Dr. Who/Torchwood. Props, costumes, locations!!! Oh my!

[MattMunson]

I just finished up an AWESOME full day over in Cardiff, visiting as many Doctor Who and Torchwood related sights as I could see.

A funny thing about living in America: You get no real scope of JUST HOW FRICKIN' POPULAR Doctor Who is over here. Seems like everyone watches it. I took about a billion pictures, but I'll just show the good ones and highlights here. I've only watched the new Doctor Who episodes once, so I'm not super well versed on where all these things show up. I'm hoping some of the experts can help me fill in some of the gaps.

The beacon that lead me to the right part of town is that big copper building you see all the time in Torchwood, and in a few episodes of DW.

A display inside revealed that the lobby of this building was used as the lobby for the hospital when the Doctor and Rose visited New New York. Hard to tell without all the cat nurses running around.

Speaking of cat nurses, they had a full costume and face makeup on display in the lobby. Cool!

Of course, just a few dozen meters away is the "Back Entrance" to Torchwood.

I'll have to dig up some screen captures, but I'm pretty sure this is the "main" entrance to torchwood.

Just a few feet away from this is what I THINK is the restaurant that the ninth doctor took the Slitheen woman out for her "last meal".

On the topic of Torchwood, here's the glove that was seen in a couple of episodes that can bring people back from the dead. But only for a short time:

And right next to that was a few props that were seen in the aforementioned hospital episode. This looks like the thing the doctor used to navigate the elevator shaft, along with a few liters of healing goo.

But then it was on to the Doctor Who exhibit, just a block away from all this fun

Tons more pics to come, but that's it for the first installment.

I DO want to say that if you're EVER in Cardiff, you really should check out the exhibit. it costs five pounds, and is pretty darn well worth it.

An honest appraisal of it would mention that it's not terribly big. But they've got all of the "heavy hitter" items that any fan of the new series would want to see. Save for the Sonic Screwdriver, which I'm told was stolen. So oh well

More pics shortly. Thanks for looking.

 

[Kylash]

wow thats so cool they actually have props on display around there!

 

[karstva]

Hey Matt, you lucky lucky dog, I am jealous beyond belief here. Can't wait to see more. Get me some jelly babies while you are over there.

Karsten

 

[DoctorWho]

Matt,
I have to admit that I am very jealous. My wife and I talked about leaving the US and taking a vacation in England. I definately wanted to go to Cardiff. We just aren't able to do it this year. I am so happy for you and hope you have lots of fun. I can't wait to see all your pics.

 

[Birdie]

Slightly OT, but it was strange how Captain Jack's re-appearance in Who tonight completley ignored continuity with the final episode of Torchwood.

 

[shuktuki]

hey matt your in my part of the country
i live 25 miles from cardiff

 

[stingray]

Great pictures! Maybe someday I will get over that way.

 

[JBReplicas]

Myself and my girlfriend go to Cardiff all the time, we've got friends who live there and keep me updated on Dr Who and Torchwood filming, im going next weekend actually!!

 

[shuktuki]

where you from cody?

 

[NakedMoleRat]

Do you have a job? :lol

I hope to make it there myself someday.

 

[shuktuki]

do you mean me :lol

 

[MattMunson]

Okie Dokie, time for some more pics.

Oh, and yes, I do indeed have a job In fact, I'm in the UK doing some contract work this very minute.

So where was I?? Oh yeah! Inside the exhibit. When you first walk in, you are greeted by 2 full sized costumes from The Christmas Invasion. On the right is the Doctors PJs for when he was recovering at Rose's place, and the left is the Sycorax leader.

Then you walk into the main room, where you have six displays of "classic" doctor who costumes and creatures. Because of the way the displays were set up, it was impossible to photograph them. The costumes were behind printed mesh posters that were lit from the front. You'd press a button, and the light would turn off, and a light behind the screen would turn on, illuminating the costume. Tried a photo, but it just got the mesh. Oh well.


Walking in to the main room, your'e greeted by one of the robots from "Bad Wolf". This is one of the "Extreme Makeover" robots that attempted to do a number on Jack.

Immediately to her left is a wedding gown used in "Rose". This was one of the plastic people come to life. I first thought this was the wedding dress from "The Runaway Bride", but not the case.

