Tom Baker reads a Late Night Story

Sleep well.

Fourth Doctor Who mystery

The Fourth Doctor – Tom Baker

As the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who approaches, more images hinting at what’s to come are flying about like a flurry of stray jelly babies in a 3-D adventure hastily forgotten. The video below could allude to something as major as Tom Baker’s involvement in the anniversary special, as normal as the Terror of the Zygons DVD release (thus marking the final 4th Doctor Who story to be released on DVD) or promoting the upcoming anniversary celebratory convention.

Make of it what you will and follow on twitter.

#thefourth – Doctor Who – BBC

Classic series actors likely not involved in Doctor Who 50th

As the Doctor Who 50th anniversary is currently filming, fans are anxious to learn more. David Tennant has already confirmed that he will be a part of the program while his predecessor Christopher Eccleston has confirmed that he will not. However, what about the Doctor of old? Many are hoping to see the surviving actors who have played the adventuring Time Lord Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann alongside the new versions of the Doctor, but it seems that is not to be, at least for Doctors 6-8.

Former Doctor Who stars Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann have revealed that they definitely won’t be appearing in the BBC sci-fi drama’s upcoming 50th anniversary episode, largely because they’re currently in the wrong hemisphere.

The anniversary special is being filmed in this country as we speak, but seeing as the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors are all in Australia attending sci-fi conventions at the moment, they won’t be able to take part. (via RadioTimes)

While this isn’t exactly definite word that the previous Doctors will not be seen in the special (perhaps CGi will be used), it isn’t a good sign for anyone looking for a proper celebration as we had back in 1983 when Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee returned to play the part.

Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann, Doctor Who 5-8

 

The 50th anniversary is currently filming, as is evidenced by this image of David Tennant, Matt Smith and a Zygon that was leaked recently.

Podstallions, the plaid Stallions Podcast

I am a big fan of the Plaid Stallion blog, a place where I can reminisce over old Star Wars newspaper ads, watch crusty off-air videos of Mego dolls and leer at the weirdest vintage lingerie ads I have ever seem. This week, a podcast was started up and happily enough it is about a fan favorite topic, Doctor Who.

Doctor Who Signature tune 45 record

Genesis of the Daleks- the record narrated by Tom Baker

An off-air shot of Sarah Jane Smith in Pyramids of Mars

As an American fan, I am most familiar with the PBS airings of Tom Baker which ran from 1978 until Peter Davison was introduced in the 80’s.There were no tie-ins until 1982/3 when the Target books, Marvel Comics reprints, the role playing game, rusty home-made badges, posters and the 45 records of the signature tune along with a few cassettes of sound effects. There was just so little to get and so few places to get them aside from the odd comic book convention.

I’ll have to upload a newspaper cover featuring me in my weird Colin Baker costume.

The podcast is fascinating because it is about the experience of growing up with the program and how it differed in Canada, where it started much earlier with Jon Pertwee episodes as well as being preceded by… get this… an educational introduction. There are so many gems in this podcast about how frustrating it was to be a fan in the 70’s/80’s compared to today.

Vintage Doctor Who talking Dalek toy ad

Give this a listen, visit the blog, and be happy.

Also, please feel free to chime in with your stories about what your childhood relationship is with Doctor Who, where you grew up, and how it impacted your life.

Doctor Who BBC Audio- Hornet’s Nest Part 1

The Stuff of Nightmares

By Paul Magrs
Released 3 September 2009
“This was how the dead came stealing in. Pad-pad-pad on stuffing-filled limbs.”

Mike Yates had retired and thought that his days of adventure were behind him. His time as a Captain in U.N.I.T. were exciting, but so long ago. When a job posting surfaced for a man with experience with giant maggots and other strange phenomena, he let his curiosity get the better of him and investigated.

Mike finds his old friend the Doctor not looking a day older than the last moment they had met, living in a cottage in the country. Somewhat strange and distracted, the Doctor is anxious for company and has a tale to tell. He pleads for Yates to stay with him as a companion as he fears that he is losing a battle with forces too horrible to imagine.

That night, Mike is awakened by a beast in his bedroom. The Doctor arrives and hypnotizes it to sleep. Only then does Mike realize that the creature is actually long dead and stuffed. The Doctor has filled his cottage with stuffed animals, all of which are controlled by an alien intelligence, kept in check by the Doctor’s force of will.

