First of all: Woo Hoo! Today I weighed in at a record low since I started this project. Not in-and-of-itself a remarkable thing, but I was really frustrated during most of last week as I seemed to be steadily losing ground and gaining back weight. With this morning's weigh-in I feel like I have solidified the trend back in the right direction. It has been a bit of a challenge getting used to the treadmills at the YMCA. I mean, they are lovely high-tech machines, but they aren't mine so they feel like driving a rental car. It just takes a bit to figure out how to get all the mirrors and seats positioned correctly, such as it is.

Anyway, today's episode: I am finding The Space Museum surprisingly interesting. The story represents the first time that the writers have really played around with the concept of Time as a separate dimension, and gone a bit wibbly wobbly with it. There are also several moments of humor which, although a little out of place, were still lots of fun.

Let's talk about that.

The Space Museum

Our heroes are frozen like statues, still wearing their local attire from The Crusade. And then... they aren't. They have all inexplicably changed into their more usual traveling clothes. Notably, Vicki is wearing a particularly feminine dress, which seemed a bit out of character for her and not nearly mod enough. In any case, they all wake from their stupor to find that the TARDIS has materialized and that they have all changed clothes without remembering when.

Outside they find an array of space craft parked in the desert, leading up to a large building. Ian notices that they are not leaving footprints in the sand, and Vicki notices how absolutely silent it is. The Doctor, being a waspish prick, continually brushes off all of their declarations of weirdness as being of no great import. Soon enough they discover they are in a giant museum, which among other things contains an inactive Dalek. There are a few other moments of strangeness where other people in the museum seem to not see the companions at all, nor do these other people make any sound despite the fact that they are clearly speaking to each other. It is one long chain of weirdness, such as when Vicki discovers that when she tries to touch an item on display her hand just passes right through it like a hologram. Ultimately they find a ghost version of the TARDIS on display in the museum, and then find themselves on display -- immobile in glass cases.

It is at this point that the Doctor finally understands what is happening. The TARDIS has jumped a time track, and they have found themselves displaced into their own future. If they want to avoid becoming museum displays, they must figure out what happened to create that future and then not do that. Easy, right? At the end of the episode they all feel a moment of weirdness, the future display disappears, and they are snapped into real time.

The Dimensions of Time

Right off the bat we finally get to meet the locals, and learn that curators are from a galactic race called the Moroks, and that there is a brewing rebellion among the native Xerons. There is much running about the museum, during which the Doctor becomes separated from the rest of the group. He is initially captured by a group of Xerons (effectively, disgruntled teenagers), but quickly frees himself. He even finds a rather unique hiding place.

Exterminate!

Meanwhile, the rest of the group is literally running around in circles trying to find the Doctor. Then Ian gets the bright idea to leave a trail, literally stealing the cardigan off of Barbara's back and taking it to pieces to create a giant string.

Ian isn't very good at unraveling sweaters

Shortly thereafter the Doctor is captured by the chief Morok curator Lobos, and placed into interrogation. Lobos uses a machine to read the images from the Doctor's mind, which leads to a series of amusing moments where the Doctor claims to have arrived on the planet Xeron on a penny farthing bicycle, traveling from a home world filled with walruses, and that he himself is an amphibian.

Saddle up, cowboys!

Needless to say, Lobos is not amused by the Doctor's antics. Lobos summons the guards to take the Doctor away to the preparation room to become a museum exhibit. Roll credits!

STATS:

Doctor(s): First
Companion(s): Vicki, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright
Episode(s): The Space Museum, The Dimensions of Time
Steps Walked: 6,790 today, 238,604 total
Distance Walked: 3.22 miles today, 108.54 miles total
Weight: 295.04 lbs (five day moving average), net change -12.26 lbs