‘THE SPACE MUSEUM’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Visiting the Space Museum with the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki

For William Russell

This is what is regarded as the lowest point in Season 2 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. Despite that, I still enjoyed checking out ‘The Space Museum’ when I saw it in ‘The Space Museum’/’The Chase’ DVD box set in 2010 and I still enjoyed it in the Season 2 Blu-ray box set for 2023 and 2024. 🙂

I’d been looking forward to checking out ‘The Space Museum’/‘The Chase’ DVD box set when I purchased it in 2010. I knew it’d be a good collection of ‘Doctor Who’ stories with William Hartnell as the First Doctor and William Russell, Jacqueline Hill and Maureen O’Brien playing the companions. 🙂

Beforehand, I’d heard a lot about ‘The Chase’ from my Dad, as he enjoyed that story with it featuring the Mechanoids. I’d also heard soundbites of ‘The Space Museum’ and ‘The Chase’ when I checked out ‘The Dalek Conquests’ 2-disc audio CD, narrated by Nicholas Briggs, which was released in 2005.

A year before ‘The Space Museum’ was released on DVD, I purchased the story via its TV soundtrack audio CD release with linking narration provided by Maureen O’Brien. I probably should have waited until the story came out on DVD in 2010, but I was keen to discover what the story was like on audio.

Back in 2009, I did a watch-through (albeit incomplete) of all the ‘Doctor Who’ stories featured in Season 2 of the classic TV series. ‘The Space Museum’ and ‘The Chase’ weren’t available at the time. I checked out what was available with ‘The Space Museum’ TV soundtrack released on CD in 2009. 🙂

I was especially keen to see the two classic black-and-white ‘Doctor Who’ stories from Season 2 of the classic series featuring the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki on DVD. ‘Doctor Who’ may not be made like they were nowadays, but classic 1960s TV stories do have their air of charm about them. 🙂

Also, through my watch-through of the Season 2 stories in 2009 and 2010, I felt I’d gained a connection with William Hartnell as the Doctor, William Russell as Ian, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara and Maureen O’Brien as Vicki. It was nice to see this TARDIS team particularly in these two adventures. 🙂

It helps that Dennis Spooner, who was script editor of the TV series, was able to inject an element of fun and humour throughout the stories he worked on in Season 2 of the classic TV series. It helped in adding to the character journeys that our four regular characters would be going on in this season. 🙂

Anyway, first things first, let’s talk about ‘The Space Museum’. This happens to be a four-part story by Glyn Jones, and it was released on a 1-disc set in ‘The Space Museum’/‘The Chase’ DVD box set. Glyn Jones would later go on to be an actor playing a character in one of the Fourth Doctor TV stories.

He played Krans in the story ‘The Sontaran Experiment’. I find it surreal that a ‘Doctor Who’ writer of the 1960s would go on to be an actor in the 1970s. Then again, Morris Barry was a ‘Doctor Who’ director in the 1960s before he went on to be an actor in the 1970s, so make that of what you will. 🙂

In ‘The Space Museum’, following on from the end of ‘The Crusade’, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki find themselves in their ‘ordinary, everyday clothes’ once the TARDIS has landed on a planet called Xeros. On the planet, there’s this futuristic Space Museum, but not everything is as it appears.

It turns out the TARDIS has jumped a time track, and our four heroes have a series of bizarre experiences when they venture outside and into the museum. They can’t be seen by the militaristic Moroks that are running the Space Museum as well as the servile indigenous Xerons on their planet.

As well as a Dalek shell on display, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki soon come across themselves and the TARDIS on display. Eventually, time catches up to our heroes and the exhibits of themselves and the TARDIS vanish. But they have to avoid creating their ill-fated future whilst in the museum. 😐

In terms of the structure of ‘The Space Museum’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ story, the first episode is the best one out of the four and is very exciting to watch. In the first episode, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki drive the story forward with a mystery on why people can’t see nor hear them in the museum.

It was amusing and disturbing when Vicki dropped a glass of water in the TARDIS, only for it to jump back into her hand and put itself together with the water in it. I’m not entirely sure I understand how that works, especially with the jumping the time track involved, but it was so fascinating to see.

