The Doctor Who Experience...

Our tickets for the Doctor Who Experience were for entry between 10.00 a.m and 10.30 a.m.  So we arrived in Cardiff Bay at 9.20 a.m. with plenty of time to enjoy the late May Bank Holiday weekend sunshine. We spent some time hanging around outside trying to find a good angle for photographing the precariously positioned TARDIS, whilst listening to some passers-by:

“It’s a television programme, about a time-traveller.  People come here from all over the world to see this.  Look, that’s a Dalek, that thing there.”

After while, I located a cafe that was actually open that early on a Sunday (we had walked right past it whilst looking at the TARDIS). It also sold pies, so as we sat outside I wondered whether the Experience would last long enough to justify our having lunch there. 

Eventually 10.00 a.m arrived and the doors opened. We let someone else go in first.  It doesn’t do to look too eager. The first ‘experience’ started at 10.15. Until then we had the choice of sampling the delights of their café (which apparently opened at 9.30, but had no signage outside to let anyone know this fact) or admiring a new paradigm Dalek built out of Lego (why on earth? They look as if they have already been built from Lego) and some other replica monsters.

At 10.10 a.m. we joined the small queue to enter the ‘Gallifrey Museum.’ I noticed that whilst there were some small children in the group, they were easily outnumbered by adults.  No need to be embarrassed about being a pair of mature (in appearance, anyway) adults. We were finally admitted to the Museum, where our Museum host handed out chunky and rather heavy museum passes, which had to be worn around our necks at all times.  The introductory film, narrated by the Lady Romanadvoratrelundar, was about to begin. Quite why Lalla Ward had been booked to provide this was not entirely clear. I realise that she is a well-known Gallifreyan who is not the Doctor, but her voice may not be that familiar to younger fans.  I suppose they couldn’t afford Timothy Dalton, who has experience in Gallifreyan voiceovers.

Needless to say, the next half an hour or so was not a typical museum visit.  I won’t give away the plot, (scripted by Joe Lidster) but at the end of the film presentation things started to go wrong, and a certain Time Lord needed our help to put things right. With his help we travelled to several different locations, in search of some things that were needed to fix another thing, avoiding some of the Doctor’s old enemies on the way.  The museum passes helpfully lit up to function as torches in the dark parts. 

Whilst our host chivvied us along, we were fully involved in the adventure. Everyone helped to hunt for the thingies, and a few volunteers even had the opportunity to retrieve them from their hiding places. Some of us even got an opportunity to fly the TARDIS.  I moved the lever left instead of right, so am probably responsible for the bumpy landing we experienced.

After the ‘experience’ part of the visit we emerged into the exhibition area. The ground floor area had a number of TARDIS sets, starting with the one from An Adventure in Space and Time and a re-creation of the Radiophonic Workshop – something that probably seems just as alien to today’s digital-native children as Davros’s chamber on the planet Skaro.

 On an upper level was a more familiar prop and costume exhibition, but brought right up to date with items from the latest series, including the Clara Oswald memorial TARDIS and even Pearl Mackie’s costume from the introductory scene that aired during the FA cup final.

We then faced our toughest challenge of the day – escaping through the gift shop with our bank balance intact.