From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address: solar.penguin@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Pathfinders in Space -- 4. The World of Lost Toys

'The World of Lost Toys' is another great episode title.  Again, you
could imagine it being used on something like DW nowadays, perhaps for
the return of the Celestial Toymaker, or a sequel to that recent
episode with the doll's house.

But back to 'Pathfinders', and there's no way this episode is going to
live up to that title.  But it's still better than most.  And it shows
the earliest signs of one of Malcolm Hulke's recurring obsessions:
prehistoric creatures.

First Professor Wedgwood identifies the statue as a stalagmite that's
formed on and around the corpse of one of the alien spaceship's crew.
The reason it looks like a human is because of parallel evolution.
"Humans are the most practical size and shape for life on our planet.
That's why we've survived and become the leading species."  (Tell that
to the insects!)

Back at the base (with that model shot showing the rockets still on
the launch pads) , the technicians are talking on the radio to Ian,
who's getting bored stuck in his rocket on his own, playing chess
against himself.  (Despite this, he remains obediently there, radioing
in on schedule, and not wandering off without telling anyone.  He
clearly doesn't belong on this mission.)

In the cave, Valerie is now looking at something through the
microscope.  "So that's what radioactivity looks like," she says.  No,
we don't get to see what it looks like, but I'd love to know.  "Let
Hamlet have a look," says Jimmy, holding the guinea pig up to the
eyepiece when she's finished.

Meanwhile, Dr O'Connell has identified the stalagmite's rock as being
similar to that of Cambian formations on Earth.  (Although IIRC
Cambrian rocks are mostly shale and stalagmites are mostly
limestone.)  From this he somehow concludes that the corpse is 400
million years old.  (Nowadays scientists think the Cambrian was 500
million years ago, but maybe they thought differently back then.  Or
maybe Hulke was just doing his standard 'Silurian' trick of randomly
mixing-and-matching of eras and their interesting sounding names.)

More confusion about prehistory follows, as the scientists explain
that 400 million years ago, the 'trilobites' that evolved into all
Earth's land animals were just climbing out of the sea!  OK, OK, these
are rocket scientists and astronomers, not biologists, but even
so...!  (Later the reporter Henderson will describe this as before
evolution started on Earth, but that's presumably his just
journalistic hyperbole, rather than claiming that our trilobite
ancestors sprang fully formed from the hand of God.)

Jimmy and Valerie explore the tunnels some more, and find some stuffed
toys that haven't been turned into stalagmites during this time.  In
fact, they look clean and new as if just made by the studio's prop
department.  They also find a children's picture book, which helpfully
teaches us the alien characters for "organic life" and "inorganic
matter".

Fresh from this discovery, Jimmy goes on to find an air inlet in the
side of the alien spaceship.  Of course it's exactly the right size
and shape to work with the hoses from their air tanks.  Once the
pressure has been equalised, it's finally possible to open the ship.
As they do so, Valerie screams that she can see something moving
inside, and we go to the ad-break.  As this show uses the same music
as 'Quatermass and the Pit', I can't help imagining those Martian
insects.  If it turns out to be anything less, I'll be very
disappointed.

Back from the ad-break, and we get a padding scene with Ian playing
chess by radio against the base technicians, who are cheating by using
the computer.  Fortunately those nice, friendly Soviets have been
eavesdropping in on the conversation, and their chess champion,
comrade Federovitch, helps Ian win.  An sign of Hulke's interest in
Communism, perhaps.  None of the English characters show any objection
to calling Federovitch, "comrade Federovitch", even though Hulke
must've known the significance of that.

Anyway, back on the moon, the alien spaceship is empty, and the
movement was just an interior hatch being blown by the breeze.  Yes,
I'm very disappointed.  Well, it's not quite empty.  Valerie and Jimmy
find a cupboard that the adults missed, containing a log book and a
coil of wire.  Professor Wedgwood quickly guesses that the coil is a
magnetic wire recording of a video signal.  (So these aliens hadn't
even invented videotape?)

I'm not the only one finding all this hard to believe.  Back on Earth,
Jean is having trouble persuading the press that it's true.  But then
her colleagues bring news that a meteor shower is heading towards the
moon, and could damage the rockets.

She tries radioing to warn them, but Wedgwood's team are all so
excited about the discoveries they haven't left anyone monitoring the
radio...

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