The Ark

That reminds me, why are you dressed in these stupid clothes? Have you been footling about in my wardrobe? Is that what it is? What do you think you’re playing at, crusades?

(The Steel Sky 5/3/66, The Plague 12/3/66, The Return 19/3/66, The Bomb 26/3/66)

The Ark is unusual for a 60s story in just how quickly it moves along, at times too quickly. The TARDIS lands on an ark in the far future taking the human race to the planet Refusis, along with an alien race called the Monoids. Dodo is carrying a cold which proves highly dangerous to the inhabitants of the Ark. The travellers are put on trial for their supposed crime.

It’s a neat idea for a story even if it does have implications for other adventures. Steven wonders if they’ve inadvertently been spreading pathogens across time and space and it’s certainly a relevant question. It’s a huge issue for two episodes and never seems to be mentioned again! My head-canon is that the Doctor created some sort of high-tech disinfectant system in the TARDIS to prevent this from happening again.

Unusually, this plot line only lasts for two episodes and the second episode ends with one of the show’s best cliffhangers so far- the TARDIS has travelled seven years into the future to find that the statue being built by the humans has been completed as a Monoid. Cue two episodes where the Monoids have turned evil and the humans try to fight back. This stuff is alright but it’s fairly standard Doctor Who fare.

The Monoids are a classic poorly executed 60s monster. The eyes work surprisingly well given they were literally painted ping-pong balls in the actor’s mouths. The rest of the costume is terrible though with weird top-mop hair-dos and an unconvincing rubber body suit. The show was good at making ‘robots’ like Daleks, Mechanoids, and Chumblies at this point but very few of its aliens work well at all.

This is Dodo’s first adventure and frankly, she doesn’t do anything to make you warm to her here. Her accent has suddenly changed which feels odd in the context of the show (it came from the fact the BBC weren’t keen on people with regional accents being on screen). Dodo continues to be annoying and what’s most frustrating is that at no point does the show feel like it needs her here. The Doctor and Steven are both given plenty to do and Dodo is just there sniffling. To be fair, both the Doctor and Steven seem to find her rather irritating too.

The Ark has some good ideas but in the end feels like a generic Doctor Who story. It doesn’t do a lot which is awful but it doesn’t do much which is brilliant either.

My rating: 6/10

Next Time: We meet the Toymaker!