In the quiet Allendale Town, 11 miles outside of Hexham, stands the Museum of Classic Sc-Fi.
It's a passion project long in the making for its creator and curator Neil Cole, who has spent years developing his skills in restoring old television props - in particular from the BBC's Doctor Who.
It's a passion project long in the making for its creator and curator Neil Cole, who has spent years developing his skills in restoring old television props - in particular from the BBC's Doctor Who.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Basically I've swapped my day job in the classroom now to sort of rummaging around with old rubber
00:04monsters. I left the classroom actually about two years ago full stop. I'd gone down to part-time
00:10and I'd opened this part-time and then eventually I just thought right I need to, it was just
00:15building and yeah I just thought I want to do, I am going to take the risk and become a museum
00:20owner, curator, artist. I'm just going to do it. I am Neil Cole and I am the creator and curator of
00:26this rather unusual little museum which is the history, tells the history of science fiction
00:32and classic Doctor Who and it's situated in the North Pennines in the little village of Allendale.
00:37When I was five in 1975, I'm that old, my dad took me to Blackpool and there was the TARDIS on the
00:44seafront. It was a bright summer's day. I went down the stairs, there was the giant robot and
00:48the Zygon and the Daleks and from that moment forth I wanted to do a little museum. It was only
00:55when I hit my mid-40s I thought I'm never going to get the chance to do that but I'd been restoring
00:59props and costumes for a little bit and then suddenly this old wreck of a house came along
01:04and even though it was a terrible state I thought this is my chance. I remember seeing an exhibition,
01:10sorry, an auction on Blue Peter in the early 90s where the BBC were selling off all their
01:16props and costumes and I didn't know that that would ever be possible. It was like this magic
01:21veil between the magic and the reality and suddenly it was like impossible to get an original
01:26item and it took me another 10 years when I became a teacher to actually be able to afford the odd
01:32item but the objects I could afford were generally broken and damaged but by this point I'd learned
01:37to become a bit of a sculptor and general artist and I thought I can repair these and I just
01:43was passionate about not letting them just fade away, crumble away. So I sort of self-taught myself
01:49how to preserve and build things and then it sort of kept going. What we have here is an
01:55incredible find. This is the surviving hand puppet, glove puppet, used in Tom Baker's 1975 story
02:04Terror of the Zygons and this is the famous head that comes above the River Thames at the end and
02:09basically it's got moving eyes except it's in really good condition. You can see with
02:14a hole in the back where you have its rod. I say really good condition, let me qualify that. It's
02:20remarkable it exists, that's what I mean. Sorry, so in some ways it's not in very good condition at all
02:25but it is remarkable at this very you know old rubber which is it's all on a sort of carpet foam
02:31sorry upholstery foam which has been folded so you know that degrades and then you've got latex
02:37scales on the top and these latex scales were made using the end of a biro pen originally in
02:42the sculpture. I'm recreating that and it's just fabulous. So actually anywhere you see this clay
02:48is people have said oh should you be should you be altering the original piece and it's a good point.
02:53The reality is all of this was just that yellow foam there. I don't know if you can see that but
03:00just me moving there there's a scale just falling off which I'm not I'm not scared about. Bottom
03:04line that is what happened that's why I'm working on this as fast as possible now because I've put
03:09lots of preservatives on it and gunk to keep the surviving bits together but you're still
03:13going to get little bits falling off and this is why you really do need to get these pieces
03:17solidified and then once it's finished it never needs to you don't want to touch it ever again
03:23so you want it on a stand where you leave it alone. Props now I actually think now in modern films
03:29props have a maybe a potential afterlife because people know people want to could buy them
03:33afterwards and the studios have gotten onto that but the BBC even in the 80s in fact in the 80s
03:39props in some ways were worse because they were made from foam rubber to be as light as possible
03:43on the actors with no intention of them lasting although the exhibitions were quite an ongoing
03:49thing so they were always put into exhibition but in fairness there was no great consideration given
03:55to longevity so it's about preserving ceiling and just that's what I do. It's a little bit scary
04:02when you've had nearly 30 years of your life and a salary and I'm so you get institutionalized in
04:08the job so then suddenly it's like are people going to walk through the door today or you know
04:11is somebody going to buy my book is somebody going to give me a commission or whatever but it's
04:16exciting and I've never to be honest I have no regrets and I just love seeing people when they
04:22come through the door the pleasure I really get is when people go wow I didn't know that exists
04:27that's fat from that and that really is it you know and that's so lovely. The reactions of people
04:32coming in here is mixed you get two types of people coming in here generally you get the most
04:36common pairing is super fan with suffering partner and generally if the suffering partner
04:42manages to come in they generally enjoy it because it is a little nostalgia trip this
04:48and they'll be surprised at themselves I think how many things they did watch when they were
04:51younger how many things are in here like I'm standing right next to a tripod's costume the
04:55number of people who claim not to be sci-fi fans but gone oh the tripods I remember that
04:59and it's that kind of it has that effect so I think it's a nostalgia trip and also but for the
05:04die-hard nerd I say nerd you know enthusiast fellow enthusiast it's a it's a it's just
05:11hopefully a love letter to something we all adore and a chance for people to see up close these
05:15things and they're not just locked away somewhere I'm very fond of the Pteroleptile and Mestor you
05:19know I love the old I love the crazy monsters the ones that people generally don't like Mestor I
05:26feel so sorry for because not only was he I mean it's funny because even though Mestor is from one
05:30of the least liked Doctor Who stories of all time I think it's fair to say um when people
05:35can go oh it's Mestor is that you know it's like no so Mestor did you did like Mestor a little bit
05:41but no Mestor I think that it's that's a case of a story that re-watched you know it it it it has
05:47its moments and the monster itself it just again it you you takes you back to where you were in
05:531984 it does me I can remember where I was when I saw it and it's all associated things every piece
06:00potentially cambering I love the Garm they're one-off monsters and they're unique and these
06:04are the ones that were generally not looked after and I'm very fond of them because I've
06:09had to spend months of my life working on these pieces so you end up like whenever I see Mestor
06:14on telly now I have a warm glow because he's sitting down here and I've sawed him out.