Culch.ie

Review: Doctor Who Exhibition, Cardiff

(The next Doctor. Honest)

Work brought me to Cardiff, Wales for a few days last month. I asked on twitter if anyone could suggest things to see in Cardiff and nearly dropped my sonic screwdriver when Curlydena told me there was a Doctor Who exhibition.

The Cardiff exhibition is one of five throughout the UK (admission: £18 family, £6 adults, £4.50 child/concession). It’s in a relatively small space in the Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff Bay, but is dense with actual props, masks and costumes from the show. I love looking at this stuff up close. Part of the magic of television is that you seldom see seam lines, staples or brush strokes on aliens heads or laser guns, but with an exhibition like this you can get right up close and see the sieve that was butchered to make a detail on a control panel, or the wavin pipe that’s cleverly mimicking Pompeian marble. This doesn’t shatter any illusions, it simply brings you closer to the people who make this stuff under tight budgets and timeframes. That’s the beauty of a small exhibition like this: it’s about the love of the show and the love of making it work.

Some of the audio visual elements of the exhibition are a little disappointing, like the small screens that play the various incarnations of the Doctor Who theme at a coy volume, but this is a minor quibble- the props and costumes are the real draw here, and unless you’ve been through a chameleon arch recently there’ll be something you recognise from one of the biggest shows in scifi history.

Interactive Daleks exhibit (interactive: you press a button then they threaten you).

Clockwork Android from Girl in the Fireplace.

Sontaran.

Scarecrow from Human Nature/Family of Blood.

Ood.

Cybermen.

Cybershade.

The Diary of Impossible things from Human Nature.

Costume from Fires of Pompeii.

If you find yourself in Cardiff the Who Exhibition is well worth a visit.