Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder

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Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder was a Doctor Who exhibition at the World Museum in Liverpool and National Museum of Scotland. The exhibition covered various aspects of Doctor Who's history, focussing on the various links to real world science. It featured many screen-used props, costumes and models, along with explanatory text, interactive displays and videos.

Overview

An exhibition covering the links between Doctor Who and science, as well as housing many props, costumes and models from throughout the show's history. It was situated on the second floor of Liverpool's World Museum and also featured a shop selling many different pieces of Doctor Who merchandise.

Features of the Liverpool exhibition

The Liverpool exhibition was broken up into a series of relatively large rooms. While most were named, a few were unnamed and have therefore been named conjecturally.

Before the exhibition

  • A statue of a Weeping Angel was located in the entrance to the museum.
  • A statue of a Dalek was located on the ground floor of the museum.
  • The exhibition was on the second floor. A large full-length mural was located on the wall of the corridor connecting the exhibition's entrance to its shop and exit. Among other things, the mural depicted:
A promotional image of the mural.

Quotes room

After entering the exhibition, visitors would find themselves in a dark hallway with quotes from the Doctor and many famous real world people. These were:

Throughout the rest of the exhibition, there were further quotes from the following people:

A promotional image showing Cybermen outside of the TARDIS-themed door.

At the end of the hallway, there was a TARDIS-themed door leading into the next area.

Console room

At the centre of the next area was the reconstruction of the original TARDIS control console used for the An Adventure in Space and Time docudrama, marked by an accompanying information panel as "The TARDIS console Mk 1". Exhibits, graphics and information panels were located around the walls of this room. Turning left from the TARDIS door entrance and following the console room round clockwise to the exit, these were:

  • The console
  • Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder Classic TARDIS console (Liverpool).jpeg
  • Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder Classic TARDIS console (Scotland).jpeg

TARDIS Tech Room

The next room focussed primarily on the technology exhibited by the show, both realistic and otherwise. It was comprised of information panels, props, models and videos. To aid in listing these elements, they have been split up by the wall they were on, relative to when you first enter the area.

Left wall

Right wall

Connecting area: sound

A small area linked the TARDIS Tech Lab area to the Cosmic Curiosities area. While not officially designated as separate, it was unclear which section this area was intended to be part of and so is presented separately here. It featured two short information panels. The first detailed the Huygens probe, an acoustic probe released from the Cassini spacecraft that used a microphone to record atmospheric sounds from Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The second primarily focussed on Doctor Who's soundtrack in the 1960s and 70s. It also briefly described the '3D' sound used in the 2017 episode Knock Knock. Additionally, this area played atmospheric sounds taken from the "Classic Series" of Doctor Who.

Cosmic Curiosities

After the brief connecting room was a room that focussed primarily on space and space exploration.

Immediately to the left of and on the same wall as the entrance was:

  • An information panel about how ring modulation is used to create the Daleks' voices.
  • A ring modulator.
  • An interactive feature where visitors could speak into a microphone to have their voice made to sound like a Dalek.
  • An accompanying panel provided suggested phrases that visitors could try saying. These were:
    • EXTERMINATE!
      YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS!
      YOU MUST BE DESTROYED!!
    • EXTERMINATE ALL HUMANS!
      DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!!!
      DALEKS CONQUER AND DESTROY!!!
    • ALL INFERIOR CREATURES ARE TO BE
      CONSIDERED THE ENEMY OF THE DALEKS,
      AND DESTROYED!
    • THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING.
      WE WILL PREPARE, WE WILL GROW STRONGER.
      WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT WE WILL EMERGE
      AND TAKE OUR RIGHTFUL PLACE AS THE
      SUPREME POWER OF THE UNIVERSE!
  • This panel also included a humorous warning that people who spend too much time playing with the exhibit may experience side effects such as a craving to dominate the entire universe.

In the middle of this area, near the entrance, was a screen used prop for Omega from Arc of Infinity. The rest of the exhibits in this area were on either the left or right wall and are presented in this way here.

