Well, well, well. I'm having a bit of a revistation bonanza at the moment as this post is another one that will look at yet another Doctor Who story and the story in question is the second story from the Tom Baker, The Ark in Space.
So, after 43 years how does it fair???? Well let's take another look...
And yep, the usual is coming up...
SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So the story begins with the TARDIS materialising onboard a space station, which appears to be in an inert state. And as the Doctor (Baker) and his two companions, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) look around they quickly find that there is no air supply, which leaves Sarah almost unconscious. The Doctor then manages to restore power and the air supply just in time however Sarah in the meantime is transported and placed into cryogenic suspension, leaving the Doctor and Harry to explore the station further.
As they look around the Doctor and Harry find a large cryogenic chamber, which holds a large number of humans in cryogenic suspension and they soon also find Sarah in one of the pallets. The Doctor suggests they try and find a resuscitation unit which Harry finds in a cupboard along with a large insectoid alien lifeform.
Then one of the humans, Vira (Wendy Williams) in cryogenic suspension is awoken and revives herself using the equipment Harry found. Vira, who is a medical technician, then manages to start the revivication process for Sarah and also her leader, Lazar who is nicknamed as Noah (Kenton Moore). The Doctor then tells Vira that they have overslept for thousands of years as the alien insect must have sabotaged their control systems, which the Doctor had earlier repaired.
Once Vira has revived Noah, Noah is immediately suspicous of the Doctor and Harry and as the Doctor investigates the ship's power room, he discovers that an alien larvae and traps it inside the ship's solar stack. Noah soon encounters the Doctor in the control room of the Ark and stuns him with a laser weapon and heads down to the power room where is infected by the alien creature. The Doctor soon recovers and encounters Noah again who hides his hand from him, which has been infected and is starting to change into a green scaly skin.
As Vira revives another shipmate, Libri (Christopher Masters) the young shipmate sees Noah and backs away in fear as he thought he saw something horrible in Noah. Noah however while talking to Vira, insisting the reviving process must be halted, starts to exhibit strange behaviour as he feels his mind struggling against the influence of the alien creature and he leaves quickly. The Doctor then convinces Libri to go after him, which Libri does with a gun, but Noah overpowers him and shoots Libri dead and reveals that he is starting metamorphose into the alien creature. Noah then sends out a message to Vira that they are all in great danger and that the alien creatures, named the Wirrn, will overtake and absorb the humans.
The Doctor and Vira then decide to pay Noah a visit, who has started to mutate even more into one of the Wirrn and he tells him they don't have much time. The Doctor then decides the best solution now is to find out how to kill the Wirrn by finding their weakness and the Doctor dissects a part of the Wirrn's brain tissue and joins with it through a mental link using the control system and he discovers that electricity killed the dead creature.
From here, Noah now advancing into Wirrn form shuts off the system's power and as the Doctor goes to the power room to turn it on again he is attacked by Noah, who fully transforms into a Wirrn and warns Vira, who arrives with Sarah and Harry and the others to leave the ark or die. And from this point on, the Doctor and his companions must find a way to defeat the Wirrn and save the future of the human race....
THOUGHTS
As the debut story of the golden era in the show of the Hinchcliffe and Holmes years, The Ark in Space is undeniably effective and it shows the series go in a more gritty and darker direction. And with Hinchcliffe and Holmes, the show became a bit more dark and gothic in terms of its approach but at the same time it still retained the show's humour as well but it was a stark contrast to the light hearted jaunty tone of the Jon Pertwee years.
And the Hinchcliffe & Holmes debut of The Ark in Space is a great example of the approach that Hinchcliffe and Holmes would use so well and here they dared to explore themes, which they would also later look at again in body horror, and transformation (which they do again in The Seeds of Doom) and the story has some strong and fairly shocking moments for its time. The story also even featured a scene that was cut where the mutated Noah begs Vira to kill him, which was cut out by Hinchcliffe as he deemed it as being too frightening and the story would also signal the beginning of Hinchcliffe's battle with Mary Whitehouse, who was strongly opposed to several of the stories of that period due to the more horror orientated content.
The story also features another disturbing image where we see Noah finally complete his transformation at the end of the third episode as his human eyes are the last thing to change before he becomes a complete Wirrn. And its moments like this that with Ark in Space it sure signalled that the show was changing and also for the better as Hinchcliffe believed the show should also appeal to adults as well as children hence the change in tone.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section contains spoilers and is quite big!)
