The World of David Walliams: General Discussion

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Doctor Who is now a severely tarnished IP though? There's no Doctor presently, they've destroyed their viewing figures and even told the crew they don't anticipate it coming back properly outside the odd special for a while.

The BBC have confirmed that Doctor Who is returning for a Christmas Special in 2026, produced by Bad Wolf and Russell The Davis. They have also commissioned a new animated series to air on CBeebies.

In late October the BBC stated:

"We can assure fans the Doctor is not going anywhere, and we will be announcing plans for the next series in due course which will ensure the TARDIS remains at the heart of the BBC.”

Whether it's a tarnished IP, or not, is up for debate.

 

[PhalanaxOperativeA1127]

You wouldn't even need to film something unique; depending on the storyline of the ride, of course, but im sure you could just use a clip of the doctor in his tardis, fiddling with the console, lifted straight from an episode.

Equally, you just film a quick 30s clip every time they film a new "click subscribe on this YouTube channel at the end or every DW YouTube video".

There are always ways if all parties want to make something work. However, the chances of Dr who at AT are slim

 

[AT86]

I wonder if the plan to roll out the Animal Treasure Island theme across other Merlin parks has survived the latest management changes? Could this be a contender for the Dungeons building / TWODW and or Horizon?

The original plan was:

Animal Treasure Island is part of an international roll-out project by Merlin Entertainments that will see the experience rolled out to other parks in the group following its opening at Gardaland in 2025

Gardaland to Premiere New IP Adventure “Animal Treasure Island” - EuroAmusement Professional

www.eap-magazin.de

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

You wouldn't even need to film something unique; depending on the storyline of the ride, of course, but im sure you could just use a clip of the doctor in his tardis, fiddling with the console, lifted straight from an episode.

You can't simply lift a clip from a broadcast television episode and stick it into a ride environment. The lighting will be wrong, the aspect ratio will be wrong, the audio mix will be wrong, and the context will be wrong. Unless the ride narrative is "The Doctor ignores you while having a conversation with a companion who isn't there," it breaks immersion instantly.

Equally, you just film a quick 30s clip every time they film a new "click subscribe on this YouTube channel at the end or every DW YouTube video".

There are always ways if all parties want to make something work. However, the chances of Dr who at AT are slim

Equity contracts are notoriously rigid. You can't just point a camera at an actor during a promo shoot and say "say these lines for a theme park ride" without triggering a separate negotiation for usage rights, residuals, and fees for a different medium. The unions are extremely hot on this.

I wonder if the plan to roll out the Animal Treasure Island theme across other Merlin parks has survived the latest management changes? Could this be a contender for the Dungeons building / TWODW and or Horizon?

The original plan was:

Gardaland to Premiere New IP Adventure “Animal Treasure Island” - EuroAmusement Professional

www.eap-magazin.de

I wouldn't rule it out entirely. Animal Treasure Island certainly fits the bill of the "Midway Mindset" era, creating a generic, owned IP that can be copy and pasted across the estate to avoid paying licensing fees (Lego Mythica being a good example).

Looking at Fiona Eastwood's recent strategic shifts though, she seems to be pivoting aggressively towards established global brands (Minecraft, Jumanji, Bluey). I wonder if a generic animal adventure fits into a portfolio that is trying to compete with Universal?

I could see the logic in using it as a cost effective refresh for the Dungeons building / TWODW, as you suggest. It saves paying David Walliams or the BBC. But for Project Horizon? I struggle to see them putting a £12.5m headline coaster in a shed and theming it to a knock off Madagascar. It feels a little small.

 

[PhalanaxOperativeA1127]

You can't simply lift a clip from a broadcast television episode and stick it into a ride environment. The lighting will be wrong, the aspect ratio will be wrong, the audio mix will be wrong, and the context will be wrong. Unless the ride narrative is "The Doctor ignores you while having a conversation with a companion who isn't there," it breaks immersion instantly.

Equity contracts are notoriously rigid. You can't just point a camera at an actor during a promo shoot and say "say these lines for a theme park ride" without triggering a separate negotiation for usage rights, residuals, and fees for a different medium. The unions are extremely hot on this.


I wouldn't rule it out entirely. Animal Treasure Island certainly fits the bill of the "Midway Mindset" era, creating a generic, owned IP that can be copy and pasted across the estate to avoid paying licensing fees (Lego Mythica being a good example).

Looking at Fiona Eastwood's recent strategic shifts though, she seems to be pivoting aggressively towards established global brands (Minecraft, Jumanji, Bluey). I wonder if a generic animal adventure fits into a portfolio that is trying to compete with Universal?

