From: Harry Kersey To: sadwank@onelist.com Subject: [sadwank] The Spanking Adventures: 'The Space Museum' Date: Friday, December 04, 1998 23:15 From: "Harry Kersey" A less popular story this time and one which Vicki mostly spends, unusually, away from the Doctor's side and initiating action herself, helping out the oppressed Xerons in their revolution. However, there is one great opportunity to adapt the on screen action for a spanking scene, and like the other good things in the story, it comes in the first episode. This time I'm not only going to make the spanking an important narrative point: in deference to the slightly ponderous philosophical style of 'The Space Museum', I'm also going to use it to enable a little bit of thematic dialogue that bears on the story's treatment of time and destiny. On screen, when they go into the museum and Vicki expresses satisfaction that there are no little men telling them not to touch things, the Doctor replies, 'Well, you just pretend there are, young lady, and keep your hands to yourself.' And in my version he adds: 'Or you know where *my* hand will end up!' Of course, when she does touch the exhibit and the Doctor scolds her, in my version he puts her across his knee to reinforce it. 'All right, Doctor,' intervenes Barbara, 'can't you save the spanking till later?' (She says something similar in the original version, only it's 'scolding' rather than 'spanking'.) 'Nonsense,' insists the Doctor, 'the child must learn her lesson,' and so saying he grasps the hem of her dress and pulls it upwards... As the skirt makes its upward journey, exposing the girl's shapely thighs (which are nicely emphasized by her schoolgirl knee-socks), we must break off a moment to consider the question of Vicki's panties: what will she be wearing? It's not a straightforward decision because 'The Space Museum' sees the first significant costume change for the character. In her first four stories, she wears either her black mini-dress with the distinctive zig-zag collar (for the science fiction stories) or appropriate period costume (for the historical stories). I take the short black dress to have been a consciously futuristic design for 1965, and so something emphasizing the character and her origins. But in 'The Space Museum' the pattern is broken, not only because she wears a different dress but because of the *kind* of dress it is: a frilly bell-skirted design which looks more like an olde-tyme party frock than the kind of thing you would expect a girl of the future to wear. Either the costume designer has stopped bothering to give Vicki appropriate costumes, or else has decided that she has gone on a dressing-up spree in the TARDIS wardrobe (like Dodo with the crusader's suit in 'The Ark'). That's the key question: if she is just dressing up in an unexpected design, then underneath she will wear her usual futuristic style of panties (whatever they may look like), whereas the panties will be more in keeping with the style of the dress if the character has been compromised. My own view is that the character is indeed starting to be watered down: there's no clear indication in the script that she is wearing anything out of the ordinary, and it's also true that Vicki does tend to become less and less origin-defined as she goes on. (The fact that this child of a technological society winds up staying in ancient Troy is as clear a pointer as you'll get!) The last reference to her being from the future, AFAIK, is the stuff in 'The Chase' about the Beatles playing classical music, and that's confused IMO by a muddy attempt to make her both a science fiction kid *and* a representative of the Beatle-loving 1965 teen audience, so that she ends up both wanting to see the fabulous Beatles and not knowing what kind of music they play! So I assume that by 'The Space Museum' the costume designer was just not thinking clearly about Vicki any more, and, since I try to present the characters more or less in keeping with their portrayal in the series, however flawed, I like to envisage her rear clad in white rhumba panties when the Doctor pulls up her dress. (Rhumba panties, for anyone who doesn't know, have rows and rows of lace frills across the seat.) 'Now then, child,' says the Doctor sternly as he raises his hand, 'when,' SLAP! 'when,' SLAP!! 'when' SLAP!!! 'will you learn to obey me?' SLAP!!!! Ian and Barbara try to stop the proceedings for fear of attracting attention, but the Doctor will not listen and Vicki continues to yelp with each resounding smack. Then Ian sees a group of Xerons approaching along the corridor, but the Doctor just carries on spanking, telling the two schoolteachers to stand still and not to hide. Vicki is mortified as the Xerons pass by, one of them pausing to look directly at her: a spanking in the presence of Ian and Barbara is humiliating enough, though this is not the first time it has occurred; but a spanking in front of a group of strangers is the end! Of course, as on screen, what the Doctor has deduced is that they are on a different time track, so that the Xerons could not see them. 'That should sooth your hurt pride a little,' says Ian, ruffling the youngster's hair. Vicki attempts a watery grin: 'I wish it could do the same for my poor bottom!' The Doctor wags a finger: 'That is a trick that time can only play in one way, child. And the only sure alternative is to take charge of your own destiny and be better behaved in future! Now come along, we still have a museum to explore...' Harry Kersey ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left.