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By CINDA CHAVICH
(Cardiff, Wales) – “Whoooooo-OOO-ooooooo” - the eerie strains of the familiar electronica theme pulses in the background as we make our way through the Doctor Who museum in Cardiff.
There are Daleks and shiny chrome Cybermen. David Tennant’s classic great coat is here, and so is the TARDIS, the blue police box that acts as his time traveling office and space craft.
If you can’t hear the music in your head, or have never known a mysterious doctor who travels through time, then all of this probably sounds quite kitschy and trite. But just as the Eleventh Doctor – young Matt Smith – is about to take over from the lovable David Tennant, we’ve landed smack in the middle of Who-Ville, where Doctor Who and its sexy anagram spinoff, Torchwood, are now filmed.
It is definitely kitschy – and admittedly a tad trite – but believe me, it’s cool to be here among the costumes, rubber-masked creatures and other Whovian bric-a-brac. I mean, where else would you find an evil alien life form that looks like it was cobbled together with metal mixing bowls and egg beaters?
The BBC’s Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction television show in the world, first airing in 1963. I remember it as one of those late night, after-the-bar kind of oddball British shows – like Monty Python and Fawlty Towers – from my college days. It was certainly high kitsch, following the adventures of bohemian Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor in the series. But since the show’s revival in the past decade, with the Tennant’s charismatic Time Lord, I’ve been smitten again, this time by the great writing, high production values, and aliens that are seriously scary. The new series has also solidified a new American fan base, with the annual L.A.-based Gallifrey One, the largest gathering of Doctor Who fanatics in the country.
Doctor Who has long been a cult favourite, with its crazy costumes and low-budget special effects, popping the blue police box down in all manner of scenic spots, and visually travelling through time and space, thanks to the creators’ early use of the show’s trademark green screen technology.
It’s the first thing we discover at the Doctor Who Up Close exhibit in the Red Dragon Centre, down in the newly-developed Cardiff Bay entertainment district. Step on the mark against the green screen and see yourself with the time travelling TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions In Space) in a classic Doctor Who scenario, and watch clips from explosive episodes – like the Fires of Pompeii – while examining costumes and props.
We’ve raced here in a cab, just in time to zip through the multi-media experience, before the museum closes for the day. Our driver knows exactly where to drop us off as he’s been here many times – his eight-year-old son adores Doctor Who, though the cabbie doesn’t share his enthusiasm.
“In the 1970s, when I came to this country, Doctor Who was on TV on Tuesday nights and I always went out, just because I didn’t want to see it,” he says dryly as we pay the fare and dash off to get a look at stocky, potato-headed Sontarans, and telepathic, squid-faced Ood. There’s just time to see Captain Jack’s WWII uniform, pet the Doctor’s robotic dog K-9 and check out the museum highlight, the deadly Daleks.
It’s a crazy, noisy little encounter, with lots of strobe lights, sound effects and spooky corners to explore. No wonder 8-year-old boys can’t get enough of it.
But apparently, we’re not the only grown-ups with a thing for this clever, quirky, transitioning Time Lord.
I know of no other ongoing television show that inspires magazines, books and weekly podcasts – with “experts” and fans dissecting dialogue and plot to uncover new meaning and motivation. There are Doctor Who playing cards, Dalek fridge magnets, TARDIS USB ports and sonic screwdriver pens. You can update daily with the Doctor Who Information Network (dwin.org) – with Who-ventions around the world from L.A. and Sydney to Toronto – while the Doctor Who Online website recently celebrated it’s 20 millionth visitor.
With its combination of ultra-modern architecture and historic Victorian arcades, pedestrian malls, eerie castles and industrial zones, Cardiff makes a perfect backdrop for these mythical space and time travelers.
We never do see the TARDIS materialize in our days touring the city, though there is a sighting of a BBC film crew outside Cardiff City Hall, just before we arrive.
Shopping for British tweed in a classic men’s shop across the street from historic Cardiff Castle, a sales person confides he once saw the blue police box inside the castle walls, and watched aliens chased through its hidden passages.
The medieval St. John’s church was the place where Donna disappeared in the Runaway Bride episode, and in the Food Hall at Howell’s, a clerk recalls the day the historic department store became a Doctor Who Victorian streetscape, and “they filmed explosions on the corner outside.”
The iconic Wales Millennium Centre and environs, around the newly restored dockside developments at Cardiff Bay, is another bit of Cardiff you’ll see regularly on these sci-fi shows. It’s home to Torchwood, the elite unit fighting aliens that emerge through “The Rift”, “a tear in the fabric of space and time” running across the centre of town.