It was also exciting and disturbing to see an empty Dalek shell on display when the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki come across it. The Doctor, Ian and Barbara’s reactions are understandable, but of course Vicki, who has never encountered the Daleks before, finds the one on display ‘quite friendly’.

Very soon, the TARDIS foursome discover the truth and they see themselves ‘dead’ in boxes on display at the museum. These concepts are very exciting, scary and intriguing to check out and I like how the Doctor explained things about the fourth dimension and the TARDIS jumping the time track.

I quite like how the Doctor provides the answer to Ian, Barbara and Vicki by saying all they have to do is wait until they arrive. The first episode concludes with everything culminating in them arriving and their future selves in boxes disappearing. From thereon, the Doctor and friends are in trouble. 😐

In a way, the first episode of ‘The Space Museum’ predates the Steven Moffat era with the timey-wimey concepts being introduced. It’s such a shame the concepts in the story aren’t followed through so well and so effectively with its following three instalments concerning the Moroks and the Xerons.

In some respects, I quite like ‘The Space Museum’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ story. I know it’s not a very popular story among the ‘Doctor Who’ fan community, but I enjoyed checking it out when I first heard it on audio CD with linking narration by Maureen O’Brien as well as saw it on DVD and Blu-ray.

It’s interesting when I heard the story on audio CD first, as I expected it to be spectacular and imagined glossy sets in a futuristic space setting with the Moroks as museum owners as well as the Space Museum itself. When I saw the actual story on DVD though, I couldn’t help but feel dismayed.

Now don’t get wrong. The story itself is quite intriguing and from the way Robert Shearman describes it in his defence of the story on DVD and Blu-ray, it has an interesting approach in terms of it being a parody of previous William Hartnell-era stories, even when it’s trying not to be a parody. 🙂

There are times where the story can pretty slow and it’s not helped when the performances by the actors playing the Moroks, and to an extent the actors playing the Xerons, can be poor. In fact, if you listen carefully, you might pick up some of the Moroks, including Lobos, fluffing their lines a little bit.

I mean, they’re joining the leagues of actors fluffing their lines led by William Hartnell. Now, I appreciate with the making of these stories, they couldn’t afford to do retakes of the lines they may have fluffed in the recordings. But it’s a bad sign regarding how 1960s TV productions were done. 😐

There’s also the aspect of the story looking rather cheap and dull in terms of its sets and atmosphere. And maybe that’s the point. It’s something that would be repeated to an extent in ‘Timelash’, and I do wonder if the cheapness of the story’s atmosphere and the sets was deliberate. 😐

You can tell by the way the Moroks are behaving that they seem to be run-down when they’re working at the museum. This can also apply to the Xerons, who are trying to revolt against the Moroks, but they can’t achieve that without getting the arms from the armoury’s security computer.

There are parallels of this story to the first ‘Daleks’ TV adventure where the Thals revolted against the Daleks. Except here, the Xerons’ revolt against the Moroks seems to be lamer. Moroks sounds like ‘morons’ in that regard too. Now, if this was played as a comedy, I could’ve appreciated that angle. 🙂

But the story needs to be told in a faster manner to make it pacier and more dynamic than it actually is. This is probably why many ‘Doctor Who’ fans don’t regard ‘The Space Museum’ highly, as it’s a story that doesn’t seem able to pick up the pace, especially in the story’s second-to-fourth episodes.

‘The Space Museum’ was directed by Mervyn Pinfield, who previously directed ‘The Sensorites’ in Season 1 as well as co-directed ‘Planet of Giants’ with Douglas Camfield. Mervyn Pinfield was also an associate producer on the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series, working on it in Season 1 and some of Season 2. 🙂

According to Maureen O’Brien in the DVD audio commentary for ‘The Space Museum’, Mervyn Pinfield is known to direct ‘Doctor Who’ stories in a ‘slow to the point of static’ manner. I can clearly see that when watching ‘The Space Museum’ from beginning to end on the DVD and Blu-ray discs. 😐

With all these things said, it didn’t stop me from enjoying ‘The Space Museum’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ fan. As established, from seeing Rob Shearman’s defence of it, it was very fascinating how the Moroks are depicted on the planet Xeros in being rubbish dictators when they controlled everything.

