The Search

Review of all 4 parts:

The Space Museum

This adventure has a reputation for going downhill after its excellent first episode. I can see why so many people say that as that is EXACTLY what happens.

Episode 1 has the brilliantly interesting idea of the time travelling crew questioning how their actions can alter a future they have glimpsed but episodes 2 to 4, whilst not bad overall, are below usual high Doctor Who standards in many ways.

The TARDIS crew debate whether to act one way or another or even to do nothing, not knowing what actions may save them from the fate they have seen ahead in their future. This creates much interest in Episode 1 but is not explored well in the later episodes.

Unfortunately, episodes 2 to 4 are more or less just a pretty uninspired adventure dragging out the wait to see what their final fate will be with not much interesting happening in between. This contrasts with the great concept for the first part.

There are some decent elements in the later episodes but the standard is far below the first part of the story. This is largely due to the bad acting of the main villain and his fellow 'Moroks' who are all very wooden. The Moroks are embarrassing I think and they spoil what would otherwise only be a very unexceptional but perfectly acceptable few episodes. It still is not terrible but it is a let down after such a promising start because it doesn't continue as well and the Moroks are very weak.

All in all the adventure has one very good idea which it set up really well in episode 1 but then being undermined by the rest of the story leaving it as failing to reach its potential.

It is one of my less favourite Hartnell stories but certainly not a total dud. There are far worse stories around and I would happily rewatch this rather than most stuff on TV nowadays 👍🏻 Worth watching for the first episode alone.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 8.5, Episode 2 - 5.5, Episode 3 - 5.5, Episode 4 - 5.5.

Overall average - 6.25/10.

Ian, Barbara and Vicki are separated from each other, while the Doctor is being turned into a museum exhibit by the Moroks.

There's a real big dip in quality between this and "The Dimensions of Time". William Hartnell is on holiday this week, and his presence is sorely missed.

The acting situation with the guest stars hasn't really improved much. Ivor Salter is introduced as the bitter and unimaginatively named Morok Commander. Salter seems incredibly bored throughout the episode, turning in a terrible performance.

The plot strands that Ian, Barbara and Vicki get are pretty silly. Barbara spends quite a bit of the episode locked inside a storage room, while Ian doesn't really do anything at all. Vicki helps Tor and Sita break into the Morok armory with embarrassing ease.

I could imagine, back in the 1960s, having missed this particular episode, and not losing any of the plot. This is a true filler episode, with little to offer. The characters flurry about, doing nothing of any note. The antagonists do much of the same. The overall plot is a rehash of other, better episodes.

It is a shame, since the first episode of the serial showed so much promise. The Search does not live up to those expectations.

The characters needed something more to do, or perhaps an explanation of the events of the first episode should have been included in the narrative.

But no matter. This is a take-it or leave-it episode.