First of all, make sure you check out the website for the attraction - www.doctorwhoexperience.com!
Last week Coasterforce was lucky enough to be invited to the press preview for the new ‘Doctor Who Experience’ which launched at the Olympia in Kensington, London yesterday. Advertised as the ‘first ever immersive Doctor Who attraction’ the experience is split into two distinct halves, starting with a walk-through attraction which is followed by a free-flow exhibition.
The attraction is presented by Sarner Limited, the company responsible for many themed attractions across the World. They can count Valhalla, the new Alton Towers Monorail and the utterly fantastic Over the Hill at Adventure Island amongst their portfolio in the UK, and the Doctor Who Experience lives up to the sheer quality of the rest of their attractions.
Located in Olympia 2 in Kensington the experience is housed in a space consisting of around 4000 square meters of floor space on the second floor of the building. Development for the attraction started around two years ago when the BBC decided they wanted something of this nature for the Doctor Who brand and Sarner won the contract last February, leaving them a year’s development time before opening. Split into two halves the attraction consists of both a walk-through, live action show where visitors are invited to become the Doctor’s new assistant and a museum-style exhibition of props and memorabilia after that.
The section on the walk-through attraction is at the end of this post to avoid spoilers from the pictures etc. To find it, feel free to skip to the bottom.
Free-Flow Exhibition.
The ‘walk-through’ part of the attraction lasts an estimated 30 minutes, which on paper sounds short but in reality is pretty much a perfect length. Any shorter and you might feel cheated, but, any longer and it would start to out-live its welcome a little bit. This is also out-weighed by the sheer quality of the exhibition which follows the walk-through attraction, which could have easily been mere padding to extend the length of the whole experience but is in reality just as worthy of your time as the walk-through attraction.
A large floor space allows for a wide range of static exhibits of creatures, assistants, props and sets from the earliest episodes to the newest alongside the brilliantly fun interactive exhibits which are perfect for children. From the ‘Walk like a Monster’ interactive video experience which lets children practice walking like their favourite (or in this case, least favourite!) Doctor Who villains to the ‘Sounds of Doctor Who’ interactive sound effects studio which allows children to add iconic sound effects into a video from the series, these interactive exhibitions kept me quiet for a good half an hour, let alone children!
After the free-flow exhibition there is the compulsory shop and café to get a few goodies or a snack, however, these weren’t open during the preview so I’ve no idea what they had in them or how good they were!
Overall the experience delivers exactly what it promises – a “spectacular” show-style start followed by a fascinating exhibition of props that should not be missed by any fans of the show. Even if you yourself are not that big a fan of the show, the experience won’t isolate you as enough of it is explained to still enjoy what’s going on around you.
Tickets are priced from £15.50 for adults, £12.50 for children and £46 for a family ticket. See www.doctorwhoexperience.com for more information.
Facts:
• The floor of the TARDIS weighs 7 tons and had to be craned into the exhibition.
• The whole install from arriving on site to completion took only three months.
• The Doctor Who experience will be the longest continuous tenancy at the Olympia.
• Each piece of the set had to be no bigger than 2m x 5m to fit in the biggest lift at the Olympia.
• The system is capable of playing a total of 116 audio channels.
• The combined amplifier power totals over 16,000 watts.
• 22km was used to connect all the equipment together, that’s equivalent to the length of over 2000 London buses.
All photos of the attraction kindly provided by the BBC courtesy of photographer Liam Daniels.
Walk-Through Attraction
The ‘walk-through’ part of the attraction starts in a holding area with props and images from the latest series of Doctor Who where visitors are batched into groups of up to 55 before moving into the first area, a video projection which sets the scene for what follows. Visitors are then asked to ‘step through a crack in time’ and into the first of the five spectacular sets which make up the meat of the walk-through, Starship UK.
Here visitors first meet the Doctor himself, who invites them into the TARDIS in an effort to save him from the Pandorica where he has been trapped.
This sets the scene for the next part of the attraction where the Doctor asks visitors to help him steer the TARDIS, where children are told to take the controls in front of them (because the TARDIS doesn’t like adults), which doesn’t really work out too well, leading them into a Dalek spaceship.
Once inside the spaceship visitors are “greeted” by a life-sized Dalek and a few other surprises which will remain undisclosed here!
Following this, the group is led through a forest of weeping angels to the finale of the attraction, a spectacular 3D sequence where visitors meet and fight the most famous of the Doctor’s enemies alongside the man himself.
Afterwards, the group is led out into the next part of the attraction, the free-flow museum style exhibition.
