The Space Museum is one of those stories that has gotten a
bad rap of fans over the years even though I’m not entirely sure why. After a
somewhat run of disappointing stories it seems on the evidence of this episode
that the bad run is over. The story starts off with the regulars frozen on the
spot and when they start moving again they look somewhat different. The whole
episode is about mysteries and the first one occurs within the first 90 seconds
of the episode. They have changed their clothes without realising it. Other
mysteries include the glass of water that Vicki drops, the fact that they done
leave any footprints when they are walking on the sands, the fact the guards don’t
react when Vicki sneezes.
The idea of a museum in space is quite a fun one as it’s no
different from a normal museum. Its an empty museum except for some guards who
appear in white and some other people who appear in black. Neither group
interact with the regulars which I thought was an interesting and brave decision.
This debut story from Glyn Jones is steeped in mystery and that’s why I think
for the first time since ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ that I have become
enthusiastic about a story.
There are some nice effects used in this episode. First
comes when Vicki drops the glass of water and it gets reversed and ends up back
in her hand. It’s one of those moments that must have seemed magical back in
1965. Then there is the moment when Vicki puts her hand through an exhibit. It’s
quite a basic effect but it still looks good and helped add to the mystery.
There’s a nice moment when we see a Dalek and its seems like
a marker point to keep them in the viewers mind as they will return in a few
episodes. I like how Vicki comments that the Dalek looks friendly. As the
regulars don’t interact with the supporting cast and we don’t hear from them it
means that it’s the regulars that move the story. They all work well together
but there was a moment where the Doctor talks to Vicki about not touching any
of the artefacts like she was a five year old. I felt like we had gone back
twelve months to how Susan was treated by the Doctor, Ian and Barbara. She’s
even dressed like a child which is rather disappointing as I had high hopes
that they would learn from their mistakes and make Vicki a stronger person but
based on the evidence of the last couple of episodes that doesn’t look like
this is the case.
The moment when the regulars look at themselves standing in
the display cabinets. It raises the question as to how they got there. There is a moment where there are stills of
things that have happened which is basically a highlights package of the
episode. Footprints start to appear and the cabinets disappear so weirdly by
the end of the episode they have ‘arrived’ on the planet Xeros. The episode is
a very good one but I know in my hear that the rest of the story isn’t going to
be like this but lets just enjoy the moment of a solidly written episode with
great performances and smooth direction.
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