Doctor Who fans are in for a real treat as the Doctor Who Experience opens today (20 July 2012). The Experience’s new permanent home is in Cardiff Bay, where visitors will come face to face with Daleks and Sontarans, see amazing special effects and fly in the TARDIS.
The Experience is a stone’s throw from the Roath Lock studios, in Porth Teigr where the popular TV show is filmed.
Lucky fans may spot the hit BBC programme being filmed on location in Wales. Cardiff is a popular shooting venue, with many places in the capital featuring in the hit show. They include The National Museum Wales, which featured in Planet of the Dead and The Lazarus Experience and St Fagan’s National History Museum, one of Europe's biggest open-air museums, which was the backdrop for Human Nature and The Family of Blood.
Caerphilly Castle, north of Cardiff has featured several times, with The Rebel Flesh and Vampires of Venice, just two stories filmed in the largest castle in Wales.
Margam Country Park is also a regular choice for the hit show and spin offs, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood. When David Tennant was the Doctor, the popular visitor attraction was the location for The Sontaran Stratagem and The Poison. The park will feature again in series seven, which hits UK screens in August.
The TARDIS has also journeyed to Worm’s Head, Rhossili in the picturesque Gower. The award winning coastal location became a distant galaxy in the year five billion and twenty-three for New Earth.
Popular surfing venue Southerndown beach, near Bridgend, South Wales has also been used more than once inclulding as “Bad Wolf Bay” where Rose (Billie Piper) said goodbye to the Doctor (David Tenant) in Doomsday.
Matt Smith, who plays the current doctor, says that Wales is great to film in, with wonderful beaches and a great variety of locations. Matt spends 9 months of the year in Wales and enjoys the friendly people. The popular star, who carried the Olympic torch outside the Wales Millennium Centre in May, says the Rugby is a "must" do.
The show is popular in many countries across the world, including the USA, and Canada. The theme tune is a big hit in the States, where it beat popular TV shows Dexter, Modern Family and True Blood to the number 1 slot of the most downloaded TV programme on iTunes in the US in 2011.
If you were in Wales recently you may have spotted some the monsters who had “escaped”. Don’t worry, they were recaptured and are now back in the Doctor Who Experience for everyone to see.