Lagamorph's London experience (Now with Madame Tussauds)

Last edited by Lagamorph on Mon Oct 03, 2011 8:51 am, edited 2 times in total.

Since I went to Madame Tussauds today, I decided to put up the pictures in this thread since it's already here and already picture heavy...find it after the Doctor Who Experience.

The Doctor Who Experience
Well I've been to the Doctor Who experience and have just returned! So I thought I'd share the experience and the photo's!
I did consider just putting this into the Doctor Who thread, but since this is going to be rather image heavy, and I'm not completely sure if images still load even if you don't open the spoiler tags, I thought it might be better to put it in it's own thread with a warning about images. Last thing I wanted was people complaining that they went into a thread and didn't expect so many images draining away their usage.

A little warning, this whole post is pretty much a big spoiler for the experience. I've put the description in Spoilers, along with the images.

Anyway I digress. I went for a Saturday afternoon 2pm showing when I pre-booked my ticket on-line. In the end I decided to opt for the Silver Package ticket, which comes with a little goody bag of extras when you exit. This included a Doctor Who Experience program, which has some rather nice photo's inside of it, a poster, an 'I flew the Tardis' certificate, a Lanyard with some little fact cards, and a card that gives you 5% of any purchases in the gift shop at the end. This cost an extra £10 on top of the normal ticket (and the programme alone costs £10 to buy) so I figured it would be worth it to satisfy my inner geek. It's also worth it if you intend on buying merchandise at the end, though I suspect most, if not all of it, can probably be purchased cheaper on-line.

So, on to the experience itself. On entering you go into a little waiting area which has a few little exhibits dotted around, though really not much,

Below is a description of the walk-through section of the experience. Skip this if you plan on going yourself.

Pretty much bang on the hour and half past the hour, one of the staff will gather everyone together and announce that you're to begin the interactive experience. There's no photography allowed during the walk-through, which is a shame really as there's some pretty nice stuff to take pictures of, including an interior set of the current tardis, the interior of a Dalek spacecraft and a museum room aboard the Starship UK.
The first part of the experience sees everyone brought into a room to watch a video which basically shows the highlights of Series 5, preceeded by a welcome voiceover from Matt Smith. After the Promo video ends, a 'crack in time' begins to form on the screen, rotating around until the screen splits and slides open. It's rather neat since the projected image actually splits as well rather than just being projected through onto the floor beyond. At this point everyone is ushered through to the next room, which is the aforementioned museum room aboard the Starship UK. Once aboard you're given an alert message that a solar flare has just rendered the Earth uninhabitable. Good thing I just stepped through that crack in time otherwise I'd have been done for.
Eventually Matt Smith manages to interrupt the display and appears on the big screen, at first expecting either Amy or Rory, though rather disappointed that he's got a bunch of 'shoppers' whom he quickly declares to be rather rubbish. (Well gee thanks Doc!). Turns out he's been trapped in a second Pandorica (which is cheating as it's not even a different colour) and needs their help to escape. Unfortunately, he's stuck with us wether he likes it or not, so decides to bring the Tardis along. The appearance of the Tardis is a cool little special effect, using some creative lighting, smoke effects and a gradually withdrawn semi-transparent screen. If you had looked where the Tardis entrance is carefully, you might have seen it in the dark, but if you're just casually looking you wouldn't spot it, and it is rather cool to see it start appearing, even if you do know how the trick is done.

You're then ushered through to an interior model of the Tardis and there are some interactive controls dotted around. Sadly they aren't on the console itself, they're just attached to a metal barrier around the console. This is a bit of a shame as it would be rather cool to have worked with the actual insane controls on the tardis console, rather than just some black plastic joysticks. There's a bit more exposition from Smith, along with a minute or so of the floor moving, a panicked delcaration that the Tardis is landing somewhere, before we're all ushered out of the Tardis' newly created back door through a corridor and straight onto the bridge of a Dalek spaceship. Again, thanks Doc. There's also a warning for any bald people to check for feathers.

As you'd expect, the Dalek's (The new Dalek's) make an appearance pretty sharpish. Unfortunately, they appear to have allied themselves with the Mysterons from Mars who when they scan you, until The Doctor hacks in on their screens again. Despite getting cut off, his signal has alerted the Children of Davros Dalek's to the Paradigm Dalek's position, and the groups proceed to laser the gooseberry fool out of each other, allowing the 'sub-species of humans called Shoppers' to escape, straight through a forest inhabited by Weeping Angels. Doc, I love you and all but please, let's try to get out of this one alive.