What follows is an extensive narrative in which the Doctor unravels a yarn of high adventure, strange characters and creatures with origami brains driven by alien hornets. It’s a marvelously inventive script and caters to the elderly Baker’s colorful and witty personality. Far more bubbly and charismatic than he was on television, this is a very different, somewhat deranged version of the Doctor than we are used to (even by Baker’s extraordinary standards!).

Though unrelated to Big Finish, Tom Baker’s return to Doctor Who through this BBC Audio project was a major turning point for fans and pointed the way toward the actor’s eventual return to the scarf that still fits so well. The format is entirely different and relies entirely on the storytelling ability of Tom Baker, Richard Franklin and the superb Susan Jameson who voices the shrewd housemaid Mrs Wibbsey. However, Daniel Hill does fly into the camp stratosphere with his characterization of the villainous Percy Noggins, but to be honest I can’t see any other way he could have been played.

I must admit that I was quite put off by Hornet’s Nest on first listen. I had grown familiar with the Big Finish style of drama and a straight narrative held no interest for me, even when it was Tom Baker’s deep tones. But after that initial shock passed, it grew on me. It’s very different, of a far lighter material than most Who, and certainly cut from a different cloth than the Big Finish Productions.

Hornet’s Nest is told over several parts (five in all) and consists of a lot of chatting over tea or spirits in the Doctor’s cottage. It’s an odd way to tell an adventure, but very British as well, I suppose. For what it is, I really do enjoy these stories and their absurd comedic quality is appreciated.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

Available from Amazon and Mike’s Comics.

Read other Big Finish/BBC Audio reviews at the Daily P.O.P. 

Doctor Who and The Keeper of Traken

‘The Keeper of Traken’

Story 114
Transmitted 31 January – 21 February, 1981

Finally back in N-Space, the Doctor and Adric are called to the planet Traken where an advanced civilization thrives. A planet that cannot sustain any evil at all, Traken is a veritable paradise, until a creature lands only to be catered to and looked after in a feat of kindness. This proves to be a monumental undoing and brings the Doctor face to face with an enemy he had thought long dead.

The final year of Tom Baker’s reign is a strange experience. The longest reigning actor in the role of the Doctor (to date), Tom Baker had crafted the character into an extension of himself. When interviewed years later when he returned to the part in a series of audios he laughingly stated that he’d never stopped being the Doctor because the Doctor was him. A rambunctious and wild actor in his first few years on Doctor Who, Tom Baker is humbled in his last few stories, a faded memory of the man he once was. I am unclear if this shift in portrayal was deliberate, but if it was by accident it is truly a moment of serendipity as it encapsulates the end of an era in perfect form. The Fourth Doctor in his final year is a faded, almost senile being, wandering about in a haze as the universe unravels around him.

It’s brilliant.

Aside from the character of the Doctor changing, another unique aspect of series 18 is that it was script-edited by the brilliant Christopher H. Bidmead, a contributor to the New Scientist. The year’s scripts were some of the most cerebral that the program had ever seen and very sharply written. Also, Barry Letts served as executive producer, shepherding newcomer John Nathan-Turner into the role that he would hold for the next 9 years onward. Letts had heralded the most tumultuous era of Doctor Who as it moved from the stars to Earth and from black and white to color in 1970. A masterful writer, actor, director and producer, his contribution had an indelible impact on the year’s adventures.

Despite all of these impressive ingredients including the new opening sequence and signature tune, rating continued to fall from the previous year. Doctor Who was in need of a drastic change, but in the meantime it enjoyed some of the smartest and most lavishly produced episodes that it would screen for a decade on (the Davison, C. Baker and McCoy years had very uneven production values). The Keeper of Traken is a stop-gap between the E-Space Trilogy and the finale Logopolis so it often gets overlooked by fans (including yours truly). But as it was requested for review here we go.

