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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