Doctor Who: 1963: The Space Race

This is the second of three releases for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, each set in the year of that first broadcast, and featuring historical or pop cultural events of the time.

The Doctor and Peri arrive outside Mission Control in November 1963, just as they lose contact with the first mission to orbit the Moon. Except, this isn't Cape Canaveral, but Baikonur, and the mission in question is the (fictional) Vostok 7.

The first 30 minutes of the story consist of setting the scene and establishing the central mystery of what might have happened to the capsule, a question tied in with a secondary mystery about a murder. There are some nice touches here about the TARDIS translation circuits - quite rightly, nobody actually speaking Russian does so with a fake Slavic accent. (Although, for what it's worth, Morris doesn't get how Russian surnames work, and it's hard to see why the TARDIS would change those).

Eventually, however, the capsule lands back in Kazakhstan... at which point, the story takes a dive into the surreal. The original pilot has somehow been replaced with an entirely different cosmonaut, whose subsequent actions drive much of the remaining plot. Ironically, while the missing pilot is fictional, and based loosely on Valentina Tereshkova (who had become the first woman in space on Vostok 6 earlier in 1963), the replacement is an actual historical figure... and really, not one you'd expect.

Frankly, the story is nuts, piling on a number of absurdities as it develops. I found it to be done with sufficient charm as to still be enjoyable, and there are some knowing winks as to how mad it all is on the way. Others may feel differently, finding the obvious departure from real-world history to be a bit too much to take. One can, perhaps, but it down to the apparently greater-than-real-world technology on display in TV stories set not much later, such as The Ambassadors of Death, but mainly, I suspect it's just best to go along with it for the ride.

The elements of the story about early space exploration are supplemented with some about the Cold War more broadly, as well as a polemic against animal experimentation. Fans will also notice a couple of oblique references to the new series. And, while it may not be a proper comedy, it's probably best not take it too seriously.