The Keeper of Traken is well known for two things; introducing Nyssa and the return of the Master. It’s almost like a set piece before the next movement. In the story, the Doctor is called upon by an ancient cosmic being known as the Keeper who seems to flit about on a fancy high-backed chair (much like the White Guardian). Traken is not only the home to a perfect civilization but also to ‘The Source,’ a massive source of energy the likes of which is nearly mythical. From time to time a poor misguided evil being would land of Traken but so powerful was the force of goodness on the planet that they would calcify and rot. The Keeper recounts much of this for the Doctor and Adric and tells them of the arrival of one particular evil creature, the Melkur, who was tended to in the garden by the fair Kassia. It all seems innocent enough, but the Keeper is sure that destruction waits in this simple act of kindness. Showing the time travelers images of Kassia’s wedding to Tremas, he insists that there is danger there but as he is nearing the end of his life he is powerless to intercede. He needs the Doctor’s help.

Of course the Doctor and Adric step right into the mess that the Keeper predicted and are denounced as evil visitors who must be contained. Awkward. Using the intelligence of both Tremas and his daughter Nyssa, the Doctor and Adric attempt to unravel the mystery of the Keeper’s warning as Melkur extends his influence through Kassia and moves to take complete control of the Source. Having wormed his way into her psyche through her well-meaning compassion, the Melkur’s evil roots take hold only to blossom into full fledged deviltry.

Script writer Johnny Byrne was called in rather late in the game for a script. An established sci-fi writer from Gerry Anderson’s Space: 1999, Byrne was familiar with the genre and had a mind for clever scripts (despite what you’d think from his later offerings Arc of Infinity and Warriors of the Deep). For Keeper of Traken, Byrne was mostly concerned with the planet itself and its culture. The Master didn’t feature in his original script at all and the real conflict came instead from Kassia herself and her band of followers. At a late stage, JN-T stated that he wanted to bring the Master back and the villain was shoe-horned in by Christopher H. Bidmead while Byrne was on holiday. All things considered, I hardly notice the tampering and the script hardly feels as schizophrenic as you’d think given the circumstances.

Vintage off-air trailer

The Keeper of Traken is superbly designed. The costumes and sets are very stylish and evocative of the civilization that Johnny Byrne envisioned. A great looking program it is also an interesting mystery, if one that is maintained by social awkwardness more than anything else. It really is so British that the Doctor and Adric don’t act sooner against the Melkur and that Tremas refuses to help the Doctor because of an oath that he took to his society. Never mind that all of creation hangs in the balance and that his wife has become an evil murderess with laser eyes, it’s just not done! This may be why Keeper of Traken failed to really grab America viewers as we aren’t ruled by social graces in the same way.

Much like many other Doctor Who adventures, large swathes of time are eaten up by getting captured and escaping again only to get recaptured. From within the stone statue that is the Melkur, a scarred and evil being watches the Doctor stumble about trying to vainly piece together the situation to no avail. When it is finally revealed that the Master is within the Melkur (which is really his TARDIS), things finally get interesting.

The Master hadn’t been seen on TV in a dog’s age and his appearance in Deadly Assassin was hardly memorable as he was no longer the suave Roger Delgado but a skeletal monster in a cloak. Keeper of Traken returns the dread and power of the Master under the skillful delivery of Geoffrey Beevers, an actor mainly known for voice work. As most of the Master’s time in Keeper of Traken is off-screen line deliver, Beevers was the best man for the gig. The Master’s anger seemed to be transformed to desperate rage in Deadly Assassin, but here it is honed to mad willful destruction on a cosmic scale. This is where the Master of the 80’s was born and what a violent birth it is.

In addition to the amazing Anthony Ainley, Sheila Ruskin is just superb as Kassia. An actress so lovely that on the DVD commentary Ainley, Byrne and Matthre Waterhouse (Adric) can’t help but go on about it at every turn. She plays the part of innocent beauty and devilish damsel so well that one can see why the Master wasn’t even needed in the script. Actually, in retrospect I think that the Master’s inclusion takes more away from Keeper of Traken than it brings. Weird.

The daughter of Tremas, Nyssa was the first companion that the BBC had to actually pay for. It’s odd, but Johnny Byrne owned the character of Nyssa and was paid a fee every time she was used in the program. This, along with actress Sarah Sutton’s lack of interest in the series, led to Nyssa’s departure. As Nyssa is such a cypher on screen, I find this all terribly strange. An experienced child actress and trained dancer, Sutton is a delight to look at but her emotive prowess is seriously lacking. Paired with Matthew Waterhouse, her scenes nearly dissolve into the ether. Nevertheless, her introduction signposted a return to a more traditional traveling companion from the 60’s era who was cute as a button and meekly waited to be rescued. Her brilliant scientific mind rarely suited her, unfortunately as the writers likely had no idea what to do with it (aside from her great moment in The Visitation when she destroy’s the Teraleptil robot).