I should check out the Target novelization by Glyn Jones with the audiobook read by Maureen O’Brien to find out whether the Xeron society is explored and how the Moroks managed to take over the planet. I don’t think those aspects are given enough depth when checking out the TV story alone.

But from what I’ve seen and what’s been said by Rob Shearman, the Moroks seem to have forgotten how to fight since their wars ended and their empire fell apart. Again, there are parallels of the Roman Empire featured, which the Doctor states, having previously visited Rome in ‘The Romans’. 🙂

And again, as I’ve said before, the Xerons seem rather feeble in how they rebel against the Moroks. It’s only when Vicki comes along to help sort them out by getting the arms from the armoury and break through the security computer that the Xerons are able to rise up and oppose the oppressors.

Something I’ve noticed about this story in the depiction of the Moroks and the Xerons is that they’re all male. There aren’t any female Moroks and female Xerons on Xeros. ‘The Space Museum’ is a product of 1960s TV, but even the first ‘Daleks’ TV story had male and female Thals to identify with. 😐

Also, the Xerons seem like students wearing only black clothes and they have funny eyebrows whilst the Moroks have funny hairstyles and are wearing white uniforms. I know this is an alien planet and everything, but often, you do have to question some of the creative choices in the tale’s production.

Incidentally, I was lucky to have chatted to Rob Shearman (who also wrote ‘Dalek’ in the new TV series with Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor) on his defence about ‘The Space Museum’ and on writing in general. I met him at the ‘Regenerations 2011’ convention in Swansea in September 2011.

I’ve also met him at the ‘Big Finish Day 6’ event in January 2015 and seen him at the ‘Regenerations 2023’ convention in Swansea in September 2023. Rob Shearman has been an inspiration for me in terms of writing, and I’m pleased I’ve shared that with him when I saw him at ‘Regenerations 2011’.

Looking back, I had a delightfully lengthy and friendly chat with Rob Shearman at ‘Regenerations 2011’ and it was very intriguing to find out more about Rob Shearman’s insight on ‘The Space Museum’ as a story. We also chatted about the two Mara TV adventures ‘Kinda’ and ‘Snakedance’. 🙂

I’m sure Sarah Sutton, who was also at the ‘Regenerations 2011’ convention and sitting nearby, was listening when I chatted to Rob. 😀 In a way, it encouraged me to pursue writing the rest of my ‘Fifth Doctor’ series of ‘Doctor Who’ stories. I’m sure ‘The Space Museum’ also inspired me in that regard.

Speaking of which, it’s a shame there isn’t a ‘Behind the Sofa’ item on ‘The Space Museum’. I would have liked to have seen Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves, Carole Ann Ford, Janet Fielding, Wendy Padbury, Sarah Sutton, Bonnie Langford and Sophie Aldred’s reactions to this ‘Doctor Who’ TV story. 🙂

Despite my disappointment on the ‘Behind the Sofa’ contributors’ reactions to ‘The Romans’, it’s good to have balance struck in how people view and interpret certain ‘Doctor Who’ stories. Whilst Rob Shearman defends the story, there’s bound to be people who are against it from start to finish.

William Hartnell is excellent as the First Doctor in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. I really like how enthusiastic he is throughout this story, especially when the mysteries of the TARDIS jumping the time track kick in. I quite like how more aware he is with knowing what’s happening in this TV story. 🙂

His reaction to Vicki dropping a glass of water and putting it itself back together is mesmerising, as he claims they believe her when she tells them her story. I also like how he challenges Ian, Barbara and Vicki on where they are, as they realise they can’t get into the TARDIS on display at the museum.

I enjoyed the moments of fun that the Doctor has in this story, especially when he hides inside the Dalek shell and he pops up out of it, giggling away. It was also enjoyable when he was being interrogated by Lobos, and the answers he gives via the video screen on Lobos’ desk are so amusing.

William Hartnell is absent from the story’s third episode as he took a week’s holiday during the production of ‘The Space Museum’. Thankfully, he returns in the fourth episode to be saved by Ian when he’s being prepared to be on display at the museum. He does survive the preparation process.

