A Journey Through Worlds of Wonder!

To have the opportunity to appreciate your favorite show by visiting an exhibition of items from the program is nothing short of wonderful. Us Doctor Who fans are lucky enough to get the opportunity presented at various times and places. I have been fortunate enough to attend a bunch of live events in recent years related to the show.

The Dalek escape room was a decent escape game, Doctor Who: Time Fracture was absolutely buckets of fun (read Maria’s article! She’s the real roving reporter around here), and the Museum of Classic Sci-Fi in Allendale melted my hearts (if I can wave a Sonic Screwdriver about, I can pretend to have two hearts, OK? I am an actor after all).

Once again, I found myself making another Doctor Who-related trip, this time to Liverpool. Land of the Beatles, musicality, and really lovely people. Home to its own Museum by the Pier Head (Dan Lewis wasn’t around I’m afraid – he’s probably off somewhere in Time and Space with the Doctor and Yaz). And for a period of time in 2022, the city launched a new touring exhibition in the World Museum. You’ve likely heard by now that this exhibition is called Doctor Who: Worlds of Wonder.

A terrific title for a terrific attraction. Let’s get right into it. And before you wonder what the subheadings of this mean, I’ve decided to use Evil Dan quotes, because… Liverpool. You’re not familiar with Evil Dan? Watch this video and come back, you swine! Have you been living under a rock?! (Jokes, you’re all legends)

‘How old are you?!’

Wandering around the museum’s varied exhibits across multiple floors, having arrived earlier than my arrival slot for Worlds of Wonder, I found myself feeling like a kid again. The excitement I had leading up to my Doctor Who afternoon was childlike – felt like a kid on Christmas Eve, I did. Strange, perhaps – I have been to these sorts of exhibitions before, and I am an adult who has to concern myself with more boring and less wonderfully silly things than Doctor Who. But still, my obsession with this show prevails and probably always will (apologies to my girlfriend).

The friendly staff at the museum scan your ticket and then allow you to walk through the exhibition. Now, I shan’t outline beat for beat what happens in case you haven’t been yet dear reader. This exhibition will hopefully tour all over for a while to come, so it will be best not to give absolutely everything away. But I will be pointing out particular moments that I loved, however, so consider this somewhat of a spoiler warning.

After stepping into the TARDIS doors, you see the reconstructed First Doctor TARDIS console (with its rotating central column!), the First Doctor’s costume, and gorgeous artwork of all our Doctors (with the late John Hurt and the firey Jo Martin included for good measure). Immediately, I am taken back to the wonderful Doctor Who Experience that many of us sorely miss. I know from this point on I’m gonna have a good time. And speaking of time, I begin to SLOWLY make my way around, soaking it all in.

There are many well-written, highly informative science-focused write-ups dotted around the exhibit. I began to read these, learning about how concepts such as the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, the Sonic Screwdriver, and robot fighting machines might have some basis in scientific fact. It was very reminiscent of the Brian Cox lecture The Science of Doctor Who which aired around the time of the show’s 50th anniversary.

As someone who favours more artistic and creative subjects, I steadily became more interested in the items on display (which, let’s face it, is the main reason I visited) than the science element. But for any of you science nerds out there, this exhibition is sure to be a treat. In addition to some interesting facts on the walls, you can watch videos of scientists talking cool facts and participate in electronic-based interactive sections as well.

While other visitors were diligently enjoying the learning experience this exhibition has to offer, I was skipping about taking selfies…

‘Ha Ho! You scared me there…’

Fans are treated to a range of different monster costumes in this exhibition, but what is super cool is that a host of them are placed together in a red-walled dedicated monster room.

Immediately you are greeted by our old friend the ‘Half-Dalek’ (which I have named him), which is the front half of a Dalek tank you can stand behind and move its sucker and gun around like a maniac. An awesome item from the Doctor Who Experience. Then, we have Cybermen, 1980’s Davros, a Sea Devil, and a Dreg, among others. Oh, and the Silence scarily hanging from the ceiling, I forgot about them.

What struck me is the INSANE attention to detail on all of the monster suits throughout the exhibition. Once again, I find myself coming to this sort of attraction and appreciating the sheer graft that goes into realizing all these wonderful, horrifying aliens in the show. The BBC really does employ some talented artists. It is them we have to thank for separating Doctor Who as its own unique, weird, and wonderful beast in the corporation’s repertoire. So detailed are these costumes that you could fool yourself into believing they were really in front of you, somehow frozen in time. I scarcely wanted to blink when I crossed paths with that Weeping Angel…

‘I’ll take a couple of them for tonight…’

There were a bunch more gorgeous props, the highlights being the Teller, the terrifying-looking Kerblam! Man and the Face of Boe whose eye is no longer wonky from its time at the Doctor Who Experience. There was some interesting-looking concept art that I had never seen before (I won’t include pictures of these, I’ll leave them as a surprise for you), and I even had a little chat with Cassandra (voiced by the returning Zoë Wanamaker!).

After passing Jodie Whittaker’s wicked Doctor costume, I watched the last of Mark Gatiss’s cool recorded segments – finishing with an emotional collection of clips from throughout the show’s history which made me reminisce and beam about how much I love it.

Of course, Worlds of Wonder wouldn’t feel like a complete exhibition without a gift shop. There were some cool items on sale, such as figurines, books, and the exhibition’s own merchandise such as magnets and mugs and the like. Though I didn’t make a purchase on this visit, it was fun to browse.

And then that was it! Essentially, it was a nice, bite-sized version of the Doctor Who Experience, with this interesting science focus incorporated. It took me just over an hour to meander and bask in the awesomeness of the exhibition, but if you really want to walk up and down all the sections a few times, you could spend even longer in it. If I were to sum it up, Doctor Who: Worlds of Wonder was… well, wonderful. Just absolutely lovely and wonderful. It is always a pleasure and a blast to visit a Doctor Who exhibition. It was special when I visited the Land’s End exhibition in Cornwall way back in 2009, and it is just as special now. It always will be!

By virtue of this being a touring attraction, you could absolutely carve out an entire day to check out Worlds of Wonder and enjoy the other parts of the hosting museum. Before and after my Doctor Who slot, I had fun checking out the brilliant Liverpool World Museum’s aquarium and Egyptian section among other things. I even had time for a coffee in their cafe. Absolute bliss!

The Doctor Who exhibition leaves Liverpool after 6th November 2022. But excitingly, it materializes at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh from 9th December 2022 – 1st May 2023. This museum is also absolutely wonderful, so if you have never been and plan on scratching that Doctor Who itch there, make a day of it to get more out of your visit!

For more information on the attraction, pricing, and any upcoming dates and locations, visit the Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder website.