PREPARE for an invasion - Daleks and Cybermen are ready to take over Glasgow, and it's going to be the greatest show on earth.

Glasgow gets set to host Dr Who creature exhibit

By Mark SmithPREPARE for an invasion - Daleks and Cybermen are ready to take over Glasgow, and it's going to be the greatest show on earth.

Around 200,000 visitors are expected to flock to Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum over the coming nine months for a Doctor Who exhibition, which opens next week.

Visitors will be able to get close to 100 props, costumes, monsters and creatures at the event, which covers more than 700sq m.

Along with the more well-known baddies, the rhino-headed Judoon will be on display, plus costumes worn by Doctor's companion Martha Jones and guest star Kylie Minogue, and a virtual version of the Doctor himself, David Tennant, below.

Experience Design and Management, the firm behind the exhibition, and Culture and Sport Glasgow have been planning the event for 18 months and it's expected to be bigger than Kelvingrove's 2007 Kylie exhibit, which attracted 160,000 people.

Bailie Liz Cameron said: "This is the only Scottish date for the Doctor Who Exhibition and it promises to be an experience visitors won't forget in a hurry."

We came out from behind the sofa for a sneak preview and spoke to Neill Gorton of special effects company Millennium FX, the man behind the monsters.

  • The Doctor Who Exhibition opens next Saturday March 28. The first two days are already sold out. Family tickets (two adults, two children) cost £18 plus booking fee. For tickets and info visit www.secxtra.com

MOX OF BALHOON
NOT the most pleasant of creatures but then he does communicate by spitting. The Mox was one of the delegates who watched the end of the world with the Doctor and Rose.

He's a little blue man on a plinth played by Glaswegian actor Jimmy Vee but the original description in the script was very different.

It said 'a dish with a weird jelly and a single eye' but the budget meant we had to change that, explains Neill.

I'd worked with Jimmy Vee before so I had moulds of his body already and it was easy.

Jimmy has since become a Doctor Who regular, playing a space pig, the red-faced Bannakaffalatta, and the very bad-tempered Grask.
THE FACE OF BOE
HE'S a gigantic face floating in a tank who could be millions of years old and might just be a very ancient, very wrinkly version of the Doctor's friend Captain Jack Harkness.

Neill Gorton remembers well the process of creating the Face for his first appearance in the Christopher Eccleston episode The End of the World.

"Writer Russell T Davies described it in the script as a 5ft face in a giant fish tank and I loved the concept," says Neill.

"In fact everyone loved him because he was so big and alien."

Neill did a concept sketch and then built him in his workshop; although at first he could only move his eyes.

"He didn't do a lot or say anything but there was just something about his face that worked."
THE CYBERMEN
CLANG. Clang. Clang. You can never forget the sinister metallic march of the Cybermen and the exhibition is a chance to see how they move and speak.

They originally appeared with the first Doctor, William Hartnell, in 1966 and have battled virtually every Doctor since.

Neill's job was to update the originals for a modern audience while staying true to the past. "You have to keep some things like the handlebars and the expressionless faces," he says.

Neill remembers that Russell T Davies wanted them to look and feel like metal.

In other words, no tacky silver spray or tin foil. "You have to remember you have the original audience but you have a whole new audience too," explains Neill.

"We have to honour the original but do something appropriate for now."

DALEK
AFTER 46 years, they're still the best monsters of them all.

They appeared in the second Doctor Who story in 1963 and, apart from one or two tweaks, have remained almost unchanged.

They were originally designed by Raymond Cusick and updated in 2005 by the BBC art department.

Neill Gorton is a big fan of the design: "If you look at the Dalek, there have been upgrades - they've been Mini Coopered. But it keeps the original form."

The look and shape, says Neill, connects with children and adults. "There is something about it that flows," he says. "The design just struck a chord at a primal level."
WEEPING ANGEL
THE creepiest monster by far. The statute-like terrors feed on human energy and the only way to escape is to avoid blinking. Blink - and you're dead.

They were created by Steven Moffat, the Scots writer who takes over as Who boss next year.

Neill loved the concept: "It's great to take something everyday like a statute and make it sinister."

But what about the scare factor? Neill says he has always known where to draw the line. "We have never had a this is too scary' discussion but, of course, Doctor Who is very much about the scare.

"It's such an important part of the programme."