tardis
DOCTOR Who’s time travel device, the Tardis, has landed in its latest location - a Liverpool dockside road in January 2008.
The iconic blue police box, whose name stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, is attracting scores of sci-fi enthusiasts since being recreated by MDL Timber, a merchants based on Denbigh Street in the shadow of Beetham Tower.
Manager Greg Mercer came up with the idea of recreating The Doctor’s time-travel machine out of exterior plywood before Christmas.
The company has sold two versions already and each new incarnation takes joiner Steven Conlin and a small crew just one day to complete.
At £375, the “funky-shed” is constructed using a novel joinery technique, but Mr Mercer has not gone as far as replicating the Tardis’s reality warping internal fixtures and fittings.
In the BBC’s sci-fi series, the interior occupies a separate set of dimensions to the exterior, containing libraries, gardens, swimming pools, and even a cricket pavilion.
But inside the wooden structure that attracts scores of passers-by on Great Howard Street, there is simply a wooden seat.
The Tardis is famously almost indestructible, but the flashing blue police light on top of the MDL version has broken after being left on continuously for hours.
“It’s just the bulb that’s gone,” said Mr Mercer, the designer and son-in-law of MDL owner Eddie Stephens.
“What we wanted to do was create something special for kids that takes them away from their computer consoles and lets them use a creative space imaginatively.
“We’ve heard people on the radio phone in and ask when The Doctor landed on Great Howard Street.”
Fellow manager Alan Bretherton added: “We’ve had loads of people stopping and taking pictures. If we’d got paid for people asking to take pictures, we would have made a few pounds by now.”
Neither are huge Doctor Who fans, although Mr Mercer said he always enjoyed sitting down with his family on Saturday evenings to watch the show.
Sci-fi is not the limit to the firm’s ambitions either. Some other MDL designs have attracted Everton football stars Tim Cahill and Tony Hibbert.
Mr Mercer said: “We’re trying to produce sheds that aren’t the run-of-the mill deal and are modern and classic looking.
“Tony Hibbert asked us for a dog kennel but it had heaters and all sorts in it.
“We believe that we can design and build to suit any situation or budget and have a design service to advice you on that perfect building.”
Mr Mercer and his team are now hoping for more commissions for new creative designs..
