Retake the TARDIS! - The Doctor Who Experience, Cardiff

by Alex in United Kingdom, Retake the City, Nerd

Here's something you probably knew about Tash and I - we're massive nerds. But did you know that, in
particular, we're huge fans of Doctor Who?

...oh, you did? Well...

Would you have guessed that while we were in Wales, we'd go out of our way to visit the freaking Doctor Who museum in Cardiff?

...yes?

Fine, I'll just shut up and move on then.

When we first left England, our plan was to make our way up and around the Welsh coast, through Snowdonia and into central Wales before heading up to Scotland. As fate would have it, Ambisagrus wasn't quite done with us. Our plans derailed when we got to Swansea, and discovered that the majority of Wales was predicted to spend the next 2 weeks underwater. Massive flooding left the roads blocked, leaving us no choice but to turn back to Cardiff.

Cardiff - the Welsh capital, largest city in Wales - and home of BBC Cymru, which produces the revived series of Doctor Who. The city is also frequently used as filming location, and plays a significant part in the plot of the first 4 seasons.

Don't try and pretend you don't recognise this place.

The Doctor Who Experience, opened in 2011, is part museum, part advertisement and part Doctor Who-themed amusement park ride. Sitting on the shore of Cardiff Bay, the Experience is hard to miss - a mere 10 minute walk from the Millenium Centre and Roald Dahl Pass, otherwise known as the exterior of Torchwood 3's Hub base. Despite being hard to miss, however, we managed to get lost. Very, very lost. We walked to Roald Dahl Pass, and then proceeded to walk in completely the wrong direction. For 45 minutes. In the rain. Because we're awesome.

When we finally managed to find the big hangar-like building painted in Tardis colours with the Doctor Who logo stamped on the side, we were thoroughly soaked and bewildered. How we missed it (for 45 GODDAMN MINUTES!!), I'll never know. Any pathos we may have felt dissolved once we got inside - the first thing we saw was an awesome collection of props, production papers and replicas from the show, along with a slightly expensive cafe in the lobby.

That Dalek in the background is made of LEGO. Oh yes.

Tours through the Doctor Who Experience start on the hour, and start from £13 per adult, £9 per child. The tour features pre-recorded sections with Matt Smith as the Doctor, in which he *SPOILERS!*, and then *SPOILERS!*, before he finally *SPOILERS!* them all with a *SPOILERS!*. The segments are, yeah, kinda cheesy, but also kinda endearing in an adorable way, and would be an awesome day out for Doctor Who fans in the "under 12 years old" demographic. (Or older fans with the maturity of same... not that that's us. No siree.)

Would an immature fan want this on his bedroom wall? ....yes.

For what it's worth, the tour does assume that you've at least seen the 5th season - you don't have to know the 50-year-old show from Atraxi to Zygons, but if you haven't seen some of the newer stuff, you might be a bit lost.

After that, you're free to roam about in the production museum, which has replicas and originals of sets, costumes, props and models from all throughout the show's 50-year history. While a lot of it is stuff from the last few years, there's a decent level of old material for classic Doctor Who fans. Most of it is pretty cool to see - although there is a painting of a mostly-naked Matt Smith I think I could very happily erase from my mind.

If you haven't seen the show...

...this isn't going to...

...make much sense...

...is it?

And of course, at the end, there's a shop. Not a big one, just a shop. So people can... shop.

And on an unrelated note - You're welcome.

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