Glasgow Riverside Museum

There are a few Doctor Who items on display at Glasgow's Riverside Museum at the moment. Just the four, as part of a larger sci-fi theme spread around the museum (Imperial Stormtroopers, Ewoks and an AT-ST from Star Wars, some Gremlins, ET and the DeLorean car from Back to the Future).

Hopefully a few more items will be added later. Certainly room for a Cyberman.

The TARDIS, Davros and K-9 are all replicas, but the Dalek is the one which appeared in the Destination: Skaro short in 2023, as a notice states. The Davros looks very much like the one which had been on display at Peterborough for most of last year.

If you've never been to the museum and find yourself in the city for an hour or two, best to get off the subway at Govan and walk over the footbridge. It's primarily Glasgow's transport museum but has a lot of general social history stuff as well, and there's a tall ship moored outside you can also visit.

And remember, there are a few genuine Police Public Call Boxes dotted around the city as well.

Peterborough Changes

Hi all. Back from holiday, and I did manage to make it over to Peterborough whilst I was away (who can resist seeing a Quark?). They sent out an update on the very day I was flying down to London, so that made up my mind to go.

Usual blog business resumes later this week, but for now here's a little update on the exhibition. As well as the Quark they have also added Lord Kiv from Trial of a Time Lord (Parts 5 - 8, aka Mindwarp). This is the green-skinned pre-transplant version.

The other big change since my first visit is that the green Voc Robot has gone, but it has been replaced  by SV7...

And the Argolin wearing the Helmet of Theron has gone. Layout changes have been made to accommodate the new figures - one of which was not for the better, I felt. Last time, you had clear, up close, views of the Dalek Emperor, but they've moved Davros and the Death to the Daleks Dalek in front on it now. The Ogron is also more obscured.

You lose a lot of floor space in front of the Emperor (note where the barrier cord is, bottom right) and don't get as good a view of it now.

The Quark is in between the Ice Warrior and the 1980's Sontaran. The Flux Sontaran has been moved to the display of post-2005 costumes opposite.

One final addition - a prop this time instead of a costume - is a reproduction of the TARDIS console as first introduced in The Masque of Mandragora. It has been placed in the middle of the Time Lord display just as you first enter the exhibition.

Cybermen @ Peterborough (2)

The last of my photo posts from the Peterborough museum exhibition covers the later Cybermen, from the JNT era through "Nu Who". You saw some images of the first of the three Cyber-displays when I covered the 1960's models in a previous post.

The second row features the 1980's ones, and includes some actual screen-used costumes.

A Cyberman from Earthshock (judging by the moonboots) and the Controller from Attack of the Cybermen. This is the actual suit worn by Michael Kilgarriff in the story, bought at auction. The mannequin had to be padded in order to mount it properly.

Then a standard Cyberman from Attack of the Cybermen - another original costume - and one from Silver Nemesis. This is a reproduction made for the Hyde Fundraisers group.

The latter suffered a mishap as the display was being set up. The mannequin fell over and the helmet smashed - lucky it was only a reproduction - so the donor had to quickly create a replacement.

We then move onto the revived series, with a rather oddly posed Cybus Cyberman accompanied by a Cybershade from The Next Doctor and one of the models first introduced in Nightmare in Silver:

In the room containing the masks and models we also have "Handles" from The Day of the Doctor and a Cybergun, in a case next to the Julian Bleach Davros:

It's then onto the Chibnall era to finish off, with Ashad and a Cyber-Warrior from Ascension of the Cybermen and a finally CyberMaster from The Power of the Doctor. Nice seeing the detailing on the latter's suit up close.

Personally, other than the impressive Emperor, I would say that the Cyberman display on show at Peterborough is superior to the Dalek collection in its wide range of costumes, from The Tenth Planet through The Wheel in Space to The Power of the Doctor (though I'm always biased in favour of the Cybermen over the motorised dustbins anyway).

That's it for now. I may be revisiting the exhibition very soon as I'm back in London, though I may hold fire until the autumn to see if they've added some other items.

That holiday runs 26th July to 3rd August when there'll be no posts, but I'll stick a "Blog Update" out nearer the time.

Masks & Models @ Peterborough

A mixed bag of miscellaneous models, masks and other assorted items this time - though they are themed by coming from just two design sources.

These items are mostly to be found between the two main costume / prop rooms at Peterborough. Most are original models, the first few provided by Mat Irvine, including props from The Face of Evil and The Stones of Blood on which he was the VFX designer. (I've previously shown images of models from one of his other stories - Warriors of the Deep).

From The Face of Evil we get the mountain carved with the Doctor's features - the face of the title - as well as the Tesh spaceship. We also get a couple of weapons - the small handgun as well as the larger laser cannon wielded by Neeva.

From The Stones of Blood we have the Hyperspace projector device and the model of the convict spaceship.

Other items from Mr Irvine include one of his earliest model builds - the Master's prison ship from Frontier in Space:

And we also get "Boris the Spider" and the blue Metebelis crystal from Planet of the Spiders:

As an arachnophobe I found it really creepy to be anywhere near this, even though you know it's only a model and it's behind glass.

The biggest and most impressive model on display is the massive Time Lord space station from Trial of a Time Lord:

Some items from the McCoy era to end this post on, starting with Haemovores from The Curse of Fenric. These come courtesy of designers Sue Moore and Stephen Mansfield:

Next is the melting head of Kane from Dragonfire:

Then, from The Happiness Patrol we have Fifi:

And finally, for now, the Destroyer from Battlefield:

I'll post just one more photo selection from the exhibition, covering the later Cybermen.

