Monday, 4 February 2013

Episode 68 (Q1): The Space Museum

There's a lot to say about this serial that doesn't apply to just one episode, but there's also a lot to say about this particular 23 minutes 38 seconds. As a result I'm going to spread the former out over the next few entries (and hope they aren't as packed as this one).

Right, on with the review - and this is going to be full of spoilers. Please do try to watch it before reading on!

Conclusion
My verdict isn't going to be particularly controversial: this is a brilliant episode damaged by one key aspect of production, the direction. Mervyn Pinfield, who some of you with eidetic memory may recall came bottom of my directors' table at the end of the first season, is back. He improved very slightly during Planet of Giants, but here he gives us endless lack of imagination in the shots. There are some that work very well but they are few and far between; and to be honest I'm a little aggrieved that his average score for this season will be boosted by other aspects of a production that he almost succeeds in trashing. On the other hand I feel slightly bad criticising someone who died not much more than a year later, but it's not enough to stop me.

Anyway, I want to work slowly through this episode, scene by scene - something I haven't done since The Velvet Web. This time I'm going to focus on story rather than direction and follow in the (figurative) footsteps of the TARDIS crew, as this is a journey that they take - almost always together, and invariably alone...

Frozen
So, to begin the tour, we go from the (still quite freaky) title music to the reprise from the end of The Warlords - or rather, part of it, with the crew frozen in their medieval duds. Straight away we know something bizarre is happening. The light fades, and then we get a shot that wasn't there last time: a pan across a model shot of spacecraft, with futuristic music. Only then does the TARDIS materialise, before we fade back to the bridging sequence with the four standing around the console - and they're wearing more normal clothes.

Now, this is quite a famous scene in fandom - and I've seen it several times - so it's tricky to unpick its actual impact. But take a close look at William Hartnell, who is spot on in his portrayal of the Doctor throughout this episode. He looks worried for one brief moment, before deciding to make light of the situation. The joke about wearing clothes is funny, but it also serves to highlight the uncertainty they are facing.

The reactions of the crew, in some ways, take us back to the early days of the show. Ian is incredulous and argumentative; Barbara stays in the background except for making some reasonable, supportive comments; the Doctor is pretending to know more than he does while hiding what he does know; and the teenager - Vicki now - rushes off to get into trouble...

Vicki's Hand
...except we're in the TARDIS, and not racing back towards Event One, so what trouble can she get into? This is the more proactive Vicki that I tried to foreshadow in my fanfic. Anyway, we get to glimpse the TARDIS wardrobe, which at this stage is just what you would expect from any wardrobe (or maybe Vicki only knew about one part of it), before she goes to the food machine - now looking a bit more complex than it did last season. And what a clanking, grumbling fuss it makes, just to deliver some water! It's a good job Vicki didn't ask it for a cup of tea. <cough>Douglas Adams is currently 13 years old.</cough>

Then Maureen O'Brien has the unenviable task of accidentally releasing her grip on a glass when nothing else is happening. Couldn't she have tripped, or turned and bumped her elbow on the machine or something? O'Brien does her best with a lovely 'drifting off' expression, but nobody could make that realistic. And partly as a result, the reforming glass is the weakest of the 'weird things happening' moments. It screams "effects shot! Look how clever I am!" - which takes me, at least, out of the moment.

When she returns and explains, notice Hartnell again. There's obvious worry on his face - and for a much longer time - but he converts his concern into energetic curiosity.

Footprints
Of course, Iananbarbara tease him about wanting to go look at the mysterious building - perhaps with memories of Skaro and fluid links, though softened now by their time as travellers - but everyone happily goes outside. And in another nod to how the show used to work, Vicki wanders off and the Doctor calls her back, suggesting that they need to stay together. How many storylines could that advice have short-circuited?

There is a backdrop that is less successful than the ones in The Web Planet, and some nonsensical discussion of geology and extinction; but these minor gaffes are more than made up for by the main event - the discovery that they are not disturbing the dust of this world.

Wow.

We've not had anything quite that weird since we were Inside the Spaceship in serial C - and with Planet of Giants and the aforementioned The Web Planet earlier in this season, that's saying something. No wonder the Doctor is so worried.

Silence
We leave this scene via a seriously long zoom in on the model of the space museum itself. Seriously too long, in fact, because we get close enough to the doors to see the lack of detail - which wasn't obvious from a reasonable distance. In this case I'm not talking about detail visible only on modern screens, either; this is so blatant that I'm sure many original viewers would have noticed it.

Anyway, the key thing here is Barbara's observation about the silence. It's been noticeable ever since they left the TARDIS, but it takes her comment to bring it to the forefront of our attention. Anyway, our heroes don't have long to ponder this before the doors open...

Unseen
...and two figures in white march out, slowly and stiffly - rather like Robomen, in fact. We get another funny moment as the crew scramble to hide, all the while in full view. This looks like particularly bad timing in the production - or perhaps a joke about the poor peripheral vision of enemies - until Vicki sneezes, and it becomes obvious that they cannot interact at all with the locals.

The two Moroks are the first living things we've encountered on this new planet, and normally this would be the start of the action. But we're already a fair way into the episode, and while in one sense quite a lot has happened there has been no real action - nor does there seem to be much prospect of any soon.

And what does any nice middle-class family do when everyone is bored and nothing else is happening? Why, visit a museum of course! So in they go.

Exhibits
Let's face it, it's not the best museum in the cosmos. There are no informative plaques, no interactive exhibitions, just corridor after corridor of static stuff. Give me MOSI, or @Bristol, or Weston Park, or Magna, or the Natural History/Science Museums any day. Still, as Vicki observes, it does at least have a lack of annoying museum guards following you round (though personally I like to talk to them; they can usually tell you more than the plaques).

Surely the 'things to do on a rainy Wednesday afternoon in the summer hols' vibe can't go on forever, though? And indeed it doesn't. They turn a corner and go through a doorway from one bland hall to another - only this time they freeze in shock as the music screams danger!

Dalek!
Yes! It's a Dalek! We are face-to-face with the menace behind all the strange goings-on! To put this in perspective, filming has just wrapped on the Cushing movie: Dalekmania is going strong, and everyone is eagerly awaiting the Doctor's next encounter with his oldest (and only recurring) alien foe. Their return has been advertised, but surely this is too soon? Wouldn't the BBC have got more bums on seats for this episode if they'd said this was when they were arriving?

There's more that's not quite right: the reveal should be at the end of the episode, surely? And like the fast return switch Inside the Spaceship, the metal monstrosity seems to be the only thing that is labelled in this museum. What?!

Hmm. I didn't really want to split this one, but I'm going to have to. And this seems as good a point as any...

Next Time:
The Space Museum, concluded.

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