Look who's landed!

26/03/2009

On the trail of the TARDIS: we go behind the scenes of Scotland's hottest exhibition in years

by Laura Kelly

There's a little blonde girl looking through a letterbox-sized gap in the wall; she's grinning until her eyes lock on a stone angel growling back at her, teeth bared. Her eyes suddenly like saucers and mouth gaping, she looks terrified but is fixated. She's just had her first tiny glimpse into the long-awaited Doctor Who exhibition, which opens at the Kelvingrove Museum this week after months of increasingly excitable build-up.

The exhibition, which drew 10,000 people through its doors in the first month when it ran at London's Earls Court, is one of the biggest events on the Scottish cultural calendar. And when it opens  in Glasgow for a nine-month run the big question is: will the Doctor outsell Kylie Minogue's 160,000 blockbuster at the same venue in 2007? With several weekends already completely sold out, it's without doubt the hottest ticket in Scotland.

Joining the carpenters, set-builders and monster-makers as they put finishing touches to the displays, I'm ushered past the gaggle of curious children, past a life-size Hath - a half-fish, half-man with a green flask of liquid where his mouth should be - and led into the hectic exhibition space.

An army of guys in paint-splattered T-shirts has been hard at work for three weeks pulling the bumper exhibition together. Designer of the show, Stuart Wescombe, of Experience Design, laughs: "Stressed? Me?" before running off to crack open another box full of props.

For a Doctor Who aficionado, this is a dream come true; a chance to play in the toybox of the massive TV cult's creators. In one corner, Daleks are in the process of construction, getting ready for a display that Wescombe hopes will elicit the appropriate response for these conquerors of the universe. "We gauge how well we've done by the number of screaming kids," he explains.

Once they've got their breath back from the screaming, there will also be the chance to see through the eyes of a Dalek and even have their voice transformed into that distinctive robotic rasp.

In the middle of the room the Face of Boe - a gigantic human head in a jar from the distant future - is partially covered by bubble wrap. His wizened visage looks out stoicly at the chaotic scene ahead of him. But then, given that the character has witnessed the end of the world, a few boxes, mops and ladders are small potatoes.

Even the TARDIS is flat-packed like an Ikea table, rather undignified for a living machine that can cross time and space.

More disturbingly, most of the remaining free areas are taken up with piles of body bags tagged with large yellow labels reading 'Glasgow' in bold letters. From one, the Doctor's red trainers poke out but there's no need to fear for his safety - these are merely the models that will be showing off some of the best costumes from the series.

Rhino-headed Judoon, squat, potato-faced Sontarans, and of course the chrome, art deco-inspired Cybermen are marching in. The Doctor himself will shortly get his trainers on to move to the entrance to greet visitors as they enter.

Of course, none of these otherworldly displays would look right against the usual genteel backdrop of Kelvingrove, so the BBC has sent a squad of set painters up from Cardiff to give the place some atmosphere.

Pristine white galleries have been made into stained, industrial-looking corridors or brick walls marked by damp. Even without the moody lighting and dry ice of the finished set, the place is transformed. When it's all complete it should be capable of transporting visitors from the leafy west end to alien planets and times almost as effectively as the TARDIS could.

Though the backdrop is important, the effect is, in the most part, a tribute to the skill of the men behind the monsters of Doctor Who. Created by Millenium FX, who have also worked on big budget movies such as From Hell, Gladiator and most recently James Corden's Lesbian Vampire Killers, they are a step above the old stereotype of a Doctor Who alien made out of cardboard and bubblewrap.

Neill Gorton, chief executive, says he has a great deal of fondness for those old monsters but allows, "we can do it so much better now." He's delighted that their creations are now to get a showing in KelvingroveMuseum, downstairs from Dalis and 300 million-year-old fossils. "People collect things from TV shows and movies - they've become a modern antique," he says. "So it's perfectly appropriate that they're shown in museums."

Located in a 10,000 square foot workshop on the outskirts of London, Millenium FX brings together engineers, sculptors, model-makers and costume-makers under one roof to create "monsters and robots".

Over 22 years in the industry, Gorton says the biggest change he's seen has been the rise of CGI (computer generated effects) far from putting makers of traditional physical effects out of business, the computer geeks have given them more work than ever. "Many of the programmes on TV at the moment - Doctor Who, Torchwood, Being Human, Merlin - they wouldn't have been commissioned before. Now they are," he says.

As far as Gorton's concerned there will always be a place for real monsters you can touch. "They can do all the planets and the big stuff with CGI but they've still got to be populated with aliens and the easy way to do that is with prosthetics."

The thousands of kids of all ages who will visit the Doctor Who Exhibition at Kelvingrove in the coming months to get to grips with all the fantastic and nightmarish creatures within will no doubt be grateful this is the case.

The Doctor Who exhibition is at KelvingroveMuseum, Glasgow, from March 28, 2009, until Jan 4, 2010. Tickets are available from www.SECxtra.com or by 'phone on 08444 815 816.