Hey guys, Tom Project Indigo here.
Just a quick post to tell you about this really cool watch that I’ve heard about – The Doctor Who Time Vortex Watch! This watch looks like it would really suit the Twelfth Doctor or any other Whovian who needs to keep track of Timey Wimey stuff. Travelling in the TARDIS can be pretty confusing sometimes so it would be great to have one of these watches to help!
This watch is available from The Bradford Exchange and you can read all about it here….
Hello everyone and welcome to a new blog post. This time I am not visiting a filming location but rather an actual TARDIS – the TARDIS at Dunbury Church of England Academy! I read about the Dunbury Academy TARDIS in my local newspaper, the Daily Echo, and when I saw the article I thought ‘I want to go there!’. I emailed the school and got invited to have a trip through time and space on the TARDIS…
Dunbury Academy is in the village of Winterborne Whitechurch. It is a small school for the children of the Winterborne Valley in Dorset and the school’s motto is
Inspire, Learn, Empower.
I was given the opportunity to have the day off from my school so that I could visit the TARDIS and I travelled there last week by train and bus. When I arrived at the school I couldn’t help but notice how small it was compared to my own. I felt very welcome and I was immediately greeted by Mr Payne the teacher who made the TARDIS, who invited me to come and have a lesson. On Thursday night Mr Payne was awarded Nursery / Primary Teacher of the Year in the first ever Daily Echo School Awards. Well done Mr Payne!
I was greeted by some of the Dunbury students and got taken to the TARDIS which was materialised on the first floor. There was no key but I was allowed to open the door using a Sonic Screwdriver. I couldn’t stop saying ‘Wow!’ as I was so surprised – it was bigger than I thought it would be but then again, it is a TARDIS. I started exploring but suddenly Daleks appeared on the screen – we were under threat!
First we had to solve a coded message from Rassilon, the Lord High President of Gallifrey then we travelled around time and space meeting many historic figures. The pupils and I had to solve multiple puzzles to ensure we were safe from the Daleks, including maths, codes, Roman Numerals and Hieroglyphics. First we met Archimedes in 214 BC, then went to Egypt to meet Cleopatra in 69 BC. Next to Rome to meet Julius Caesar in 48 BC who sent us to see the Viking Explorer, Eric the Red, in 991 AD. We then went to see William the Conqueror in 1066 AD who sent us on our way to see the Doctor’s old friend (and mine!) Winnie Churchill in 1940. We finally solved the Tablet of Skaro but it was a trap – the Daleks had kidnapped K-9! After some timey-wimey stuff we found him and we were safe from being blown to space smithereens. Yay!
After all that excitement I had some time to interview the children about their time in the TARDIS. I asked them what they thought when they first saw it and immediately two of them said ‘Amazed!’ at exactly the same time. Someone else said ‘Speechless!’. It was built in the school holidays so when they saw it, it was a real surprise.
They have learnt all different subjects in the TARDIS but it was built as part of a Space Topic. For English they travelled to space to write a description of a planet. For Maths they have had tests and learnt about Roman Numerals. They have visited the planet Kepler 452B which is 1400 light years away. It would take 26 million years to travel there if you didn’t have a TARDIS. Kepler 452B is 60 % bigger than earth and orbits around a star. Like Earth it is in the Goldilocks Zone which means that there could be life on there. To sum it up – they have learnt A LOT of stuff! I also told the pupils about Project Indigo, especially the filming locations I have visited in Dorset which was a surprise for them.
Then it was time for Assembly and I went along to support the school and see how different it was to my school. The classes are named after trees and there were only two at the Winterborne Whitechurch base. Certificates were handed out and pupils were rewarded for their achievements. The new First Aiders got to use their skills to help out the Headmaster Mr Barker.
After assembly it was home time for the pupils and I got to interview Mr Payne. He built the TARDIS because he wants to inspire children and the first time they saw it they flew through the solar system! He has also built Hogwarts and Narnia style classrooms before.
