The Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki travel to a strange museum in space (hence the title) and are shocked to discover themselves on display. Not only that, but they are invisible and appear to be out of sync with the normal flow of time and have an unknown amount of time to figure out how they got on display in the first place or risk succumbing to the same fate once they physically arrive.
Do you like that premise? Well, too bad because they pretty much toss it all away after the first episode to focus on a trite story about an evil dictator and a fledgling revolution all while our heroes run around and try to figure out how not to become museum pieces.
I’ve grown quite a tolerance for classic Doctor Who as I understand that it’s basically a relic of a former age constrained by budget and intended for a younger audience. This has allowed me to show the series some kindness when it gets a little too goofy or just outright stupid, but “The Space Museum” was a chore. It was a chore to watch and a chore to finish and seemed to get worse and worse with each passing episode.
The guest cast was made of some of the most unbelievably poor overactors I’ve ever witnessed and the story was recycled and predictable in every single way. There were some welcome touches of humor, but for the most part even the usually stellar prime cast appeared bored with this stinker.
Perhaps it’s the promising first episode that set my sights too high or the sudden shift from high concept sci-fi to plodding and boring revolutionary story… who knows. Either way, this has been my least favorite classic Who story of all.
Jason Gaston 