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Doctor Who - The Space Museum & The Chase
The original Doctor Who, William Hartnell is back in all his creepy
Doctor Who goodness as Whovians are treated to two tales called The
Space Museum and The Chase. With two distinctive stories,
the first story begins with the Doctor and his fellow companions, Ian,
Barbara and Vicki arriving on the mysterious planet known as Xeros. As
they explore this planet, their hunch that not everything is what it
seems is made known when they visit a strange museum.
Inside the museum,
they discover that they are actual exhibits and the planet is run by the
insidious Morok, a warlike civilization. Shocked by their discovery,
they attempt to thwart this possible future by going back in time as the
Doctor yet again attempts to save the day and insight a rebellion
against the Moroks.
This story
is
probably one of the most least favourite stories
from this era for Whovians, however I actually found it quite interesting that
is almost a snapshot of what and who Doctor is. As opposed to the usual
dry acting of Hartnell, this story also features some comedic scenes
that did bring a smile to my face, even though some of it was
embarrassing at the same. As we saw a Dalek in the Space Museum, it left a clue for
the next story, The Chase which has the Doctor and co. going against one
of their most nefarious foes, The Daleks.
As mentioned, the story follows on from the Space Museum and when the
Doctor discovers that the Time-Space Visualiser has been taken from the
museum which they visited, the Daleks are hot on their trail. To make
matters worse, the Daleks have created their own time machine as a game
of cat and mouse begins through the time stream.
There’s plenty of
action in this story as the Doctor goes from planet to planet and
backwards and forwards in time. Eventually they end up on the planet Mechanus where the Doctor uses every trick of his trade to defeat the
Daleks. As opposed to the almost comedic Space Museum, this story revs
things up a little with more action and better BBC special effects. All
in all, it was an enjoyable and historical experience that I would
recommend to any old school Doctor Who fans. I’ve yet to meet a Doctor
Who fan of the classics from Generation Y!
There are plenty of interesting special features on this collection such
as the featurette entitled Defending the Museum which has the
writer of the episode justifying the story and almost mocking the tale
as a comedy as opposed to a serious Doctor Who episode. Add some audio
commentary about Defending the Museum and you’re given a
personal invitation into the making of this rather controversial Doctor
who episode. My favourite special feature of the Space Museum was the
featurette entitled A Holiday for the Doctor which describes the lack of
continuity in making the episodes as actors pop up here and there
through Hartnell’s run as the Doctor. For The Chase, we get even more
special features such as a making of documentary, more audio, PDF files
and several Dalek featurettes. Even though the audio and video is a
little lacking in this collection, as a historical journey for Doctor Who fans, this is as
good as they come! |
