A trip to the TARDIS

I'm still back in time. Don't worry we'll catch up to the present day eventually.

It's 2013. Nu-Who (actually I hate that name, let's never use it ever again). The New Series of Doctor Who has been on the air for 8 years. More importantly it's the 50th anniversary of the show. A time for celebration.

This is the year I went out. You know, outside. To events and stuff. Mixing with real people, other fans.

I'd already decided that I was going to try and do a lot of varied things for the 50th year. I'd been to comics-related events back in the 1980's but this was different. In the end I managed to get to seven events:

• The BFI screening and Q&A for the 10th Doctor
• The Oodcast live podcast - Doctor Who in improv, comedy and song (with added Dan Starkey).
• The cinema screening of "Day Of The Doctor" (of course)
• Toby Hadoke's performance of Moth's Ate My Doctor Who Scarf and My Stepson Stole My Sonic Screwdriver (with a star-studded audience of Who luminaries past)
• The Doctor Who - A Celebration event at Excel (Bernard Cribbins was fantastic!)
• The BFI screening and Q&A for the 11th Doctor

Oh and then there was the seventh outing. The jewel in the crown. A trip to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff and a visit to the TARDIS set.

Yes, I was actually going to set foot in the TARDIS.

When we arrived, I met Matt Smith as The Doctor in the café area! Seriously I had to do a double-take, as the guy was THAT convincing. Not only did he have the "Snowmen"- onwards costume to perfection, but he had the haircut, the boots, the sonic - and even looked very like Matt. Some of the little ones were awe-struck and had their picture taken with him.

(Of course I now know that the gent in question is Matt Elliott. world-renowned Matt Smith lookalike and cosplayer.)

We did the walking tour, the set tour and then the Experience. The walking tour was good fun, if a bit "whistle-stop" as you do move quite quickly around the Bay area, but you do have time for photos. It was great to go inside the Millennium Centre.

The set tour was obviously the highlight. Especially as we were told they were only doing it for four weeks in 2013. We were taken down to the studio in a group of around fifteen and went into the set itself in smaller groups of between 3 to 6. While you wait you chat to the guide, do quiz questions, talk about favourite stories and companions, etc. There were only a couple of us who were into the Classic series as well as the new, so we chatted quite a bit to the guide. We waited until the end so we were the last group of three to go in - and there was no rush to move on.

The set was just incredible. It felt real and solid and once the doors were closed it was  all around me. Just amazingly well built and with such detail. Our guide took pictures of us in front of the console and was very chatty - he was also very very gracious and let us stay for what must have been 15 minutes or so to take more pictures and video... so long in fact that we almost missed the last entry of the day to the Experience section.

The Experience was good fun -  especially for the smaller fans, with some great effects. I won't say any more so as not to spoil the fun. Of course now it has regenerated into the Capaldi Experience (and a modified TARDIS set) in 2014, I have an excuse to go back...

The "museum" section was as you would expect - full of fantastic props and costumes and three more TARDIS consoles. Lots and lots and lots of photos.

I'm not going to post the photos (you all know what a Mandrill looks like), but I am going to finish with the video we took on the TARDIS set - partially so I have somewhere to preserve it and partly for anyone who's interested.

Two things to note: 1) My wife took the video (I was too busy having my picture taken) and 2) I put the music over the top to cover up the other voices). Enjoy !

Next time we edge closer to the present day, when a Christmas present prompts me to do something I'd never attempted before..