Daleks, Davros, The Doctor and more: The Dr Who Festival (by Daniel)

[caption id="attachment_1989" align="alignnone" width="655"] Robert and Daniel outside the Tardis[/caption]

We're really delighted that another member of the family is writing on Family Travel Times today. This time it's my nephew, Daniel, who's 12, and who is a big Dr Who fan....

"The Doctor Who Festival took place at London Excel. It was a three day celebration of all things Doctor Who including a chance to “Meet the Cast” and interact with monsters, special effects and try out costumes.

We were lucky enough to visit the the event on the second day where special guests included Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Jenna Coleman (Clara) Michelle Gomez (Missy) and Ingrid Oliver (Osgood).  The event had started a day earlier when Peter Capaldi himself opened the doors at Excel.

One of my favourite parts of the day was having the opportunity to go behind the scenes of Doctor Who and see the actual set used in Series 9, where Davros confronted the Doctor.

[caption id="attachment_1991" align="alignnone" width="667"] Daniel wearing the Sychorax mask[/caption]

We also really enjoyed being able to try on masks and costumes. Examples included the "Mire" from the current series and wearing the mask which the Sycorax wore in an earlier series. The team from Millennium FX were there to help explain how the costumes were made.

Also, there were demonstrations showing us how fake snow was made and we then saw "snow" machines make it snow indoors (this is how it is made to seem as though it is snowing during filming). We had great fun shooting Daleks in the snow. We were also able to see the TARDIS.

Another room had loads of costumes worn by different actors in the TV show as well as props like the inside of a Dalek and the Osgood boxes from the current series.

As part of the festival there were 3 different live theatre shows.  We saw the first 2 of these shows.

[caption id="attachment_1994" align="alignnone" width="856"] Peter Capaldi and the Dr Who cast on stage[/caption]

1. Meet the Cast – here the audience was invited to quiz their favourite actors. The panel included all the main characters, as well as chief writer Steven Moffat.  They were all extremely funny. Michelle Gomez said that Peter Capaldi was one of the best actors to play the doctor across the 50 years it has been on TV and wouldn’t hear of a female Doctor. Capaldi himself suggested that toy manufacturers would be hoping for the return of the sonic screwdriver as this always made great Christmas gifts!

2. Special FX show - Mark Gatiss (the writer and actor) and staff from Millennium FX (who create many of the monsters in the TV show) talked us through the Doctor Who monsters. A real highlight was when an unsuspecting audience member had the chance to dress up as a monster called The Ice Warrior. Gatiss himself voiced the creature who processed to parade across the stage under the direction of an actor who had played the monster on screen.  We even were shown a sneak peek of that evening’s episode and got a visit from the monster that appeared in it, The Sandman

3. Meet the Writers - Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss were also on part of the third show (which we didn’t see) where they talked about being writers on the show.

There was so much to do at the festival that we couldn't fit everything in, but other highlights included:

• Lots of merchandise opportunities


• A drama school


• Horror Channel viewings of classic Doctor Who episodes


• Doctor Who fan challenge quiz


• On the Sunday, the first ever live audience recording of “Doctor Who: The Fan Show” took place with celebrity fans such as Carrie Hope Fletcher taking part to discuss and review the previous days TV episode.


• There was a chance to have photos with some cast members and these had very long queues!

[caption id="attachment_1992" align="alignnone" width="940"] Robert meets Davros[/caption]

The whole Festival was amazing for Doctor Who fans and there were loads of people dressed up as their favourite characters.  We had a wonderful day and if the BBC ran the event again, we would highly recommend it (and want to come along)."

Disclosure: Daniel, his dad and Robert were given complimentary entry to the Dr Who Festival in order to write about it for the blog. Family Tickets for two adults and two children are £42.75 each. The festival has just travelled to Sydney, where Australian fans got to see it last weekend.

Read about Finn's visit to the Dr Who Experience in Cardiff.

The Dr Who Experience in Cardiff (by Finn)

[caption id="attachment_1093" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Finn and his older brother with a new friend...[/caption]

This week we have a great guest post from Finn, who is 10, and went with his family to the Dr Who Experience. We are rather jealous that we haven't been there yet...

Over to Finn:

Last week me, my family and my cousins all went on a trip to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales.

On the way there we spotted lots of brown signs with pictures of Daleks leading to the blue and grey building. In the queue we spotted an Ice Man’s costume, lots of different variants of Daleks and Time Lord costumes! At the end of the queue we were given VIP crystals in exchange for our tickets. We would need these later in the experience.

After we were given our VIP crystals we entered the Gallifrey museum where a Gallifreyan tour guide showed us around.,

We saw a box containing lots of cogs which included a time locket that changes Time Lords into humans and we also saw the staff used by a very powerful Time Lord.

After that our tour guide introduced us to a “time screen” which showed us the many faces of The Doctor and the end of the planet Gallifrey! Then it showed the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi, in his TARDIS being attacked by Time spiders and then the Time screen cracked open to reveal the lower floor of the TARDIS. We were all brought into an amazing adventure including Daleks, Weeping Angels and ultimately the Time Spiders. We even got to control the Tardis!

As we reached the end of the experience we came to the Exhibition Hall. All the Doctor’s TARDISES and a few costumes were downstairs, but upstairs contained costumes and items used in the actual show like Sonic Screwdrivers and all the different Doctors' clothes. It contains the world's biggest collection of original Dr Who props and it was my favourite bit.

[caption id="attachment_1094" align="aligncenter" width="480"] In front of a weeping angel[/caption]

There were costumes that most of the companions wore including Clara’s, Amy’s, Rory’s and Rose’s. My mum’s favourite costume was Clara’s Victorian dress. There were different monsters like Cybermen through the ages and a Dalek that you can get inside.

I thought the exhibition was quite like the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D exhibition in New York except that it was bigger and had a lot more costumes and scenes.

It is also similar to the Harry Potter studios tour at Leavesden, but is smaller and  a fraction of the price. It was about £40 for a family of four and I think that overall it was good value.
I give the Dr Who Experience 7/10 and would recommend it for all ages.

Finn and his family took part in the Interactive Experience and visited the Exhibition Hall which are both part of General Admission tickets to the Dr Who Experience.  Special tickets, available at certain times of the year, can also include a walking tour of Dr Who locations around Cardiff and the TARDIS tour.

 

Tickets cost £14 for adults (£16 on the door) and £9.75 for children aged between 5 and 16 (£11.75 on the door). A family ticket is £41 (£49 on the door - so book in advance!)

 

Read about the Harry Potter studio tour and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando