Day 196 — July 15th 2021
The Ark in Space Parts One and Two
The Ark in Space — Part One
We’re seeing a real resurgence of writers from the 1960s making a comeback to Doctor Who after a long time away, aren’t we? Season Nine gave us Louis Marks (who’s last work on the programme was eight years earlier with Planet of Giants), Season Ten brought back Terry Nation (also after eight years , since The Feast of Steven), and Robot is the first time Terrance Dicks is credited with writing, rather than script editing since The War Games in 1969 — although that one might be a bit of a cheat. Heck, even Glyn Jones (The Space Museum) will be back in the next story, although as an actor rather than a writer.
The Ark in Space is, technically, the first time John Lucarotti has been involved with the series since The Massacre in 1966. I say ‘technically’ because like his work on that previous serial, he’s been heavily rewritten here almost to the point that the story is unrecognisable. The setting and some of the core ideas remain, but the story told with them is something totally unique inserted at the behest of the script editor — in this case Robert Holmes.
Writers aren’t the only 1960s throwback we’re getting at the moment, though, because this episode feels like it’s dropped right out of those early Hartnell years. Ironically, having had a look at the original storyline in The Complete History, it looks like this episode is almost entirely Holmes’ work. Aside from a sleeping human at the very beginning and a couple of pre-recorded voices, this episode is carried entirely by Doctor Who, Sarah and Harry.
When the series tried to do similar with the first episode of The Mind Robber, Patrick Troughton insisted on the episode being cut down in length because he didn’t feel it was sustainable. This episode proves just how well the idea can be done, because it’s one of the tensest and most entertaining episodes the series has given us so far — which is pretty impressive for almost 400 episodes in.
Our regulars are — perhaps unsurprisingly — the highlight of this episode, and they’ve got an easy rapport already which is impressive. This line up is often considered one of the greatest TARDIS teams of all time, and it’s not difficult to see why that might be. Baker’s Doctor Who manages to be tetchy and slightly rude to Harry but it comes across more as banter than it would have had Pertwee been given the lines. Crucially, we’re given time to explore Doctor Who and Harry alone together while Sarah’s off doing her own thing again. I feel like I should be complaining about them splitting up our main pairing again, but it feels like it works.
This is also, I think, the first time they’ve really tried to make space seem scary. It’s usually just the place our heroes visit while waiting for the monsters to arrive, and then they provide the horror elements. Here it’s not about the monsters, but rather the whole concept of space travel that poses danger. They run out of oxygen on more than one occasion but it never risks feeling repetitive — their struggle feels real, and far more troubling that Giant Spiders, or Robots or Daleks. When they do manage to get the power, and therefore the oxygen, back on they’re faced with a whole new set of problems. They can breathe, sure, but now they’ve reactivated the security systems and the transport, so the dangers just keep on coming. As if that weren’t enough, Sarah Jane finds herself placed into cryogenic suspension! By the time we finally do get a proper monster — in the closing seconds — you’re exhausted, but in a good way.
Much has been written about Tom Baker’s big eulogy to humanity, and I’m often dismissive of things which are highly praised, but I’ll tell you what, it’s brilliant;
Doctor Who: ‘Homo sapiens. What an inventive, invincible species. It’s only a few million years since they’ve crawled up out of the mud and learned to walk. Puny, defenceless bipeds. They’ve survived flood, famine and plague. They’ve survived cosmic wars and holocausts, and now here they are amongst the stars, waiting to begin a new life, ready to outsit eternity. They’re indomitable. Indomitable!’
I spoke a fair bit during Robot about just how hard Tom Baker is working at this stage, and here’s another example. His delivery of the speech is just as powerful as the sentiment itself, and it’s no wonder it’s considered such a defining moment for this incarnation, and for the character as a whole.
I could go on praising this one for ages, but to do so I think would lessen it, so I’m just going to give it a 10/10 and bask in the enjoyment of one of Doctor Who’s very best episodes.