Mr Payne has been a fan of Doctor Who since he was three and his favourite Doctor is Tom Baker because he grew up with him. If you need any proof he is dressed as the Fourth Doctor in his first photo! He is also a fan of David Tennant – and if you need any proof of that he did a Magic Show with him once for Children In Need!
I asked Mr Payne where he would like to go in time and space and he said he is happy right here, right now. He really likes his class and the school and wouldn’t want to change anything. If Mr Payne had to go somewhere he would choose to see the future. He said to imagine what it would be like for someone waking up after 20 years in a coma. I think it would be very confusing to see new pieces of technology at work, and it would very sad if people in your family had passed away.
Mr Payne could design the TARDIS as he was a helicopter designer once. The TARDIS was made in his garage over two weeks – the hardest part was collecting all the egg boxes for the walls, it took him months to get them! A friend of his helped build the console and donated the Doctor Who cardboard cut-outs from work.
I asked Mr Payne if the Headmaster Mr Barker was hesitant in saying yes to having a TARDIS at school or was he quick off the bat? He said that Mr Barker said yes immediately and that the TARDIS has had lots of support from all the staff, parents and children.
After I interviewed Mr Payne I had one last go in the TARDIS before I had to leave. The TARDIS is just Wow! I’d like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone at Dunbury Academy for their hospitality. I felt so welcome and the staff and pupils were all really nice. It is a very friendly, cheerful school and I had a fantastic day.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my time at Dunbury Academy. In a few days something exciting is happening – Project Indigo is turning 2! I hope you will come back and read about my other adventures.
Goodbye!
Hello everyone – now I shall tell you who the lucky winner is of a Doctor Who : The 10 Christmas Specials– Limited Edition Box Set!
I asked the question:
Now Clara is leaving the TARDIS, who would you like the Doctor to have an adventure with? You can choose anyone in time and space!
I picked the winner at random by numbering the entries and using a Random Number Generator.
Congratulations to the winner, Neil Firth!
Neil said ‘Wow, that’s absolutely brilliant news. I’m over the Moon – I absolutely love Dr Who.’
He voted for
I think that is a great answer, imagine what they could invent together! He could also do a fantastic portrait of the Doctor. 🙂
Thank you to all 289 people who entered and told me who they would like to see in the TARDIS. I loved reading all the answers – some were a little crazy and some were just perfect!
The Top 5 suggestions were as follows:
Please see here for the results of all the votes:
A little surprise was that 31% of the suggestions were female and 69% were male. I think people would really like to see the Doctor have a male companion.
What do you think? Do you agree with the results? Please leave a comment and let me know.
Thank you again to everyone who entered.
I hope you enjoy your prize Neil!
Goodbye!
Welcome! Croeso!
We are travelling back in time to my summer holiday in Wales. Today we are at the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff, this time in July 2015. I was very excited to go to The Doctor Who Experience again as it was the first time I had been since it was updated with the new Doctor. In August 2014 I was stood outside the closed Experience whilst Peter Capaldi was inside filming the new interactive story so I was looking forward to seeing the new adventure!
When I arrived there was a giant queue as it was the summer holidays and Whovians had come from everywhere to experience the experience! As soon as I arrived I went into the interactive adventure with the other fans. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who is planning to go but I will tell you that I entered the Museum of Gallifrey expecting to learn about Timelords and the history of Gallifrey. Instead I embarked on a journey when the Twelfth Doctor transmitted a message saying he needed our help – and we had to grapple with a threat which could destroy the universe……..
It was very exciting helping the Doctor and some of the children were a little scared, but we survived. The Doctor didn’t quite return us to where we started though so I never got to look around the Museum of Gallifrey! Maybe if you visit everything will go a bit smoother for you!
After I made it back to Cardiff 2015 I had my photo taken in a green screen TARDIS. I chose to wear a Fez , which was cool, and I chose to be in the Twelfth Doctor’s TARDIS because that is my favourite TARDIS in the history of Doctor Who! I look quite perplexed in my picture because when I was posing in front of the green screen I didn’t know how the background would look. When Peter Capaldi had his photo taken he couldn’t choose so wore the Eleventh Doctor’s Fez and the Fourth Doctor’s scarf!
