015 - The Space Museum

Broadcast:

24^th April - 15^th May 1965

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Ian, Barbara, Vicki

Adversary:

Moroks and Time

Written by:

Glyn Jones

Director:

Mervyn Pinfield

Music:

Stock

Script Editor:

Dennis Spooner

Producer:

Verity Lambert

Average Viewers:

9.2m (10.5, 9.3, 8.5, 8.5)

Summary: When time seems to be misbehaving, the travellers make some shocking discoveries in a giant space museum and find themselves in the middle of another revolution as they try to change their own fate and make it out safely.

If The Crusade is a reminder of how lucky we are to have some great serials surviving in good quality when most episodes were supposed to have been destroyed, then The Space Museum is a reminder of how arbitrary the chance of survival was. It is unfair to class it as a bad serial, but it was the first to truly be made on the cheap. The Crusade that came before and especially the six part The Chase that would follow, were necessarily expensive to produce and the money had to come from somewhere. Unfortunately for Glyn Jones it was his story that would suffer that loss and he is present on the DVD commentary to defend his story with numerous pointers as to where the good bits and relevant plot points were taken out. New series writer Robert Shearman is also on hand with a more reflective defence that presents it as a knowing self parody. Personally, I see it as a cracking first episode that shows great potential with immense intrigue and mystery but is followed by an airy and underachieving triplet of episodes. I like it and it's easy to watch but there is a great sense of a missed opportunity and rushed production with loose ends that are never quite tied up.

Although revolution had been a fairly dominant part of background news for some time, as noted in previous reviews, it is perhaps ironic that during this particular revolution story there was relative calm and the news feels a little empty like the episodes of The Space Museum. Manchester United and Liverpool won the Football League First Division and FA Cup respectively, West Germany and Israel establish diplomatic relations and the Pennine Way was officially opened, stretching 267 miles north from the Peak District to just beyond the Scottish border. Meanwhile on the other side of the Atlantic Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were starting work on their now classic "Satisfaction" in a Florida hotel room and the US Hot 100 listed 9 British acts in its top 10. The British chards were topped by Cliff Richard "The Minute You're Gone", The Beatles "Ticket to Ride" and Roger Miller "King of the Road". Cinemas were showing She co staring Peter Cushing and Bernard Cribbins, and the controversial The Party's Over which was banned within its first week (having already been delayed by three years trying to get passed the censors). Daleks were alo in the air at this time. Peter Cushing was filming the first movie and TV audiences were being teased about an imminent return of the Doctor's arch rivals to the show... but not just yet. In fact episode three was even delayed but not by the Daleks - The BBC were broadcasting the 20th anniversary of VE-Day which finished 20 minutes later than expected.

Viewers with an eagle eye and good memory for details would find several Dalek references throughout The Space Museum, including plot moments subtly similar to their first story. The first episode picks up where The Crusade left off: the travellers are still in their period costumes as the TARDIS lights go dim and they seem to be frozen in a slight trance (though this isn't obvious given the number of times episodes end with a 'freeze frame') The TARDIS materialises and we see an array of space rockets lined up next to each other and the next thing we know is that everyone is waking from the trance. The Doctor snaps the lights back on and they discover they are now wearing their regular clothes! Whilst most of them are alarmed by the sudden change, the Doctor seems to take it in his stride "It's time and relativity" he declares. Vicki investigates and finds their 12th century clothes hanging up neatly but when she accidentally drops a glass of water (from the food machine that hasn't been seen since they left Skaro) it miraculously jumps back together and returns to her hand. The Doctor continues to be unimpressed but something is afoot... and when they leave the TARDIS (for the record, the doors are exactly where a modern viewer would expect them, on the left) there is something odd about their feet... they don't leave footprints in the soft dusty surface of the planet. The episode continues to slowly reveal eerie peculiarities such as guards who can't hear them, people talking without making a sound, and their complete inability to draw attention to themselves as if they are invisible... or not really there! They are horrified to encounter a Dalek before realising it is just a lifeless exhibit, then shocked to see the TARDIS as an exhibit as well only they are unable to touch it and the Doctor walks straight through it like it isn't there. Most disturbing, however, is the discovery of themselves stood lifelessly in cabinets. Vicki recites something that apparently explains things "Time, like space, although a dimension in itself, also has dimensions of its own"... to clarify, the Doctor explains that the TARDIS somehow jumped a time track so they were technically out of time, or out of synch with everything else they were seeing until suddenly, via a fast cutting montage we see time catching up with them and the episode ends with them stood in the same relative positions to each other as when the episode started... and the cabinets are no longer there

So the second episode begins and we finally get to hear the guards and from here onwards everything is pretty normal. The travellers are lost in the museum and want to avoid their fate which they have just witnessed... which brings up its own questions about causality and not being able to change the course of history. It's a shame it takes three episodes to resolve because there are lots of long silences and scenes of not much happening. As Robert Shearman notes, perhaps ironically, it is a story about inaction. Although they don't really do anything, they manage to inspire the oppressed Xerons to overthrow the Moroks (although Vicki does take an active role in helping them acquire weapons by outwitting and reprogramming the security computer!). The episodes are so airy and lacking that the third one was half way through before I realised that the Doctor wasn't in it (he had be captured in episode two with a great mind reading computer interrogating him but now Hartnell was on holiday!)

