The Space Museum

015 – The Space Museum
Doctor Who serial
Amused, the Doctor emerges from his hiding place - inside the shell of a Dalek exhibited in the titular "space museum".
Cast
Doctor William Hartnell (First Doctor)
Companions Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright) William Russell (Ian Chesterton) Maureen O'Brien (Vicki)
Others Richard Shaw — Lobos Ivor Salter — Morok Commander Salvin Stewart — Morok Messenger Peter Diamond — Morok Technician Lawrence Dean, Ken Norris, Salvin Stewart, Peter Diamond, Billy Cornelius — Moroks Peter Sanders — Sita Peter Craze — Dako Jeremy Bulloch — Tor Bill Starkey — Third Xeron Michael Gordon, Edward Granville, Bill Starkey, David Wolliscroft — Xerons Peter Hawkins — Dalek voice Murphy Grumbar — Dalek Operator
Production
Directed by	Mervyn Pinfield
Written by	Glyn Jones
Script editor	Dennis Spooner
Produced by	Verity Lambert
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer
Production code	Q
Series	Season 2
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Date started	24 April 1965
Date ended	15 May 1965
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Crusade The Chase

The Space Museum

Author	Glyn Jones
Cover artist	David McAllister
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	117
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	January 1987 (Hardback) 18 June 1987 (Paperback)
ISBN

The Space Museum is the seventh serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 24 April to 15 May 1965. The story is set on the planet Xeros, a subjugated planet in the Morok Empire, now home to a vast museum and a young, rebellious population.

The TARDIS arrives near a vast Space Museum on the planet Xeros, but has jumped a time-track. The First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Vicki have a series of bizarre experiences as they venture outside and into the Museum – not least that they see but cannot be seen by the militaristic Moroks who run the museum, or the servile indigenous Xerons who work for them. The museum contains fascinating exhibits, including a Dalek shell, but the most worrying is the four travellers themselves encased and on display. Quite soon afterward the time track slips back and, though the exhibits of the TARDIS and the four travellers vanish, they still find themselves inside the Museum.

The head of the Moroks, Lobos, is a bored and desperate museum administrator and colony governor, who reflects sourly that the glories of the Morok Empire are past. Like Rome, the Empire became decadent and then declined. The Moroks have found the TARDIS and now start tracking down the occupants who have, as usual, become separated. The Doctor is the first to be found, but evades their interrogation tactics.

Meanwhile, Vicki has made contact with the Xerons and, hearing of their enslavement, aids them in their plans to stage a revolution. They attack the Morok armoury and Vicki outwits its controlling computer. With their new weapons, the Xerons are able to begin a revolution, which slowly takes hold.

Ian has meanwhile freed the Doctor from Lobos, who had begun the process of freezing him and turning him into an exhibit. Ian and the Doctor are quickly recaptured by the Morok guards, and Barbara and Vicki are captured shortly thereafter. With all four held prisoner in the Museum, it looks like the time track prediction of their future as museum exhibits will soon be realised after all.

Help comes from the Xeron revolutionaries, who kill Lobos and the other Morok captors. The Xerons then go about destroying the hated Museum as the TARDIS crew slips away. They take with them a time/space visualiser as a souvenir. On the planet Skaro, their departure is noted by the Daleks.