Doctor Who (TV Series) The Final Phase (1965) User Reviews

The Space Museum: Episode 4 - Very interesting first episode followed by 3 very disappointing episodes

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 6/10 · 12 August 2014]

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.

The Final Phase

[guswhovian · 6/10 · 13 August 2020]

Ian manages to save the Doctor, while the Xerons, with the help of Vicki, start their revolution.

"The Final Phase" is a pretty poor episode, though not as bad as "The Search". The Xerons aren't really enthusiastic about their revolution, but the Moroks are kind of pitiful. William Hartnell being back is a saving grace for this episode, but he really isn't in it very much.

Overall, The Space Museum is one of the most disappointing surviving stories of Hartnell's era. The first two episodes are quite good, but the drop in quality for the last two is really astounding. The guest actors are all pretty bad, with the exception of Richard Shaw and Jeremy Bulloch. If they had polished up the script a bit and gotten better guest stars, The Space Museum night have been great.

Review for all 4 episodes

[maxglen · 6/10 · 6 November 2018]

I had heard that this was a relatively missable serial and although it isn't anything to write home about I'm definitely glad I watched it. The first episode is one of the more complex and interesting episodes of old who and introduces a few concepts which to my knowledge haven't really been explored since, the second episode although losing the complexity and mystery that the first had is still enjoyable and has some great moments, namely the interrogation of the doctor by Lobos at the end of the episode, the third episode continues to decline in thoughtfulness but seeing Ian beat up and disarm aliens to save the doctor was one hell of a saving grace, episode 4 is definitely the most formulaic and cookie cutter, not much to say other than that. Episode 1 - 8.0, Episode 2 - 7.0, Episode 3 - 7.0, Episode 4 - 6.0 (would have been a 5.5 but Vicki, Ian and the Dalek reveal leading into the chase were all great)

S2: The Space Museum: Starts really interestingly before becoming a standard goodies/baddies plot

[bob the moo · 22 September 2013]

This four part serial starts really well. The group find themselves weirdly changed out of the clothes they were wearing and into their normal ones but with no memory of doing it; a glass of water that is dropped and breaks instantly repairs itself as if it never happened and generally things are a little weird. When they leave the Tardis they find themselves in a strange exhibition of machines and creatures - like a museum almost. The people in the museum cannot seem to see the four travellers and, just when they think it cannot get weirder, they stumble upon the most alarming of all the exhibitions.

The first episode is a great start and it really grabbed since there seemed to be so many ideas and potential here - a museum in space, an ominous fate, time loops etc - but by the time the second episode draws to a close it is clear that none of this is really where the serial is going to exist. Indeed before the writers fail to notice the paradox of destroying a woollen cardi in the present that Barbara was seen wearing in the future, these things have already mostly been jettisoned. This is a real shame because I generally like the idea of not being able to change timelines etc and enjoy this type of content, so when it becomes young rebels versus mean old authority figures, I was quite bored. By the end this is all that remains and you know where it is going already and thus it does. It doesn't help that it isn't even a particularly good example of this storyline and it feels quite a waste considering how much else had originally been put on the table.

The main cast are good as usual and they work well enough with this familiar arrangement. The story cast are not so good though - the Moroks are generally dull while the rebels are quite annoying little oiks who think that sincerity in their delivery can make up for the lack of much else, but it can't. The sets are standard although would have been good enough if the ideas had been followed through - but they weren't and by the end the museum seems a very dull place indeed.

It is hard to watch this off the back of the 50% lost serial The Crusade, which seemed nicely complex and filled with good action and plotting - it got trashed but somehow this survived; although I guess in fairness if half of this serial had been destroyed it would have looked better with only the first and third episode remaining. Overall a great start brimming with involving ideas but then it proceeds to do nothing with it and heads into a very simple and dull formula.

Get a black polar neck and start a revolution

[Sleepin_Dragon · 5/10 · 4 June 2017]

Ian discovers what the Moroks are doing to The Doctor, the preparation phase, he does all he can to free The Doctor. The revolution begins as the Xerons attempt to overthrow the Moroks.

The Xerons are the least enthusiastic bunch of rebels I've ever seen, they look like they're waiting to return library books,they're equally matched by the characterless Moroks, who seem to pose very little threat, even the The Doctor comments to the Moroks chief 'i don't think your soldiers have really got their heart in the job have they?'. Never a truer word spoken on this show. They look like an army of Ray Reardon chefs.

It's so easy to dismiss this story for what it is, a pit stop to help the Xerons overcome the Moroks, William Hartnell is particularly good, he gives a commanding speech. The best bit comes at the end with the appearance of the Daleks, that must have cheered the fans up when it went out.

Unfortunately for the most part it is quite poor, most of episode four is spent asking what if and questioning about changing events, it's a bit lazy, and as for that bit when the camera pans over the TARDIS crew grinning is terrible.

You can see this was made on the cheap 5/10

Mediocre ending to a great start

[TARDIS_Tech_Support · 5/10 · 8 September 2022]

If you like standard baddie of the week episodes, in which the Gang has to get out of some mess that The Doctor put them into, then you'll like the last 3 episodes of The Space Museum. But I can't understate how much better the first episode was than the last three. There were seeds of a wonderful story, bending what it means to travel through time, and more imaginative in the overall structure of traveling than dozens and dozens of other episodes. But there is simply no pay-off -- this is what we get. You could have placed the Gang into the same situations with any number of other aliens we've seen so far, and swapped out the same dialogue almost verbatim.

Disappointing, but not terrible. Just blah.