Friday, March 7, 2014

Who's made an Exhibition of himself?

Whups - this was supposed to synch with Jamas' post, but nevertomind...

In our on-going adventure into local exhibitions Jamas and I checked out an add-on to last month's Symphonic Spectacular, a temporary exhibition of Doctor Who at Capital E. Now, we very nearly walked right past this on the day due to Capital E having been temporarily relocated post-tremors last year for earthquake re-rstrengthening (alarmingly, Al and I still use the Land Sea bridge which roofs the original site on a regular basis for our walks). The nwe site is in the TSB Arena, next to the main doors, local folks, and you should check it out. It's free for one, and it'll take five to ten minutes of your time.

Handles!
What's there? A smattering of props and replicas from nearly every era of televised Who. Naturally the TV Movie Doctor played by Paul McGann has no props to speak of*, having been auctioned off or junked years ago, or are otherwise in A-Merkin hands, but just go with it. I did.

You'll see a Dalek (classic series), a Cyberman (new series), a TARDIS (new series, 90% scale but still noisy and lovely to stand next to), and a couple of masks, replica props and costumes. I believe my cultural companion was amusingly faked out by thinking he'd encountered a Matt Smith ensemble on display, but wouldn't you know it - it was the Dream Lord all along. Still, the mood seemed right for him to indulge in this particular show of horseplay, and punters being as low as they are, nobody seemed inclined to kick us out, despite CLEAR NOTICES SAYING DO NOT TOUCH BEING BREACHED IN THE ACT.

Like a lot of Who stuff for public consumption in this enlightened Eccleston Tennant Smith Capaldi era, there's more than a hint of exposition about the display, with monitors looping key scenes from each Doctor - even the Eighth (but pity the poor Capital E staff trapped there with nothing but the same footage in their ear all day!), and a chronological wall chart which maps the series and more key moments over the past fifty years. Fifty years is a lot to chart in a room as small as this one, but it's well organised and mostly harmless. In all, a fine little diversion.

 *okay, maybe some Eighth Doctor stuff in that there's some knitting.

1 comment:

  1. I remember going to Longlete with Chris Mander years ago and feeling very non-plused by it all. I think we both agreed that it pretty much capped off our fan experiences at the time. Reality was a bit m'eh.

    David R

    ReplyDelete