As I promised, this is my own personal shiny flashy review of the Doctor Who Experience. WARNING! If you are planning to go there and attend to the Experience, remember the words of River Song: SPOILERS! This review is full of juicy spoilers. The walk-through experience is photo-free, so, if you are not enough brave to go on and read, jump to the gallery and join our trip.
Ehi, you are still reading... are you sure? This is my last warn!!
Well, here we are. Where do we want to start? First of all, you have to know that I'm Italian (be patient with my poor English) and I planned a trip to London with my girlfriend Elisa (the amazing illustrator behind the Comic Who strips) just to attend to this event. I've bought two preview tickets the very same day they start the pre-sale.
The event is divided in two parts, a walk-through experience and a museum. I'm not going to talk about the exibition part, I think the photos at the end of this post are just enough. What I want to share with you is the walk-through.
When you enter the Experience, you have to pass through a tunnel which represents the time vortex, the Opening Theme accompanies you until you reach a room with some item from the first episodes of the last series. You'll have to wait for a few minutes before starting, then you'll be ushered into a room with some benches and a big screen. A recap of the episodes with the 11th will be showed and the voice of Matt Smith will introduce you to the event. At the end of the video a crack on the screen will open revealing a new room. A museum on the Starship UK. Some relics from the "past" will be introduced by a sort of holographic guide, including a Van Gogh paint and other stuff showed in the last five series (even the telescope appeared in "Tooth and Claws"). Look closely, the room is full of stuff from a lot of episodes and most of that things will not be introduced to you because of the Doctor. In fact, during the explanation there will be an interference on a monitor and Matt will appear. He is trapped in a sort of second Pandorica and he is searching for Amy and Rory, but all he managed to find is you... "Shoppers". He asks for your help to find the TARDIS and bring it back to him. He activates his sonic screwdriver and makes the TARDIS meterialize into the museum. You hear the tipic "Whooosh Whooosh" and the TARDIS is there, just a few steps from you. the door opens and, yes, it's bigger on the inside. You move into the TARDIS and place yourself in front of one the consoles, Matt explain how to drive the TARDIS (at least using the updates he made to make it easier to drive for humans, or at least kids... the TARDIS loves kids). Obviously you will not drive it correctly and you will made it land too early. You have to leave the TARDIS now, just to find where you are (ehi, the TARDIS has a second exit). You will RUN on a path with the echoes of Matt saying to you to don't blink... Yeah, you got the point, the path is full of Weeping Angels... I was expecting actors to play that part... No, there were holograms and believe me, they are so much scary!
At the end of the path you will be trapped by the Dalek Rangers (well, you know, the multi-color Daleks). They want to kill you in the very same moment they identify you as a human. Again Matt will try to save you stating that you are not humans, but a sort of sub-race... Shoppers. The Daleks doesn't trust him, but they will be interrutped again before they could kill you (poor Daleks). The old bronze Daleks appear and start a sort of war against the Dalek Rangers, all you have to do is RUN away to another room. The doctor is now free and into his TARDIS, but the crack is still open, so you have to put on your 3D glasses and the whole time vortex is showed to you with the magic of the 3D movie... Every Doctor's enemy is falling into it but before to disappear they will try to kill you (just to do something, you know). Daleks, Cybermen and even Weeping Angels will try to grab you. The most scary moment was with a Weeping Angel: He was just... falling... you know, as every statue could do... I turned to my girlfriend to see her reaction, but when I turned back to the screen I found one of his hands just a few inch from my head... I lost a beat of my heart in that moment...
It was amazing, with a meticulous eye for details. It's very immersive and funny and scary and Doctor-ish! I loved it!
I think it's a must for every whovian... As you can see in the gallery, there is a lot of staff to watch, to feel, to live... You can also step into the 10th TARDIS, there is a big screen on it which reproduce the scene of the regeneration... so sad! Just one thing... don't count on the Who Shop... it's a bit disappointing.
Just a little tip for using my website gallery, if you don't like to click on the thumbnails to change pictures, you can use left and right arrow from your keyboard to switch through the photos and the up and down arrow to change the page.
I will also post some of that pictures on our facebook fanpage, I think my girlfriend will post there also her photos and other stuff, so take a look ther ;-)
Gallery:
