From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated   
   From Address: solar.penguin@gmail.com   
   Subject: Pathfinders in Space -- 4. The Man in the Moon   
      
   The picture quality is much worse on this episode, with many dropouts   
   especially in the first half.  In fact, none of the episodes have been   
   restored, or at least not to the standard that the RT do for the DW   
   DVDs.  But this one is worse than most.   
      
   Anyway, the cliffhanger reprise is different from the ending last   
   week.  We don't get to see Jimmy discovering the derelict spaceship.   
   Instead, we stay at the top of the shaft, and he shouts up that he's   
   found it.   
      
   Henderson climbs down the shaft to investigate, telling Geoffrey and   
   Valerie to stay behind.  But they insist on following him because, "We   
   should stick together, Mr Henderson."  Naturally no-one thinks of   
   radioing in to tell the other party what's going on!   
      
   In the cave, they find a lever at the bottom of the shaft.  Henderson   
   tells Geoffrey not to touch it, and right away, Geoffrey does.  The   
   hatch closes, sealing the shaft, trapping them.  And only then do they   
   start to worry how the others will ever find them.   
      
   Not that the others are doing much better.  Professor Wedgwood and his   
   team are lost and walking round in circles.  "I recognise that rock,"   
   complains O'Connell, beating DW's "All these corridors look the same,"   
   by a good many years!   
      
   Despite this, Wedgwood announces they've past the point of no return,   
   and are now closer to the supply rocket than the first rocket.  Even   
   though has no way of knowing this, since they're totally lost!   
   (Perhaps it's just empty morale raising rhetoric?)  Anyway, they find   
   more little triangles, and decide they must be arrows marking the way   
   through the mountains.   
      
   There are more symbols being discovered by the kids in the cave.   
   Jimmy asks Hamlet the guinea pig if they're guinea pig language.  But   
   he doesn't get an answer.   
      
   Ian, who was left behind in the first rocket, is talking to Jean at   
   mission control over the radio.  He mentions that the suits can only   
   hold four hours of oxygen.  Dialogue later in the episode confirms   
   this is four hours maximum.  Which is odd because last week the suits   
   were down to five hours oxygen remaining after being in use for   
   several hours!   
      
   However, it doesn't matter, since the Professor's party have reached   
   the supply rocket, where they can rest and refill their oxygen tanks.   
      
   But down in the cave, Henderson and the kids are running out of   
   oxygen.  Apparently one of the main symptoms of oxygen starvation is   
   wild, melodramatic overacting before passing out.  When everyone's   
   unconscious, the cave's main double doors swing open flooding it with   
   light...   
      
   We're treated to a pointless sequence of Ian playing chess against   
   himself back in the rocket.  It's not even necessary for technical   
   reasons, (e.g. giving other actors time to get into position for the   
   next scene) since there's an ad break here!   
      
   Back in the cave, it turns out the doors were opened by Wedgwood and   
   his party, who'd found the entrance, and have now revived their   
   unconscious colleagues with spare oxygen.  Including Hamlet somehow,   
   even though his suit should be too small to connect to their air   
   pipes.   
      
   Once all the reunions are over, they decide to make the cave their   
   base.  It's doors are airtight, and there's an airlock, which is more   
   than there is on their rockets.  They can flood it with oxygen and   
   have a breathable atmosphere.    (I'm not sure how much oxygen it   
   would take to fill the large cavern and all its side tunnels, but   
   probably more than the couple of cylinders we eventually see being   
   used.)   
      
   Back on earth, there's once again an establishing shot of the base   
   with the rockets on the launch pads.  This is the third week in a row,   
   so it must be deliberate.  But why?  Are these a couple of extra   
   rockets that the technicians built from scratch immediately after the   
   first ones took off?   
      
   Or are the astronauts still on earth, being brainwashed with   
   hallucinogenic drugs to make them think they're on the moon, as part   
   of some sinister experiment?  That's the only thing which would   
   explain the momentum-defying spacesuits, the inconsistent timings, and   
   the general stupidity.  And I think I know who's behind it...  When   
   the radio technicians are sceptical about the Professor's report about   
   the abandoned spaceship, Jean suddenly gets very, very strict and   
   orders them to release it to the press anyway.  It's as if she's up to   
   something.   
      
   Meanwhile on the "moon" (yeah, right!) they've set up their base in   
   the cave, and are now examining the derelict spaceship.  (In case   
   you're wondering, it's roughly the same size and shape as the one in   
   "Quatermass and the Pit", what a coincidence!)  Despite not being able   
   to get into it, Prof Wedgwood is certain that it must've run on   
   "atomic power, it couldn't have been anything else."  Ahh, that early   
   sixties optimism about all things nuclear!   
      
   Conversation is cut short by the discovery of water droplets dripping   
   from the roof.  Dr O'Connell looks at the water under a microscope,   
   and everyone (except Jimmy who's too small to see over them) eagerly   
   gathers round to watch him, as though looking at a man looking into a   
   microscope is the most exciting thing ever.  As a result of his   
   inspection, he announces that the water was originally vapour that   
   condensed and froze onto the ceiling and has now been melted by their   
   body heat.  (He can tell that just by looking at it?)   
      
   While all this was going on, Hamlet wandered off into the tunnels, and   
   Jimmy ran off after him him, calling "I told you to stay where you   
   were."  None of the human characters have stayed where they were when   
   told (apart from Ian, the living personification of blandness) so why   
   should the guinea pig be any different?   
      
   Valerie notices that Jimmy is missing, and wanders off to look for   
   him.  At the end of a tunnel she finds a statue of a man.  And she   
   screams because it's the cliffhanger.   
      
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