Season Two@60 The Space Museum

 

I’m at a loss as to why `The Space Museum` always fares so badly in various polls over the years where it has even ended up at the very foot of the table. Just off the top of my head I can think of at least thirty stories its better than. The first episode alone is surely one of the finest Sixties episodes of all. All of the aspects singled out by some reviewers are actually no worse (and sometimes better) than in many other stories. Most are the production shortcomings which fans of classic Doctor Who are surely used to by now. 

It may lack the resources to fully realise the concept yet it keeps moving and the first episode is an exceptional one by any standards. It’s the sort of concept you might see in any era of Doctor Who though perhaps most closely associated with the modern series and Steven Moffat in particular. It’s the first time the show really asks questions about time travel something with which both the characters and the audience will now be familiar with. It’s also when the Doctor starts name dropping historical figures whom we don’t see in the series itself. Along with the fact that the later episodes depict a revolution incited by the travellers’ presence, `The Space Museum` feels like a template for many a subsequent story.

It opens in a most peculiar way with the four regulars gathered around the Tardis console but standing totally still and staring blankly almost as if we’ve caught them just before the director says “action.” When they come back to life their clothes have somehow changed from the `Crusade` outfits and that’s not all. When Vicki drops a glass of water- which she has fetched from the very noisy futuristic water cooler- it bounces up from the floor back into her hand.

Outside on a desert planet where there a lot of parked spaceships from different places- this vista of model work has a lovely retro sci-fi look to it – they discover their progress leaves no footsteps in the sand. They encounter a large building and hide rather poorly but remain unseen by the inhabitants. This could be a homage to the many times characters in the show hide in places where they should clearly be seen. The mystery builds further when they find that this is a museum but they cannot touch any of the exhibits. Are they invisible? The production simmers with the occasional burst of melodramatic music before they find what seems to the Tardis -again they can walk through it- and finally in the episode’s keynote moment they see themselves, frozen as exhibit.. It’s a striking image with the lighting set to emphasise how still these exhibits are. It’s still impressive today but imagine seeing this in 1965. I bet fans of the day were talking about it all week.

This is all fascinating material and presented with an unsettled air for the viewer. Eschewing the standard episode one menu Glyn Jones’ script pokes and prods at the situation rather than introduces the protagonists and has the foursome debate possible reasons for what is happening. Are they seeing an inevitable future or can their own knowledge of this change what happens? Each of them is clearly intrigued as well as concerned and the episode provides William Hartnell in particular with some excellent scenes. You start to see just how much later Doctors drew- consciously or otherwise- from performances like this one. At one point for example he seems more concerned about a missing button on Ian’s jacket than anything (a red herring as it has no relation on the story). It reminds me of Tom Baker at his most imperial.

Maureen O’Brien too finally gets more screen time and we get a look at the potential of Vicki as a character who is more mature and experienced than the way Susan was portrayed. The Doctor / Vicki rapport may seem similar to that between the Doctor and Susan yet has a more intellectual sense to it. Whereas had Susan been here she would have screamed every time something weird happens, Vicki takes much of it in her stride, as fascinated by it all as is the Doctor. He in turn indulges her theories even if he sometimes resorts to telling her off like a parent. All told its one of the classic episode ones as good as any in whatever era of the show.

Inevitably this atmospheric tone cannot be maintained. Part One relies on the utter silence of the scenario; there is very little incidental music and nor are their background noises. We see both the Moroks and Xerons but as silent characters who are unaware of their presence. Once the quartet have realised, they have `jumped a time track` and things will sync back we meet other characters and enter a more conventional storyline. Despite the change to a more regular style the story still centres on an intriguing premise as it soon becomes clear that whatever the four do, they are headed for the same inevitability

The planet is Xeros, conquered by a race called the Moroks a long time ago. Like any mighty empire, the Moroks are now in a state of decline – all they seem to have done with the place is build a massive museum to their own achievements, a symbol of their hubris. There are hints of how powerful they are, especially by the fact they have a captive Dalek amongst the exhibits but generally this is an empire gone to seed. The native Xerons – who seem exclusively to be twentysomething art students in black tunics – talk of a revolution and the narrative suggests they’ve spent a very long time merely talking about it rather than doing it. All they have to do as it turns out is open the armoury door, guarded by one person and a computer that asks awkward questions.

Visually the space museum is well designed but a little cramped to convey the vastness to which the dialogue keeps referring and here I feel director Mervyn Pinfield doesn’t always do enough to try and disguise the set’s limitations. The freezing machine is peculiar - when the Doctor is in it his head and shoulders are poking above the container so how does that work? There is some questionable make up too which gives the Moroks odd hairstyles and awkward looking white tunics while the Xerons have false eyebrows above their eyebrows! There are also questionable acting decisions. I think the aim was for the Moroks to be weary and apathetic about the place feeling forgotten at the edge of the empire while the Xerons were full of youthful defiance. However as played the Moroks are so laid back it sometimes seems like underacting whereas the Xerons are so earnestly peppy it’s as if they are discussing a university debate club rather than a revolution. It looks like the whole production was done in a hurry as most of the regular and guest cast have at least one line stumble over the course of the story. The nomenclature is also clumsy.

Even so there are plenty of enjoyable scenes. To evade capture the Doctor hides inside a Dalek exhibit creating what is the best-known clip from this story. His later interrogation by a machine that visualises his thoughts is fun as the Doctor creates some unexpected images on the screen each accompanied by Hartnell’s delighted giggle. Vicki’s inciting of the young Xerons to revolt, though a tad unlikely, is also full of punch thanks to Maureen O’Brien’s energy while Ian gets to literally punch some guards as he gets his now obligatory action moments. The interplay between the four regulars is as strong now as it ever was.

Though it doesn’t work for all the Moroks, Richard Shaw’s Lobos, save for an amusingly exposition heavy first scene, does a good job conveying the attitude of the Moroks who have become lackadaisical about their empire while Ivor Salter as his commander has a range of facial expressions to convey what his character thinks. I’m not sure who plays the role but if you watch the guard who trails them in part four, he has an even more amusing array of reaction shots.

Overall I found  `The Space Museum` a perfectly acceptable story brimming with momentum and strong ideas plus one of the best opening episodes in the classic series. If I were giving out scores in these reviews this would be a 7 out of 10 for sure.