Soon to be a mainstay of Doctor Who in the 1980’s, Anthony Ainley as Tremas is great. His vocal range and physical presence make him instantly recognizable and even agreeable to the viewer as the clever and well-meaning scientist. This makes his inevitable transformation into the Master all the more tragic. It’s a chilling scene as the Master reaches out and takes Tremas’ form, melting into a youthful yet sinister version of the Traken scientist.

For a long time I disliked Ainley’s depiction of the Master, thinking it a fair shade on his predecessor Roger Delgado’s performance. However I have since come ’round and find him to be delightful as the Master. There is a very fine line between sheer lunacy and camp and Ainley dances along it with sheer elan (something that viewers would later appreciate when John Simm sent the part over the moon). There are numerous stories of Ainley’s deep appreciation of the part. An independently wealthy man, he hardly needed to act at all and revered the role of the Master as just the character he had waited his entire career to portray. On set he never broke free from the part which no doubt disturbed his fellow actors but if you got him started on cricket he would open up. Anthony Ainley is a rare gift as an actor, full of grace and charm… and he always appeared to be legitimately mad as a loon and hell-bent on destruction. What a  Master.

In the final analysis, the Keeper of Traken is hardly a classic. Directed skillfully but with such a slow pace featuring a cast mainly dressed in soft velour, it is easy to fall asleep to. Despite all that, it is a well executed science fiction adventure with a compelling cast, inspired setting and some interesting twists and turns. It may not be your favorite, but Keeper of Traken deserves another look.

Recommended:

Doctor Who: New Beginnings (The Keeper of Traken / Logopolis / Castrovalva)

Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy - Full Circle/State of Decay/Warriors' Gate

Doctor Who – Shada finally complete… kinda

Lalla Ward and Tom Baker compare notes in Cambridge, filming Shada

Back when I was first getting into Doctor Who, my best mate was indoctrinating me in all the minutiae to get me up to speed for the new series coming up on the local PBS station. Books were piled up around me and weekday nights were spent trying to decipher what I was watching. In the midst of all this, Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was airing on the radio and I loved it. I learned that Adams wrote possibly the greatest ever Doctor Who, but I’d never see it. I was told in grave tones the sad details of story 109, Story Code: 5M… Shada.

At the time there wasn’t much to tell, honestly. Details were vague at best and involved invisible spaceships and references to Gallifreyan lore. Intended as the finale to the program’s 17th series, Shada was intended to be a wild ride of an adventure, combining absurd humor, breakneck action and weird science. Sadly, only parts of it were actually filmed, due to industrial action at the BBC (the more I looked into that story the weirder things got. All I’m saying is that it came down to a toy clock on a children’s program that ceased all production).

In 1992, I purchased a copy of the VHS tape consisting of all the filmed material, some new special effects and music with the missing parts narrated by Tom Baker at his maddest. It was a challenging ordeal to watch the program and I exited the experience still unsure of what to make of Shada. Shoddy production value, a weird music score and far too much missing material past episode two. Still, it was neat to finally get a chance to see a ‘missing’ Doctor Who adventure.

Doctor Who – Shada Part 1 on youtube

Later still, Big Finish released an audio drama version of Shada reworked by Gary Russell with Paul McGann as the Doctor. Lalla Ward and John Leeson were brought back as Romana (II) and K-9 as well. Again, this was a weird experience as so much of the humor was written for Tom Baker and even though the Eighth Doctor seemed to be channeling series 16/17 Tom Baker in some ways, it felt awkward. It’s still worth checking out and is lots of fun… but it seems ‘off’ somehow.

Finally, Shada will be released in its entirety… kinda.

Ian Levine  “Shada” is COMPLETELY finished now. All six episodes. For the first time in 32 years. And although I might be biased, it looks BEAUTIFUL.

