TARDIS console materialises at Doctor Who Experience

The Doctor Who Experience – home to the biggest official collection of Doctor Who props, costumes and sets in the world – celebrates the latest new arrival at the multisensory attraction in Cardiff Bay. The replica original TARDIS console which will feature in the much-awaited BBC drama focusing on the genesis of Doctor Who – An Adventure in Space and Time – is on display from today in the mezzanine section of the building.

Buy tickets for the DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE HERE

The console was originally designed in 1963 by BBC designer Peter Brachaki (with valuable input from Barry Newberry) and was piloted by the first Doctor as portrayed by William Hartnell. It soon became a design icon and set a basic template which can still be seen in TARDIS console designs to this day.

The TARDIS console, which will be piloted by David Bradley who will portray the first Doctor in An Adventure in Space and Time, was displayed at Comic-Con Paris in July 2013. It will be on display to all visitors at the Experience throughout the summer. Tickets for the Doctor Who Experience can be booked at www.doctorwhoexperience.com and prices start from just £13 for an adult and £9 for children. You can watch a behind the scenes video of the TARDIS being assembled below...

See Blogtor's pictures of the TARDIS console from Comic Con Paris HERE. 

Buy tickets for the DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE HERE

Thanks to BBC Worldwide

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Official TARDIS Studio Tours!

The Doctor Who Experience is adding an exciting new dimension for Summer 2013. For the first time ever, visitors to the Experience in Cardiff Bay – the spiritual home of Doctor Who - will have the opportunity to visit the TARDIS set at the nearby Roath Lock Studios. Read the Blogtor Who review of the Tour HERE.

Guests will be able to set foot on the brand new TARDIS console room which has been seen on screen since the 2012 Christmas special The Snowmen and will also be featured in the highly anticipated 50th anniversary episode on 23rd November. Visits begin from the Doctor Who Experience foyer and it is advisable to book in advance of a visit. More information on tickets can be found HERE.

Prices start from £20.50 for adults and £14.50 for children, which includes general admission to the Doctor Who Experience and the TARDIS studio set tour, or £25.50/£14.40 respectively to include a walking tour of filming locations around Cardiff Bay. These official studio tours are available to book now until the 25th of August. Photography is permitted while on the Official TARDIS Studio Tours.

Read the Blogtor Who review of the TARDIS Tour HERE

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REVIEW: Doctor Who Studio Tours

SEE MORE PICTURES FROM THE STUDIO TOURS HERE

Doctor Who exhibitions are nothing new. The first one was set up in 1973 at Longleat in Wiltshire, and for most of the past 40 years there's been a display somewhere of props, sets and monsters from the show, delighting children and making adults feel like kids again. All marvelous, of course, but here's something new: never before in Doctor Who's 50-year history has it been possible for fans to visit not only a brilliant exhibition, but also to step through the actual doors of the "real" TARDIS - as seen on TV!

BBC Worldwide have now revealed the masterplan they had in mind when the Doctor Who Experience was set up in Cardiff Bay last year, next to the BBC Roath Lock Studios where the show is filmed. From the big blue DWE building, it's just a leisurely 5 minute stroll to the security gate that allows backstage access to the studio complex. Accompanied by a BBC guide, tour groups will be able to pass through the gate and find themselves in Studio 4, home of the TARDIS.

As always with the TARDIS, there are monsters outside. Currently, the set is guarded by a bronze Dalek and Weeping Angel. Incongruously, there's a seating area of comfy chairs borrowed from various BBC living room sets, where visitors can wait their turn to enter the TARDIS. There's also a TV showing (what else?) Doctor Who. Guests enter the TARDIS in small groups, not because the set is small (it's huge!) but because keeping the set uncrowded offers the best viewing and photo experience.

The moment when the BBC guide opens those blue doors has to be one of the biggest thrills a Who fan could ever have.

Buy Tickets for the Official TARDIS Studio Tours HERE 

And then you're there: on the high platform next to the central console, with the time rotor and domed ceiling high above you, and the floor way below in shadow. As we know from TV, this is a 360-degree set - there's no "missing" wall where the camera peeks in. You're completely in the TARDIS. Lights flash, screens flicker their timey-wimey patterns. The clever boys and girls of the BBC crew can even play the dematerialisation sound effects over hidden speakers, as they did when Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall visited recently. Fantastic! 

Honestly, I wasn't sure about this new TARDIS when I saw it on TV. Too grey, I thought, and that side console looks more Star Wars than Doctor Who... But, standing on the set, I love it. It's kept many of the best elements of the "coral" and "steampunk" TARDISes, and has loads of nods to the "classic" era too. Most importantly, it's the TARDIS. Like the Doctor is the Doctor. And anyway, if you prefer one of the other sets, they're all next door in the Doctor Who Experience.

SEE MORE PICTURES FROM THE STUDIO TOURS HERE

The BBC's current plan is to keep Roath Lock Studio 4 open to DWE visitors through Aug 25. The studio tours will be available as another add-on to the regular DWE package, like the recently-introduced walking tour of Doctor Who locations in Cardiff Bay. The Doctor Who Experience really is the ultimate day out for fans in the show's anniversary year. Come to Cardiff Bay for your adventure in space and time!

BLOGTOR RATING 10/10

Thanks to BBC Worldwide

Review & Pictures by Alun Vega

Buy Tickets for the Official TARDIS Studio Tours HERE

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New Doctor Who "Walking Tour" announced!

The Doctor Who Experience has announced details of the new Doctor Who Walking Tour in Cardiff. Check out the details below:

Directed by the award winning Doctor Who novelist Gary Russell, this amazing opportunity allows you to get even closer to your favourite show this summer plus the chance to see up closed the props used from the show in the very location they aired on TV!

Lasting up to an hour, the official tours will visit over thirty-one locations featured in the filming of the show, including: the building where the Weeping Angels watched Sally Sparrow and the Police Station in the Blink episode; the American diner Amy River Song, Amy and Rory met the Doctor inside within the Impossible Astronaut episode, and the Wales Millennium Centre, where episodes including: The Girl Who Waited, The Sound of Drums, and Vincent and the Doctor were all filmed.

With tickets priced at only £5 per adult and free for children aged 16 and under, these tours are an absolute must for any Doctor Who fan!

For more information and how to book places, please contact the Doctor Who Experience by email contact@doctorwhoexperience.com, stating 'Doctor Who Experience Walking Tours' within the subject header. Please be aware that the Walking Tours will take place at weekends only.

Visit the Doctor Who Experience website HERE.

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