Whew! What a day of cleaning I have finished. There are five more bags of rubbish and two plastic crates and numerous broken down boxes all waiting to be taken downstairs now, and the apartment is really starting to come together and look respectable. I think I need a table and chairs, and probably another bookshelf, but other than that it is pretty much all set; all well ahead of guests coming when I host the group video meet at the end of the month.
It is very cleansing getting rid of things I haven’t looked at in years, and really have no idea why I kept them. There were some things I came across that made me smile, and some that made me melancholy, but in the main it just felt freeing, and another step forward to whatever the future might bring.
Episode 1 – The Space Museum
Some nice model work gets the episode underway, with all sorts of strange spacecraft. Then the crew are thrown into an immediate mystery as their clothes have changed, with none of them having any memory of done so.
This episode keeps you completely off balance. There are so many mysteries. No footprints, the glass of water breaking back in the TARDIS, the two strangers not hearing Vicki’s sneeze (I love the Doctor’s comment “It’s extremely doubtful that they were both deaf!” That would, of course, be the simplest explanation, if it wasn’t so ridiculous. For once Occam is wrong). As the crew enter the museum the mysteries pile up, as they cannot hear the museum workers, or even touch the exhibits. As a viewer I am eager to find the answers to these mysteries. And then we find do, as we come face to face with the crew as exhibits.
This is the first story we have come across that actually uses time travel to drive the plot, and as a result the Doctor gets to talk about all sorts of time travel theories on pre-destination and predetermination. For once they are all very interested in changing the future! But maybe the future is catching up with them, as everything changes as we reach the end of the episode. It would be nice to skip a time track, I think, and get some insight into what the future holds right now. But it’s a double-edged sword, and perhaps I would end up rather not having found out. I suppose it’s best to just live the hand that has been dealt and make the best of it. It could turn out to be a great opportunity. Time will tell. I just wish I had a little more patience sometimes!
Episode 2 – The Dimensions of Time
Now that they are back in sync with time once more, the regulars have a lot of fun exploring this strange museum, playing with the various gadgets.
The Moroks seem very bureaucratic, once we get to see them. There is a definite underlying current of criticism of too much bureaucracy in the script and they are shown to be quite ridiculous in many respects. Once we meet the Xerons we see that they are just a bunch of kids. Is this story going to be a parable about the younger generation showing up the older one, and changing them and enlightening them?
We get our first reference to the minotaur myth in the series, which leads to the wonderful exchange between Ian and Barbara over her cardigan, culminating in: “That’s a good cardigan”. You just don’t get lines like that today!
The Doctor’s interrogation by the Moroks is interesting, and also very comedic. They appear to be extremely literal beings and seem to have no imagination at all. All they know how to do when they do not understand is to start preparing the Doctor for becoming an exhibit; And very scared he looks too. The power of the future and the fate that they have already seen is far greater than even that of the Animus..
Episode 3 – The Search
Ian is determined to fight the future for all he is worth. He’ll take any risk to ensure that they do not end up in those glass cases, starting by recklessly attacking far more Moroks than even he can handle. But in so doing he allows the women to escape.
The story of the Morok’s attack on, and devastation of Xeros, and what the Moroks do with the Xerons is very interesting, and should be given greater space in the story, rather than simply being a bit of background that is only discussed in this scene. It might have improved this stories reputation (although I am finding it to be quite enjoyable stuff). The same stylistic trick that was used in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” to fill the viewer in on similar events is used here, with the tale being told to two parties at the same time, but it doesn’t have the same power. This is because the scenes in that earlier story were more relatable I think to our own experience, whereas this is a more science fiction and alien affair. It really does make a difference.
Vicki has been learning from Barbara, as she starts to lead the Xeron rebellion. It’s almost as if she is speaking Barbara’s lines from earlier stories! Her indignance at the Xerons not having weapons is extremely Barbara-like, and true to form she marches them all off to go and get some. The Morok machine that they have to get past in order to do so puts me in mind of the Vogons, as I listen to the string of petty questions that need to be answered to gain access to the weapons.
Episode 4 – The Final Phase
It’s shocking seeing the processed Doctor, but Ian’s determined to fix this, and is very commanding. It becomes even more disturbing when we discover that the Doctor was conscious the entire time he was frozen. Is this just a Doctor thing? Or is every living thing that is frozen in the museum subject to the same frustrating existence; complete consciousness but the lack of any ability to do anything about it. A scary proposition indeed.
Once he is free, it is telling that the Doctor takes the high road in dealing the Moroks, and tries to do the right thing, rather than freezing them as he probably should have done. But that would not be the Doctor-ly thing to do, but it is a decision that may end up costing the crew; The Moroks cannot be trusted. Is this just one of so many situations that lead a much older Doctor to start believing in “No Second Chances”? It’s important for our heroes and ourselves to believe the best in people, but once they betray that belief, then all bets are off.
As we reach the end of the tale, and things are still very much at risk, following the Morok betrayal, there is still time for a little more talk about predestination and fate. Barbara is very philosophical about the whole thing, and the direction the others start to go in their conversation is the way of madness; “what if” will never be productive. The Doctor cuts through that circle, and in so doing displays one of the cores of the character and his ethos; do the right thing for people, inspire them, make them better, and things change for the better. I like that ethos very much, and as I had hoped, it would seem that he is doing the same for me.
I am extremely amused in the final sequence that even in a rush to get away the Morok leader still has time to pack a briefcase with papers! He would still have been caught even without that detour, but it makes me smile. Another dig at the bureaucrats!
I’m pleased that the Doctor provides a reason for the time track jumping at the end (and it reminds me immediately of the end of “Amy’s Choice”. There really is so much in this show that comes back again and again and again). All in all, this was a fun story, deserving of more attention that it gets, and there’s a nice little sting in the tale! The Daleks are coming back!
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