The BBC’s Doctor Who Experience – an immersive adventure located in a purpose-built venue next to the TV show’s production HQ in Cardiff – has been relaunched with new filmed sequences featuring Peter Capaldi, the 12th Doctor.
There will also be a cameo by fan favourite Lalla Ward, who played Romana alongside the fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, in 1979-80.
The attraction is a cornerstone of BBC Worldwide’s commercial activity, which makes the money to subsidise the show’s special effects budget.
While various video games and the ill-received Doctor Who Live tour from 2010 have not always won praise, the Experience has turned into a popular tourist attraction. Ticket buyers embark on their own adventure aboard the Tardis and meet some of the show’s most memorable villains.
The departure of Matt Smith from the show meant the Experience needed to be regenerated, with new scenes featuring Capaldi. Visitors will see the 12th Doctor aboard various classic Tardis sets, which they can then wander around themselves.
The tour begins in a museum recalling the final days of Gallifrey, where longtime fans will delight in the cameo from Ward, who played the second incarnation of the Time Lady.
Visitors get the chance to fly the Tardis, face off against Daleks and walk through a forest filled with Weeping Angels.
The angels, Steven Moffat’s creation from the 2007 story Blink, are statues that can kill you if you ever look away from them. They are considered by many to be the show’s scariest ever villains.
The new adventure has been written by Joseph Lidster, who worked on two Doctor Who spin-offs – Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. For his first go at actual Who, he was clearly quite excited.
“The idea I suggested,” he said, “is that you actually enter a museum and then the adventure finds you. What I want is for people to forget they’re in Cardiff, forget they’re in the Doctor Who Experience, and to immerse themselves in the adventure.”
For a lifelong fan, securing the services of Ward made the whole experience more thrilling.
“I needed a voiceover for the opening video so suggested Lalla Ward as Romana. Not only is this a nice treat for the fans, she also has an amazing voice,” Lidster said.
“It was a real honour to write for Peter Capaldi’s Doctor and for the Doctor Who Experience itself. I hope it works as a slightly more immersive theatrical experience.”