I could see the logic in using it as a cost effective refresh for the Dungeons building / TWODW, as you suggest. It saves paying David Walliams or the BBC. But for Project Horizon? I struggle to see them putting a £12.5m headline coaster in a shed and theming it to a knock off Madagascar. It feels a little small.

You can't simply lift a clip from a broadcast television episode and stick it into a ride environment. The lighting will be wrong, the aspect ratio will be wrong, the audio mix will be wrong, and the context will be wrong. Unless the ride narrative is "The Doctor ignores you while having a conversation with a companion who isn't there," it breaks immersion instantly.

Equity contracts are notoriously rigid. You can't just point a camera at an actor during a promo shoot and say "say these lines for a theme park ride" without triggering a separate negotiation for usage rights, residuals, and fees for a different medium. The unions are extremely hot on this.

Like I said in my post; if there is a will from all parties, there's nothing there that can no be overcome.

Again, though, its a non starter.

 

[Hid]

I wonder if the plan to roll out the Animal Treasure Island theme across other Merlin parks has survived the latest management changes? Could this be a contender for the Dungeons building / TWODW and or Horizon?

The original plan was:

Gardaland to Premiere New IP Adventure “Animal Treasure Island” - EuroAmusement Professional

www.eap-magazin.de

Wouldn't be against this Animal Treasure Island at Gardaland is awesome really well done dark ride with a lot of animitronics

 

[Ash]

Wouldn't be against this Animal Treasure Island at Gardaland is awesome really well done dark ride with a lot of animitronics

Although better than nothing, imo it would be an awful addition, particularly in that location.

At a push it might of worked in Mutiny Bay behind Eastern Express or behind the Wickerman gas tanks.

But that location has much potential, particularly thematically. If not something original/victorian/“algenony”, then I still have this gut feeling something Lego orientated.

 

[Dave]

Doctor Who is now a severely tarnished IP though? There's no Doctor presently, they've destroyed their viewing figures and even told the crew they don't anticipate it coming back properly outside the odd special for a while.

The viewing figures were fine, the haters compared streaming era figures against linear tv figures of 2025 to make a point about “woke”.

I personally didn’t like the last season, the doctor was fine and the Wokeness was lovely but I felt RTD story arc was weak, but the IP is still a lot stronger than the right wing would like to suggest.

Certainly stronger than most other IP’s Merlin have.

 

[Matt N]

Looking at Fiona Eastwood's recent strategic shifts though, she seems to be pivoting aggressively towards established global brands (Minecraft, Jumanji, Bluey). I wonder if a generic animal adventure fits into a portfolio that is trying to compete with Universal?

I would maybe not take these as a sign of where Fiona Eastwood herself wants to take Merlin. Jumanji was signed off when Varney was still in power, and Minecraft at very least was signed off during the Scott O’Neil era. I’m hesitant about the role that Eastwood’s tenure had in green lighting those projects, even if she was part of the company.

With that said, it’s hard to tell her intentions at this stage, and it does sound like her aim may be to aspire for big-ticket IPs.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I would maybe not take these as a sign of where Fiona Eastwood herself wants to take Merlin. Jumanji was signed off when Varney was still in power, and Minecraft at very least was signed off during the Scott O’Neil era. I’m hesitant about the role that Eastwood’s tenure had in green lighting those projects, even if she was part of the company.

With that said, it’s hard to tell her intentions at this stage, and it does sound like her aim may be to aspire for big-ticket IPs.

I think you may be underestimating the influence she has held over the direction of the ship, long before she officially took over.

Jumanji may have been a Varney era sign off, but Fiona Eastwood was the Managing Director of Merlin Magic Making (the creative division responsible for designing these attractions) from 2019 to 2021, and then Chief Operating Officer for Midway and RTPs. She was the one overseeing the creative execution and operational delivery of these projects. She hasn't just inherited them, she was also instrumental in building them.

Eastwood would have also been instrumental in the development of the Animal Treasure Island concept, by the same token. She knows exactly what that IP is and what it was designed to do, which was probably fill gaps cheaply without paying royalties.

If we look at what she chose to highlight in her first major interview as CEO. Eastwood didn't talk about Merlin creating their own worlds, or cost effective in house IP. She repeatedly emphasised "branded entertainment destinations". She listed her wins as Lego (biggest toy brand), Minecraft (biggest game), and Peppa Pig (biggest preschool brand). She doesn't mention Bluey in the interview, but it aligns with the strategy.

She explicitly framed the future growth strategy around "partnering with the biggest, most loved properties". That isn't the language of a CEO planning to roll out a generic animal adventure as a headline attraction. Animal Treasure Island might still happen as a tactical filler for smaller footprints (like the Dungeons building), because she knows the value of a cheap fix, but it clearly isn't the "growth lever" she refers to and is betting the parks on.

