'Doctor Who: The Ark In Space' (1975)


I'm nowhere near finishing any of the books that I have on the go, at the moment, (thanks a lot real job...) so in times like this, you've just got to move your 'Saturday Morning Doctor Who Post' forward a day and hope that no-one notices... ;o) You didn't notice, did you?

Anyway... Despite the best attempts of my external drive to mis-read the DVD (I really should just bite the bullet and get the Britbox subscription but that's another story) I managed to watch 'The Ark In Space'. Let me tell you about it while I'm here...

The TARDIS lands on a space station orbiting Earth in the distant future. It's seemingly deserted, but the Doctor, Sarah and Harry soon discover that they're not alone. Thousands of humans are in cryogenic sleep, and while they've slept their Ark has been invaded. A parasitic insect race – the Wirrn – have taken control and threaten the very future of mankind...

'The Ark In Space' was originally broadcast some months before I was even born so has a special place as one of those stories that scared the life out of me when I read the Target novel as a kid. They were so alien and just remorseless in their attempts to consume what was left of humanity and the novel was one of those books that I kept reading because it freaked me out (thus setting a pattern for my reading in the future) and also because I had to make sure that the Doctor sorted it out in the end. Of course he did ;o)

That was the book though, how well would a story filmed in 1975 (with all the constraints that meant) hold up to a viewing today? Surprisingly well actually. Of course Noah's metamorphosis looks like someone struggling to get free of green bubble wrap but Kenton Moore throws everything he has at it and you realise that you can live with a bit of bubble wrap after all. And are they just using the same Wirrn model over and over again (with three 'little Wirrn' for those shots outside the space station)? I suspect that they are but it's done well and it works, that's the main thing.

These little things to one side (along with the space station seeming to consist of just the one corridor...), 'The Ark In Space' is a taut tale dealing with an alien menace that could be anywhere on the station along with crew members that are being absorbed into the Wirrn hive mind. This generates a lot of paranoia and that's not including the arrival of the Doctor (and companions) who must try and convince people of their good intentions. It's the Wirrn who drive the plot, of course, but there's a lot of 'background noise' here that keeps things fresh and interesting. Tom Baker's Doctor is... well, Tom Baker's Doctor (and you know what I mean) and that's always a good thing. What's interesting though is that while the Doctor has the ideas, it's the human crew (and sometimes Sarah-Jane and Harry) who make these ideas work in practice. The Doctor isn't just doing it all by himself here, there's a little shift in the balance of dependency here and it's refreshing to see.

I think 'The Ark In Space' could well become one of my favourite 'Doctor Who' stories. It's like the BBC made 'Alien' four years before the actual film came out. Seriously, it's that good.

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