The sexy spinoff has also done much to put sleepy Cardiff on the map as a cool, contemporary city – with dramatic aerial shots of bay-area interchanges and the reflective, 70-foot Water Tower fountain in the plaza, where the Torchwood team emerges through an invisible lift from “The Hub”, their secret underground headquarters.
“We’re the landlords of Doctor Who,” says David Pearce, the business development manager for the Millennium Centre, Cardiff’s iconic, metal-clad modern arts centre.
“There’s continual filming around here. Our main concourse was an intergalactic hospital, and we’ve been lift shafts and tunnels for escaping Daleks and Cybermen.”
With the official Doctor Who Locations Guide map in hand, we head off on our own tour around the Torchwood “set”, from The Tube, a modern steel-sheathed visitor’s centre, to the restaurants and bars along trendy Mermaid Quay. The slate and glass Senedd (Welsh Assembly), Bosphorous and contemporary Pearl of the Orient restaurants are just a few places where you might find the Doctor or Torchwood cast.
Down along the boardwalk, where the water bus stops, many Torchwood fans have obviously been here before us – dozens of letters, mourning the killing off of Torchwood character Ianto Jones last year, are tacked up on “Ianto’s Wall”, a crazy, impromptu memorial to the quiet, bisexual office secretary.
Russell T. Davies, the Welsh writer who resurrected the Doctor Who franchise and moved it to Cardiff, has said it was his “ambition that BBC Wales should come to be seen as a centre of excellence for drama”. With five consecutive National Television Awards as best drama, and successful spinoffs like Torchwood and children’s show, The Sarah Jane Adventures, it’s clear that Doctor Who is more than just a late-night escape for crazy cultists.
And as the latest Doctor’s adventures are beamed into living rooms around the world this month, I’ll be scoping the scenes for my favourite corners in Cardiff.
WHO HOTSPOTS:
The Doctor Who Up Close exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Red Dragon Centre, Cardiff Bay. Entrance fee is £5 – about $8 U.S. - the wristband is valid for re-entry all day. www.doctorwhoexhibitions.com <http://www.doctorwhoexhibitions.com>
You can travel through virtual space to learn more about Doctor Who and Torchwood. Visit the BBC’s official Doctor Who website at www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw <http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw> where you can fly the TARDIS in a Doctor Who game, create your own comic, and learn about the upcoming Eleventh Hour season premiere.
There are plenty of fan sites for Doctor Who fanatics. Listen to the Doctor Who pod cast at www.gallifreyanembassy.org <http://www.gallifreyanembassy.org>
Join a Doctor Who chat or forum at www.drwho-online.co.uk <http://www.drwho-online.co.uk>
Or visit the Doctor Who Information Network at www.dwin.org <http://www.dwin.org>
Gallefrey One, the largest Doctor Who convention in the U.S., is held in February ( gallifreyone.com)
The new series premieres in Britain on BBC April 3, and on BBC America April 17 (8 p.m./7C).
(Cardiff, Wales) – “Whoooooo-OOO-ooooooo” - the eerie strains of the familiar electronica theme pulses in the background as we make our way through the Doctor Who museum in Cardiff.
If you can’t hear the music in your head, or have never known a mysterious doctor who travels through time, then all of this probably sounds quite kitschy and trite. But just as the Eleventh Doctor – young Matt Smith – is about to take over from the lovable David Tennant, we’ve landed smack in the middle of Who-Ville, where Doctor Who and its sexy anagram spinoff, Torchwood, are now filmed.
It is definitely kitschy – and admittedly a tad trite – but believe me, it’s cool to be here among the costumes, rubber-masked creatures and other Whovian bric-a-brac. I mean, where else would you find an evil alien life form that looks like it was cobbled together with metal mixing bowls and egg beaters?
Doctor Who has long been a cult favourite, with its crazy costumes and low-budget special effects, popping the blue police box down in all manner of scenic spots, and visually travelling through time and space, thanks to the creators’ early use of the show’s trademark green screen technology.
It’s the first thing we discover at the Doctor Who Up Close exhibit in the Red Dragon Centre, down in the newly-developed Cardiff Bay entertainment district. Step on the mark against the green screen and see yourself with the time travelling TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions In Space) in a classic Doctor Who scenario, and watch clips from explosive episodes – like the Fires of Pompeii – while examining costumes and props.
We’ve raced here in a cab, just in time to zip through the multi-media experience, before the museum closes for the day. Our driver knows exactly where to drop us off as he’s been here many times – his eight-year-old son adores Doctor Who, though the cabbie doesn’t share his enthusiasm.