Performance wise the story is very good as you would expect from both the regular cast and the supporting one.
And to start off with Tom Baker, who here really started to lay the grounds for his potrayal of the Doctor after trying to find his feet in his debut story, Robot, as he plays the Doctor with a good level of seriousness, eccentricity, and a little bit humour as well as a strong moral sense.
And Tom has some great moments in the story and the first that comes to mind is the scene in the first episode where the Doctor tells off Harry for messing about with a control switch in the TARDIS. So, as the Doctor exits the TARDIS into the ark's control room he berates Harry "You're a clumsy ham-fisted idiot!". And we hear Harry say "I said I was sorry, didn't I?" and the Doctor irritably says "What?! Come out! And don't touch anything!".
Another good scene is when the Doctor tells Harry to throw his shoe to distract the electric guard cutout, which fires at anything organic. So, the Doctor and Harry, who are hiding underneath a table, poise themselves. So, the Doctor asks Harry "You don't want your shoe, do you?" and Harry says "I suppose not" and the Doctor then says "Slip it off! Right. Now, I want you to throw it across the room" and Harry makes to throw his shoe but the Doctor stops him by firmly grabbing Harry's arm "When I give the word, understand?!". So, the Doctor then says " I'm going to try to distract it. Let's hope it's not double-barrelled. Ready? Now!" so Harry throws his show and the Doctor reaches up and disables the electric guard. So, afterward the Doctor cheerfully says "I think we've done it, Harry!" and he then picks up his singed scarf (as the electric guard zapped it) and he says "Pity about the scarf. Madame Nostradamus made it for me. A witty little knitter. Never get another one like it!".
Then there is the scene where the Doctor is impressed by Harry's suggestion as to why the Ark is in space and he suggests it might be some sort of survival kit. So, the Doctor smiles and says "You're improving, Harry!" and Harry, pleased asks "Am I really?" and the Doctor grins and says to him "Yes your mind is beginning to work! Entirely my influence of course, you shouldn't take any credit!". The Doctor then continues and says to Harry " Yes. If we are to assume that some great cataclysm struck Earth, and that before the end they launched this lifeboat, then the one obvious missing element is man himself. What's happened to the human species, Harry?". The Doctor then presses a switch, which prompts another door to open and it reveals a cryogenic chamber filled with human shaped plastic pods, some of which contain humans, leaving the Doctor and Harry in a state of awe.
And then there is the hilarious and most likely unintentionally double entendre line where the Doctor explains his medical status and Harry's to Vira. So, in the scene Harry introduces himself and the Doctor and Vira asks them "You claim to be med-techs?" and the Doctor replies "Well my doctorate is purely honorary and Harry here is only qualified to work on sailors". Oooo-eerrr!
Another good moment is where the Doctor tells Sarah and Harry how Vira didn't stop them from going after Noah. So, in the scene Harry asks the Doctor "Funny how they've given us the run of the ship! Why doesn't Vira try and stop us?" and the Doctor tells him "Not her function". Harry then asks "How do you mean?" and the Doctor tells Harry "By the 30th century human society had become highly compartmentalised. Vira is only a medtech and I expect we are an executive problem!" before being confronted by Noah, who confirms his theory and holds them at gunpoint and says "Right, Doctor! But not a difficult one!".
Another good scene is where the Doctor discovers that the missing crewmember, Dune, was used by the Wirrn, who planted eggs inside his body and Vira says "You mean Dune's knowledge??" and the Doctor says "Has been thoroughly digested I'm afraid!". And Sarah frightened by the prospect says "Don't make jokes like that, Doctor" and the Doctor says to her "When I say I'm afraid, Sarah, I'm not making jokes".
Then there is scene where the Doctor teases Sarah in the last episode, where she pushes herself from a very narrow conduit panel, carrying a power cable behind her and she get's all upset as she get's stuck. And the Doctor says to her "Stop whining girl! You're useless, I knew we couldn't rely on you! Hundreds of lives are at stake and you just sit there blubbing!". So, this angers Sarah, who says to him "You wait until I get out of here!!" and as she appears the Doctor offers to help her and she says "I can manage I don't need your help!" and the Doctor grins and says "Yes you do, yes you do!" and helps Sarah out of the conduit. So, the Doctor says to Sarah "You've done marvellously, Sarah. I'm very proud of you. I really am very proud of you!". Sarah then frowns and says "Conned again! You're a brute!" and the Doctor a little hurt says "Don't be ungrateful, I was only encouraging you!".