It’s funny when the Doctor remarks that Ian had lost a button in the story’s second episode and it’s a moment that doesn’t get readdressed in the next two instalments. I wonder if that was a deliberate choice on the writer’s part and whether it got forgotten about in the writing and production process.

William Russell is equally very good as Ian in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. Like Barbara and Vicki, he’s quite baffled by what’s going on, especially when he picks up clues that he and his friends are leaving no footprints once they venture out of the TARDIS. Our dear Ian didn’t miss a trick, did he? 😀

His hoping that they won’t meet the Daleks again will haunt him in the following adventure. 😀 I liked that scene where Ian, Barbara, Vicki and the Doctor questioned on how to get out of the museum, as they were clearly lost. Ian gets frustrated when he, Barbara and Vicki lose the Doctor at one point. 😐

I also like how Ian uses Barbara’s cardigan as a way to get out of the museum, taking inspiration from Theseus and the Minotaur. Inspiration for ‘The Horns of Nimon’ perhaps? Who knows? 😀 Ian also gets have action once he fights off some Moroks, even when separated from Barbara and Vicki.

I like how Ian gets to use a Morok technician (played by Peter Diamond no less and called Pluton in the Target novelization – more on that later) to help him get into Governor Lobos’ office in order to save the Doctor. You wouldn’t want to mess with Ian when he’s pointing an energy weapon at you. 🙂

Ian’s determination to smash up one of the machines to freeze and prepare him and his friends as museum exhibits amuses the Doctor when the foursome are united in the story’s fourth episode. I also liked it when Ian challenged a Morok on capturing him, Barbara and Vicki in the third episode. 🙂

Jacqueline Hill is very good as Barbara, although she tends to suffer the most out of the three companions in terms of getting things to do. When she’s hiding from the Moroks and meets up with Dako, they end by being gassed once Governor Lobos elects to flood the museum with Zaphra gas. 😐

This happens in the third episode by the way. It’s quite a contrast to when she was resourceful and active in ‘The Web Planet’, although she did get captured easily and was on the run by El Akir and his men in ‘The Crusade’. At least, she supports Dako when they’re trying to escape from the deadly gas.

Barbara does have a maternal presence in the story, especially when she interacts with Vicki. I found it quite funny when Ian took off her cardigan without asking and she points out he might have asked first before using it. After all, it’s a ‘good cardigan’. I wonder if she got it from the TARDIS wardrobe.

Her reactions to what’s happening in the story’s first episode involving everyone not seeing nor hearing them, seeing themselves as exhibits in the Space Museum, and her reaction to the Doctor saying all they have to is to wait until they arrive are very good. Barbara is quite down-to-earth in this TV story.

In fact, despite Barbara being quite underused in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, I like how Jacqueline Hill maintains the warmth that her character has throughout her time in the series, especially in this tale. It’s very amusing how Barbara reacted to Vicki finding that empty Dalek shell ‘quite friendly’. 😀

Maureen O’Brien is equally very good as Vicki in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. I’m not sure about the white dress she wears in this story (I would have gone for the black clothes that she wore in ‘The Rescue’, ‘The Web Planet’ and the first episode of ‘The Crusade’), but she does fare well in this story.

I enjoyed how surprised she is by the glass of water smashing to the floor before it pops back up and puts itself together with the water in it. I like how Vicki’s cheeky nature carries through in this story. It was so fascinating to view her reaction to the Dalek shell on display and not be at all terrified by it.

It’s a shock to Vicki when she puts her hand through an exhibit as if it wasn’t really there. It was funny to see Vicki looking bored when she, Barbara and Ian realise the Doctor is missing. I’m not sure if it’s Vicki looking bored or Maureen O’Brien looking bored or a combination of the two in this.

I like how Vicki encourages Tor and Sita to stand up for themselves against the Moroks and helps them to break into the armoury. Apparently, she has technical skills to trick the computer to give her and the Xerons the weapons they need. I’d like to think Vicki and Tor form a bond with each other. 🙂

This is especially when she tells him that he’s going to look for her friends once she’s helped the Xerons acquire weapons from the Moroks’ armoury. Tor is clearly concerned about Vicki and sends Sita to accompany her. It’s nice that Vicki is an active companion compared to Susan in the TV series.