[CoasterForce would like to thank Ben Fry for attending on CF's behalf. <3]
Last week Coasterforce was lucky enough to be invited to the press preview for the new ‘Doctor Who Experience’ which launched at the Olympia in Kensington, London yesterday. Advertised as the ‘first ever immersive Doctor Who attraction’ the experience is split into two distinct halves, starting with a walk-through attraction which is followed by a free-flow exhibition.
The attraction is presented by Sarner Limited, the company responsible for many themed attractions across the World. They can count Valhalla, the new Alton Towers Monorail and the utterly fantastic Over the Hill at Adventure Island amongst their portfolio in the UK, and the Doctor Who Experience lives up to the sheer quality of the rest of their attractions.
Located in Olympia 2 in Kensington the experience is housed in a space consisting of around 4000 square meters of floor space on the second floor of the building. Development for the attraction started around two years ago when the BBC decided they wanted something of this nature for the Doctor Who brand and Sarner won the contract last February, leaving them a year’s development time before opening. Split into two halves the attraction consists of both a walk-through, live action show where visitors are invited to become the Doctor’s new assistant and a museum-style exhibition of props and memorabilia after that.
The section on the walk-through attraction is at the end of this post to avoid spoilers from the pictures etc. To find it, feel free to skip to the bottom.
Free-Flow Exhibition.
The ‘walk-through’ part of the attraction lasts an estimated 30 minutes, which on paper sounds short but in reality is pretty much a perfect length. Any shorter and you might feel cheated, but, any longer and it would start to out-live its welcome a little bit. This is also out-weighed by the sheer quality of the exhibition which follows the walk-through attraction, which could have easily been mere padding to extend the length of the whole experience but is in reality just as worthy of your time as the walk-through attraction.
A large floor space allows for a wide range of static exhibits of creatures, assistants, props and sets from the earliest episodes to the newest alongside the brilliantly fun interactive exhibits which are perfect for children. From the ‘Walk like a Monster’ interactive video experience which lets children practice walking like their favourite (or in this case, least favourite!) Doctor Who villains to the ‘Sounds of Doctor Who’ interactive sound effects studio which allows children to add iconic sound effects into a video from the series, these interactive exhibitions kept me quiet for a good half an hour, let alone children!
After the free-flow exhibition there is the compulsory shop and café to get a few goodies or a snack, however, these weren’t open during the preview so I’ve no idea what they had in them or how good they were!
Overall the experience delivers exactly what it promises – a “spectacular” show-style start followed by a fascinating exhibition of props that should not be missed by any fans of the show. Even if you yourself are not that big a fan of the show, the experience won’t isolate you as enough of it is explained to still enjoy what’s going on around you.
Tickets are priced from £15.50 for adults, £12.50 for children and £46 for a family ticket. See www.doctorwhoexperience.com for more information.
Facts:
• The floor of the TARDIS weighs 7 tons and had to be craned into the exhibition.
• The whole install from arriving on site to completion took only three months.
• The Doctor Who experience will be the longest continuous tenancy at the Olympia.
• Each piece of the set had to be no bigger than 2m x 5m to fit in the biggest lift at the Olympia.
• The system is capable of playing a total of 116 audio channels.
• The combined amplifier power totals over 16,000 watts.
• 22km was used to connect all the equipment together, that’s equivalent to the length of over 2000 London buses.
All photos of the attraction kindly provided by the BBC courtesy of photographer Liam Daniels.
Walk-Through Attraction
The ‘walk-through’ part of the attraction starts in a holding area with props and images from the latest series of Doctor Who where visitors are batched into groups of up to 55 before moving into the first area, a video projection which sets the scene for what follows. Visitors are then asked to ‘step through a crack in time’ and into the first of the five spectacular sets which make up the meat of the walk-through, Starship UK.
Here visitors first meet the Doctor himself, who invites them into the TARDIS in an effort to save him from the Pandorica where he has been trapped.
This sets the scene for the next part of the attraction where the Doctor asks visitors to help him steer the TARDIS, where children are told to take the controls in front of them (because the TARDIS doesn’t like adults), which doesn’t really work out too well, leading them into a Dalek spaceship.
Once inside the spaceship visitors are “greeted” by a life-sized Dalek and a few other surprises which will remain undisclosed here!
Following this, the group is led through a forest of weeping angels to the finale of the attraction, a spectacular 3D sequence where visitors meet and fight the most famous of the Doctor’s enemies alongside the man himself.
Afterwards, the group is led out into the next part of the attraction, the free-flow museum style exhibition.
[CoasterForce would like to thank Ben Fry for attending on CF's behalf. <3]
