You may remember some of my advice on this show. If the fans love a serial, you’re probably safe in skipping it. If they despise or ignore it, it’s probably worth a look.

To give an idea of The Space Museum‘s reputation, the main extra on the disc is a short monologue from new series writer Rob Shearman in which he half-heartedly defends the story. He grasps to fit the story with a retrospective literary justification, and doesn’t quite succeed. It’s an interesting feature, but so far as I’m concerned it’s unnecessary. This is one of the more creative and fascinating stories of one of the show’s more creative and fascinating eras.

The first three or so years of the show are closer to literary science fiction than anything that has followed. Nearly every story is based either on some theoretical premise or on attempt to push the boundaries of the show’s format. Add in a cast that is fascinating to watch no matter what they’re up to, and there is room to push the show very far before it starts to get too experimental, too odd to work.

The Space Museum begins on a weird note; the cast, battered, bruised and torn from misadventures in the Crusades, suddenly finds itself standing around the TARDIS console, dressed in tidy new clothes. Dropped glasses bounce back into hands and repair themselves. Walking in heavy dust leaves no footprints. And then, spoilerphobes be warned to skip to the next paragraph, toward the end of the first episode, is one of the show’s greatest cliffhangers. The four regular cast round a corner to find their own embalmed bodies as exhibits in a space museum.

After the first episode, the mystery element diminishes and the story becomes more about the characters interacting with the world and trying to prevent the future from occurring. Though the rest of the serial is rarely as heady as the first episode, the character dynamics are always fun and the story is scattered with great moments such as a guard’s attempt to mind-probe the Doctor.

After a short 100 minutes the serial ends with an overt transition into the following story, and Ian and Barbara’s farewell after nearly two years as the show’s protagonists, The Chase.

This one is a keeper. If you want an example of a Hartnell-era story that overstepped its bounds, try The Web Planet. Ambitious, creative, and such a curious disaster.