From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address: solar.penguin@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Pathfinders in Space -- 2. Spaceship from Nowhere

Sorry, I forgot to add that the previous episode was called "Convoy to
the Moon", beating Roddenberry's "Wagon Train to the Stars" concept by
several years!

Episode 2 is called "Spaceship from Nowhere".  Now that's a pretty
good title which hasn't dated much.  You could imagine it being used
on something like DW nowadays.

Anyway, the episode opens with the reprise of the cliffhanger, re-
enacted rather than replayed from telecine.  However, this is followed
by some reused film from last week: the cardboard cutout animation,
this time representing the supply rocket, rather than the main one.
Good job both rockets are totally identical, despite having been
designed for totally different purposes!

There's a lengthy montage sequence showing people around the world
watching or listening to the news about the moon mission.  The British
and French are in bars, while the Canadians, Germans and Australians
are doing more wholesome if lonely pursuits.  Of course, the show's
recorded-as-if-live approach means these places are all just
represented by one very small set each, in a different corner of the
studio.  We don't see the USA or Russia at all, implying nobody in
those countries is interested in news about space research!

Professor Wedgwood is upset when he learns that Henderson has brought
the kids with him.  He orders the supply rocket to remain safely in
Earth orbit, while the scientists in the first rocket continue out to
the moon, land, study it, and take off again without any food, fuel or
other supplies.  Instead of pointing out the obvious flaw in this
scheme, Henderson and the kids agree, then pretend they can't enter
orbit without risking burning up the rocket in the atmosphere.

All this time, everyone's walking around normally, as if under Earth
gravity.  Then the rocket passes out of the gravitational pull, and
the gravity is just switched off, instantly.  This is represented by a
bad overlay of Jimmy floating up and down, his arms and legs vanishing
and reappearing, since the video effects weren't up to the task.

Luckily everyone else is wearing magnetic boots, so they aren't
affected.  They even fall down and sit down normally, although that
can't be due to magnets, since apart from the boots they're wearing
their normal clothes.  Even Valerie has changed out of her spacesuit
back into her chunky cable-knit cardigan!

Anyway, crossing the sudden boundary of Earth's gravity means the
supply rocket is unable to enter orbit, and has to accompany the main
rocket to the moon after all.  The children are pleased.  The
professor isn't.

Suddenly, another TV news bulletin is telling us it's 48 hours later.
It's being watched in the same British bar as the previous one,
although the two girls playing its only customers have swapped seats
to denote the passage of time.  They both look about 14, so there is
some teenage rebelliousness in this world after all, as kids sneak out
for a night of underage drinking and watching the news!

We see the moon lunar surface from the professor's rocket.  It's a bit
like the "rolling log" effect of the Voga planet surface in "Revenge
of the Cybermen".  Only it doesn't look as crap as that.  In fact,
it's almost good by comparison.

Anyway, Professor Wedgwood has now decided that the supply rocket will
remain in orbit around the moon, while his team lands, spends weeks
studying it, and takes off again without any food, fuel or other
supplies.  This time Dr O'Connell does spot the flaw, and refuses to
let the landing go ahead.  (Personally, I think his supplies of pipe
tobacco are in the other rocket and he's just desperate for a smoke.)

Talking of the professor's team, when I listed them yesterday, I
forgot one of them: Ian.  But that's not surprising as he's just so
bland.  Not the old grumpy one like Dr O'Connell, or the female one
like Professor Meadows, or the leader like Professor Wedgwood.  He's
just there, with no characteristics of his own.  Even now I can't
remember his surname.

There's brief scene back at the mission control, introduced by a model
shot of the base exterior, showing the two rockets still in place on
the launchpads!   (Now there's something for lunar-landing-hoax
conspiracy theorists to think about!)

Back on the rocket, Wedgwood tricks O'Connell into pulling the wrong
lever, causing the rocket to swerve, and O'Connell to conveniently hit
his head and knock himself out.  (He falls downwards, of course,
despite the lack of gravity.)  I suppose I'd better say something
about the control levers.  They're great big things, over a metre
long, like something from a signal box or the engine room of a paddle-
steamer.  On their own terms they look wonderful, but it's as if the
designer has never heard of these newfangled things called switches
and buttons!

With O'Connell out of the way the rocket can land on the moon.
There's another cardboard cutout animation showing it manoeuvring into
position.  But despite a clean star-free path for it in the background
picture, the animated rocket still ends up missing it and passing
_behind_ the stars instead!

Leading up to the cliffhanger, there's a very long, supposedly funny
sequence where both the landed rocket and the orbiting supply rocket
spot something on the radar, each thinking it's the other.  They talk
at cross purposes over the radio for what seems like ages, before they
realise it's a mysterious unidentified spaceship.  And it's on a
collision course for the supply rocket!!!

Oh, and the theme music for the closing titles seems to be the old
"Quatermass and the Pit" theme, or something very similar anyway.  Bit
of a cheek, borrowing the tune from a much better series like that!

--- Synchronet 3.15a-Linux NewsLink 1.92-mlp
 * Origin: http://groups.google.com (1:2320/105.97)
--- SBBSecho 2.12-Linux
 * Origin: telnet & http://cco.ath.cx - Dial-Up: 502-875-8938 (1:2320/105.1)