Magic Museums

I guess this blog should also contain a geek alert.

Today was Harry Potter central day, i.e. we visited the Harry Potter Warner Brother’s Studio Tour, which is similar to the Doctor Who Experience for Harry Potter. Although, I was a little disappointed by the lack of interactive experience. I loved how the screen for the Doctor Who Experience’s introductory video appeared cracked, with the crack from the Eleventh Doctor’s era (I recognized it right off), and then the cracked split open at the end, revealing the first room of the experience. The crack idea is especially relevant to the series because the crack is a tear in the space-time continuum, suggesting that allowing so many people to communicate with and help the Doctor as we were, might create a similar rip. I loved how we got to interact with the TARDIS controls, were threatened by the Daleks, and so forth. The experience section was extremely interactive and had all sorts of fun trivia references (3D glasses!). The intro for the Harry Potter Tour was just a video and the screen lifted at the end to reveal the banquet hall.

Some of my flatmates wanted to know why I keep comparing the two museums. My reasoning is that the two museums have a very similar setup: you enter a big ticketing room decorated with pictures and artifacts from the series, then go into a series of video display rooms (Harry Potter had two), the last of which opens and lets you into the first room of the museum. Both museums display sets, props, clothing, and so forth, and there is a green screen area where you can have professional pictures taken of yourself interacting with things from the series. Harry Potter did have rooms dedicated to miniatures, set design, and makeup, but Doctor who has tie-in product displays. The Harry Potter museum was about twice the size of the Doctor Who one, but I have a closer personal connection to Doctor Who, so I felt more emotionally involved. And, when you consider that the Doctor Who Experience is centered in Cardiff, which in the area where many of the scenes were filmed, you actually have a much larger and more personal connection to the series. Those historic buildings and the Cardiff Bay aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. I know that the Torchwood cast saw those landmarks everyday and stood in front of that very fountain when filming episode two. If fans choose, they can leave a trinket on Ianto’s Shrine. I can lean on the same fence that Martha and The Doctor leaned on when Jack told them the Face of Boe story. Maybe it’s wrong, but I couldn’t help continuously comparing. I feel, even if I was a Harry Potter fan, I would still be more impressed with the Doctor Who Experience. Besides, who can’t really beat the experience of being The Doctor's companion for ten minutes. Still, I did take some pictures. And, our photography focus gave me the chance to exercise my storytelling skills.

 
So, here are my favorite pictures out of those I took today. I love chess, have been playing since I was nine or ten years old, and the play I watched in Manchester was about a famous chess match, so the huge chess pieces were probably my favorite prop. I also have a special place in my heart for the Phoenix ever since reading E. Nesbit's Psammead Trilogy. And, as a MLIS student, I love stacks of books.
 

 

Photography Focus: All Magic Comes with a Price*

 

*I know, corny Once Upon A Time reference.