Confused? Here’s the full story at Starburst:

Shada, the legendary, Douglas Adams-scripted 1980 Doctor Who story that was abandoned halfway through its production and never finished, has now been completed.

But there’s a twist. In fact, there are two.

Given that it has been three decades since the cameras last rolled on the story, the actors involved would never have been able to convincingly play the same age, so Shada has been completed via animation, using only their voices.

The other twist is that this hasn’t been paid for by the BBC, nor even their commercial arm 2|entertain (responsible for the Doctor Who DVD releases). The animation has been privately funded by record producer and fan Ian Levine, and as things stand, the wider public might never get to see it.

Which isn’t Levine’s intention, of course; now that Shada has been finished, he’s hopeful an agreement can be reached with 2|entertain and the story released into the public domain.

… And watch this space for a report, ‘Doctor Who and the Shada Man’, detailing the history of the story and arguing the pros and cons of Ian Levine’s efforts to complete it.

In related news, Shada will finally be novelized next March by Gareth Roberts. It seems that missing, thought lost adventure will never really be lost for Doctor Who fans.

Thanks to TardisNewsRoom for the tip.

Doctor Who and the Android Invasion

Story 083
Transmitted 22 November – 13 December 1975
Written by Terry Nation
“This isn’t Earth. This isn’t real wood, it’s some sort of synthetic plastic. These are not real trees… and you’re not the real Sarah.”

Answering a call from his friend the Brigadier, the Doctor arrives in a small English village on Earth only to find that nothing is what appears to be. The town is silent until the population are delivered like cargo by a masked men dressed in space suits. Like clockwork toys, the people come to life with the chiming of the hour and go about their lives. Suspecting that some terrible force is controlling the population, the Doctor and Sarah investigate the situation, only to come under fire from the astronauts armed with built-in handguns.

The Android Invasion is one of the few non-Dalek scripts that author Terry Nation provided for Doctor Who. The opening episode is very atmospheric and evocative of 1950’s Red Scare paranoia films. The Doctor and Sarah are alone in a hostile situation where it seems that everyone is against them and the world that they thought they knew has turned upside down. The pair of travelers witness a U.N.I.T. soldier jump to his death for no apparent reason in abject horror. Something is terribly wrong, but it is unclear what has changed on Earth and how it can be halted. When it is revealed that even the Doctor’s companion and friend Sarah Jane is not herself, the drama and tension gets ramped up even more.

Is it Sarah Jane Smith or a cold-blooded killer robot?

Vintage 1975 trailer

Surviving numerous attempts on his life, the Doctor meets presumably the missing and dead astronaut Guy Crayford inside U.N.I.T. headquarters. Crayford is the only person who actually is who he appears to be, however he is in collaboration with an alien race known as the Kraal. The Kraal have developed part of an alien world into a perfect replica of the planet Earth as a training ground for their invasion of the planet using androids. It’s a very clever reveal and keeps pace with the excitement throughout the first half of the story… which is where the story falls a bit flat.

The Kraals themselves are just cardboard aliens bent on world domination. It’s something of a staple of Terry Nation’s scripts that he builds a complex system of set pieces around a rather staid premise. In this case the robot replicas and the fake town are very interesting, but the plot itself is pretty bland. The expressionless rubber masks worn by the actors playing the Kraals doesn’t help matters much nor does the fact that lead actor Tom Baker sounds as if he has lost his voice.

The Doctor (Tom Baker) is tied to a bomb

When the Doctor and Sarah manage to stow away on a space craft acting as the spearhead of the Kraal invasion, things get even worse. An android replica of the Doctor enters the mix as does a deadly virus that the Kraals plan to use as a method of wiping out the human population.

Part of Tom Baker’s second year on the program, The Android Invasion’s chief strengths is in the stunning location work, crisp direction by Barry Letts and of course the chemistry between Tom Baker and the late Elisabeth Sladen. The two work against each other beautifully here and present characters that the viewer is sympathetic to as they move through the mystery and avert danger at every turn. The threat level of Android Invasion is very high, as is the violence. The Doctor seems to be just inches away from death several times throughout this story.

