DR. WHO: The Space Museum
By: Frederick C. SzebinDate: Friday, March 17, 2000
BBC Video and CBS/FOX Home Entertainment continue their service to American Whovians by adding to their treasure trove of DR. WHO releases with 'The Space Museum,' the 15th adventure of our favorite time traveler in the guise of his first face, the entertaining William Hartnell, which was first aired in April and May of 1965. In this early tale, the Doctoralong with his three companions, Barbara (Hill), Ian (Russell) and young Vicki (O'Brien)finds himself in a bit of a temporal mess. The travelers materialize on a dusty planet wearing their own clothing, and not the 13th Century gear they had on moments before in the previous adventure, THE CRUSADE. Getting a glass of water for the Doctor, Vicki drops the glass and watches in amazement as the pieces rebound off the floor and reform in her hand, and once on the planet's surface, they find that they leave no foot prints.
The group discovers that they're in some kind of space museum, but their curiosity peaks when they discover that their hands pass through the various displays and that they themselves are exhibits in this most peculiar museum. Having crossed some kind of temporal rift between dimensions, they see their own bodies preserved in view cases. To keep themselves from this fate, they have to wait until they actually arrive (paradoxes are a bitch, aren't they?), then vie between the ruling Moroks who run the museum and the boyish Rebels who try to use the time travelers to free themselves from Morok control.
Hartnell cut quite a figure as an elderly, irascible Doctor. He was the first after all, and all others continue to be contrasted against him, even by Whovians who didn't get to see the old boy during his first run. His seemingly dottering old grandfather came into his own when faced with a baddie intent on controlling him. The fun comes from watching the old gent stand up to threat, never losing his cool. That's the comfort of a grandfatherhe's been around a while and knows how to handle a problem, dealing out decorum even in the face of adversity.
This early video production plays much like an on-stage production with scene changes and character movements on and off stage (camera) carefully choreographed, but intimate. Director Pinfield certainly ignored any proscenium arch with careful camera and actor placement, knowing how to block his people within the frame for maximum available dramatic impact. The point is, DR WHO throughout the years always had the talent in front of and behind the camera to make more of what little they had. 'The Space Museum'for as cheap and creaky a production as it is (studio lights suddenly come on with nary a blink of surprise from the very professional actors; the high-browed Rebels are wearing very Earth-like sneakers; the erector-set miniatures were of a brave nature, but wouldn't have fooled anyone, as with the painted backdrops that clearly display the actor's shadows)is an excellent example of what THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT proved 36 years laterand something monied studios and productions never seem to learnthat craft and love of the material can overcome any financial disparities if talent behind and in front of the camera complement each other within the material they are given. Despite technical deficiencies, which existed throughout the series' quarter century run up to Sylvester McCoy's time, the magic of this program is that the writing and performances always took presidence, along with the SF concepts.
It's easy to see why kids (of all ages) locked onto the Doctor, his traveling companions and their spirited adventures. These SF stories took on dramatic and thematic concepts that no other televised or theatrical productions even thought of, and did it with vigor despite the financial challenges they faced. In 'The Space Museum,' we get a little time travel theory pep talk, along with the chase scenario as the Doctor and his companions wander the vast halls of the planet-wide museum (maybe about three painted corridors redressed to look like many). There is also charming humor: the Doctor hides in a Dalek casing to evade his pursuers, chuckling along with us as he does a quite good Dalek accent. There is an amusing interrogation scene where the head curator (Shaw) tries using a mental scanner on the Doctor to get the truth out of him, but the old boy turns the tables, sending out his own images to keep the curator busy and increasingly irritated.
'The Space Museum' is one of the early Doctor Who adventures that the irrepressible BBC didn't take care of. Thinking this 'kids show' had run its course in the 1960s, the home office ignored the care of tapes or outright destroyed them. That means 'The Space Museum' exists as the first two episodes of this four part adventure, with the rest taken up by an audio CD that comes along with commemorative Doctor Who postcards. Certainly not the optimum way to enjoy the Doctor and his voyages, but until perhaps a foreign cache of old tapes are discovered somewhere, this is all we have left. The Space Museum, despite its bargain basement roots (or, perhaps, because of them) remains charmingeven for those of us who came to the series much later.
DR WHO: THE SPACE MUSEUM. A BBC Video/CBS/FOX Home Entertainment release, January 18, 200. Produced by Verity Lambert. Written by Glyn Jones. Directed by Mervyn Pinfield. Running time: 60 mins. Starring William Hartnell, Jacqueline Hill, William Russell, Maureen O'Brien, Richard Shaw, Jeremy Bulloch.
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