Right between the two was another robot from "Bad Wolf". This one was "the Weakest Link" hostess.

Things got ultra cool after this. And if you hadn't noticed from the pictures, there was NOTHING protecting the costumes. No ropes, no cases, and no sign of a security guard. They did have CCTV running (hey, it's the UK. What did you expect???) but the monitors were only being watched by the nice old ladies in the gift shop. Of course, I had no malicious intents in mind, but it gave me a GREAT opportunity to get as many close up pictures as I wanted. Try finding THAT at a Star Wars exhibit!!!!

Ok, so just to the left of the "link" robot was an Eccleston trademark costume. head to toe. Quite impressive. Not sure what the thing in the globe behind him was, but I believe it was some kind of award that the show had won recently.

Just off to the right of the costume was an iconic costume from Rose. She's so tiny!!!

In the corner, there was a nice display from the episode "Tooth and Claw". This is the Werewolf cage, transformation robes, and a couple of the "keeper" robes.

Just behind that was the rubbish bin that ate Mickey/Rickey in a very early episode. Was it "rose"??? Very cool display too. Above the bin were the original storyboards for the scene. If you lifted the lid of the bin, inside was a flatscreen TV playing the scene as it appeared in the show.

Turning around, you see a full head to toe Tennant costume. Blue! I don't know which season or episodes this one matches to, but I just noticed he's wearing brown of the same cut in "Utopia". Oh well.

Circling around is a full sized Tardis! Dunno which series it's accurate to, if it was screen used, or if it's just a promo piece. Perhaps someone with a bit more insight can help out with that.

Spinning around a bit and we find one of Martha's trademark costumes. Even got a couple shots of the boots.

A couple more surprises in the main, room, but I'll leave that for the next post. I'd say this post covers about half of the exhibit. Maybe a little less.

More soon!!!


One more thing. Something I noticed that was really interesting about this exhibit. There were people of ALL sorts there. Now, you usually hear that said about Star Wars and Trek shows and exhibits. But for those who have been, you KNOW it's mostly dudes in their mid twenties to thirties Well, this show had grannies, kiddies, girls, boys, fathers with the daughters, mothers with their sons, couples, EVERYTHING. A TOTALLY weird and surprising mix. It wasn't even predominantly dudes. I even saw a couple that appeared as if the GIRL had dragged the GUY to the show! How cool is that!!!


Big thanks also to http://www.gallifreyone.com/index.php, a website that provided information used in this post. woohoo!!

 

[shuktuki]

oh nice they have updated since i was there last
i will have to go again soon

 

[MattMunson]

What's different??? There was a sign out front that mentioned four things that were new to the exhibit, but I don't recall what they were. Well, I remember one, but I don't want to spoil the surprise

 

[BOBATAFF]

boyo i could kick my self i lived 17 years in new tredegar about 1 hour away from cardiff i used to there all the time as my aunt lives there

looks like ill have to give my family a visit soon
oh i live in germany now

jay

 

[renaissance_man]

Hey Matt.
You are really getting into Dr Who!
I live in Cardiff and have been to the exhibition a couple of times since it opened, although not recently.
Here are some photos of previous exhibits that may have been there before but since up-dated.

Hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread Matt.

 

[MattMunson]

Hijack away dude! Wish I would have known you lived over there. My policy has always been "First round is on me" when hooking up with fellow RPEffers

Great pictures though. Looks like MUCH has changed in the exhibit. More than half of the stuff in your pictures is no longer there. Pretty cool.

I just found out there's another one over in Manchester. Might have to make another day trip!!!

 

[shuktuki]

what you see in those last pics is about what i saw
except for the wedding dress

i hope you enjoyed wales

 

[mobius303]

cool, did they have any of the sonic screwdrivers on display at all??? The pics look like it was a fun tour.
mobius

 

[MattMunson]

cool, did they have any of the sonic screwdrivers on display at all??? The pics look like it was a fun tour.
mobius

Sad to say, no sonic screwdrivers on display. Someone told me that the one from the Cardiff display had been stolen. but on the off chance it WAS there, I took an extra hundred quid to use to bribe someone to open the case to let me take some measurements. I was prepared, baby!!!!

More pics in a minute.