Guest actor Milton Johns as Guy Crayford is a strong addition to the cast and lends credibility to the scenes in which he acts against the rubbery Kraals. His journey from frustrated traitor to hero is an enticing one and an impressive part of the story(something I wager Holmes had a hand in). A man who feels that the human race has abandoned, Crayford is furious with the human race as a whole. Rescued from death by the Kraals, he joins their side in assaulting his own planet, driven by anger and resentment. But when he finds that he has been misled, he shows his true heroic strength of character.

In my opinion, series 13 is one of the high points of classic Doctor Who. This was when producer Philip Hinchcliffe, script editor Robert Holmes and lead actor Tom Baker were firing on all cylinders. The program had proven in the previous year that it could survive the loss of the entire production crew and the lead actor only to reinvent itself into something very new, an amorphous program that moved from space opera (Planet of Evil) to Gothic horror (The Brain of Morbius) to pulp drama (The Android Invasion, The Seeds of Doom) each week. It is a magnificent era that shows the possibilities inherent in the program, something that the Tom Baker era in general excelled at. Just look at the Key to Time series and you’ll see a wealth of innovation and variation with nary a returning monster to be seen.

According to the Doctor Who Guide, this story received a 11.68 Million average audience, making it one of the more successful stories of the season based on viewing figures alone. Against the rest of series 13, The Android Invasion doesn’t stand up as well to the test of time, however. Beyond the impressive camera work and sterling direction, the story is a rather straight forward alien invasion plot, something that Doctor Who had become too sophisticated for as it strove to reach an older audience.

A commemorative fold-out poster from Dr Who Classic Comics

Nothing is what it seems…

The Android Invasion is being released in the UK on the 10th of January as part of ‘The U.N.I.T. Box’ also containing the Jon Pertwee adventure Invasion of the Dinosaurs. In the US, it is being solicited in its own. While not the strongest outing of its time, Android Invasion does have some iconic moments and thrilling action sequences that make it worth a look. If nothing else, it serves as part of a time capsule when the program was redefining itself. It’s also lovely to see Tom and Lis on screen together.

Pre-order Doctor Who - the Android Invasion on DVD

Big Finish Fourth Doctor story details

Big Finish’s latest season of stories is on its way. Reuniting Tom Baker as The Doctor and Louise Jameson as the noble savage Leela, details are slim on the first five stories with only two cover images so far.  This series of adventures should be immensely popular as it combines one of the most successful and memorable Doctor/companion pairings from the classic series and catapults them into new adventures.

Info via TardisNewsroom

Doctor Who Big Finish Story 101 ‘Destination Nerva’
By: Nicholas Briggs
Release date: 31 January 2012
Details: TBD

Doctor Who Big Finish Story 102 'The Renaissance Man'

Doctor Who Big Finish Story 102 ‘The Renaissance Man’
By: Justin Richards
Release date: 29 February 2012
Starring: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Louise Jameson (Leela), Ian McNeice (Harcourt), Gareth Armstrong (Jephson), Anthony Howell (Edward), Daisy Ashford (Lizzie), Laura Molyneux (Beryl/Professor Hilda Lutterthwaite), John Dorney (Dr Henry Carnforth)
Details: TBD

Doctor Who Big Finish Story 103 ‘The Wrath Of The Iceni’
By: John Dorney
Release date: 31 March 2012
Details: TBD

Doctor Who Big Finish Story 104 Energy of the Daleks

Doctor Who Big Finish Story 104 ‘Energy of the Daleks’
By: Nicholas Briggs
Release date: 30 April 2012
Starring: Tom Baker (The Doctor), Louise Jameson (Leela), Alex Lowe (Damien Stephens/Robomen), Mark Benton (Jack Coulson), Caroline Keiff (Lydia Harding), Dan Starkey (Kevin Winston/Robomen), John Dorney (Robomen), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks)
Details: TBD

Doctor Who Big Finish Story 103 ‘Trail Of The White Worm’
By: Alan Barnes
Release date: 31 May 2012
Details: TBD

For more info, please visit the official Big Finish site and pre-order the first series here.

Get ready for the Doctor Who Experience

Back in the 1980’s, fans had the Longleat Exhibition. When I went abroad in 1997, it was reduced to a small corner of the Museum of Moving Image in London, a cupboard-sized museum devoted to the wonders of TV complete with a Dalek prop that had the back removed so you could sit inside… Whovians had a dark age in the 1990’s. Once more a recognized national institution, Doctor Who is inescapable;l from lunch boxes to action figures, portable USB flash drives and video games… and an outstanding interactive exhibition celebrating the longest running science fiction program.

