Silurian. The Sea Devil mask was badly worn, and the poor Silurian had to be displayed lying down as it was in a dreadful state of repair.
This stand was located in a corner where a number of other classic monsters were arranged. There was the
Web of Fear Yeti, an Ice Warrior, Linx the Sontaran, the K1 Robot, a Zygon and the Melkur, and next to them were the Mandrel and Morbius, along with a Tetrap.
The Cybermen have a stand to themselves. All are from 2006 onward, save for a lone
Earthshock model. Two Davros's flank a video of Mike Tucker talking through the refurbishment of the Morbius and Mandrel costumes - the Terry Molloy version and the white-domed Emperor version. The Dalek casings are lined up to form a corridor to take you through to the final section where the new series additions are housed - first passing a third Davros, in his infirmary set.
The highlights of the new costumes are the Mondas Cybermen, plus some hospital patients, and the Ice Empress. There are a couple of Monks as well, in a cage. The rest are costumes worn by the Doctor, Bill and Missy in a number of stories, plus a range of spacesuits from
Oxygen and
Empress of Mars. There are two Emojibots - one standing, and a damaged version. Bizarrely, the wooden lady from
Knock, Knock was stuck in a dim corner, though you could get your picture taken with your face through a hole, making you look like you were part of a wooden wall. One of the Movellan costumes was also on display.
I should add that there was yet another TARDIS console room on view - this time on the upper floor. This was the 1970's one which ran from
The Invisible Enemy through to
Enlightenment.
The exit was, as always, through the gift shop. As the DWE was closing down, this was quite sparsely stocked, but still doing good business. The three Daleks that were in the foyer last time had been moved to the shop.
And that was it. I sincerely hope that a new venue can be found for the Doctor Who Experience. Even if they skip the adventure section, some sort of exhibition should be housed somewhere. Back in March I went to the O2 to see the
Star Wars Identities exhibition. This has also closed now, but it is moving up to Edinburgh. Perhaps some sort of travelling exhibition might be an idea - though a lot of the older costumes would not be able to make the trip by the looks of them.
A few more images to end on... I neglected to tag previous DWE visits, to make them easier to locate on the blog, so I am going to rectify this later.
