Tuesday saw us visit the one place I had really been looking forward to – The Doctor Who Experience! Set in Cardiff Bay, the location of Doctor Who filming since 2005, the warehouse seemed to be the perfect place to home the only permanent Doctor Who Exhibition in the UK.
Filming doesn’t only take place in the studios, both Doctor Who and Torchwood have had multiple episodes filmed around the bay itself. This is something I learned from the staff when we went on a tour of the current TARDIS over in Roath Lock, BBC Cardiff studios. We were very lucky, as at the actual box office (as it were), they don’t advertise that you can go to the actual studio, but I had done my research. When we arrived, therefore, we asked at the desk if they had any slots available and it turned out that they had 4 spaces left! This was just the right number for our party, and for only £9 extra, I would say it was definitely worth snapping up the opportunity.
So there you have it, we stood in the current TARDIS, which happened to be housed in the same studio that they created the Victorian street set where The Doctor meets Clara for the first time. For various reasons, that particular set wasn’t constructed whilst we were there but it was really interesting to know how many sets would have been constructed in the same room. As expected, the TARDIS isn’t bigger on the inside, in reality – that’s the one problem with exhibits like this, it ruins the magic! They do their best, however, and it will be incredible to watch on television and be able to say: ‘I STOOD THERE!’
The outside of the set is made from wood and various lighting rigs, which I think is quite incredible in itself – I would love to have such talent to design something so substantial.
Meanwhile, the the inside looks amazing! I would never expect the TARDIS to resemble the television version without any movie magic thrown in, but it really did:
Once we had been in the current TARDIS, we went back to continue our expedition into the main Doctor Who Experience. The interactive experience was definitely aimed more towards children, as I think they would have done so much more had it been aimed at an older audience, but it was still really clever and good fun; I shan’t go into too much detail surrounding this, in case anybody wants to visit, and I don’t want to ruin it for them.
After we had participated in the interactive experience, it was time to go into the ‘museum’ section. This was full of old sets and costumes, which was fantastic! Most, if not all of the old TARDIS consoles were there (although I’m not sure if some of them were reproductions-they looked great anyway), and there were costumes from both monsters and regenerations of Doctors from years gone by.
I think my favourite costumes were easily the classics, such as the Daleks and the Cybermen, and I found it funny that my mum was terrified that the Cybermen may come to like and attempt to ‘delete’ her! I must say, though, I would find it terrifying to work there and be the person who has to walk round checking that nobody has been locked in at night!
There was so much to see, it was definitely value for money in my opinion, especially as it’s not somewhere you would visit on a regular basis. The whole experience is currently very Matt Smith based, with photographs and props from his episodes dotted around the exhibition. There were also plenty of props and costumes from over the last 50 years, though. If anything, I think this made it even better as I would definitely go back again if they regenerated the TARDIS at any point because they would no doubt update the props as well. I think that within the next year, there will be quite a lot of Peter Capaldi props to see! I am so excited for the 50th anniversary episode - any other Doctor Who fans buzzing for this?
We decided that after we had been to the exhibition, we should explore the rest of the bay. I got the impression that the Cardiff Bay is one of those locations which has been subjected to the recent gentrification projects which have been going on around many dock areas over the last few years, and it has certainly paid off. The bay seems to be a pleasant place to socialise and has plenty for adults and children alike for a day out. One thing we did notice, however, was that a good 50% of the location bay seemed to consist of restaurants and cafés – this meant that more than 1 day there would probably have exceeded the limit when it comes to things to do, especially if you’re only with a group of adults.
This didn’t stop Chris and I taking a trip to Techniquest, however. I vaguely remembered going when I was a child, but didn’t remember very much about it. Before we went away to Wales, I converted some of my Tesco clubcard points with their ‘boost’ scheme with the hope that I could use them at various locations around Cardiff. £5 in clubcard points gave £20 worth of vouchers which, to me, seemed like a good deal. They sent them as 2 £10 vouchers, so it meant that I didn’t need to spend them all at once, too! So, voucher grasped at the ready, we wandered off to Techniquest. When we got to the door we found out that student prices were £5 (rather than the £7 adult price I had expected to pay) and that we could indeed use the voucher. It’s definitely worth doing if, like me, you don’t spend your points. I know lots of parents save up their shop loyalty points for Christmas, but as a student I don’t feel I need to, so it was rather useful. I do love it when no money changes hands!
As predicted, Techniquest was aimed at children, and we probably wouldn’t go back by ourselves in the future; there were lots of brain teasers and everything was hands on, which is the only way you’ll get me properly interested in science, I’m afraid, so I was in my element!
I think we spent about 2 hours in there, so we must have enjoyed it! I don’t think I would have been particularly impressed if we had paid £14 for the two of us, however.
Overall I can say that the day trip to Cardiff Bay was very enjoyable and I was so glad we were able to visit. Despite the array of things to see, I can easily say that the Doctor Who Experience was my favourite bit of the day…just as well really!
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