“In the 1970s, when I came to this country, Doctor Who was on TV on Tuesday nights and I always went out, just because I didn’t want to see it,” he says dryly as we pay the fare and dash off to get a look at stocky, potato-headed Sontarans, and telepathic, squid-faced Ood. There’s just time to see Captain Jack’s WWII uniform, pet the Doctor’s robotic dog K-9 and check out the museum highlight, the deadly Daleks.
It’s a crazy, noisy little encounter, with lots of strobe lights, sound effects and spooky corners to explore. No wonder 8-year-old boys can’t get enough of it.
But apparently, we’re not the only grown-ups with a thing for this clever, quirky, transitioning Time Lord.
I know of no other ongoing television show that inspires magazines, books and weekly podcasts – with “experts” and fans dissecting dialogue and plot to uncover new meaning and motivation. There are Doctor Who playing cards, Dalek fridge magnets, TARDIS USB ports and sonic screwdriver pens. You can update daily with the Doctor Who Information Network (dwin.org) – with Who-ventions around the world from L.A. and Sydney to Toronto – while the Doctor Who Online website recently celebrated it’s 20 millionth visitor.
We never do see the TARDIS materialize in our days touring the city, though there is a sighting of a BBC film crew outside Cardiff City Hall, just before we arrive.
Shopping for British tweed in a classic men’s shop across the street from historic Cardiff Castle, a sales person confides he once saw the blue police box inside the castle walls, and watched aliens chased through its hidden passages.
The medieval St. John’s church was the place where Donna disappeared in the Runaway Bride episode, and in the Food Hall at Howell’s, a clerk recalls the day the historic department store became a Doctor Who Victorian streetscape, and “they filmed explosions on the corner outside.”
The iconic Wales Millennium Centre and environs, around the newly restored dockside developments at Cardiff Bay, is another bit of Cardiff you’ll see regularly on these sci-fi shows. It’s home to Torchwood, the elite unit fighting aliens that emerge through “The Rift”, “a tear in the fabric of space and time” running across the centre of town.
“We’re the landlords of Doctor Who,” says David Pearce, the business development manager for the Millennium Centre, Cardiff’s iconic, metal-clad modern arts centre.
“There’s continual filming around here. Our main concourse was an intergalactic hospital, and we’ve been lift shafts and tunnels for escaping Daleks and Cybermen.”
With the official Doctor Who Locations Guide map in hand, we head off on our own tour around the Torchwood “set”, from The Tube, a modern steel-sheathed visitor’s centre, to the restaurants and bars along trendy Mermaid Quay. The slate and glass Senedd (Welsh Assembly), Bosphorous and contemporary Pearl of the Orient restaurants are just a few places where you might find the Doctor or Torchwood cast.
Russell T. Davies, the Welsh writer who resurrected the Doctor Who franchise and moved it to Cardiff, has said it was his “ambition that BBC Wales should come to be seen as a centre of excellence for drama”. With five consecutive National Television Awards as best drama, and successful spinoffs like Torchwood and children’s show, The Sarah Jane Adventures, it’s clear that Doctor Who is more than just a late-night escape for crazy cultists.
And as the latest Doctor’s adventures are beamed into living rooms around the world this month, I’ll be scoping the scenes for my favourite corners in Cardiff.
WHO HOTSPOTS:
The Doctor Who Up Close exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Red Dragon Centre, Cardiff Bay. Entrance fee is £5 – about $8 U.S. - the wristband is valid for re-entry all day. www.doctorwhoexhibitions.com <http://www.doctorwhoexhibitions.com>
You can travel through virtual space to learn more about Doctor Who and Torchwood. Visit the BBC’s official Doctor Who website at www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw <http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw> where you can fly the TARDIS in a Doctor Who game, create your own comic, and learn about the upcoming Eleventh Hour season premiere.
There are plenty of fan sites for Doctor Who fanatics. Listen to the Doctor Who pod cast at www.gallifreyanembassy.org <http://www.gallifreyanembassy.org>
Join a Doctor Who chat or forum at www.drwho-online.co.uk <http://www.drwho-online.co.uk>
Or visit the Doctor Who Information Network at www.dwin.org <http://www.dwin.org>
Gallefrey One, the largest Doctor Who convention in the U.S., is held in February ( gallifreyone.com)
The new series premieres in Britain on BBC April 3, and on BBC America April 17 (8 p.m./7C).
©Cinda Chavich 2010
EXPLORATIONS IN WHO-VILLE
19/04/10
Doctor Who is the longest running sci-fi show on television, and it’s filmed in Cardiff, Wales. From the Doctor Who Up Close museum to shooting locations around the city, a Who tour makes a fun way to explore the Welsh capital.
Cinda Chavich photos
