The First Doctor and his travelling companions Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki, arrive on the planet Xeros. The planet is under military occupation, having been conquered by the militaristic Moroks who have subjugated the native Xerons. (Boo!) Part of the planet has been turned into a vast Space Museum, designed to proclaim to the universe the glories of the Morok Empire. (Boo!) Our gallant travellers help the Xerons to stage a revolution, overthrow the Moroks and regain their liberty. (Hooray!) The name "Morok" is said to be derived from "moron", although the "morlocks" of H G Wells's "The Time Machine" might also have been an influence.
The first episode of "The Space Museum" does contain one interesting concept. The Doctor and his companions discover that because the TARDIS has "jumped a time-track" they can see a little way into the future. They can see and hear the Moroks and the Xerons, but cannot be seen or heard by them and cannot interact with them. They also see their own fate- to be turned into exhibits in the museum. This concept gives rise to some interesting philosophical questions, principally "Is the future preordained?" and "Can we change our predestined fate by struggling against it, or have we no alternative but to accept it?"
Once the travellers get back on the right time-track, however, these questions fade into the background and the remaining three episodes become a simplistic tale of planetary revolution, in which the main question is "Will the Xerons beat the Moroks or vice-versa?" Now this sort of storyline is far from original, even in the context of Doctor Who. The conflict between Xerons and Moroks is essentially the same as that between Thals and Daleks in "The Daleks", the second serial of the first season, and the previous serial in the second season, "The Web Planet" had told another version of the same story.
Moreover, it is the sort of story that "Doctor Who", with its limited budget, was not well equipped to tell. "The Web Planet", with its elaborate costumes, had gone over budget, and the programme-makers hoped that they could make up for this by skimping on the budget for "The Space Museum". Unlike the insect-like races of "The Web Planet", both Moroks and Xerons are humanoid, thus dispensing with the need for too much make-up, and wear simple costumes. When I reviewed "Battle for the Planet of the Apes", the last of the original "Apes" series, I said that the final scene bore more resemblance to a punch-up outside a pub at closing time than to a battle to determine the future of an entire planet. You could say the same of the ending of "The Space Museum", in which about half a dozen Moroks are taken down by a similar number of Xerons, except that even as a pub brawl this would be a pretty tame affair.
The Doctor goes missing (as he occasionally did) from the whole of the third episode, for reasons which had more to do with William Hartnell's holiday commitments than to the internal logic of the story. The best that could be said of "The Space Museum" is that it marked the arrival of Maureen O'Brien's Vicki, not always my favourite in earlier episodes, as a brave and resourceful member of the TARDIS crew. Overall, however, this is one of the weaker First Doctor stories. 5/10.
The first episode of "The Space Museum" does contain one interesting concept. The Doctor and his companions discover that because the TARDIS has "jumped a time-track" they can see a little way into the future. They can see and hear the Moroks and the Xerons, but cannot be seen or heard by them and cannot interact with them. They also see their own fate- to be turned into exhibits in the museum. This concept gives rise to some interesting philosophical questions, principally "Is the future preordained?" and "Can we change our predestined fate by struggling against it, or have we no alternative but to accept it?"
Once the travellers get back on the right time-track, however, these questions fade into the background and the remaining three episodes become a simplistic tale of planetary revolution, in which the main question is "Will the Xerons beat the Moroks or vice-versa?" Now this sort of storyline is far from original, even in the context of Doctor Who. The conflict between Xerons and Moroks is essentially the same as that between Thals and Daleks in "The Daleks", the second serial of the first season, and the previous serial in the second season, "The Web Planet" had told another version of the same story.
Moreover, it is the sort of story that "Doctor Who", with its limited budget, was not well equipped to tell. "The Web Planet", with its elaborate costumes, had gone over budget, and the programme-makers hoped that they could make up for this by skimping on the budget for "The Space Museum". Unlike the insect-like races of "The Web Planet", both Moroks and Xerons are humanoid, thus dispensing with the need for too much make-up, and wear simple costumes. When I reviewed "Battle for the Planet of the Apes", the last of the original "Apes" series, I said that the final scene bore more resemblance to a punch-up outside a pub at closing time than to a battle to determine the future of an entire planet. You could say the same of the ending of "The Space Museum", in which about half a dozen Moroks are taken down by a similar number of Xerons, except that even as a pub brawl this would be a pretty tame affair.
The Doctor goes missing (as he occasionally did) from the whole of the third episode, for reasons which had more to do with William Hartnell's holiday commitments than to the internal logic of the story. The best that could be said of "The Space Museum" is that it marked the arrival of Maureen O'Brien's Vicki, not always my favourite in earlier episodes, as a brave and resourceful member of the TARDIS crew. Overall, however, this is one of the weaker First Doctor stories. 5/10.