Footage of The Doctor (cur- rently played by actor Matt Smith) was fi lmed specifi - cally for the experience
“We’re still projecting onto the screen as visitors Next came the tricky part – creating the
experience and exhibition with precision, so it would pass the close scrutiny of the Whovians. All this in only three months – half the time Sarner would normally devote to an attraction of this scale. “It was a very tight schedule and very full-on,” says Magri.
“The exhibition is at Olympia in London, so we had to work around other events that were taking place, one of which was a chess championship which required a quiet setting, so we couldn’t do any drilling. The venue itself also presented chal-
lenges. The main exit is through a 6sq ft (0.5 sq m) service lift, so everything had to be brought in in small pieces; nothing could be bigger than 2m x 5m (6.5ft X 16ft) and installed here.” “There was another major challenge,” adds Bennett. “One of the key pieces in the show experience is a replica of the interior of the Tardis. As if the complexity of recreating this precisely wasn’t diffi cult enough, the Tardis changed with the exit of David Tennant and the arrival of Matt Smith [the actors playing the 10th and 11th Doctor – he can regenerate, hence why he’s been around for so long], so we had to completely change our original design.”
AM 2 2011 ©cybertrek 2011
walk through the crack into a space ship. It’s smoky, it’s dark – they’re actually going into the story”
THE DESIGN Covering 4,000sq m (43,000sq ft), the experience is donut-shaped around a closed-off atrium in the middle, so traffi c goes around the space. Timed tickets are sold online and visi-
tors are batched into groups of 55 before going into a preview theatre. Standing in a black space with a 3.5m (11.5ft) projec- tion screen, visitors watch a high impact fi lm presentation of the past series in 3.5 minutes. “Part of the design philosophy, and why we won it, is that I wanted to get the visitors to walk into the screen and into the adventure,” explains Bennett. “The crack in time appears at the end of the fi lm sequence with CGI animation and starts to open up. We’re still projecting onto the screen as visitors walk through the crack into a space ship, into a set. It’s smoky, it’s dark – they’re actually going into the story.” The fi rst zone is in the basement of a spaceship. “The big moment at this point is the appearance of the full-size Tardis, which is what a lot of the fans want to see,”
says Magri. “We used a transition gauze effect, which is a great theatre reveal effect and is dramatic and powerful.” The Tardis doors open and The Doctor
tells everyone to pile in. For fans of the programme, entering the Tardis is one of the big magic moments. Light and sound effects create an exciting atmosphere, then the motion platform gives the illusion of being on a bumpy fl ight. “It’s very disorien- tating because you can’t quite work out if the centre’s moving or the platform is, so it’s an unusual effect,” says Bennett. “It’s exciting and immersive as we take off.” The next stop is inside a Dalek space-
ship. “All these sets are in the round, so you’re surrounded,” says Magri. “It’s not like being in the theatre when you have the audience and the stage. You’re immersed in the set. The Tardis and the Dalek space- ship are based on sound effects. We haven’t got a music score, other than at the beginning or the end, as we wanted to create the feeling that you’re there. It’s all based on iconic sound effects and voices.”
Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital 37
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