The Doctor Who Experience has announced a number of fancy dress competitions to take place over the course of February's school half term period:
There will also be a number of behind-the-scenes talks and other events taking place, dates still to be announced.

The Doctor Who Experience has announced a number of activities that will take place during December.

On the two weekends leading up to Christmas (15th/16th, 22nd/23rd), Doctor Who's make-up and prosthetic artist Bethan Harris will be on-hand to transform visitors into their favourite monster.

Iconic props from previous Christmas adventures will also be on display, including the pyjamas worn by the Tenth Doctor, the Sycorax and Robot Santas from the first festive outing, The Christmas Invasion, and Abigail's cryogenic chamber from A Christmas Carol. Additionally, from Boxing Day onwards, props from the latest adventure, The Snowmen, will go on exclusive display at the Experience.

In addition, the Doctor Who Experience Shop will be selling a limited edition t-shirt which features a "TARDIS star" logo; these are available in red and purple (ladies only).


The Doctor Who Experience's Christmas displays run from 5th December until 6th January; it will be closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but open for the rest of the festive period.

The Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff played host to two special guests today in the form of Matt Smith and Steven Moffat, who were there to have their hand prints immortalised in cement to become a permanent display within the exhibition.

Matt Smith said:
Steven Moffat added:

Several new exhibits have also been unveiled today, which include Oswin's dress and boots - as worn by new sidekick Jenna-Louise Coleman in Asylum of the Daleks - Solomon and Nefertiti's costumes from Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, the Robots from the same story, and the chained Weeping Angel and Cherub Angels from The Angels Take Manhattan.

Matt added:

Today saw the official opening of the Doctor Who Experience to the public take place at its new home in Cardiff Bay.

A special ceremony marked the event, with a young visitor dressed as the Eleventh Doctor (complete with fez) given the honour of cutting the ribbon to open the Experience, and a Dalek, Cybermen, Silent and Silurian were on hand to greet visitors and pose for photos.

You can read our full review of the opening and the Experience here.

Tickets for the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff Bay went on sale today.

The attraction, which had been in London for a year, closing in February, opens in Cardiff on Friday 20th July, where it will be based for at least five years.

Philip Murphy, the managing director of BBC Worldwide Live Events, said: The BBC describes the Experience as the first interactive Doctor Who exhibition, which invites visitors to star in their very own adventure. Arriving at the venue they step through a crack in time to become the Doctor's companion, taking on the challenge of reuniting the Doctor with the TARDIS while fending off threats from some of his most fearsome foes - entering a Dalek spaceship and finding a way through a maze of Weeping Angels.

Featuring a replica of the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS, which visitors get to fly themselves, the interactive walk-through section culminates in a 3D finale that sets the scene for the exhibition, which boasts the world's most extensive collection of original Doctor Who costumes and artefacts stretching back almost 50 years to the first series.

The content of the exhibition will be updated constantly with new items from the TV series to ensure that it is ever-changing, offering fans the chance to get up close to the sets, costumes, and props that feature in the show. New items to be shown to the public for the first time in Cardiff will include the Doctor's cradle seen in A Good Man Goes to War, the Silence spaceship, and the Doctor's sonic cane from Let's Kill Hitler, with many more items being kept under wraps until the doors open next month.

As well as the relaunched website, the Experience can also be followed on Twitter.

The Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff is to open its doors to the public on Friday 20th July, it was announced today. Tickets for the attraction will go on sale at 10am on Thursday 14th June.

Originally based at the Olympia Two exhibition, conference, and event centre in West Kensington, London, it has been moved next to the Roath Lock drama studios at Porth Teigr, where Doctor Who is now made. With the construction having finished, internal fitting can now take place, moving in props, sets, and memorabilia from the show.

Items going on display for the first time in Cardiff will include the Doctor's cradle from A Good Man Goes to War, the Silence spaceship, and the Doctor's sonic cane from Let's Kill Hitler. Many more items are being kept under wraps until the attraction opens.

Philip Murphy, the managing director of BBC Worldwide Live Events, said:
The interactive exhibition ran for a year in London, closing in February this year. It was originally planned to open in Cardiff this spring, but that date got pushed back and instead the Official Doctor Who Convention was held in the Millennium Centre. The Cardiff "incarnation" of the Experience, which is in a 3,000 sq m building, is scheduled to be in situ for five years.

The attraction covers the entire history of the series, with exhibits changing as new episodes are shown, and Paula Al-Lach, BBC Worldwide's head of exhibitions and events, said:
Ken Poole, Cardiff council's head of economic development, said:
Up to a quarter of a million people are expected to pass through its doors every year.


[BBC News and BBC Media Centre, 14 May 2012]

Sponsorship is being sought for the new home of the Doctor Who Experience.

As reported earlier this week, the attraction will be a permanent fixture in Cardiff Bay for five years when it opens this summer. More than 1.25 million visitors are expected through its doors over that time and brands are now being offered a potentially lucrative tie-in opportunity by communications specialist Orchard Media and Events Group.

Orchard director Jim Carpenter said:
The sponsorship deal is being offered via online media ideas database Getmemedia.com, which says the anticipated investment for the five-year association is £200,000 plus VAT per year.

Getmemedia.com managing director Pete Davis said:

The BBC have confirmed previous indications that the Doctor Who Experience - which closed last month in London - will be based at its new Cardiff Bay home for at least five years.

The commitment was disclosed within a BBC Careers advert for a new Commercial Manager, whose main responsibilities will be for the Cardiff incarnation when it opens in the summer.

The closing date for the role is 19th March.

It's said that truth is stranger than fiction, and in a case of life imitating art (in more ways than one), two iconic paintings with very close connections to Doctor Who have been hitting the headlines.

Firstly, one of Edvard Munch's four versions of The Scream - which was a major influence on the design of Series 6 monster The Silence - is to be exhibited in the UK before being auctioned in the USA by Sotheby's.

It will be on display in London from 13th April and in New York from 27th April, with the auction taking place on 2nd May, when it is estimated it could fetch more than £50m ($80m).

This version - dated 1895 and the only one to still be in private hands - is a pastel and is in the original frame that was hand-painted by the Norwegian artist. It also includes a poem by Munch explaining what inspired his masterpiece.

The Scream is reckoned to be the second-most recognisable image in art and popular culture after the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci - and by a funny coincidence another version of that particular masterpiece has also been causing a huge stir in the art world.

The globally famous portrait - also titled La Gioconda - was a major plot point of the Season 17 story City of Death. Now a copy of the picture - reckoned to have been painted by one of Leonardo's apprentices at the time of the original - has been restored and displayed at the Prado Museum in Madrid, where it will stay until 13th March, after which it will be moved and hung next to Leonardo's original at the Louvre in Paris for an exhibition.

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As reported previously, photographic portraits of David Tennant and Karen Gillan can still be seen in the Hot Scots exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. This display runs until 1st April.

Tennant is also among the actors featured in backstage theatre photographer Simon Annand's exhibition The Half at the Idea Generation Gallery in Chance Street, London. The display takes its name from the half-hour before curtain-up, when actors are left by themselves to focus on the performance ahead of them. Also pictured at the gallery are Michael Gambon, Carey Mulligan, and Mark Gatiss. The exhibition opens tomorrow and runs until 8th April, with the opening times 10am to 6pm Mondays to Fridays and midday to 5pm Sundays.

BBC Worldwide have announced a special event which took place at the Doctor Who Experience last night ...