Doctor Who exhibition

This article covers a number of exhibitions organised by the BBC celebrating the rich world of Doctor Who.

=BBC Special Effects Exhibition=
 * This was the earliest BBC exhibition to feature Doctor Who and was held in 1973 at the Science Museum in Kensington, London.
 * Exhibs included;
 * A glimpse of the inside of the TARDIS

=The Doctor Who Blackpool Exhibition=
 * (Permenant Exhibition)
 * At 111 Central Promenade, on the busy Golden Mile, this was a prime location for visitors.
 * Opened in 1974 as a permanent exhibition daily from Easter through to 30th October the exhibition ran until October 1985 when the lease on the building expired.
 * Promoted in continuity announcements at the time, following the programme broadcasts.
 * Displays were regularly updated with new exhibs as new stories were aired.
 * Through a TARDIS-shaped entrance visitors followed the exhibition through a range of various displays of props, costumes, and models towards a working prop of the console room with console, before reaching the shop at the end.
 * Unlike the Longleat Exhibition, the Blackpool Exhibition also included a display of small scale models of landscapes and spacecrafts. Davros, Daleks, Cybermen and K-9 were among regular exhibts.

=The Doctor Who Longleat Exhibition=
 * (Permenant Exhibition)
 * Held at Longleat House, the stately home near Warminster in Wiltshire, and home to the Marquess of Bath, which also included Britains first safari park and garden maze it was open to the public along with other attractions held on the grounds.
 * Also opened in 1974 this slightly smaller than the Blackpool exhibition ran as a permanent exhibition daily from Easter through to 30th October the exhibition ran until 199X, longer than the Blackpool Exhibition which closed in 1985.
 * Promoted in continuity announcements at the time, following the programme broadcasts.
 * Through a TARDIS-shaped entrance visitors followed the exhibition through a range of various displays of props, costumes, and models towards a working prop of the console room with console, before reaching the shop at the end.
 * The Daleks, Cybermen and K-9 were among regular exhibts.

=Doctor Who Twentieth Anniversary Event=
 * (2 Day Event Easter April 1983)
 * Longleat House was chosen as the venue to stage this event.
 * 50,000 people were expected to attend – 35,000 turned up on the first day alone. Packed to capacity, more people were turned away.

=The Doctor Who Experience=
 * This special display at Madame Tussaud's wax museum in London opened on 29 August 1980. Its original run through to 31st March 1981 was greatly extended and it finally closed in 198X.
 * The exhibition was designed by Michael Wright who headed a team from Madame Tussaud's.
 * Exhibits included wax reproductions of;
 * The Fourth Doctor
 * Romana II
 * K-9
 * Davros
 * Dalek
 * Sontaran
 * Nimon
 * Foamasi
 * Meglos
 * Marshman


 * The Meglos and Fourth Doctor exhibs, both skulptured by Judith Craig, makes Tom Baker the first person to share two wax works of the same person at the same time.

=Space Adventure Exhibition= The venue's main attraction was a space shuttle simulation ride.
 * Opened on 15th November 1988 this display of props and costumes from recent stories and a replica TARDIS console.
 * Exhibts (many animated) included;
 * Sontaran
 * Special Weapons Dalek
 * Kandyman
 * Emperor Dalek (added in 1989)


 * The company behind Space Adventures ran into financial difficulties and the venue was closed down the following year.

=Doctor Who Touring Exhibition=
 * Launched on 9th May 1986, at Elstree, this 48 foot trailer (too large for UK roads) was launched in a blaze of publicity and shipped over from Liverpool to New York.
 * The exhibition ran for several months in spite of the vehicle being damaged during shipping from the UK.
 * The trailer was made by a firm called Vanplan in Warrington.
 * The external mural was painted by Andrew Skilleter and featured the Dark Tower on Gallifrey.
 * Exhibits included;
 * Dalek
 * Silurian
 * Sea Devil
 * Sontaran
 * K-9
 * Tractator
 * Ergon

=Behind the Sofa (MOMI)=

The Doctor Who Exhibition at the Museum of Moving Image (MOMI)

 * This London Exhibition was launched in July 1991 with former companions Carole Ann Ford, Wendy Padbury, Sophie Aldred and Bonnie Langford cutting a Dalek-shaped cake designed and made by Jane Asher.
 * So sucessful was the exhibition that its three month run was extended to just under a year before moving to other locations around the UK.

=Doctor Who Up-Close=

The Up-Close exhibitions are all run by Experience Design
 * Cardiff Bay, Wales: Opened December 2005 – Remains OPEN indefinitely.
 * Voted the number one attraction in Cardiff this exhibition opened in December 2005


 * While the Cardiff Exhibition was the largest of these exhibitions, smaller exhibitions have been run across the country since Doctor Who re-appeared on television in 2005.
 * Venues include;
 * Spaceport, Merseyside: 30 September 2006 to 4 January 2007
 * Land’s End: Opened 7 April 2007 – Remains OPEN
 * National Space Centre, Leicester: 12 November 2007 to 6 January 2008
 * MOSI, Manchester: 31 March 2007 to 6 January 2008
 * Earls Court, London: Easter 2008 to 7th January 2009
 * Spaceport, Merseyside: 23 May 2008 to 1st March 2009

Other Exhibitions to be added

 * Doctor Who Exhibition, Brighton Pier: May 2005 to November 2005
 * Doctor Who Exhibition, National Space Centre, Leicester: Christmas 2006