The Xerons include Jeremy Bulloch as Tor, Peter Sanders as Sita and Peter Craze as Dako. Despite the Xerons seemingly incompetent at times throughout ‘The Space Museum’, the performances of the actors aren’t to blame. It turns out one of the actors went on to be in a successful film series. 🙂

As of 2024, I’ve had my DVD cover of ‘The Space Museum’ signed by Jeremy Bulloch, who played Tor, the leader of the Xerons in the story, at the ‘Collectormania 22’ event in Milton Keynes in November 2014. I’m very glad I had the opportunity to meet Jeremy Bulloch at three conventions. 🙂

As well as ‘Collectormania 22’, I’ve met Jeremy at the ‘Bournemouth Film and Comic Con’ in August 2015 and at the ‘Worcester Comic Con’ in August 2016. The memories I have of him are very pleasant. I’m glad I’ve been able to chat to him about his ‘Doctor Who’ appearances at conventions.

For many of you, Jeremy Bulloch is well-known for being the body of Boba Fett in the original ‘Star Wars’ film trilogy, particularly in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ and ‘Return of the Jedi’. For me, as well as playing Tor in ‘The Space Museum’, he also played Hal the Archer in the TV story ‘The Time Warrior’.

When playing Tor in ‘The Space Museum’, William Hartnell commended Jeremy Bulloch for watching and learning in terms of his acting and career, which must have been very encouraging. In all fairness, Jeremy Bulloch plays Tor rather well, especially in trying to keep the Xeron rebels together.

Mind you, him putting his hands on his hips a lot of the time to show he’s the leader of the Xerons does make him look funny at times. It makes him stand out, but it feels quite repetitive. I’m also amazed that I’m able to pick out Jeremy Bulloch’s voice when he and the Xerons wear similar clothes. 😀

I can’t say much about Peter Sanders who plays Sita in the story, although I can say that Peter Craze who plays Dako makes his ‘Doctor Who’ debut here. After ‘The Space Museum’, Peter Craze went on to play Du Point in ‘The War Games’ and Costa in ‘Nightmare of Eden’. Three ‘Doctor Who’ stories. 🙂

Peter Craze also happens to be the younger brother of Michael Craze, who went on to play Ben Jackson in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series. I think Dako has more to do than Sita, especially when he goes looking for Barbara and they’re surviving the Zaphra gas once the museum was flooded with it.

It’s unfortunate that Dako got outwitted by the Doctor when he left to keep guard of him after he, Tor and Sita captured him in the second episode. Sita accompanies Vicki to locate Barbara and Dako, although, unfortunately, he receives a fatal blow when shot by a Morok in the story’s fourth episode.

I mean, Dako was the only one out of two Xerons shot by the Moroks when they were with Barbara and Vicki. I don’t recall Sita surviving. Maybe the Target novelization clears up those details concerning Sita’s fate. Or maybe it changes it. I’d have to find out along with hearing the audiobook.

The rest of the Xerons include Michael Gordon, Edward Granville, Bill Starkey and David Wollicroft. Whilst these Xerons aren’t given names in the story and whilst the actors playing them don’t actually speak, at least they’re wearing the same black clothes as Tor, Sita and Dako in ‘The Space Museum’.

On a side note, considering the Xerons are dressed in black and the Moroks are dressed in white, I wonder if they’re representing chess pieces in a game. Was the writer Glyn Jones or the director Mervyn Pinfield inspired by that? Are the Black and White Guardians being involved in this TV story?

The leader of the Moroks is Richard Shaw as Governor Lobos. This is Richard Shaw’s first ‘Doctor Who’ story, as he would go on to play Cross in ‘Frontier In Space’ with Jon Pertwee and Lakh in ‘Underworld’ with Tom Baker. In all three stories, Richard Shaw tends to play rather dodgy characters.

It’s interesting how Lobos’ character is developed in this story, as on first meeting him, he’s clearly bored with being the governor and Space Museum curator on Xeros. He shares this when Peter Diamond as Pluton. His boredom is evident when he talks in that very first scene of his in the story. 🙂

I like how easily amused Lobos is by certain events in the story. This includes interrogating the Doctor, only to be dumbfounded by his antics once seeing images on the video screen projected by the Doctor’s mind, like a penny-farthing bicycle, walruses, the Doctor in an Edwardian bathing outfit, etc.

