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The Randomiser: The Space Museum
Jun. 30th, 2019 02:17 pmMy impression, going into The Space Museum was that it was a story with an interesting premise in its first episode which it then failed to really use, reverting to a fairly standard rebels-fighting-an-evil-empire story in the last three episodes. That doesn't really do the story justice. While the plot in the last three episodes is, indeed, pretty by the numbers, the real point seems to be that it can form the backdrop to the Tardis regulars coping with the revelation of the first episode.
Episode 1 comes from the "sideways in time" strand of story from Sydney Newman's initial outline. In this case it takes an approach to timey-wimeyness that the show has never really explored again. Although the regulars seem to land on the planet Xeros the effects of their actions do not happen when they take them: they leave no footprints in the sand (these appear later) and can not interact with the people or objects around them. The Doctor describes this as "jumping a time track". The episode mostly involves them figuring out what is going on and ends with first their discovery of themselves as exhibits in the Space Museum, followed by them relocating to the correct place in the time stream. It's a nice idea, though some of it doesn't quite hang together - is this time-track ahead or behind of the "correct" one?
The focus of the next three episodes is clearly intended to be about the differing reactions of the crew to the revelation that they end up in the museum, but in the end it mostly focuses upon the reactions of Ian and Vicki (not helped by William Hartnell taking a holiday for an episode in the middle of it all). Ian is paralysed by indecision about which actions may lead to their ultimate fate, while Vicki is inspired to galvanise the rather lacklustre resistance into action. In fact, this is really Vicki's story. All the other regulars are largely useless, to a greater or lesser degree, while Vicki inspires the resistance and figures out how to give them access to arms for their fight and it is this that ultimately saves the Tardis crew from their fate. A slightly stronger story would probably have sought a wider range of reactions from the crew, and also attempted to take some kind of position on how the events related to one's ability to change history.
Even so, in a quiet way, it is an interesting and solid story. While it doesn't quite fully capitalise on its ideas, it isn't obviously idiotic or embarrassing. It's a good little story and I'm sort of surprised it isn't more highly regarded in fandom.
Episode 1 comes from the "sideways in time" strand of story from Sydney Newman's initial outline. In this case it takes an approach to timey-wimeyness that the show has never really explored again. Although the regulars seem to land on the planet Xeros the effects of their actions do not happen when they take them: they leave no footprints in the sand (these appear later) and can not interact with the people or objects around them. The Doctor describes this as "jumping a time track". The episode mostly involves them figuring out what is going on and ends with first their discovery of themselves as exhibits in the Space Museum, followed by them relocating to the correct place in the time stream. It's a nice idea, though some of it doesn't quite hang together - is this time-track ahead or behind of the "correct" one?
The focus of the next three episodes is clearly intended to be about the differing reactions of the crew to the revelation that they end up in the museum, but in the end it mostly focuses upon the reactions of Ian and Vicki (not helped by William Hartnell taking a holiday for an episode in the middle of it all). Ian is paralysed by indecision about which actions may lead to their ultimate fate, while Vicki is inspired to galvanise the rather lacklustre resistance into action. In fact, this is really Vicki's story. All the other regulars are largely useless, to a greater or lesser degree, while Vicki inspires the resistance and figures out how to give them access to arms for their fight and it is this that ultimately saves the Tardis crew from their fate. A slightly stronger story would probably have sought a wider range of reactions from the crew, and also attempted to take some kind of position on how the events related to one's ability to change history.
Even so, in a quiet way, it is an interesting and solid story. While it doesn't quite fully capitalise on its ideas, it isn't obviously idiotic or embarrassing. It's a good little story and I'm sort of surprised it isn't more highly regarded in fandom.