And last of all is the scene where the Doctor is saved by Rogin at the last moment from being killed by an exhaust blast from the Ark's shuttle. So, the Doctor turns up back in the Ark at the end to a much relieved Sarah, Harry and Vira. And the Doctor tells them of Rogin's fate "Rogin's dead. I woke up in a protection hatch. Was Noah on our side and one step ahead of us at the end?". Then Vira receives a call from the Wirrn Noah, who tells her "Goodbye, Vira" and he destroys the shuttle, wiping out the Wirrn with it. The Doctor then looks on and says "More than a vestige of human spirit. It can all begin now, Vira. Mankind is safe". And at the end of the story, Sarah and Harry join the Doctor as they prepare to beam down to Earth together, and the Doctor throws his bag of jelly babies to Vira and says "Have a jelly baby, Vira!".
Elisabeth Sladen is also as good as ever in her part as Sarah Jane Smith and she has some great moments in the story such as when the Doctor, Sarah and Harry land on the Ark and look around but they are soon aware of the lack of air. And the Doctor says "Not much oxygen. Still, nothing to worry about" but Sarah reacts in disbelief and says "Suffocation is nothing to worry about?!" and the Doctor says "We can survive for quite a time yet". And he starts to use his yo-yo and Sarah says "While you play with that yo-yo!" and the Doctor says "Just a simply gravity reading, Sarah. Yes, almost certainly we're in some kind of artificial satellite. Now isn't that interesting?" and Sarah says "Not very!" and the Doctor says "I think it is". Sarah then with a heavy breath says "It's dark, it's cold and it's getting very airless!".
Then there is the scene where Sarah near the start, is starved of oxygen due to the Ark's air supply turned off, but as the Doctor makes his repairs and turns it on again, Harry reassures her calling her "old girl". So, Sarah groggily stirs and slowly says to Harry "Harry, call me old girl again and I'll spit in your eye!" and the Doctor says "Welcome back, Sarah Jane!".
Another good scene is when the Doctor and Vira are trying to come up with a plan to fight the Wirrn but first Harry asks Sarah what did Noah say to them, so Sarah says "Vamoose, or stick around and get killed!". And as Sarah suggests she could drag power cables through the conduits so they can rig up the power to electrocute the Wirrn. So in the scene, Sarah says "Why can't I take that cable through?" and they look at her and Sarah says "Well I'm about that wide!" as she indicates the width of the conduits.
And last of all is the scene which also begins to show the natural chemistry that Tom and Liz had with one another on screen where the Doctor teases her to get her to move on. And Sarah first off get's Harry trying to spur her on by saying "Come on, Sarah! Stick at it!" and Sarah complains "That's the trouble! I keep getting stuck!". But when Sarah starts to get upset and teary eyed, the Doctor teases her and says "Stop whining, girl, you're useless!" and Sarah says "Oh, Doctor!". And the Doctor then says to her "Oh, Doctor! Is that all you can say for yourself?! Hundreds of lives are at stake and you just sit there blubbing!". And this angrily motivates Sarah into action and she angrily says "You wait until I get out of here!" and as Sarah emerges from the conduit the Doctor takes her hand and she protests "I don't need your help, I can manage thank you!" and as the Doctor tells her he is proud of her, she gasps and says "Conned again! You're a brute!".
Ian Marter is also great here in his first second outing as Harry Sullivan (after playing a smaller role in his debut story, Robot) the bumbling but well meaning navy medic and he also provides some comic relief as well as he is given some possibly unintentionally funny lines to deliver.
Ian actually get's some of the best lines in the story such as his first scene where the Doctor berates Harry for messing about with the TARDIS controls and he calls him a "clumsy ham-fisted idiot!" and Harry says "I said I was sorry, didn't I?" and the Doctor says "What?! Come out!" and Harry off screen says "I was only trying to open the door!". And then Harry steps out the TARDIS onto the Ark's control room and he says "We aren't where we were, are we? I've gone mad!" and then Harry says to the Doctor of the TARDIS "You know you could sell that thing, Doctor" and the Doctor, taken aback asks "I could what?!" and Harry "Jolly useful in Trafalgar square. I mean hundreds of bobbies could fit inside..." and Sarah interrupts him and says "Harry, stop burbling!".
