RandomComment wrote:Bishop84 wrote:I got the impression that it had been closed as WAG, being the landowner, wanted to start a permanent redevelopment of that area and wouldn't extend the council's lease. If the council are hoping to attract another exhibition then I guess that this was incorrect?
I think the council and BBC Worldwide just wanted to save face and the talk about "this being a 5 year deal" and "the plan was always to bring forward the site for development" was just to avoid admitting that the attraction was going because it wasn't economically viable.
Update: I've sent FOI requests to both BBC and the Council asking about visitor numbers.
That's good news, let's hope you don't face the "commercial sensitivity excuse" .
Thinking about this, when The Doctor Who Experience was first touted, the series was planned to run year on year for 13 weeks in Spring. However since then production has been patchy at best. I remember an article in Private Eye Magazine that spoke about how BBC Worldwide were exasperated with the production office for not producing a series in 2013 (the 50th Anniversary year), and that their merchandise sales plummetted every time they had large gaps in production. Since then there have been further long gaps in production, and only one occasion where a series has not had an at least 18 month gap.
It's not diicult to envisage why BBC Worldwide would be exasperated and how visitors to The Doctor Who Experience will have fallen if the show isn't actually being made and broadcast on TV. It's also not difficult to imagine that Autumn scheduling isn't going to bring as many tourists in as Spring scheduling. The Series airing in Spring, and attracting visitors all Summer would have presumably been BBC Worldwide's initial assumption.
When The Experience finally opened in July 2012, the series was being broadcast in September rather than Spring, so already missing out on hype generated by the series, and it was only 4 episodes plus a Christmas Special long instead of a full 13 episodes and Special.
It then returned again in Spring 2013 at last - but this time for only 5 episodes.
The next series wasn't until 18 months in Autumn 2014. It was a full series - but again the Autumn schedule probably not great for helping visitor numbers
The next series was in Autumn 2015. FInally a series only 12 months behind, but still in Autumn.
The next series wasn't until Spring 2017 - back to Spring at last, but a huge gap - and, as I understand it, The Experience had now cut its opening times
With no new series in Spring 2018, and the earliest it could return being presumably Autumn this year, plus the fact that a new lead meant they'd have to re-shoot for the main attraction, it's not difficult to imagine that they might have decided that it was too much of a risk and decided to call time.