This eventually brings you into the final part of the walkthrough experience. On your way in you're given a pair of 3D glasses, then moved into the set of an archeological dig. Once everyone's in place a 3D movie starts up, with The Doctor managing to get free of the Pandorica and into the Tardis (I notice he didn't have to go through a creepy forest and a Dalek spaceship to get there!), unfortunately this has the side effect of pissing off everyone who put him there, with a rip in time opening up and a 3D movie of a journey through the Time Vortex begins, with Dalek's flying at you, Weeping Angels reaching out of the screen for you and some Cybermen popping up to shoot at you for good measure! Fortunately, The Doctor is able to reverse everything, sucking everyone back through the crack and sealing it off, bidding you farewell, before you leave and enter the exhibit part of the experience.

All in all, the walk-through part is rather fun, but is aimed more towards kids than adults, with the children being the ones encouraged to operate the Tardis controls (Screw that, I paid £30 for my ticket, I'm damn well having a go!). Whilst the moving floor part is rather cool, with the accompanying light and smoke effects, I did feel it was a bit too tame. The floor could have moved a little faster, a little more jerkily, or even just a little more. Again, I think this was aimed more towards kids so for Health and Safety reasons they had to keep it quite subdued.
The 3D movie is again rather cool. I know some people dismiss 3D as a gimmick, but for this little 2 minute movie it works rather well and is a nice ending to the little mini-story that the walkthrough provides.
I suppose the main problem with the walkthrough is that it's a bit too short. It could have had some more sections, and perhaps some parts with real actors to make things a little more exciting. It would have been cool to be chased down a corridor by people in Cybermen costumes trying to convert you.

Once you leave the walkthrough area, you get a large open exhibit area, containing props and costumes from Who over the ages. Most of it is geared around the new series, but there's still some classic Who to please the older fans, or those who started with the newer series but have gone back to watch some of the older stuff.

As you leave you get treated to a few Radio Times Dr Who covers from the ages.

The next section is a bit of a timeline of the Doctors through the ages, with all of his outfits on display.

The next section was a little props cabinet. Apologies that these images might not be great. The lighting in the cabinet was very low, almost as if designed to discourage photo taking, and the use of flash just reflected off the glass and made pictures nothing more than a bright white blur.

Round the corner there's some larger exhibits of creatures and sets from the series across tha ages, classic and new mixed together in no particular order.

Sadly I think another oppertunity was missed with the Tardis exhibits. Had these been interactive I think the ticket price would be a little more justified. I know that they're kept out of reach like this to avoid kids breaking things, but it still would have been very cool.
The next part of the exhibit is actually two green screen photo areas. The first has a seat which allows you to have your picture taken with you being trapped inside the Pandorica. The second allows you to take a picture of yourself looking out of the Tardis whilst flying through the Time Vortex. Whilst these are cool, at £12 for a photo it's much too steep. You can get two photo's for £15, but even this is again too steep for me, especially when a normal adult ticket already costs about £20. One of these photo's really should be included in the price of an adult ticket.

Up next is a purely Classic Who exhibit, with the various Cybermen heads (real, Mondas Cybermen!) on display, much like in van Statten's vault.

Next up we got a little Dalek exhibition, with the various Dalek's throughout the ages.

The rest of the exhibit wasn't particularly dedicated to one group (beyond a few similar displays) or time period. There was a "Learn to walk like a monster" area, which basically consisted of a warped mirror and a video of a woman explaining how to basically walk like a modern day Cyberman.
There was also a section where you could record your voice, and it would then be run through a synthesizer to make it sound like either a Dalek or a Cyberman. Sounds cool, but it's no better than those toy voice changers you can get at Toys r Us.

All in all, it was a fun hour and a half or so. Was it worth the ticket money? Well as a Who fan yes. But I couldn't help feeling I could have and should have got a little more for my money. A little more interaction in the exhibit part of things, and a longer walk through would have made the ticket price absolutely spot on.
Whilst I went on a Saturday afternoon and was pleasently surprised that it wasn't overly busy, if you plan on going I would suggest perhaps going on a weekday when there wont be as many children about. This will likely give you a little more room to move around, a little less noise and, most importantly, less kids hogging the Tardis controls!

