On Brighton Pier there is now a Doctor Who exhibition, which yr fearless reporter went to check out on Saturday. It’s down at the end of the pier, near the fairground and the (ace) Dolphin Derby, and costs £5 for an adult and £3 for a child. The punters are – surprise surprise – about 70% grown-ups, and the exhibit drew a healthy crowd of windy day passing trade, though there was a lot of room to move.
The long history of Who is dealt with sharpish, two doctors per panel and some monster costumes which appear if you press a button. No Monoids unfortunately, but an Ice Warrior, a Sea Devil (rub samurai outfit version), an 80s Cyberman and a McCoy beastie I didn’t look closely at. The Sea Devil, outfit aside, had stood the test of time (and space) well, the Cyberman however looked a bit weedy. Then it was on to the costumes for the new series, and a leather jacket and hoodie were invested with as much gravitas as the exhibition could muster. And then the meat of the matter – monsters.
The exhibition only goes up to halfway through the series – no ports in heads, no reapers (who were all CGI anyway), no gas mask children, no wolves of any stripe. More exhibits are promised but to be fair most of the slam-bang monsters showed up in the first half-dozen episodes so nobody would feel short-changed. The space pig looks great, the Slitheen not as tall as they’re meant to be, the Dalek swivels nicely and the assorted creatures and props from Platform One are all eye-catching, though Lady Cassandra looks a bit crap, as you’d expect from a model reconstruction of a digital effect. The whole thing is very noisy and very strobe-heavy.
Did any of these attract the most attention from the kids present? Not a bit of it. The iron law of museums is that the cheapest exhibit will get the most child attention, and so it is that a human shape with a sheet on it and a wind machine (“The Unquiet Dead”) got under-12 jaws dropping.
On the whole it’s not a bad exhibit, but unsurprisingly it feels half-finished, and the big airy spaces don’t help – hopefully they will fill it up more over the summer once the series has ended. The shop at the end is particularly spartan, as the BBC has been very slow with its merchandising for the new series (probably not realising it would be such a hit). Most of the stuff on offer is old stock from previous Doctors, including a sad-looking pile of Target novels. The show does its job fine, but doesn’t yet capture any of the magic of either series.