Doctor Who Experience review

Me, I've been a Who fan since I was about 8.

I had stumbled across a Tom Baker repeat (Planet of Evil). I loved it and it freaked out my younger brother (which made me love it more).

In the 90s, as a teenager I kept the faith. The repeats seemed to lose their charm in comparison to the books, especially Virgin Books' New Adventures which, whilst having better effects, generally had a more mature take. Witness the fact that Human Nature, the 10th doctor TV story set in a pre WWI school and arguably one of the best ever TV stories, was an adaptation of Paul Cornell's Dr Who novel from 1995.

So, yeah, I'm a fan from back in the day.

And I was quite pleased to see that the new exhibition made a few nods to the old series.

It's certainly very kiddie-focussed. The interactive parts are great fun, particularly the Dalek scene. The Daleks are surprisingly intimidating as they move towards you, threatening extermination and all that good stuff.

My main criticism of this bit is that they don't do enough with the Weeping Angels, easily the best New Who monsters.

The non-interactive section is quite impressive. I loved seeing the costumes of all 11 Doctors side by side. (McCoy's costume seemed a bit faded and Colin Baker's looks even more ghastly in the flesh than it did on TV)

Young fans will enjoy seeing Tennant's console and Tardis interior, whilst I was delighted to see the 80s console and proper roundels as well as the Master's Tardis from The Keeper Of Traken.

Back in the 90s, I went to the Bristol Dr Who exhibition, which had a slightly melancholic feel as the show had been off the air for 3 years and with no prospect of return. So it was great to see fresh monsters and costumes. (No more Bertie Bassett rip-offs or the embarrassment that were the Tetraps ). And also I enjoyed seeing the examples of Daleks, Cybermen and Sontarans throughout the decades (the Sontarans have shrunk dramatically). The appearance of a few oldies might just might suggest that ground is being paved for their return.

There is a mini-exhibit on the theme tune and voice effects, with an opportunity to hear your voice Dalek-ised. If anything, the voice effects sound more alien than the voices do on the show nowadays.

The downsides are the stupidly over-expensive gift shop and a ticketing snafu that hopefully TicketMaster will sort out.

But, yeah, it was great to see my childhood obsession properly reborn for a new generation (and kids of all ages in bowties and fezes).