It was tense and amusing to see Lobos amused by Ian threatening him with an energy weapon to restore the Doctor back to life. Lobos answers the Doctor’s question of freezing him again when he and Ian are captured. Mind you, how did Lobos know of the Doctor’s name once he interrogated him? 😐

I mean, the Doctor never said his name during the interrogation, so was that a continuity error on someone’s part in terms of the script and the production? It’s unfortunate that Richard Shaw tended to fluff his lines when playing Lobos, as for the most part, he plays the character well in this TV story.

There’s Ivor Slater who plays the Morok Commander, who is named Ogrek in the Target novelization by Glyn Jones. This too is Ivor Slater’s first association in ‘Doctor Who’, as he later played Odysseus in ‘The Myth Makers’ and Sergeant Markham in ‘Black Orchid’ (my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ TV story).

It’s interesting to talk about the Morok commander in ‘The Space Museum’, as he was never named in the TV story. Like ‘The Horns of Nimon’ Target novelization, Glyn Jones decided to name him Ogrek in the Target novelization of ‘The Space Museum’, thus that’s what I’m calling him here too. 🙂

Ogrek is another Morok who’s bored with being on Xeros and he expresses this clearly when debuting in the story’s third episode. He also passes the responsibility of fetching the cutting equipment to break into the TARDIS to a Morok guard right after Lobos commands for this to happen.

This echoes Captain Mainwaring from ‘Dad’s Army’ passing responsibility of a task to Sergeant Wilson by saying, “I distinctly remember telling you to bring a torch” or something. It’ clear that Ogrek is a bully. He’s quickly suspicious when Pluton left his post to guard the TARDIS as instructed.

Peter Diamond plays Pluton, the Morok Technican who initially guarded the TARDIS before being tackled by Ian to take him to Lobos’ office to save the Doctor in the third episode. Peter Diamond previously played Delos in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Romans’, who was a nicer character in that. 😐

I’m surprised Ian didn’t see a similarity between Pluton and Delos when he encountered him in this story. Maybe it’s because Pluton doesn’t have a beard. Or perhaps his hairstyle distinguishes him from Delos. 😀 Peter Diamond is also the fight arranger on this ‘Doctor Who’ story as with ‘The Romans’. 🙂

Again like Ogrek, Pluton is only named in the Target novelization, not the TV version of ‘The Space Museum’ itself. When we first meet him, he’s like a standard technician or guard in Lobos’ office. It was very amusing to see him being cowardly when Ian persuaded him to help him rescue the Doctor.

Even when Pluton is being interrogated after the Doctor and Ian have been captured, he sounds wimpish. It’s quite a contrast for Peter Diamond to play a cowardly character in Pluton compared to playing a more heroic character in Delos in ‘The Romans’. I do wonder if Pluton was happy on Xeros.

The story also features Salvin Stewart as a Morok Messenger in the second episode. He isn’t given a name in the Target novelization, which is a shame. Salvin Stewart also plays a Morok guard in the story’s third and fourth episodes. It’s not clear whether his characters in the episodes are the same.

The story also features Lawrence Dean, Ken Norris and Billy Cornelius playing the rest of the Moroks. And for being the oppressors in this story, they’re quite bad at doing their job, especially by the end once the Xerons are overtaking them and fire their guns on them, causing them to fall to the ground.

I like how the story concludes with the TARDIS foursome saved by the Xerons. It’s later revealed a small part of the TARDIS hadn’t quite clicked into place when it left Earth in the 12th century and hat they’d been wandering around Xeros for quite a while before it clicked back into place to land again.

Much like when ‘you’ve gone into a room and switched on the light and had to wait for a second or two before the thing lit itself up’, according to the Doctor. 🙂 Grateful, the Xerons give the Doctor a Time-Space Visualiser as a souvenir and a thank you present before the Space Museum is torn down.