After my photo I went upstairs to The Exhibition Hall to revisit ‘the world’s most extensive collection of original Doctor Who props and artefacts’. This is my favourite part of the whole Experience because all the suspense from the interactive part is relieved from you and you can relax and look at all the items from the series! Since my last visit the hall had regenerated and moved around and there were lots of new items from the Series 8 (2014) episodes! Here are some of my favourites:
From my favourite New Who story Deep Breath – the hot air balloon made of skin that Half-Face Man tried to escape in.
From Mummy on the Orient Express – The Foretold. If you can see him you only have 66 seconds to live!
From Robot of Sherwood we can see a knight’s armour and the Sheriff of Nottingham costume worn by Ben Miller.
From In the Forest of the Night – a lion from Trafalgar Square. This giveaway told the Doctor he was in London and not a forest.
From The Caretaker – the Skovox Blitzer which was a danger to Coal Hill School and one of the most dangerous weapons ever created!
I didn’t have enough time in the exhibition because I had to leave Cardiff at lunch time to go to another part of Wales and carry on with my holiday. Sadly for me I had hurt my back too so I couldn’t join in with everything, for example, learning how to walk like a Doctor Who monster.
Finally I visited The Official Doctor Who Shop. The shop is giant and full of Doctor Who merchandise – it is the only official Doctor Who shop that you can visit in the whole world! Maybe there is one on another planet though..… Anyone can visit this shop; you don’t need to pay for a ticket. I bought a new Doctor Who T-shirt because my old one is getting smaller and smaller by the minute. I will be wearing my T-shirt in lots of future posts, it is in the style of a comic – I hope you will like it.
The regenerated experience is better than ever, I’m really glad that I got the chance to visit it before I left Cardiff. No-one should leave Cardiff without having a Doctor Who adventure. And I’m glad to report that my back is better too! Have you been to the Doctor Who Experience? Please leave a comment and tell me what you think about this amazing Doctor Who attraction.
See you soon for a new Doctor Who location report – next time I will be reporting from Mars, I hope you will come back and read all about it.
Disclosure: Thank you very much to the Doctor Who Experience for allowing me free entry to report on my adventure. All opinions are my own!
Shwmae, Ti’n iawn?
We are back in Wales in February again, for another Cardiff Doctor Who location. We are in the library of Cardiff Castle which was used as a filming location for Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (2013). It was used as the TARDIS library which was found by Clara when she was running away from some Time Zombies. When she was there she found a book called The History of the Time War and saw the Doctor’s real name in it. Later she said to the Doc:
‘The library. You were mentioned in a book. You call yourself Doctor. Why do you do that? You have a name. I’ve seen it. In one tiny corner of that tiny book’.
It is a very scary episode but luckily when I was in the library there was no sign of a Time Zombie. It was a very quiet and safe place full of beautiful old books. Unfortunately I couldn’t see the Encyclopedia Gallifreya!
The library is very grand and the bookcases are decorated with animals of all sorts. There was daylight coming through the window, unlike when Clara was there, and the ceiling was not infinite – good ol’ computer graphics! 
You can get married at the Castle and have your reception in the library – how cool would it be to have your wedding in a room of the TARDIS????? 
I will tell you about other locations within Cardiff Castle soon in another post.
In other news – this Friday I found a copy of the 285th issue of Doctor Who Adventures magazine- complete with Amazing Doctor Dress Up Set. Dress Up Sets are cool! The set contained a TARDIS key, sonic screwdriver, bow tie and psychic paper. I was inspired and used them to dress up as a different Doctor ( I think you already know which one it is!) . I copied the outfit the Doctor wore for Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS but I wish I had put a Big Friendly Button mark on my hand – maybe next time. I hope you like the pictures!
Until next time, Da boch chi!
Hello!