Another good scene for Ian is when the Doctor and Harry find the cryogenic chamber with all the pods containing the chosen members of the human race but Harry is convinced they are dead. So, Harry opens one of the pods and looks at one of the sleeping humans and says "Dead as door knocker". Then the Doctor sees Harry checking the human's life signs with his stethoscope and Harry says to the Doctor "Sorry to contradict you, Doctor. Not a flicker of life!". The Doctor then tells Harry "Suspended animation" but Harry looks incredulous and says "There are no metabolic functions at all. I mean, look at him. Now, even in the deepest coma, the hair and fingernails continue to grow. The epidermis....". The Doctor then interrupts Harry and says "Total suspension, Harry! You can't 10,000 years in a coma" and Harry surprised asks "10,000?!" and the Doctor "50,000! 100,000! Time is immaterial!".
Then there is the scene when Vira says there is a technical fault on the ship, so the Doctor goes off to investigate it. And Vira says "The Ark was designed to have a negative fault capacity" and Harry tells to her "Gremlins can get into anything, old girl, first law of the sea!". And after the Doctor recovers the power, Harry cheerfully says to Vira "There you are. What did I tell you? The Doctor's a first class boffin!".
Another is the scene where the Doctor and the others listened to an automated message of the future prime minister of the Earth (a female voice). So, Harry says to Sarah "Well I bet that did your female chauvanist heart a power of good" and Sarah asks "Why?" and Harry rather smugly says "Well imagine a member of the fair sex being top of the totem pole!".
And lastly there is the scene where Ian delivers one of Harry's best lines when the Doctor after overcoming the intense mental link-up with the Wirrn reveals that electricity is the one way in which they can fight against the Wirrn. So, the Doctor says to the others "Electricity. Only by electricity. That's the one thing I found out! It was the auto-guard that killed the queen. Half a million volts" and Harry says "We found the Queen in the cupboard!".
As for the guest cast, Wendy Williams does well enough in her role as Vira, the senior medical technician who revives her crewmates and loyalities are torn between the Doctor and Noah.
Wendy has some good moments in the story such as the scene where she tries to revive Sarah and the Doctor says that she has changed Sarah's body into a battlefield, and Vira says "Battlefield?! I hypoid in classics by you dawn timers have a language all of your own!". Then she opens a pod that has the Ark's leader in it, Noah, so Vira says proudly to the Doctor and Harry "Here is our prime unit" and Harry, puzzled, asks "Prime unit?" and Vira says "Our leader you might say? Noah!". And Harry get's it and says "Oh, I see as in Noah's Ark, eh?" and Vira says "It is a name from mythology. His real name is Lazar, but we called him Noah as an amusement" and Harry asks "A joke" and Vira asks "A joke?" and she get's the word and says "Oh, yes".
Vira then continues "But there was not much joke in the last days" and the Doctor asks "What happened in the last days, Vira?" and Vira, surprised asks "Your colony has no records, no history?! Where are you from?!". Harry tells Vira "London, actually. England. The Earth!" but Vira says "That is not possible. The Earth is dead!". The Doctor however disagrees and says "I'm afraid you're probably wrong about that" and Vira says "The solar flares destroyed all life on Earth" and the Doctor says "Ah, solar flares. I see!". Vira then tells the Doctor "Our scientists calculated it would be five thousand years before the biosphere became viable again" and the Doctor suggests "Oh, the absolute minimum I would say!".
Another good scene from Wendy is when Vira tells Sarah and Harry that they should leave with the Doctor. So, Vira says to them "If you are space travellers as you claim, you should leave now" and Harry, a little taken aback, says "I say, that's a bit brusque, isn't it? I mean, if it hadn't been for the Doctor..." Vira then interrupts him and says firmly "Noah will not permit contamination of the genetic pool. All regressive transmitters have been eliminated!". Harry, protesting says "Come off it! We're not contaminating anybody!" and Vira warns him "He has the authority to initiate condign action. Personally, I consider your destruction is not necessary". Vira then walks away, leaving Harry in a state of disbelief, who says "Thanks very much!".
WARNING: THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH REFERS TO END OF THE STORY!!
And lastly there is the scene at the end where after Noah, in Wirrn form, leads the Wirrn swarm into the Ark's shuttle and he speaks to Vira for the last time over the radio and says "Goodbye, Vira!" and the shuttle is then blown up, leaving Vira stunned. So, Vira says "He must have known that that would happen! Noah deliberately neglected to set the rocket stabilisers". And as the Doctor tells Vira that he will need to go down and check out the teleport receptors are working correctly, Sarah and Harry go into the TARDIS and get changed and come back out and join the Doc at the teleport. So, the Doctor says to Vira "I hope don't mind being left" and Vira smiles and says "Well, I won't be alone for long. Life is returning to the Ark, and soon to the world". So, the Doctor then throws his bag of jelly babies to her and says "Have a jelly baby, Vira!" and she laughs and says "Oh, thank you!".