What I'll have shown in this series is just a selection of the items on display. There are a lot more masks, models and costumes, and it is claimed that some other items will be added later in the summer - plus there are supposed to be some events planned around the exhibition as well. It's only £5 to enter, and Peterborough itself is well worth visiting if you've never been. (The cathedral contains the burial place of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first wife, as well as the location where the body of Mary Queen of Scots was first deposited. Her son had it moved to Westminster Abbey on being crowned James I of England).

I'll be back in London at the end of July, and am already planning another day trip...

Miscellaneous Monsters @ Peterborough (1)

Hi all, and thanks for bearing with me over the last week. 

Not really up for typing much so it's another photo-heavy post again - the first of two batches of images of miscellaneous monsters. This lot all hail from the classic era.

First up, we have one of the original design of Ice Warrior, as seen in the Troughton and Pertwee eras.

Quite often these are given red plastic eye coverings, but this one has green. Which is odd, as we can see from the two Peladon stories that they ought to be red. I know that one of the costumes on display at the Blackpool exhibition had green lenses, however. I'm afraid I'm not prepared to sit through The Monster of Peladon just to check...

I much prefer this version to the 2010's version, which is a little over-engineered in my opinion.

He may have come back in 2024 as a stupid big CGI dog, but the original Sutekh is always going to be superior...

He's accompanied by his servant, whose hobbies include bringing Sutekh's gift of death to all humanity...

There's a button you can press that makes Sutekh's eyes light up green, should you wish to zap anyone you dislike.

Surprisingly, the only classic Sontaran present is one from The Two Doctors.

It's surprising in that there's only one classic iteration on display - and that it should be this particular version, which has never been terribly popular.

I've heard that a Quark and Yeti may be added later in the year, but for now the rest of the aliens - other than a Voc Robot - are from the JNT era, beginning with his first story, The Leisure Hive.

A generic Argolin, Pangol wearing the helmet of Thuron (or is it actually the Fourth Doctor under there?) and a Foamasi.

From Mawdryn Undead we get one of the Kastron mutants - to give them the name they're given in the novelisation...

He is flanked by a Vanir, from Terminus...

And a Vervoid, from Terror of the Vervoids (aka Trial of a Time Lord (9 - 12))...

Finally for now, that Voc from The Robots of Death.

Next batch will be a miscellaneous mix of masks and models...

Daleks @ Peterborough

To be honest there are only a handful of Daleks from "Nu-Who" in the exhibition - a red New Paradigm one, the standard bronze model, and black Dalek Sec - so this latest post concentrates on the Daleks seen in the series 1963 - 1988, along with some related characters and models.

Just to give an idea of the layout, the exhibition sees you enter a room in which some Time Lords face the Silurian / Sea Devil group I showed you previously. They are lined up either side of a TARDIS console. Beyond this is the Cyberman section, with classic era models facing the newer ones.

You then move into another room in which there are lots of masks, models and costumes.

This then leads into a very big room, half of which contains Daleks, and the other half contains miscellaneous monsters from both eras of the programme.

Our first group of Daleks all made their debut in the Hartnell era - the city-based model seen in their very first story, the distinctive "Saucer Commander" from The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and then the standard Dalek with the vertical slats, which was first seen in the closing moments of The Space Museum, and ran through to a cameo in the final episode of The War Games.

Unusual to see that someone has made a Saucer Commander as it only features in a single episode, but I suppose the uniqueness was the attraction. I love the way they have included the little repair job to the middle ring beneath the dome. This ring got broken during the production of the story and they added a little piece of wood to act as a support, purely as a temporary measure. However, it was never replaced, and you will be able to spot this repair in various episodes throughout the 1960's. It was even included on the Eaglemoss figurine.

Before we move on to another unique Dalek, some models...

This little lot all come from The Daleks' Master Plan and represent the spacecraft of the alliance members, or Planetarians / Universal Council. The silver one, bottom left is the Dalek pursuit ship, whilst Mavic Chen's Spar 7-40 is third from left on top row.

That other unique Dalek is one of the highlights of the exhibition, and worth the £5 entry fee alone in my opinion...

It's a very impressive reproduction of the Emperor, from The Evil of the Daleks. It fills a whole corner of the room as they've provided it with a suitable backdrop, rather than just have it free-standing. As anyone who owns the Eaglemoss figurine knows, it simply doesn't look right in isolation.

the smaller lights surrounding the dome turn off and on in sequence.

Standing next to it is the first of our Dalek related characters - an Ogron, as first seen in Day of the Daleks, and then again in Frontier in Space.

For some reason these guys seem to be popular to recreate for fan-made video productions, and I'm afraid they don't always look that great. Here, I think they may have gone a bit overboard with the hairy arms... I think the problem here is also the fact that they've used a standard mannequin for display, so the head doesn't look bullish enough. For their TV appearances they sometimes had to split the masks at the back as the extras (often people overly familiar with the criminal justice system) were such big, bulky guys.

We next get a couple of 1970's Daleks, who flank the original version of Davros...

The Daleks either side of Davros are the silver / black model from Death to the Daleks, and the standard gunmetal grey version which first appeared in Day of the Daleks, and which also featured alongside their creator in Genesis of the Daleks. Two of my favourite colour schemes.

The final set of Daleks hail from the 1980's - from Resurrection and Revelation. We also get one of Lytton's troopers from the former story.

Next batch - some miscellaneous old skool monsters...