Day 70: The Search

Once again, the series dips into the past, although we're still set on a Space Museum on a distant world. The history here is in the themes dealt with in the serial, as we look back on colonialism, and the effects it has. Last episode, we met a bunch of characters who didn't seem to be on the same side as the museum guards, but were still morally dubious, kidnapping the Doctor for instance. Here, they explain to Vicki their situation, they are rebels, whose planet was colonised by the evil Moroks, and they are trying to overthrow their regime. The Moroks, on the other hand, are bored. It would seem that their space museum doesn't really bring in the tourists, and that it's just a bit of a dump. They have this planet purely for the purpose of having a planet. Which strikes me as a bit colonial. A bunch of people come to a land, overthrow the natives and take command. They don't really know what to do with it, but it's theirs, and it's all for the good of Empire, and all that. The major point of this is that colonialism was still a big thing when this was first broadcast. There's still guilt being thrown on people over what was done for colonialism, and how people came and destroyed cultures in the name of Queen and country. And so we see the natives, in this case the quite nice Xerons, as the good guys, because they overthrow the past, and the old ways. And in doing so, we come back to the guiding thread that holds this serial together, fighting the future of the Doctor and co. being trapped in glass cabinets, as exhibits. This is all being done to change the future, so that by fighting the past, we may fight the future.