Kenton Moore is also quite effective in his role as Noah, who starts off as a rather arrogant crew leader but is soon consumed by the Wirrn and he starts to become slightly pitiful.
Moore also some good moments such as the scene where just after Noah has been slimed by the Wirrn larvae, he stops the Doctor, Sarah and Harry at gunpoint as they head to stop him going to the solar stack. So, the Doctor explains to Harry about how the future works in terms of human society "By the thirtieth century, human society was highly compartmentalised. Vira is a med-tech, and I suspect we're an executive problem". And at this point, Noah appears from nowhere and holds a gun at them and he says "Right, Doctor! But not a difficult one, you can easily be eliminated". The Doctor then says "Unlike the thing you saw in the stack, Noah?" and Noah says "I saw a pathetic attempt at sabotage. The observation port is damaged". The Doctor looks aghast and says "Then its escape, we're too late" and Noah firmly tells them "Turn about! We will return to the cryogenic section!" and the Doctor is in agreement and says "You're absolutely right! There's not time to lose! Come on!".
Another good scene from Moore is when he shows his mental torment as coming into contact with the Wirrn larvae begins to effect his mind. So, he gives his gun to one of the revived Ark members, Libra and as he goes off, Vira stops and asks him where is he going, so Noah says "The system must be shut down". Vira then asks "What?" and Noah firmly says "The revivication must be stopped!" Vira however is puzzled and asks "Why? I don't understand" and Noah, suddenly hesitant says "It is an order. I am the commander!". Vira however protests and tells Noah "But the first phase isn't completed, and we need the technical crew, Noah, to operate the station!" but this makes Noah more anguished and he says painfully "Yes. No! No, the plan is changed! Hear me, hear me, the plan is changed!". Vira, now very concerned asks Noah "Noah? What is it? Is it something to do with Dune?" and Noah asks "Dune?" and Vira says "Technician Dune. I reported him missing". However, Noah then says "But I'm here. I'm Dune!" and Vira looks stunned and asks "What?" and Noah looks tormented and says "The system must be shut down! No more aliens!".
Another good scene where he pleads with Vira to evacuate the ark and he fights to tell them agains the Wirrn, which is starting to take control of his mind "We...! You are all in great danger! Get our people out before.....before the Wirrn....!". But then a calm comes over Noah and he suddenly gives an evil look as the Wirrn briefly takes control of him and his voice changes to a lower tone saying "We shall absorb the humans. The Earth shall be ours!".
And last of all is the moment where the Noah having just fully turned into his Wirrn form tells Vira to abandon the Ark and leave it to the Wirrn. So, in the scene, the Wirrn version of Noah says to Vira "Stay, Vira. Stay. Abandon the Ark, Vira. Take the transport ship. Leave now. If you stay, you are doomed!". Vira however tells Noah "That would be desertion!" and Noah then says "Then you must die, all of you!" When the Wirrn emerge, you will be hunted down and destroyed, as you destroyed us!".
Sarah, confused asks what Noah means, so Noah explains "Long ago, long ago humans came to the old lands. For a thousand years the Wirrn fought them, but you humans destroyed the breeding colonies. The Wirrn were driven from Andromeda! Since then we have drifted through space, searching for a new habitat. The Ark is ours. It must be ours!". The Doctor however says to Noah "
But the Wirrn live in space. You don't need the Ark!" but Noah says to him "You know nothing! We live in space but our breeding colonies are terrestrial!". So, Noah completes his story and gives his ultimatum again to Vira "Leave the Ark, Vira, or die with the rest of your race!"
And lastly Morgan Richardson is great in his role as the Ark crewmember, Rogin, who is somewhat grumpy and he too get's some of the story's best lines.
An example is the scene where Rogin has been revived and he says to Vira "I told there has been a snitch up! We should have taken our chances on Earth and went into the thermic shelters! We'd be happily dead by now!". And later he says to other revived friend, Lycett, "We should have stayed on the Earth. I liked the Earth. I like heat!". Then there is the line where Rogin and Harry use the transmats to transport between areas in the Ark and Harry after he is arrives says "I say! What a marvelous way to travel!" and Rogin rubs his teeth saying "It always sets my teeth on edge!".