I’m sorry I’m a bit late with my post this week, I have been away with my school and it has been my birthday so I have been tracking a bit off schedule. I shall start by telling you about the lecture I went to this week at Bournemouth University called ‘Life and Death in Doctor Who’. This was part of the University’s Festival of Learning which is a programme of exciting events for local people, now in its second year.
I joined the audience which was full of fellow Whovians, all different kinds of people -young, old, men and women, boys and girls. I was the youngest but some people there remembered watching the very first episode when it was broadcast 50 years ago. The lecture was given by Professor Iain MacRury who is Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange at Bournemouth University. He is an expert on the Doctor and, along with Michael Rustin, wrote the book The Inner World of Doctor Who: Psychoanalytic Reflections in Time and Space. Phew, that was a bit of a mouthful!
The Professor compared the TARDIS to a magic box, and the stories to children’s books such as Alice In Wonderland. He talked about how Doctor Who is about growing up and becoming an adult and showed us clips of the companions to make us understand. One clip showed the Ninth Doctor holding on to Rose’s hand saying he could feel the world spinning. He said the latest Doctors are more caring towards their companions than the old Doctors, and he compared the Fifth Doctor after Adric died to the Tenth Doctor saying goodbye to Rose in Darlig Ulv Stranden. The Fifth Doctor just wanted to cheer his companions up by taking them to the Great Exhibition but the Tenth Doctor visited Rose in a parallel universe and burned up a sun to say goodbye!
Afterwards the Professor answered lots of questions from my fellow Whovians, but I was speechless. I met him at the end and he was very kind. Ace called the Seventh Doctor the Professor, maybe that inspired him to become one.
Just a quick news flash – I saw yet another blue box! The Professor told me to go to Weymouth House, part of the university and there was a TARDIS in reception. Not mine, I wonder which Doctor had stopped by for the Festival of Learning? I wonder if a future Doctor was in the audience but we didn’t recognise him?
It was so cool to be at Bournemouth University in the Media School because Richard Senior, the director of Let’s Kill Hitler, graduated from Bournemouth University in 2002. Maybe one day I’ll direct a Doctor Who episode myself, you never know!
See you next week, goodbye.
Hello once again!
Here is another TARDIS which I found in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard earlier this month! It must have been the TARDIS of one of the older Doctors because it doesn’t look like the one in Boscombe. The chameleon circuit must have gone wrong because it didn’t look quite right! I couldn’t look inside because the Doctor locked it behind him. 
It was a very blowy day that almost took me off my feet so maybe that was the TARDIS materialising? The Sea Devils must have come to the dockyard with their cousins the Silurians to take over the world. ‘NOT THIS TIME! C’mon out, I’ll give you a taste of your own medicine!’ Maybe I saved the day, or the Doctor did. Either way is good!
I like going to the dockyard because it is full of historical ships and I like learning about Horatio Nelson because he is a hero of mine; he met with the Second Doctor in the book HMS TARDIS when the Doctor, Ben and Polly materialised on HMS Victory. I have been on the Victory lots of times, it is my favourite ship at the dockyard. There is so much more to see including HMS Alliance, the Mary Rose and HMS Warrior but I like the Victory the best.
See you soon land lubbers.
Guess what I found this weekend? A TARDIS disguised as a Police Box or a Police Box disguised as a TARDIS. WHICH WAY ROUND IS IT??!!
I know this isn’t a filming location but I hope you find it interesting to see anyway. The TARDIS materialised in Boscombe in Bournemouth, Dorset earlier this week and is a real Police Box. Police Boxes used to be found all over the country but this new box is only one of two working boxes- the other is in London.
The TARDIS was originally built to blend into its surroundings by using the chameleon circuit, however it got stuck disguised as a Police Box after the First Doctor visited London in 1963.
I had a good look round the Police Box but was sad to see that is most definitely NOT bigger on the inside like my TARDIS.
Have a look at this BBC News report to find out more and remember to check it out if you are in the area.
Today is also the birthday of Peter Davison , the Fifth Doctor! Happy birthday if you’re reading!
See you soon and I will introduce a new location. Byeee!
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