Doctor Who Is Classic: The Ark In Space

It's time again for Doctor Who Is Classic, my recurring posts looking back on the classic era of Doctor Who.

Today's post looks back at a seminal entry in Doctor Who, the second episode of season 12 and Tom Baker's first season.  From 1975 it's The Ark In Space. 

After the standard issue Pertwee era UNIT story Robot for Baker's first turn as the Doctor, writer Robert Holmes sends the Doctor and the TARDIS on an adventure in space AND time with a truly alien threat (Insectoids?!?) and that good old Doctor Who trope, a base under siege.

The Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan arrive in the distant future on ancient space station Nerva that contains thousands of cryogenically preserved humans. 

The space station is an ark designed to help humanity survive a great calamity that wiped out life on Earth. 

Humans that are essentially frozen fish sticks for an invasive insectoid alien species known as the Wirrn.

The Doctor and friends are facing several obstacles:

1) the ark's automatic systems that alternately tries to kill them (LASERS!) or preserve them (Sarah gets pulled into the cryogenic system which involves changing her out of her dress and into a white body suit.)  

2) the slowly awakening humans who realize some weird dangerous shit is going down and really, who are these strange people who have popped up on their space station anyway?

3) the Wirrn who want to EAT THEM! Or transform them into Wirmkind.

It's a big ol' mess and the Doctor has his hands full sorting it all out. 

You know how in modern Doctor Who where Davies and Moffat like to give the Doctor a big speech?  Well, Robert Holmes lays the foundation for those speeches when the Doctor delivers a rhapsodic monologue on the indomitable spirit of humanity. 

We also see the Doctor being snarky to his companions. When Harry says something that is fairly intelligent, the Doctor compliments and insults him at the same time: "Your mind is beginning to work. It's entirely due my influence, of course. You mustn't take any credit."

There's a bit where Sarah has to crawl through a conduit to get past the Wirrn and connect some science doodad in one part of the station to another.  

And she gets stuck.  

And whines about getting stuck.

Well, the Doctor knows just what to say.

"Oh, stop whining, girl. You're useless. Stupid, foolish girl. We should never have relied on you. I knew you'd let us down. That's the trouble with girls like you. You think you're tough, but when you're really up against it, you've no guts at all. Hundreds of lives at stake and you lie there, blubbing."

Which just royally pisses Sarah Jane Smith completely off and she unsticks herself and explodes out of that conduit. 

Where the Doctor greets her warmly with a smile.

DOCTOR: You've done marvellously, Sarah. I'm very proud of you. I really am very proud of you.

SARAH: What? Conned again. You're a brute.

DOCTOR: Me, a brute?

SARAH: Yes.

DOCTOR: Don't be ungrateful. I was only encouraging you. 

(Thanks for the help of Doctor Who transcripts.)  

We also get that classic turn of events in a Doctor Who story where someone makes a valiant sacrifice to save the day. One of the humans being transformed into a Wirrn clings to just enough of their humanity to lead the Wirrn into a space craft that flies away from Nerva and explodes, saving the station and the human race.

The story doesn't quite completely end as TARDIS crew teleport down to Earth so the Doctor can repair some equipment that will allow the ark colonists to repopulate the Earth.

Which sets up the next story, the two part Sontarran Experiment.

This is how season 12 goes with each story connecting to the next. 

The Ark in Space is the first broadcast story from producer Phillip Hinchcliffe  who wanted to broaden the appeal of the show to adults. The Ark in Space demonstrates this with its use of horror, particularly the inexorable transformation of a human into an alien creature. 

Both Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat have cited The Ark In Space as a favorite and influential episode.   

The Ark in Space placed 28th in a 2009 Doctor Who Magazine survey ranking every Doctor Who serial to that point in order of preference.

The Ark In Space is a great template for a quintessential Doctor Who adventure written by perhaps the best writer of the classic era, Robert Holmes.

And a strong performance by Tom Baker as the quintessential Doctor.   

When  Doctor Who Is Classic returns in a few weeks, I will post about another Doctor's second adventure.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.

---------

Whoops! Almost forgot! 

Happy birthday, Doctor Who! 

The show premiered on this date, November 23rd in 1963.

62 years old and the show still has a future! 

We've got the UNIT mini-series to come and a Christmas special in 2026. 

Doctor Who ROCKS!