Ships, castles and spas – passing through southern England and Wales COMPLETED - Page 9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Thursday 11 June – part seven: stepping inside the TARDIS console room… and other delights!
Once we were done with the experience part of the Doctor Who Experience, then we headed into this…
You get to see the TARDIS console room… well, one of them anyway.
Then you can meet the Daleks again close-up, although sadly the lighting here was a bit weird, so trying to get a photo with them was pretty tough. It’s a shame and one of the few things I’d like to see them improve here.
You stay in the 1960s, seeing some of the monsters from back then – this is a Zarbi, which looked better than I expected, as it wasn’t that good on screen, if the truth be told…
… and then there’s a section about the creation of the iconic theme music, complete with a replica room of the Radiophonic Workshop…
They also had a video showing here, but I loved the fact it was on a 1960s TV!
They also have papers of the day Kennedy was assassinated, as Doctor Who was first broadcast on the day following that, so the media was of course full of coverage of that. It was fascinating to see…
I personally liked the idea of this!
Now this is the height of my geekiness – this is a replica of a scene from the 1964 story, the Dalek Invasion of Earth… and of course the iconic TARDIS is in it. This is mark 1, we were told. There have been a few across the years…
This is the console room I grew up with from the 1980s…
… and this is the third Doctor’s car, Bessie, which appeared with some other doctors through the years. I love this old girl!
And more geekiness… this is the mark III TARDIS and this is a scene from the Leisure Hive, which aired in 1980, starring Tom Baker. It was partially filmed on Brighton beach, which is ironic, as that’s where one of the offices is based for the organisation I work for.
I was especially chuffed to find the Doctor’s faithful canine companion, K-9….
Then we came to one of the more recent console rooms, for the ninth (Christopher Eccleston) and tenth (David Tennant) Doctors. It was amazing to see how large it was, but I guess it does make sense, given that they had to film and presumably needed the space for various camera angles.
This is an iconic scene from the Day of the Doctor, the 50th anniversary show in November 2013, and shows three TARDISes together from number 10 (David Tennant), number 11 (Matt Smith) and the War Doctor (John Hurt) along with the Moment…
As you may be able to see from the photos, we were pretty much the last ones left in this section. This surprised me, given that our group did seem to have a lot of hardcore fans (yes, like me! ) and I expected people to take longer to go through this, but they didn’t.
Here, we headed upstairs to the upper floor of the exhibition, and the other issue we had with this was the heat upstairs. It started to hit you as you headed up the stairs, and this is something it would be really good if they could do something about.
It ran as what we call now "the classic series" from 1963 to 1989, then it came back in 2005 with the current series. During the time it was off the TV, there were audio stories and books, so it really did carry on during the whole 16 years off air.
That's quite amazing as most shows don't last more than a few years! Even more amazing is the devoted following it has!
It's amazing the amount of fine detail in the Experience as perhaps they may have taken cues from Disney! You really seem to be enjoying this and in your element!
Funny, that you mention Christopher Eccleston as I was watching a movie of his last night..."eXistenZ," with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law. Good movie, but so bizarre in many ways.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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I would be totally geeking out in here!! I love K-9, and that is so cool that you got to have your picture taken with him!! Seeing all the different versions of the TARDIS is really cool. Can't wait to see the villains!
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That's quite amazing as most shows don't last more than a few years! Even more amazing is the devoted following it has!
Yes, we Whovians are very devoted!
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It's amazing the amount of fine detail in the Experience as perhaps they may have taken cues from Disney! You really seem to be enjoying this and in your element!
Oh I was - completely!
Quote:
Funny, that you mention Christopher Eccleston as I was watching a movie of his last night..."eXistenZ," with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law. Good movie, but so bizarre in many ways.
Interesting... I don't think I've heard of that one.
I would be totally geeking out in here!! I love K-9, and that is so cool that you got to have your picture taken with him!! Seeing all the different versions of the TARDIS is really cool. Can't wait to see the villains!
It was all so cool, although as a bit of a teaser, one of the villains wasn't looking too well.
This whole Doctor Who place is so amazing. I'll be honest that I've never watch more than a few minutes of any of the shows, but reading your updates is making me want to change that.
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This whole Doctor Who place is so amazing. I'll be honest that I've never watch more than a few minutes of any of the shows, but reading your updates is making me want to change that.
Yay! I'm sure you'd enjoy it if you see some episodes.
Thursday 11 June – part eight: meeting the villains!
When you get upstairs, you’re greeted by some of the Doctor Who villains. Now I really am an anorak when it comes to the classic series. This is the series that originally aired from 1963 to 1989. The new series then came back in 2005. I knew every single one of these villains…
An original Sontaran – they have appeared in the revival since it came back in 2005 and of course, they look much better today than the original version
The Melkur from one of Tom Baker’s last stories – note the “moss” on him around his left middle
The Giant Robot from Tom Baker’s first story in 1974
An Ice Warrior – again they were in the original series and have also appeared in the revival
I was so upset to see the state of the Yeti costume… look at it:
We were warned that a lot of the costumes you see are genuine, and not replicas, so you can’t touch them, which is fair enough, and my goodness, it was obvious with this. It dates from Patrick Troughton’s era back in 1967, so that is a long time ago now!
These are the monsters from the new series…
A new look Sontaran – very different to the original
A scary scarecrow
A new look Silurian – again, they were in the original series
The Face of Boe
The Silence
Of course, they had to have the Weeping Angels somewhere… now don’t blink!
And there was a section for the Cybermen. I found it fascinating to see all the costumes from over the years, all the way back to their first appearance with the first Doctor William Hartnell back in 1966…
I loved the richness of these costumes – look at the colours!
The Daleks also had their own section, and again I loved seeing how they had developed over the years…
My particular favourites were the ones that were on loan from private collections, as again they’re originals from many years ago, and I just find it amazing that they’ve survived so long and so well.
You could even see the inside of one. I have no idea how people dealt with being inside these things to operate them.
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I have to ask - what awful thing will happen if you blink by a weeping angel?
Well, they're stone whenever you're looking at them, but if you blink, then they move and get closer to you... and eventually if they get hold of you, you'll be sent back in time to live your life. Trust me, whenever the Weeping Angels are around, it's very creepy - suddenly as the viewer, you find yourself trying desperately not to blink as well and that's very difficult!
Wow, this is a serious experience! I'm familiar and have seen maybe a couple dozen of the new episodes, mostly with David Tennant. This place goes way above and beyond my knowledge, but it looks very well done!
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Wow, this is a serious experience! I'm familiar and have seen maybe a couple dozen of the new episodes, mostly with David Tennant. This place goes way above and beyond my knowledge, but it looks very well done!
I thought it was incredibly well done, although then again, given it's the BBC, that didn't surprise me, as I wouldn't expect any less from them.
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Even more amazing is the devoted following it has!
I'm sure you'd enjoy it if you see some episodes. 
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