Doctor Who has taken fans across time and space for more than 60 years. Now, the long-running British sci-fi series is preparing to land in a brand new place: the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego, CA. On March 15, Doctor Who: Worlds of Wonder will bring its extensive and interactive exhibit to the US for the first time. Ahead of its premiere, Nerdist spoke with the exhibit’s curator–and mega Doctor Who fan!—Steven Swaby about prop selections, making Doctor Who accessible to all, and why fans will love this new Comic-Con Museum offering.
But, before we get into that, here’s a bit more about what Doctor Who: Worlds of Wonder will include:
The exhibit features an extensive array of original props and sets, and a unique collection of behind-the-scenes resource materials from the world’s longest-running science fiction show. This multi-sensory exhibit invites visitors to experience the Doctor’s adventures, come face to face with a selection of iconic characters, and explore some of the worlds visited on screen, all while learning about the real-life science behind the show’s memorable moments. A wealth of scientific “wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey” topics like the concept of time travel, artificial intelligence, DNA manipulation, and cloning can be explored throughout the exhibit.
Additionally, Swaby revealed to Nerdist that this exhibit will have all 17 Doctor costumes in one place!
Nerdist: What is your personal connection with Doctor Who?
Steven Swaby: It’s a lifelong relationship. I think probably my earliest memory of absolutely anything at all was watching John Pertwee in about 1973 on TV and just being immediately captivated by this guy in tunnels with giant maggots. I was kind of hooked for life then, really. And it has obviously been a great pleasure many years later to get the opportunity to work on this exhibition.
I love it. What is it about Doctor Who that makes it the perfect show to bring to the Comic-Con Museum as an exhibit?
Swaby: I was really excited when I heard it was going to Comic-Con because obviously there’s a big fan base in the States these days. It’s grown exponentially over the years, and it’s this kind of locus for fantasy and sci-fi. So if it’s going to debut anywhere in the United States, what better venue? It’s already been to England, Scotland, and New Zealand, so it’s gradually working its way around the planet!
Yes, the American audience is truly continuing to grow even more with it being on Disney+ Plus! Comic-Con is the gathering place for the sci-fi lovers among us, indeed. Now, from a curator’s perspective, what are the elements that are needed to be able to build an effective and memorable exhibit experience for guests?
Swaby: I think for this one in particular, it was making sure that it was accessible to people who weren’t necessarily hardcore fans of the show. If you have a vague idea of who and what Doctor Who is, and go in and still have a good time, that’s the goal. Parents and grandparents could go along with the kids.
I wanted to make it as accessible as possible, but the prime ingredients that make it really important for fans are lots of real stuff, real costumes, real props. And for me it was very important to take in the entire history of the show. So from the 1960s through today, I wanted a long view of science and Doctor Who’s relationship from the very beginning. That’s obviously a bit of a challenge when you’ve got 60 years of material to haul into one room. It was a process of working out what we could include and what we could leave out, and what we had to leave out. And in a way, we were led by the props and the costumes and the things that we had available. That kind of helped shape it and narrow it down a little bit.
I was wondering about the prop selection process! Was there anything that you really wanted to include that you were not able to?
Swaby: Yes, there were a few things. I mean, having a look around the props warehouse, which is a secret location in the UK, I was like a kid in a candy store! There was just stuff packed in there everywhere. But there were a few things we couldn’t find. For example, the original Siluran costumes from 1970 had long since perished. They weren’t built to last… And there were other costumes and props that have perhaps gone to auction and private collectors over the years that are very difficult to track down.
The other thing which I really tried hard with was to get some of the original Radiophonic Workshop stuff from Delia Derbyshire’s collection [Editor’s Note: Derbyshire made the electronic arrangement for Doctor Who’s theme music.]
And again, a lot of that stuff is either in private hands now or just ended up somewhere and the BBC threw them out many years ago thinking they were of no value whatsoever. So yeah, there were a few disappointments like that, but we had an embarrassment of riches to draw on from other aspects of the show!
There are so many wonderful things that did get included! Thankfully, we have YouTube to at least give us more insight into Derbyshire’s work. I’d love for you to take us through the entire process of building this exhibit from inception to completion.
Swaby: My starting point was with my colleague Adam Sanders [of Sanders Exhibition Services], who originally came up with the idea with Sarner International. He got in touch with me and said, “We’re thinking about doing something with Doctor Who and science that hasn’t been done before for a touring exhibition. Can you just send me a list of ten things where science relates to Doctor Who?”
I immediately dropped the really boring piece of work that I was doing at the time and just hammered away at the keyboard. There was a list a lot longer than just ten items! That was our starting point… We wanted to look at things like technology and space science, obviously. But I felt looking at environmental science, biology, and how the natural world has influenced a lot of what you see in Doctor Who in terms of planets and creature designs and things like that.
In a way, we ended up dividing the exhibition into two halves, space science and technology, and then life science and looking at the human relationship with technology and the future of us as a species, which is obviously still a massively ongoing concern with AI. Are we surrendering our humanity to technology? What have we gained? What do we lose? And you can see that as a strand in Doctor Who that’s still there today.
I love that you were able to fuse all of those things together! From a fan’s perspective, what did it feel like to be a part of such a wonderful project?
Swaby: It was a dream come true, really, and it was a dream job to work on. It was a pleasure all the way through the process. The BBC was fantastic to work with because they just trusted me as a fan of the show to just go with it…On the actual day the exhibit opened in Liverpool and I walked around was actually overwhelming because for the first time it was real for me. It wasn’t just stuff on paper. And seeing all that stuff together in one room and seeing people of all ages taking such delight as well was just a fantastic moment. And it is definitely one of the most fun projects I’ve ever worked on.
To grab your tickets for Doctor Who: Worlds of Wonder exhibit, head over to the Comic-Con Museum’s website.