Exhibitions!

Around the same time of the Rutlish High School convention, Andrew and I went to a small exhibition of costumes from the series held at Merton Abbey Mills, a local historical centre with shops, restaurants, stalls and a working water wheel. Although the venue was nice, alas, the exhibition was not. It was based around some rather dodgy looking roundel-adorned set panels which had obviously been put together with instructions from a Blue Peter annual rather than the TARDIS Technical Manual. The exhibits themselves were also fairly tatty; the only items I remember were a full size Yeti costume, a Silurian, a Dalek and a Davros replica. The Yeti looked, and indeed smelt, as if it had something nasty growing in it, but was nonetheless a fair representation of the real thing, and judging by the state it was in it may well have been a genuine costume from the 1960’s. The Silurian looked more or less like the genuine article, albeit a bit tatty, but as I recall the Davros replica was far less convincing. As you can see from the photo, there was also a very accurate replica of a chair from Paradise Towers, but as for the ropey looking monster to the left of the chair, I’ve no idea where this came from or what it was, but it certainly scared the hell out of me. Oh no, hang on a minute – that’s actually Andrew. Sorry about that.

We also took a trip up to London to the Museum of the Moving Image where there was a professionally staged Doctor Who exhibition, and so this time we were presented with authentic artefacts from the television series which was much more enjoyable. There was also a small Doctor Who exhibition that we visited at the 3001 Space Adventure simulator ride in Tooley Street near London Bridge. The ride itself was very good, having its passengers take a very realistic trip around Mars in a small spacecraft, and the exhibition was reasonable as far as I remember, Davros and a Dalek being the only exhibits that I can recall specifically. Both the simulator and the exhibition are now long gone.

Another exhibition that we visited on two or three occasions was the permanent installation at Longleat House in Wiltshire. As far as I know this was the first exhibition that we ever visited, and was very exciting for us both. The actual costume and prop exhibits were not really of that much interest to me, apart from the TARDIS console, but the real Aladdin’s cave for us was the little merchandise shop at the exit. At this time our combined collection of Doctor Who-related items consisted of 100 or so Target novels, a couple of annuals, and a few other assorted books. To that end we never wasted our opportunities at the Longleat shop, and bought as many goodies as our limited funds could afford us. The first time we were at Longleat was when my mum and her partner at the time were visiting a friend of hers in Marlborough, and they kindly offered to take both myself and Andrew with them so we could call in at Longleat on the way back. I remember Andrew and I wanting to spend all afternoon at the exhibition, especially in the merchandise shop, and I clearly recall their impatience at our procrastination at leaving for home. As you can see, I was the epitome of stylish haute couture at the time and really knew how to pose for a photograph. The modelling contract from Visace never arrived though – it must have got lost in the post I suppose.

Next Episode: Interlude – Sharing a flat