I’m, jealous.

Via InParkNews (click on the link for more information and images!):

Kingston-Upon-Thames, UK — Leading creative design and AV installation company Sarner will design, create, produce and build the first ever immersive Doctor Who Experience for BBC Worldwide.

Sarner, known for concept, design and creation of themed visitor attractions around the globe, was awarded the contract following a competitive tender at the beginning of 2010 and is currently working on the pre-build prior to going on site at the beginning of December. The exhibition will officially open at London’s Olympia on 20th February 2011.

BBC Worldwide’s Head of Exhibitions and Events, Paula Al-Lach, has been working closely with Sarner on the project since its inception. Commenting on Sarner’s creativity she says, “The brief was to create an immersive experience based on the popular TV programme that would capture and celebrate the essence of Doctor Who. We felt that Sarner’s creative vision for the project matched the brief and that they proposed something completely different, all encompassing and a little bit scary.”

And here’s the pitch from the official website, http://doctorwhoexperience.com/:

STEP INSIDE THE TARDIS THIS SPRING TO TAKE A STARRING ROLE IN YOUR VERY OWN DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURE AT THE DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE.

OPENING IN LONDON ON SUNDAY 20TH FEBRUARY 2011 AT LONDON’S OLYMPIA TWO VENUE, THE DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE PROMISES TO BE AN UNMISSABLE ADVENTURE FEATURING AN EXHILARATING AND UNIQUE WALK-THROUGH EXPERIENCE AND AN AWE-INSPIRING EXHIBITION.

TICKETS GO ON SALE HERE AT 9AM ON THURSDAY 18TH NOVEMBER SIGN UP TO BE THE FIRST TO RECEIVE UPDATES AND SPECIAL OFFERS!

You will be invited to step through a crack in time to become the Doctor’s companion on a journey through time and space. Your challenge will be to reunite the Doctor with the TARDIS encountering some of the best-loved and scariest monsters from the hit international television series, before exploring the wonders of Doctor Who at an out of this world exhibition.

The walk through experience is a fully contained interactive Doctor Who adventure, which puts you at the heart of the action, including special scenes filmed with the current Doctor Matt Smith, combined with amazing special effects and the chance to enter a recreation of the modern TARDIS interior, finishing with a breathtaking 3-D finale.

The exhibition will chart the success of the show from the first series in 1963 to the most recent episodes starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. Displays will include items never seen before including original costumes, Tom Baker’s TARDIS police box and two authentic TARDIS sets from the eras of David Tennant and Peter Davison. You will also be able to get up close and personal with iconic sets from recent series, including the Pandorica Box and Chair as well as confronting numerous monsters including several generations of the Daleks, Cybermen as well as Silurians an Ice Warrior and a Zygon.

Steven Moffat, Executive Producer and show runner for the hit television series comments: “The Doctor Who Experience is a fans dream come true – a fully interactive adventure that will allow viewers of the show to get as close as possible to some of the scariest monsters from the series. It will also be the first time that Doctor Who artefacts from all the show’s 47 year history – classic and new – will be on display together, many of them being seen for the first time. And never mind that, this is the day the Doctor teaches you how to fly the TARDIS through time and space, and takes you into battle with all his deadliest enemies in a brand new adventure. So steady your nerves and bring your own sofa – the Doctor needs you!”

Doctor Who star, Matt Smith, who has recorded a series of special, new scenes exclusive to the Doctor Who Experience comments: ‘The whole concept of the Doctor Who Experience, which will give fans a chance to star in their very own Doctor Who adventure, is massively exciting! I hope as many people as possible enjoy boarding the TARDIS next year to embark upon an exhilarating and sometimes terrifying adventure through time and space‘.

THE DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE WILL BE AN UNMISSABLE ADVENTURE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY TO ENJOY.

THE DOCTOR NEEDS YOUR HELP – ARE YOU BRAVE ENOUGH TO STEP INTO THE TARDIS AND JOIN THE ADVENTURE?

How much is air fair to Britain in February?

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ee73