OK, so now its time for part two of my look at Season 12 of the original Doctor Who series, starring Tom Baker and this story features his second story, The Ark in Space.
So, let's take another look at this classic serial and see how it fairs after 46 years...
And the usual warning is coming...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So, the story begins
with the TARDIS landing onboard a space station, which appears to
be in an inert state. And as the Doctor (Baker) and his two companions,
Sarah (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry (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
life form.
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
revival 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 suspicious 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 signaled 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 portrayal 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.
So, this leads into the Doctor's great speech where he addresses the cryogenically frozen humans and says "Homo-sapiens! Its only been a few million years since they learned crawl out of the mud and walk, puny defenseless bipeds. They've survived flood, famine and plague. They've survived cosmic wars and holocausts and now here they are set out among the stars, waiting to begin a new life and outsit eternity. They're indomitable! Indomitable!".
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". Nice!
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".
Harry then asks "How do you mean?" and the Doctor tells Harry "By the
30th
century human society had become highly compartmentalized. 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! You can always be eliminated".
The Doctor then warily says "Unlike the thing you saw in the stack, Noah?" and Noah says "I say a pathetic attempt at sabotage. The observation port is damaged" and the Doctor says to himself "Then its escaped, we're too late!" and Noah sharply tells the Doctor "Turn about! We'll return to the cryogenic section" and the Doctor agrees "You're absolutely right, there's no time to waste! Come on!" and he sharply turns around and walks back.
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!".
Another great moment from Tom comes when Noah, now a full grown Wirrn gives the Doctor an ultimatum to leave the ark or die but if they do leave then they are to "leave the sleepers for us!". So, the Doctor with great sincerity pleads with Noah and says "Noah, listen to me! If there is any part of you that is still human, if there is any memory of the man you once were, leave the Ark, lead the swarm into space! That's where the Wirrn belong, Noah. Not on Earth, not where you were born. Remember the wind and the sun, the fields, the blue sky? That's Earth, Noah. It's for the human race. Don't abandon it". However, as we see Noah listen to the Doctor's pleading words, Noah coldly says "I have no memory of the Earth!".
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 gets 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 crew mates and loyalties 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 gets 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 travellrs 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 crew member, 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 imaginitive 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 yes, 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 think the pacing of the story towards the end is a little slow 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.
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 an excellent 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 dark
at times and the cheap rubber suited Wirrn look a bit disappointing, not
to mention the pace drags in the fourth episode.
However the story's strong script and top performances more than make up for
any of the story's fairly minor drawbacks and it certainly did its part in
introducing the show into a brand new, bold era.
So, I will rate The Ark in Space:
9 out of 10
So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with Part 3, which is The Sontaran Experiment.
Until then its bye for now!
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