 

[owenstreet7]

I am genuinely terrified to ask what you mean by an animatronic "with every Doctor".

Unless you are proposing some sort of T-1000 liquid metal terminator technology, or a terrifying blank faced mannequin with projection mapping (which always looks like a haunted Madame Tussauds reject), this is physically impossible. You cannot simply switch a physical animatronic from David Tennant to Matt Smith without physically rebuilding the face and body.

The only way to do "every Doctor" is to do no Doctor, and have the ride guided by a companion or a generic UNIT soldier, but then you lose the USP of the IP.

What I mean by an animatronic of every doctor is a show scene where The Doctor and all previous incarnations join in to stop a threat (think Day of the Doctor but in person) so there an an animatronic of each doctor and one gets added every time a new one joins. Considering this is the same company who run Madame Tussauds, I'm sure this is possible.

Thinking about budgets, I'm sure this would be in any contract the BBC offers that the ride must be kept up to date with the actor which I'd imagine will be filming a few scenes in a studio to add to the ride.

I'd imagine set pieces for monsters and the settings, just the Doctor would be a screen for most of it to allow for it to be updated easily.

 

[Matt N]

What I mean by an animatronic of every doctor is a show scene where The Doctor and all previous incarnations join in to stop a threat (think Day of the Doctor but in person) so there an an animatronic of each doctor and one gets added every time a new one joins. Considering this is the same company who run Madame Tussauds, I'm sure this is possible.

I guess Disney does that sort of thing with Hall of Presidents (adding a new animatronic for each new president), but given that Merlin are not Disney and animatronics are not cheap, I’m not sure how feasible that would be.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

What I mean by an animatronic of every doctor is a show scene where The Doctor and all previous incarnations join in to stop a threat (think Day of the Doctor but in person) so there an an animatronic of each doctor and one gets added every time a new one joins. Considering this is the same company who run Madame Tussauds, I'm sure this is possible.

Madame Tussauds creates waxworks. They are static. They are statues. They do not move, they do not speak, and they certainly do not "join in to stop a threat".

Making a lifelike figure that stands still is an art form. Making a lifelike figure that moves convincingly without looking like a terrifying reject from a seaside ghost train is a feat of high end engineering that costs hundreds of thousands of pounds per figure.

You are proposing a scene with at least 15 highly complex animatronics, assuming we stick to the mainline Doctors). A high end, lifelike animatronic (like Disney's A-1000 or a decent Garner Holt figure) costs upwards of $1 million each. Even a budget figure with limited movement, a head turn and an arm wave, will set you back £200,000 - £300,000 once you factor in the programming, control systems, and installation.

Let's be generous and say Merlin can get a bulk discount on 15 Doctors at £250,000 a pop. That is £3.75 million just for the figures in one scene.

Wicker-Man's budget, including marketing spend, sat around the £16 million mark.

You are proposing spending nearly 25% of the entire project budget on static figures in a single room. That leaves you with £12 million to build the actual ride system, the building to house it, the other show scenes, the queue line, the groundworks, the shop, the IP licensing fee and the marketing campaign.

The Curse at Alton Manor, a retheme of an existing ride system, reportedly had a budget of around £2.5 million - £3 million. You would be spending more than an entire dark ride's budget just on robots that, let's be honest, Merlin would fail to maintain within six months.

I guess Disney does that sort of thing with Hall of Presidents (adding a new animatronic for each new president), but given that Merlin are not Disney and animatronics are not cheap, I’m not sure how feasible that would be.

Disney adds one new animatronic every four to eight years, in a park that is open 365 days a year and generates billions in revenue.

Merlin struggles to keep the trommel turning in The Curse at Alton Manor.

If Merlin built a room with 15 animatronic Doctors, I guarantee that within six months, half of them would be motionless, three would have drooping faces, and the Fourth Doctor’s scarf would be caught in the mechanism of the Fifth Doctor’s cricket bat. Within two years, they would simply turn the lights off in that section and call it a "dark ride enhancement".

Thinking about budgets, I'm sure this would be in any contract the BBC offers that the ride must be kept up to date with the actor which I'd imagine will be filming a few scenes in a studio to add to the ride.

I'd imagine set pieces for monsters and the settings, just the Doctor would be a screen for most of it to allow for it to be updated easily.

"While You're Down There" economics, works perfectly well when asking a plumber to check a leaky tap while fixing the boiler, but falls apart completely in the world of commercial media production.

You can't simply film ride content on the side during the main TV production.