Madame Tussauds
Well today it was off to Madame Tussauds! I had planned on going to The London Dungeons as well, but the main thing I wanted to go for, the 5D Laser Experience ride, is closed for maintenance. Still, Madame Tussauds currently have a 4D Marvel Superhero attraction which was open, so I decided to pop on down to Baker Street and check it out.
The queues outside were a little long even in the advance ticket booking queue, but I found this was actually because everyone with a bag has to have it searched before entry, and there's only a single perosn to check everybody's bag, leading to a bit of a delay in getting through. Still, once you're inside it's straight into the A-List Celebrity section.
The first thing that will get you about the place is just how incredibly crowded it is at weekends. Making your way through the crowds is difficult, and getting photo's of the exhibits without someone either walking across you or just walking over to stand next to one of the exhibits, despite clearly looking at you holding up a camera.

A walk, or more fight, through some crowded stairs and you can eventually reach the hall of sportsmen, royals, musicians and politicians.

After this was the "Scream" section, a live actor inhabited walkthrough dedicated to criminals and serial killers. Sadly, photography wasn't allowed in this section. After emerging there's a little section on how they make the waxworks, then it's on to the Marvel Superhero's section.

A nice little touch to the Marvel area are some classic comicbook covers from various characters solo debut's

Now we have a few more lifesize wax works from the recent Marvel movies

After this was the aforementioned 4D experience. This consits of a 3D movie, but along with this are some rather nifty pressurised air and water spray effects, and even some little prods that nudge into your back from the seat. The movie itself is a rather fun little mini-adventure with some great voice acting. My on-line ticket included entry to the attraction, but some tickets require you to pay at the entrance for an upgrade. However it's only £2.70 and for that price I'd highly recommend it.

These next two were actually taken in the front entrance of Ripley's Believe it or Not. I had planned on going in, but when I saw that entry was £25.95 a ticket I felt that was rather too steep.

I didn't know The Stig was in Doctor Who!

Somebody Else's Problem wrote:I didn't know The Stig was in Doctor Who!

Subtle hint to his next regeneration perhaps?
Or maybe New Stig is actually David Tennant or Christopher Eccleston....

Lagamorph wrote:This guy really needs to get laid.

Says the guy who went to a Doctor Who convention...

Zenigame wrote:
Lagamorph wrote:This guy really needs to get laid.

Says the guy who went to a Doctor Who convention...

Quiet you!
:shifty:

Madame Tussauds photo's now added!

Wow, those Madame Tussaud's models aren't quite as good as I thought they were. Boris Johnson aside, they're not that great. Not saying I could do any better, but some of them are pretty shoddy.

Why weren't you allowed to take photos of the models of killers?

Lotus wrote:Wow, those Madame Tussaud's models aren't quite as good as I thought they were. Boris Johnson aside, they're not that great. Not saying I could do any better, but some of them are pretty shoddy.

Yeah I expected them to be a little more realistic given the big deal everyone makes of the place. Some of them are good but some of the older ones are definately starting to show their age I think.

Zenigame wrote:Why weren't you allowed to take photos of the models of killers?

The models you can, it's the live actor walkthrough section you can't take pictures in, they don't tell you why, just that you can't. The wax models however are in an area that's so poorly lit that you'd need the flash from an SLR camera to get any kind of decent image.

Well hello there :wub:

More pics

Of the girl :shifty:

Bab, the Doctor Who Experience should be in Cardiff...

Great write-up and pics Lagamorph

The Doctor Who exhibition looks fantastic, so many props on display.

That Jonny Wilkinson one...

:lol:

What's Trevor Mcdonald doing there next to Hitler?

StayDead wrote:

What's Trevor Mcdonald doing there next to Hitler?

Whatever the reason, Hitler doesn't look entirely happy about it.

Lagamorph wrote:
StayDead wrote:

What's Trevor Mcdonald doing there next to Hitler?

Whatever the reason, Hitler doesn't look entirely happy about it.

strawberry floating racists :lol:

~Earl Grey~ wrote:Bab, the Doctor Who Experience should be in Cardiff...

But then nobody would want to go :lol:

Also, fixed the very last image in the Ripleys believe it or not part. I accidentally put the thumbnail only version in :fp:

Now you can see the Numa Numa singing animatronics in all their freaky glory.

Beans wrote:
Lagamorph wrote:
StayDead wrote:

What's Trevor Mcdonald doing there next to Hitler?

Whatever the reason, Hitler doesn't look entirely happy about it.

strawberry floating racists

He honestly looks like Trevor McDonald and also his arms make him look like he's ready to read the news. :lol:

I wonder why Hitler doesn't like being next to those two.

Lagamorph's London experience (Now with Madame Tussauds)

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