Doctor Who Live

We are, I may have mentioned, Doctor Who fans in this household, so when it was announced there was to be a Doctor Who Live of course we were going to get tickets.  First a moan about the price of parking at Wembly Arena.  We went to the Sunday afternoon show and parked in the event parking BUT it cost £20 to park (now this is not the most expensive gig parking - the 02 is £25), so overall the parking cost us roughly £10 per hour that we were there (it was not a very long show at all).  Yes the parking is convenient, a couple of minutes walk into the arena and yes it should be safe it is monitored but really £2.50 for 15 minutes is a bit much - even MK doesn't charge that yet!!  Should we ever find ourselves in the position of parking there on a Sunday afternoon again, we shall say we are going to the Sunday Market - the parking charges for that are less!!  Just as if you go to the 02 and say you are going to the cinema the parking charges are also a lot less!!

To be honest I wasn't really sure what to expect and I think they probably did a good job trying to pack as many of the monsters and baddies into one story as they could and it was a thrill seeing Nigel Planer who will always be Neil from The Young Ones to Mike and I, but overall the whole event was a little bit lacklustre, something was missing and it didn't have the magic and sparkle that Doctor Who should have and that similar events such as the Walking with Dinosaurs Live had.

Saying that they had put a story together based on a very old Third Doctor (1973) story called The Carnival of Monsters (which coincidentally Jamie and I had watched a few days before the show - unaware of the connection) and the machine used in that episode now contained all the modern baddies and one or two others, and the character played by Nigel Planer was in control of the machine.  Of course the monsters escape and the Doctor ends up trapped in the machine, but we knew we would be safe and the Doctor would save the day.  Saying that we did see some of the amazing creatures - some good and some bad from the Ood ......

the Silurians ....

Winston Churchill - played by Doctor Who stalwart and legendary voice of the Daleks - Nicholas Briggs and one of the stars of Doctor Who we have met and he was lovely.

The Doctor and Amy Pond only appear on the big screen at the back of the stage.

Here is one of the ways the characters got onto and off the stage via the lift Churchill is standing on .......as we were heading to our seats we passed some getting into position in the concourse for their entry into the arena.

There were one or two plants in the audience too who were also part of the cast - here the amazing Judoon are looking for aliens - it must have been an amazing experience for those sat on the floor aisle seats and front row.

The very scary Weeping Angels!

The Clockwork Monsters looking amazing .....

Smilers .......

Liz 10 ......

Cybermen entering the arena - they are big and scary .......

 that was close enough for me .....

 You see it really is Neil from the Young Ones !!!

 And then there were Daleks and the newer bigger version .....

 oh no who is going to save us all .........

 and finally the Doctor to the rescue.  Jamie loves Matt Smith, not quite a David Tennant - I will always prefer my skinny boy in a suit  - but still a promising Doctor.

 The encore and here you can see it's Nicholas Briggs!

 Mike and Jamie with the new Wembly behind them.

 Gorgeous boy in a Chelsea shirt!

 Jamie and yours truly!!

 A bit too close to a Smiler for my liking.

Overall - not bad - not brilliant but somewhere in between.
Ciao

Sue
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Reading challenge 15/16 - currently reading War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (not off my reading challenge)