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!   
      
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