The Space Museum

This article is about the Doctor Who episode. For other uses, see Space Museum (disambiguation).

015 – The Space Museum
Doctor Who serial
Amused, the Doctor emerges from his hiding place: inside the shell of a Dalek exhibited in the eponymous "Space Museum".
Cast
Doctor William Hartnell (First Doctor)
Companions Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright) William Russell (Ian Chesterton) Maureen O'Brien (Vicki)
Others Richard Shaw — Lobos Ivor Salter — Morok Commander Salvin Stewart — Morok Messenger Peter Diamond — Morok Technician Lawrence Dean, Ken Norris, Salvin Stewart, Peter Diamond, Billy Cornelius — Moroks Peter Sanders — Sita Peter Craze — Dako Jeremy Bulloch — Tor Bill Starkey — Third Xeron Michael Gordon, Edward Granville, Bill Starkey, David Wolliscroft — Xerons Peter Hawkins — Dalek voice Murphy Grumbar — Dalek Operator
Production
Directed by	Mervyn Pinfield
Written by	Glyn Jones
Script editor	Dennis Spooner
Produced by	Verity Lambert
Executive producer(s)	None
Music by	Stock music
Production code	Q
Series	Season 2
Running time	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast	24 April 1965 (1965-04-24)
Last broadcast	15 May 1965 (1965-05-15)
Chronology
← Preceded by The Crusade Followed by → The Chase

The Space Museum is the seventh serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 24 April to 15 May 1965. Set in a space museum on the planet Xeros, the serial has the time traveller the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and his travelling companions Ian Chesterton (William Russell), Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), and Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) looking for a way to change their fate after seeing themselves turned into museum exhibits in the future.

Plot

The TARDIS arrives near a vast Space Museum on the planet Xeros, but has jumped a time-track. The First Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki have a series of bizarre experiences as they venture outside and into the Museum – not least that they see but cannot be seen by the militaristic Moroks who run the museum, or the servile indigenous Xerons who work for them. The museum contains fascinating exhibits, including a Dalek shell, but the most worrying is that the four travellers and the TARDIS are on display, with the Doctor and company in glass cases. A few moments later, the time track slips back and, the exhibit with themselves and the TARDIS vanish, but the travellers are still inside the Museum.

The head of the Moroks, Lobos, is a bored and desperate museum administrator and colony governor, who reflects sourly that the glories of the Morok Empire are past. Like Rome, the Empire became decadent and then declined. The Moroks have found the TARDIS and now start tracking down the occupants who have, as usual, become separated. The Doctor is the first to be found, but evades their interrogation tactics.

Meanwhile, Vicki has made contact with the Xerons and, hearing of their enslavement, aids them in their plans to stage a revolution. They attack the Morok armoury and Vicki outwits its controlling computer. With their new weapons, the Xerons are able to begin a revolution, which slowly takes hold.

Ian has meanwhile freed the Doctor from Lobos, who had begun the process of freezing him and turning him into an exhibit. Ian and the Doctor are quickly recaptured by the Morok guards, and Barbara and Vicki are captured shortly thereafter. With all four held prisoner in the Museum, it looks like the time track prediction of their future as museum exhibits will soon be realised after all.

Help comes from the Xeron revolutionaries, who kill Lobos and the other Morok captors. The Xerons then go about destroying the hated Museum as the TARDIS crew slips away. They take with them a time/space visualiser as a souvenir. On the planet Skaro, their departure is noted by the Daleks.

Production

Episode 1 begins with a brief reprise of The Crusade episode 4, which is currently the only surviving film footage of that episode.

Cast notes

William Hartnell was on holiday during the recording of episode 3. Thus, he is only seen in the reprise of episode 2.

This story features an appearance by Jeremy Bulloch, who later played Hal in The Time Warrior (1973–74). Ivor Salter later played Odysseus in The Myth Makers (1965) and Sergeant Markham in Black Orchid (1982). Peter Craze is the younger brother of Michael Craze, who played companion Ben Jackson from 1966 to 1967. Peter later played Du Pont in The War Games (1969) and Costa in Nightmare of Eden (1979).

Broadcast and reception

Episode	Title	Run time	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)	Archive
1	"The Space Museum"	23:38	24 April 1965 (1965-04-24)	10.5	16mm t/r
2	"The Dimensions of Time"	22:00	1 May 1965 (1965-05-01)	9.2	16mm t/r
3	"The Search"	23:33	8 May 1965 (1965-05-08)	8.5	16mm t/r
4	"The Final Phase"	22:15	15 May 1965 (1965-05-15)	8.5	16mm t/r

In 2009, Mark Braxton of Radio Times noted that The Space Museum "kicks off so well", but did not take the opportunity to discuss ideas such as predestination and also boasted a predictable, "poorly acted" conflict and many implausibilities. However, he felt that the serial showcased Vicki's "vibrant" character and the Dalek joke was "one of the few elements that make this rather tedious traipse memorable". Reviewing the DVD release, SFX's Nick Setchfield described The Space Museum as offering a "killingly dull environment in which to stage an unengaging take on Who's eternal 'rebels vs despots' formula", despite the "lovely fourth-dimensional weirdness" of the first episode and the "refreshing" Moroks who were reminiscent of Douglas Adams' work. Jonathan Wilkins of Dreamwatch also called the first episode "great" and the rest "dull, bog-standard Who" which were "not terrible but ... not terribly exciting either, as it plods rather than races towards a deeply unsatisfactory climax".

Graham Kibble-White, writing for Doctor Who Magazine, said that the first episode falsely set the audience up for "three more weeks of high-concept plotting", when in fact the Doctor dismissed the time travel problems and the rest was "dreary" except for some of Hartnell's charm. DVD Talk's John Sinnott was more positive towards the story, writing, "there were a lot of great plot points that served to keep viewers guessing, and some subtle comedy that really added a lot to the whole show". He also complemented the light touches of humour. In 2010, io9's Charlie Jane Anders listed the cliffhanger of the first episode as among the best in the programme.

Commercial releases

In print

The Space Museum

Author	Glyn Jones
Cover artist	David McAllister
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	117
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	January 1987 (Hardback) 18 June 1987 (Paperback)
ISBN	0-426-20289-9

A novelisation of this serial, written by Glyn Jones, was published by Target Books in January 1987.

Home media

This story was released alongside the surviving episodes of The Crusade on VHS in 1999. The audio soundtrack was released with narration from Maureen O'Brien on CD in May 2009. It was released on DVD in a box set with The Chase on 1 March 2010.

External links

• The Space Museum at BBC Online

Target novelisation

• The Space Museum title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database