Actors and crew are contracted very specifically. Ncuti Gatwa was contracted to film Doctor Who the TV series. If you wanted him to film content for a theme park ride, that is a separate commercial usage. Under Equity rules, that requires a separate negotiation, a separate fee, and usually a buyout for the usage rights in perpetuity (or for the duration of the ride). You can't just ask him to do it for free because he's already in the costume.

You also do not film a theme park attraction using the same setup as a TV drama. A TV show is shot for a 16:9 flat screen in your living room. A ride film is usually immersive, requiring different focal lengths, different lighting, to match the ride environment, higher frame rates, and vastly higher resolutions (often 8K+ or specific aspect ratios for curved screens). You would need to stop the main production, relight the set, bring in different cameras and disrupt a schedule that costs tens of thousands of pounds per hour to run.

The BBC's budget pays for the show. Merlin pays for the ride. The BBC cannot use licence fee payer money to film assets for a commercial third party. Merlin would have to pay for the studio time, the crew, and the talent for those specific hours.

 

[Hid]

Merlin struggles to keep the trommel turning in The Curse at Alton Manor.

Not had a single ride last year where trommel was off didn't they replace it last season

 

[Bowser]

Madame Tussauds creates waxworks. They are static. They are statues. They do not move, they do not speak, and they certainly do not "join in to stop a threat".

They created animatronics for the Spirit of London dark ride though I believe they were a collaboration.

They’ve had other non static models such as King Kong though I can’t speak for how they were created.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

They created animatronics for the Spirit of London dark ride though I believe they were a collaboration.

The Spirit of London figures are effectively glorified window displays with a pneumatic cylinder attached to their elbow. They nod. They wave. They spin a wheel. Whilst charming in a 1993 sort of way, they are essentially automata, not the high fidelity, lip syncing audio animatronics required to portray a specific actor delivering dialogue in a narrative scene.

Unless you are happy for the Doctor to simply stand there and repetitively raise a sonic screwdriver up and down like a metronome, the technology used in Spirit of London is not comparable.

They’ve had other non static models such as King Kong though I can’t speak for how they were created.

The King Kong head was indeed a complex animatronic, but it was not built by the Madame Tussauds in house studios team who sculpt the wax figures. It was commissioned and built by a specialist external vendor (I believe Animatronicios were involved in the London version).

The Madame Tussauds Studio creates static likenesses. Merlin buys robots from other people. They are two very different skill sets.

John Wardley was brought into the Tussauds fold to work on the Royalty and Empire exhibition at Windsor (specifically the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee scene). However, Tussauds hired him precisely because their internal studio team, world renowned for static waxworks, had absolutely no idea how to make things move.

Wardley didn't just ask the wax sculptors to "add a motor". He had to bring in entirely new skill sets and engineering practices from the theatre and film industry, which rather reinforces the point that making it look like a person and making it act like a person are two entirely different disciplines.

Wardley's success also didn't lead to a legacy of in house animatronic production. It didn't spark the creation of a dedicated Movement Department within Tussauds to rival Disney's Imagineering. Once the project was done, and Wardley moved on to bigger things (like Chessington and Alton Towers), Tussauds went straight back to doing what they do best... making very expensive, very still statues of famous people. The relative dearth of complex animatronics in their attractions over the subsequent 40 years tells its own story.

 

[WillPS]

The only way to do "every Doctor" is to do no Doctor, and have the ride guided by a companion or a generic UNIT soldier, but then you lose the USP of the IP.

Or use David Tennant.

 

[tayspru]

I’ve always thought the best solution to any DW ride would be to have it as a UNIT mission. Preshow is set up by an “acting officer” so no need to recast the role

They’ve devised a transport system with sonic technology (AKA a blaster dark ride) and with audio guidance from the Doctor, you have to save the world from an assortment of classic monsters (Dalek, Cybers, Weeping Angels)

The final scene is a hologram linkup of whoever the current Doctor is, congratulating the rider. This would minimise the work demand for the current Doctor with just one clip and some audio lines, while keeping the attraction largely current

That said, as much as I’d love DW at Towers it doesn’t seem likely

 

[Steve Minor]

Interesting development.
If you go on Towers website and look up rides and attractions, the reference to the world of david Walliams is now replaced with its old name of cloud cuckoo land with no rides showing. The Royal Carosel is shown as being in the Towers section.

 

[Fammy]

Interesting development.
If you go on Towers website and look up rides and attractions, the reference to the world of david Walliams is now replaced with its old name of cloud cuckoo land with no rides showing. The Royal Carosel is shown as being in the Towers section.

buuuuut I think it’s kinda been that way since about a few years ago