| THE SPACE MUSEUM by Glyn Jones |
| Story 15 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands on a barren-looking planet, but when the crew see a space museum, they decide to go and take a look. There, they find strange things happening, and eventually realise that they haven't arrived yet. When they do, the Doctor is kidnapped by the authorities, the Moroks. Vicki meets up with the local rebels, the Xerons. Barbara is nearly knocked out by Zaphra gas, and Ian uses a Morok to help rescue the Doctor. The Moroks capture Barbara and Vicki, but not before the latter has bluffed a computer into letting the Xerons into the armoury. In the ensuing revolution, the Moroks are gunned down, and the grateful Xerons give the Doctor a present - a Time-Space Visualiser. |
| Review:- One of the most unusual and challenging stories ever presented, this is a tale that manages to provoke largely negative reactions from its audience. A tale of two parts, with a curious first episode acting as a whopping taster for the rest of the story, yet in a bizarre style that suggests a totally different tone to what ensues. The Moroks, from the planet Morok, are a ruthless and successful Empire who amongst other things, are unwanted custodians of the space museum on Xeros. This is a rather amusing idea, as even in this day and age, all-conquering powers are assumed to destroy all whom they conquer, or leave the conquered in a ruined state to be ruled by small numbers of the conquering. The Moroks don't consider their booty to be too precious except intrinsically, and the Doctor is able to react against them in artistic as well as humane terms. It is perhaps of some strange justice that the Xerons destroy the museum during their revolution, killing their oppressors, as well as removing that for which they remained oppressed. Bit of a waste, though. The Xerons don't seem all too interesting as a species, although that's no excuse to side with the Moroks. :-) Vicki gets the best role, surprisingly, inciting the Xerons, and helping re-arm them for their big struggle. It shows what her character can be capable of, when written this well. Ian and Barbara seem to be a tired pair, and it seems retrospectively a good thing that their travelling days were almost over. The Doctor seems to be in good form, proving his intellectual superiority over the Morok Leader, Lobos, although at the ingenious cost of being frozen. Would Ian and the others really have been frozen in a tableau for anything other than being fellow time travellers? A good story, and recommended, although the book may be better than the telly version. EDIT - having now been able to see the telly version, I would say that it's overall quite a decent little story. The set designs are interesting, and it is an amusing touch that the nasty Moroks dress in white, whereas the friendly Xerons dress in black. It's also odd that the only female characters in the whole story are Barbara and Vicki. The discussions of determination help cement this story's worth. I really don't see why this is so unliked. I'd recommend it happily. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book, and seen the video. |