Doctor Who Experience
Reviewed by Shelly Harper & Family
On Sunday 16th October, I took my daughter and niece, aged 8 and 9 to the Doctor Who Experience at the Olympia Two which is situated at Kensington, London. The Olympia Two is easily accessible via overland train, the London underground, bus and car. We took the tube from Kings Cross and was at the Doctor Who Experience within approximately half an hour.
It is suggested that tickets are purchased online via See Tickets, Ticketmaster or HMV tickets and are priced as follows:
£0.00 for under 5’s (tickets must still be purchased to gain entry)
£15.25 for 5 – 18 years
£19.75 for adults
When purchasing tickets you must choose a 30 minute entry session and entry times are from 10:30 am to 4:00pm daily.
Upon entering the experience you enter a small exhibition room where you can view and photograph a few costumes and props taken from the latest series of Doctor Who. It is here that the interactive journey with the latest Doctor, (Matt Smith) begins.
To begin the tour, we stepped through the crack in time, landed in the Starship UK and met the Doctor. The Doctor has been taken by the Daleks, is being held captive, Amy Pond is millions of years away and it was our mission (the shoppers) to find the TARDIS in order to free him from the Daleks.
Upon finding the TARDIS it was then down to us (the shoppers) to fly it under the Doctors instructions. Each child had their own controls and although it was a bumpy ride we managed to get the TARDIS to where the Doctor was being held. Unfortunately the Doctors ultimate enemies, the Daleks were waiting for us when we arrived and recognised that we were his friends so our fate was decided. “Exterminate, Exterminate” was ordered by all three Daleks so we ran for our lives.
For a moment we thought we were safe having escaped the Daleks but worse was to come. In order to reach the Doctor we had to get through the Forest of the Weeping Angels. Here we were advised not to blink because the Weeping Angels only move when they are not being observed. As long as we were looking at them they remained as statues. Had we of taken our eye off them for just a second they would have attacked us, touched us and sent us back in time.
Having successfully got through the forest, we reached Pandorica, the 3D experience of the tour. Travelling through a 3D vortex we had to dodge being attacked by Cyber men, Weeping Angels, the Daleks and the Sontarans but we successfully saved the Doctor and reunited him with his much loved TARDIS. Mission complete!!!
On completing our mission and exiting our action packed tour, we reached the main exhibition room which is filled with Doctor Who props and artefacts including an iconic costume from each of the Doctors ranging from 1963 to the present day, costumes worn by stars that have done guest appearances such as Kylie, Minogue, Alex Kingston (E.R) and John Barrowman (Torchwood) and costumes worn by many of the Doctors travelling companions. It is here we also found the David Tennant TARDIS set which has been especially rebuilt for the exhibition and we were able to see models of many of the Doctors arch enemies through the years which included several versions of the Daleks and how they have evolved since 1963.
This section of the exhibition is a must for any Doctor Who fan or anyone that would like to know more about Doctor Who because not only do you see and learn about the costumes, the models, gadgets, props and sets you can also see how the special effects are created, learn to walk like a Doctor Who monster and get inside a Dalek to see firsthand how it is controlled. Both girls particularly enjoyed taking part in all of these interactive experiences because they felt they were part of the series.
Although I’m not a massive Doctor Who fan myself, I found this exhibition to be fun, highly factual and pleasantly interesting. Both my daughter and my niece that are huge fans found it a little scary in some parts but overall described it as an amazing, interactive experience.