Left wall

Right wall

Bioscience Frontiers

Immediately following on from Cosmic Curiosities was a multi-roomed section focussing on biological life. On the left wall, following the video about black holes and opposite Gadget, was an introductory panel followed by number of information panels on different types of life and organic matter. These were:

In between the panels on archaeans and viruses was an interview Doctor Richard Lane OBE, audio provided through and earpiece.

Following these panels was an information panel about atmospheres and their role in allowing life. Below this was a globe containing liquid. When the globe was spun, the patterns created by the liquid mimicked those created by the Earth's atmosphere.

Following this section was a full-sized TARDIS model which visitors could take photos with. After this was a video with Mark Gatiss about life.

In the next, narrow, room was the screen-used prop for the Fisher King from Before the Flood. This was accompanied by an information panel about the theorised size of alien life. Following from this was a screen-used scale model of the Twelfth Doctor's diving suit from Thin Ice. Behind this was a video on how things in Doctor Who are inspired by real-world animals. Following from this was a two player game about terraforming an alien planet.

On the left wall of this room was a series of panels on extremophiles - organisms capable of living in extreme conditions. These were:

The right wall contained the entrance to the Monster Vault, covered in the next section. The entrance featured an information panel giving an overview of the room, as well as a humourous warning:

This room does not have a sofa to hide behind.
Parents should be accompanied at all times by responsible children.

Just beyond this, the left wall had a screen showing a video on how things in Doctor Who were inspired by real animals. In the centre of the room here was a 2-player game about terraforming a planet.

The next area was more open and featured its exit door on the left wall. Going round clockwise up to this door an information on the science of communication. This included information on:

A table nearby held an interactive display on various real-world creatures in Doctor Who.

Going round the room anticlockwise, there was:

Monster Vault

Offshooting from the previous section, Bioscience Frontiers, the Monster Vault included a large number of props of various Doctor Who monsters. To the left of the entrance was an information panel giving an overview of the room, as well as a humourous warning:

This room does not have a sofa to hide behind.
Parents should be accompanied at all times by responsible children.

Going around clockwise from the door, there was:

  • A promotional image of the Monster Vault.

    A promotional image of the Monster Vault.

  • A promotional image of the Cybermen helmets.

    A promotional image of the Cybermen helmets.

  • A promotional image of various props at the Scottish exhibition's Monster Vault.

    A promotional image of various props at the Scottish exhibition's Monster Vault.

The Lab

Following on from Bioscience Frontiers was a section focussing modern technological advancements. Designed as a long corridor, displays and information panels were split between the 2 walls and are presented in that way here.

Left wall

Right wall

Ending video and credits

The final room of the exhibition featured a final narration video featuring Mark Gatiss. One wall included credits for the exhibition:

The exit from this room was a one-way gate into the shop.

Shop

The final section of the Worlds of Wonder exhibition was a shop. You did not have to go through the entire exhibition to reach the shop and could enter and exit freely without a ticket. A variety of items, particuarly clothing, with Worlds of Wonder-specific designs were sold alongside a variety of more general Doctor Who items, including more clothing, books, novelty items and more. Of particular note, alongside recent items from the "Chibnall-era" and late "Moffat-era", items from the "RTD-era", such as Doctor Who: Battles in Time cards and Cybermen-themed Etch-a-Sketches, were also available. After exiting the shop, visitors would find themselves back outside the wall with the mural where the entrance was located.

Differences between the Liverpool exhibition and the Scotland exhibition

The 2 versions of the exhibition were mostly the same. However, there were a number of small order changes, additions and removals in the Scottish exhibition. In particular:

  • The Fourteenth Doctor's and Donna's costumes were on display outside the entrance.
  • The K9 prop in the TARDIS Tech Room has ears while these were absent in the Liverpool exhibition.
  • The order of displays in the Bioscience Frontier section was different.
  • The information pannel at the entrance to the Monster Vault was moved from the right of the entrance to the left of the entrance.
  • The Thirteenth Doctor's costume was absent.

more to be added

Promotion

To be added

Notes

To be added

Gallery

External links

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