The bones of the story are really good when they are allowed to poke through; The Doctor is frozen in time and it is unknown whether the process can be reversed; Vicki gets clever with the security computer; the Doctor fixates on Ian's missing button as a pointer towards changing their fate (though only for one scene and it is never mentioned again) "The least important things, dear boy, sometimes lead to discoveries". But the flesh that hangs on those bones is feeble. Barbara and Ian go round in circles until they decide to unravel her cardigan to help them find their way out like Theseus in the Labyrinth, only it would only help them identify when they crossed their path; what Vicki does to the computer isn't properly explained and comes out as almost meaningless; Ian doesn't actually appear to have lost a button and absolutely nothing is said about the far more obvious loss of Barbara's cardigan. Both the Moroks and Xerons are pretty ineffectual and their performance exaggerates it in a bad way (they were purposefully written as ineffectual to the point of their names: Morok came from 'moron' while Xeron stood for 'zero'), but among the rest of the serial's lacklustre elements they just look poorly acted and undirected.

Unfortunately, for the most part the actors were undirected. Mervyn Pinfield may have had a knack when it came to technical matters, hence his appointment to this story, but that seems to have taken all his focus and the actors were left to their own devices as long as they were in the right place for his rather flat shot compositions. The sets are very bare and simple while costumes are likewise uninteresting, apart from the convention-twist that the 'goodies' are dressed in black while the 'baddies' are in white. The Morok costumes aren't too bad but the Xeron's are merely in slacks and pullovers. Vicki unnecessarily has a new costume for this serial that really doesn't work either. Music is sparse and from various stock collections rather than the more expensive option of new compositions, though the sting as the Dalek is first seen is vaguely reminiscent of Tristram Cary's music from The Daleks. Oddly, however, at that moment the camera focusses on the main cast's reaction before the Dalek is even seen. The following shot that reveals it also reveals that it is an exhibit (the only one to have any identifying labels!) A more interesting first shot would have included the Dalek in the foreground so the audience gets the scare as well. Ray-gun acting is a little rough and an unfortunate lens flair occurs at inappropriate moments making them look like they are being fired and the sound effect, being played into the studio live are nearly all out of synch. Hand to hand combat scenes are reasonable though, and actually quite good for the multi-camera method used.

As I've said already, it's not all bad. There is a moment where the Moroks try to cut the TARDIS doors open, we learn that the Doctor is afflicted by rheumatism when he is cold and that he was with James Watt when he realised the potential power of steam and Ian's interpretation of pre-determinism and belief that they can't get shot otherwise they will never end up in the cabinets... despite the button/cardigan 'paradox', and Barbara's statement that "actually, all the doors and corridors are alike". The Doctor also acquires a 'Time And Space Visualiser' but doesn't explain what it does and we don't even get to see it (yet)! The real highlight of the serial though comes at the very end. The main story finishes and the TARDIS dematerialises about five minutes earlier than you might expect (though the episode does under-run slightly so it's only about three minutes from the end) and we see a star-field, a galaxy, then a planet before we finally see a close up of a control panel and hear a familiar throbbing background noise... the TARDIS is being observed by Daleks who intend to pursue it until the end of time with their own time machine! The serial ends with a Dalek cry of "They will be exterminated! Exterminated! Exterminated!" and we see the new Dalek design for the first time - the rear dish added last time has gone and vertical slats (solar panels) have been added all around - a design that will remain with only minor changes due to repairs and reproduction for the remainder of the shows original run.

A couple of things worth watching out for (if only to make the viewing more interesting!): A rare line fluff by Jacqueline Hill and a potential save by Maureen O'Brien as Hartnell seems to dry (however it may be either a scripted hesitation from the Doctor that William Hartnell floundered on a little too long or Vicki's prompting was also scripted); The Xeron Tor is played by Jeremy Bulloch who had previously been in Cliff Richard's "Summer Holiday" but would go on to play Boba Fett in the Star Wars trilogy (He also appeared in The Time Warrior); The stools seen in The Sensorites reappear in various places as pedestals throughout the museum and the time bending dome covered prop responsible for the travellers' initial predicament would go on to appear in various forms in The War Machines, The Wheel In Space, The Seeds Of Death, and Spearhead From Space. Not so good, but also worth noting is the corrugated door than leads into the Space Museum because the model doesn't quite match the set... it's corrugated, but more like door that folds up along its corrugations than just a sheet of corrugated metal that slides. Oh and how could I forget, the Doctor hiding inside the Darlek and popping his head out with a chuckle!

To end things, The Space Museum accumulated a score of 40%, by far the lowest to date due to it's limited costumes, sets, and pretty much everything else. Concept and intrigue scored highly due to the first episode but were not enough to save it over all. I think it would benefit from a re-edit to eliminate the drudge and tighten the pace. Before I re-watched it I had a feeling that The Space Museum was a just a two parter and while that might be too tight in reality, all the episodes are short with two of them containing barely 20 minutes of new material (rather than the average 23) leading to a total length six minutes shorter than the two previous four part serials and only 15 longer than the three part Planet Of Giants. Don't be too hard on it, just try and overlook the very low budget and wonder at how good it could have been!