Should a Park Build a Doctor Who Themed Ride?

[dropzonefan]

Well, with the 50th Aniversery just passed, I thought it should start a topic on this (sorry if its in the wrong area, so mods, feel free to move this to random). Personally, I think if one of the British parks could ever get the rights to the show, they could make an awesome darkride/coaster out of it... Maybe a launched euro fighter with a great indoor section, and then a launch/lift outdoors.

 

So, what's your takeon the idea?

Edited November 25, 2013 by cfc

[TPDave]

A dark ride on the Spiderman/Darkastle system would be really cool. Again it comes down to demand being there for the ride, the show certainly has extreme fans but maybe not so many casual fans as some of the other franchises picked up by parks.

 

Then again we have a ride themed to the Saw franchise in the UK so I guess any tie in is possible!

[Stu K]

I would love to see this but maybe in a bigger park with more budget. Even if this means state side. Altons take on charlie was terrible.

 

Stu K

[FLIPDUDE]

I actually thought about this ages ago, considered making a nolimits ride out of it. I think it's a great idea and I find it hard to believe none of the Tussaud's parks tried to reach for the franchise. My guess is they inquired about it and couldn't come to an agreement about purchasing the rights or whatnot. But In my head I see Thorpe Park's COlossus themed to "Attack of the Daleks" with Dr. Who theming and a stime vortex tunnel around the inline twists.

[A.J.]

At first I wondered if there were any BBC-licensed themed areas in UK parks but then I remembered that CBeebies Land is being built. So, anything's possible I guess.

 

I think that a story issue with a Doctor Who-themed attraction is the regeneration thing - it's not like Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings where you have one actor that basically represents the role. Would it have been worth it to build a Doctor Who attraction themed to the Eleventh Doctor back in 2010, when you would have to basically gut it and re-theme it now in 2013 where we're moving onto the Twelfth, and do the same thing every time a regeneration happens in the canon story?

[FLIPDUDE]

At first I wondered if there were any BBC-licensed themed areas in UK parks but then I remembered that CBeebies Land is being built. So, anything's possible I guess.

 

I think that a story issue with a Doctor Who-themed attraction is the regeneration thing - it's not like Harry Potter or the Lord of the ringy dingy ding-a-ling dings where you have one actor that basically represents the role. Would it have been worth it to build a Doctor Who attraction themed to the Eleventh Doctor back in 2010, when you would have to basically gut it and re-theme it now in 2013 where we're moving onto the Twelfth, and do the same thing every time a regeneration happens in the canon story?

Well to be fair you dont actually need to have the doctor there. A tardis, some dalkes, some cybermen, space theming, and you're good.

 

Obviously if you do a dark ride you'd need actors and context and all that, but if you're just sticking some heavy theming on a rollercoaster you could get away with it.

[rubysparkles]

Yes, it would be awesome if a park built a Doctor Who ride. There are more than enough casual fans in the UK to build hype. I don't think it would have to be updated for every Doctor either. They could show multiple Doctors, like they did in the 50th, or just not have the Doctor appear (like others have suggested). I think I would prefer a dark ride, but something similar to Veil of Darkness would be awesome.

[Jew]

I think it would definitely have to be in the U.K. It's the current nerdy/hip thing to like in the U.S., but I don't think it has a mainstream following here. I personally haven't ever seen the show and don't have any inclination to do so.

[cfc]

I've watched a few episodes of the older episodes of Dr. Who, and while I'm not a huge fan of the show, I understand its appeal. An attraction like this could be huge in the UK. They could sidestep the "regeneration" thing by making a dark ride into a journey to the Doctor's home world, which is interrupted by his old enemies, such as the Daleks and the Cybermen.

[Moose]

They key would to be focus on the monsters not he not the doctor, basically putting the rider in the place of the doctor and or companions.

 

The weeping angels could make for a terrifying dark ride, but maybe only for fans which is the whole problem.

[A.J.]

Not knowing about a certain monster can be solved with a good enough story. Expedition Everest is a great example of this.

[gisco]

Who is this Who you speak of?

 

I don't think that most people here in the States know much about Dr. Who. If they did something like a dark ride and did it good, probably wouldn't matter too much.

[cfc]

^^Hmm--most people have heard of a "yeti" or "abominable snowman." The Doctor's enemies might need even more "setting up" for non-fans, although the Daleks are pretty well known.