Whilst we don’t get to see the Time-Space Visualiser at the story’s end, it sets things up what will occur in ‘The Chase’. The Doctor is annoyed with Ian asking if he couldn’t ‘get something a little smaller’. Judging how big the thing is next time, I’m amazed the Doctor got it into the TARDIS at all. 🙂

Vicki bids goodbye to Tor once she enters the TARDIS to join her friends. Once the TARDIS is on her way, the time machine is picked up a Dalek on a distant planet (possibly Skaro) far away. The Dalek informs another Dalek via a communications panel that their ‘greatest enemies’ have just left Xeros.

The Dalek at the other end responds that the Daleks’ own time machine will soon be in pursuit and that their enemies will be exterminated. I’m sure whoever watched the closing moments of ‘The Space Museum’ would have been thrilled to see it and looked forward to another Dalek adventure. 🙂

Incidentally, the Daleks voices are provided by Peter Hawkins whilst the only Dalek seen at the end of ‘The Space Museum’ is operate by Murphy Grumbar. You see, Ian? Those words of hoping never to see the Daleks would come back to haunt you. Hopefully, you and the others will beat the Daleks. 😀

An intriguing thing to mention is that the incidental music for this ‘Doctor Who’ story is from stock recordings rather than being specially composed for the story. Not that’s a bad thing, but I wonder how many sources of stock recordings were utilised to compile the music for ‘The Space Museum’. 😐

The original DVD special features were as follows. As well as the ‘Defending the Museum’ featurette with new series writer Robert Shearman, there was the ‘My Grandfather, the Doctor’ interview with William Hartnell’s real-life granddaughter Jessica Carney, the ‘A Holiday for the Doctor’ featurette, a dual mono sound audio mix option of the story to enjoy, and an audio commentary with William Russell, Maureen O’Brien and writer Glyn Jones, moderated by Peter Purves. There was an info-text commentary option, a photo gallery of the story, PDF materials including a ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story, and a ‘coming soon’ trailer for the ‘Myths and Legends’ DVD box set, which includes ‘The Time Monster’, starring Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and John Levene, ‘Underworld’, starring Tom Baker, Louise Jameson and K-9, and ‘The Horns of Nimon’, starring Tom Baker, Lalla Ward and K-9.

On Disc 7 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 2’ Blu-ray, the ‘Defending the Museum’ featurette, the dual mono sound audio mix option and the DVD audio commentary can be found on there. The info-text commentary option and the photo gallery have been updated for 2022 on the Blu-ray. Sadly, the ‘My Grandfather, the Doctor’ interview and the ‘A Holiday for the Doctor’ featurette aren’t included on ‘The Space Museum’ Blu-ray disc.

The new special features on Blu-ray include the ‘Doctor Who and the Collectors: Part One – The 1960s’ documentary with Emily Cook, and a BBC continuity announcement for the first episode of ‘The Space Museum’. Again, it’s sad that there isn’t a ‘Behind the Sofa’ item included for ‘The Space Museum’ on Blu-ray, as I would have liked to have seen and enjoyed the reactions of Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves and Carole Ann Ford; Janet Fielding, Wendy Padbury and Sarah Sutton; and Bonnie Langford and Sophie Aldred to this story.

On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of ‘The Space Museum’, there are production documents, four rehearsal scripts and four cameral scripts. You need a special Blu-ray computer drive for that.

‘The Space Museum’ isn’t a great ‘Doctor Who’ story, as there’s no denying there are problems in terms of the story’s pacing and how characters are being developed. But I enjoyed seeing it, and it was fascinating to uncover how things could have been done differently in the way the story is presented.

The story’s direction and the writing could have been better, but at least the story is worthy enough to watch so long as you have an open mind. ‘The Space Museum’ also provides a good appetiser for what’s to come next in the season, especially as our heroes find themselves against the Daleks again.

‘The Space Museum’ rating – 6/10

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The previous story For the First Doctor was ‘The Crusade’ (TV) For Ian was ‘The Crusade’ (TV) For Barbara was ‘The Crusade’ (TV) For Vicki was ‘The Crusade’ (TV) For the Daleks was ‘Legacy of the Daleks’ (Book)	The next story For the First Doctor is ‘Every Day’ (ST) For Ian is ‘Every Day’ (ST) For Barbara is ‘Every Day’ (ST) For Vicki is ‘Every Day’ (ST) For the Daleks is ‘The Chase’ (TV)
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