And last of all is the scene where the Doctor and Rogin release the synestic locks from the Ark's shuttle, which would mean certain death for one of them if they stayed to remove the final lock. So, as the Doctor is about to take out the last one, the Doctor says "Leave this to me" and Rogin says "You know what happens when you release that lock?". The Doctor however insists "There's no point in both of us getting killed by the blast! Get into the ark, man!" but Rogin then says "You don't want trouble with the space technician's union, Doctor!" and he suddenly punches the Doctor in the face, knocking him out, Rogin grabs the Doctor and says "That's my job!" and then he goes on to sacrifice himself by releasing the final lock.
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the direction, Rodney Bennett does a fine job with the story and along with The Sontaran Experiment, it was the only other story that Bennett would direct for the show as he provides a good deal of tension of suspense throughout the story. The sets are also very noteworthy in the story as future academy award winner, Roger Murray Leach produces some brilliant and imagnitive sets for the Ark space station. In fact you could almost say that this story acted as an inspiration for Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic, Alien, which was released four years later in 1979.
And last of all, a nod deserves to go out to the show's regular composer at the time, Dudley Simpson who provides another fine dramatic score for the story, which is very well suited and features many atmospheric and dramatic cues. In fact under the Hinchcliffe/Holmes era, this is where Dudley's scores became more rich and dramatic and less synthesizer orientated as they were in the Jon Pertwee era. So, overall its a very good one from ol Dudley.
FLAWS (Warning: this section might contain the odd spoiler!)
As for the flaws............... well yeah OK The Ark in Space isn't quite perfect.
And its main flaw probably lies in the fact that while Noah's transformation into the Wirrn throughout the story is quite effective, the Wirrn themselves are less so and in the end we are subjected to more men in rubber suits shifting about! And after the effectiveness of the story for the first three episodes, when you see the plastic rubber suited Wirrn shift around the studio, it takes away any convincing impact the creatures should make. But I guess given the show's limited budget back then and the limited effects technology of the time they always in the end has to resort to using men in rubber suits for any insectoid alien lifeforms!
I also felt the story features one or two superflous characters specifically Libri and Lycett who in the end are just used as fodder for the Wirrn (well with Lycett he is literally consumed by the Wirrn larvae) and actually aren't given enough time to be developed as characters or to contribute to the story itself.
I think the pacing of the story is at times also a bit sluggish although it does get off to a very strong start, particularly in the first episode, which is atmospheric and suspenseful and the reveal of the Queen Wirrn at the end is very effective. However by the time we get to the final episode, the pacing does dip a little, especially when the Doctor and the others try and sort out their plan to wire up the cryogenic chamber with electric cables to keep the Wirrn out as they last segment seems to drag on quite a bit.
The lack of budget obviously was clearly a bit of an issue where we see in the scene the Doctor, Sarah and Harry walk down the corridors of the Ark that in fact there is only really one corridor area, which they keep reusing at different angles! But to be fair these were just the time and budget constraints the production staff had to work with at the time.
Another issue I had with the story is perhaps the shift in tone between Robot and The Ark in Space at times is just a bit too dramatic at times, as Robot is nice and light hearted, whereas The Ark in Space is far more dark and gritty and also pretty serious (well except for Harry's comic relief). The Doctor also here is largely very serious and its a pity in a way that they couldn't have allowed for a little more levity for his character, although Tom does deliver the odd amusing line here and there. But just perhaps TAIS takes the new gritty and serious tone just a little too far at times.
And last of all on a plot point, how the hell did Sarah get changed into her "Ark" outfit?? I mean she was unconscious when she underwent the process to be transferred into the pod and there were no other conscious people onboard at that point other than the Doctor and Harry. So for me it doesn't make any real sense that she should magically change outfits without being conscious or anyone else helping her to either!
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up, The Ark in Space is a very good introduction to the Philip Hinchcliffe/Robert Holmes era of the show, which many people (and myself included!) believe it to be one of the very best periods of the show's history. The story itself for the most part remains a very gripping and enjoyable one and even if the tone is maybe a bit too dark at times and the cheap rubber suited Wirrn look a bit disappointing, not to mention the pace drags in the fourth episode.
But the story's strong script and top performances more than make up for any of the story's drawbacks and it certainly did its part in introducing the show into a brand new and bold era.
OK, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post and next time it will be one with NEW content. Promise!
So, until then its bye for now!
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