[J man]

A dark ride themed to Doctor Who would be ideal if they were going to go all out. I could see it being similar to the Indiana Jones Adventure. Indy only appears physically in the ride 3 times. Something similar could be done with The Doctor. Or have The Doctor only appear in the ride via some sort of audio only communication guiding riders through the ride and helping them avoid monsters. That would make it much easier if they need to change the ride depending on the actor currently playing The Doctor. Maybe even make it a shooter dark ride where riders have sonic screwdriver themed guns.

 

Although I think a roller coaster themed to the TARDIS would be a more realistic option.

[Sir Clinksalot]

Yesterday I would have probably said no ... but we went to see the 50th in the theater last night and the theater we went to had to add a 2nd show due to demand. And this was in Oxnard. So I'd imagine that the demand is probably there.

 

No matter the theme of a ride, if it's a good ride it's going to be popular. I personally can't stand the Transformers movies but I think the ride is amazing. I know plenty of people who don't care for The Simpsons but absolutely love the ride.

 

If it's done right, it won't really matter.

 

All that said, I really don't see it happening anytime soon.

[dropzonefan]

^Completely agree... While I don't see one being. Built, I can totally see how it'd work. Really, just look at all the horrible dark rides out there, or ones with characters just made up by the park, that are still operating. Agree that as long as the ride itself is good, people would ride it.

[_IntaMAN_]

I thought of this a while back as well and not only did I think of a ride, but maybe also a Halloween attraction? Basically my friends and I had an idea: You enter through the TARDIS as the facade for each room being transported through time and on the way you encounter different enemies/ monsters such as The Weeping Angels, The Family of Blood's Scarecrows, the Waters of Mars zombies and etc. We wanted to really have the idea for a maze/ Halloween attraction like this but due to the fact that we might get in trouble with BBC or sued we scrapped the idea.

 

As for a ride, I thought of something along the lines of Torchwood where you'd experience how it was like to work for them taking down Daleks, Cybermen, etc. in an interactive dark ride. Or like previously mentioned, a dark ride that takes place on Galifrey during the Time War where you battled Daleks on your way to safety. This idea would work much better especially after the events that took place during "Day of the Doctor".

 

Again, there's a lot of ideas that have floated through my head but they're all just food for thought, I would of course, love to see some type of Doctor Who themed attraction come to life someday.

[rctneil]

As a big Doctor Who fan, a ride based on it would be excellent but if you think of the amount of potential content a ride (of any type) could have, there is an abnormally huge amount.

 

If a ride were to be built, I guess it would have to be totally filtered down to one theme within the doctor who universe for it to work successfully. I can think of so many ride concepts that would be amazing but I guess executing them well would be very difficult to please the die hard fans.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

It simply must be a dark ride that's bigger on the inside.

[GwaziBSRider1]

I really don't see one in the US, but maybe the UK. A dark ride would be amazing. For some reason, I'm picturing something like the Nights in White Satin dark ride at Hard Rock Park.

[willthegolfer]

If there is a Doctor Who themed ride, there has to be a pre-ride presentation that just consists of the dialogue between the Daleks and Cybermen in the episode "Doomsday."

 

[Aceattack52]

I'm not a Doctor Who fan at all, so I know nothing about it, and with that being said, I'm not alone. There would have to be some kind of set up before the ride. It seems like it's possible, but could be a difficult task to accomplish.

[HouchenMagouchen]

I think the problem with a Doctor who ride is that its a series of adventures, each with its own setting. You would have to choose one of the settings for the entire ride, otherwise it would be just too plain confusing for people new to Doctor Who. But if you only choose one setting, then you are leaving out all the other sets of villains and side characters.

[GwaziBSRider1]

^ This isn't an issue that's only limited to Doctor Who. This can happen when creating a ride based around any series. It's tough to try to cater to both fans and series newbies in one ride. You'll never please both, so it's best to try to make it as exciting as possible to draw in the crowds.

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

^Doctor Who has no shortage of exciting moments...but therein lies the problem. With the series centered around exploring time and space, the show's universe expands with literally every episode, giving a near infinite amount of options to write the ride's story around. While one could incorporate many of the more iconic moments, there's just a vast amount of things and places, and that list grows with nearly every episode.