The Ark in Space — Part Two
I worried a little going into this one. The opening episode focussed just on our regulars was so strong, and I’d so enjoyed the idea that the threats were all coming from the situation rather than some monsters stalking around, that the thought of adding in other characters and setting up a proper threat felt like it could only make the story worse. I needn’t have worried, though, because this is another incredibly strong episode and I’ll say right up front that it’s a 9/10.
If anything it moves the story in a new direction at exactly the right point — Vira is woken up within a couple of minutes of the episode starting, and it feels like we’re off on an entirely new adventure all of a sudden. It probably helps that Vira is brilliant, too, and it’s a great performance from Wendy Williams making her only Doctor Who appearance.
I think this is also the first time you can really feel Robert Holmes’ hand on the rudder. Part One was almost entirely his work, but it felt like a 1960s episode so much that you could easily mistake it for Lucarotti’s work. This episode is completely different, and gives us a tone that the series has never really done before; we’re pushing for some all-out horror which feels far scarier than anything the programme would have done under the last regime.
Take the difference in approach between the Wirrn and the Spiders we had last week. The scariest aspect of the spiders came in the form of a throwaway line from one of the incredibly boring Two Legs on Metebilis 3;
Sarah: ‘What will they do to us?’
Sabor: ‘Usually they eat the sheep we breed for them. They prefer human flesh.’
It’s a pretty scary idea — especially if you’re frightened of spiders — but you never get any real sense of the horror in there. We never hear the spiders talk about eating the humans, they never express any desire to do anything other than get their crystal back. In The Ark in Space we’re presented with another creepy crawly enemy, and once again we’re told what they can do. But notice how much more effort has gone in to painting the picture here;
Vira: ‘What’s that?’
Doctor Who: ‘Membrane.’
Sarah: ‘Membrane?’
Doctor Who: ‘Part of the eggshell.’
Vira: ‘Where’s it from?’
Doctor Who: ‘It’s almost too horrible to think about. Ever heard of the Eumenes?’
Harry: ‘Eumenes? One of our frigates.’
Doctor Who: ‘It’s a genus of wasps that paralyses caterpillars and lays its eggs in their bodies. When the larvae emerge, they have a ready made food supply. Strange how the same life patterns recur throughout the universe.’
Just like with the spiders we never actually see one of the Wirrn infect a human — it all happens off screen, though we start to see the after effects during the cliffhanger to this episode — but here it doesn’t matter. So much work has gone into Doctor Who’s description that I could almost swear I’d seen it happen on screen.
The dialogue across the board in this episode is fantastic — Holmes has done a great deal to make the colonists aboard the Ark feel like a real society, with their own distinct speech patterns and terminology. There’s always a risk that things like this can feel a bit forced but that’s not the case here. My favourite exchange comes during their attempt to revive Sarah from her cryogenic state;
Harry: ‘Is there anything you can do for her?’
Vira: ‘Is she of value?’
Harry: ‘Of value? She’s a human being like ourselves! What sort of
question’s that?’
Doctor Who: ‘The answer is yes.’
Vira: ‘Your comrade is a romantic.’
Doctor Who: ‘Perhaps we both are…’
I’m also particularly fonnd of Vira’s description of the TARDIS crew as ‘dawn timers’. Across the marathon so far I’ve not been the biggest champion of Robert Holmes’ work. His stories have broadly been pretty good (although The Space Pirates remains my lowest-rated story by some margin), but they’ve never felt like the incredible tales the man’s reputation might suggest. In reaching this story it feels like we might be entering a ‘classic’ period for his work, and it’s likely no accident that it coincides with him having a greater hand in the direction of the series in his new role as script editor.
One last thing to note; this phase of the programme often gets noted for taking inspiration from classic cinema. Robot plays on the idea of King Kong, for example, we get a warewolf tale (of sorts) next season in Planet of Evil, and The Brain of Morbius has more than a few shades of Frankenstein in there.
But I think there’s another classic film homage in this one which is often overlooked — Vira’s awakening from sleep is surely inspired by the first breaths of life seen in The Bride of Frankenstein? It was definitely a planned action, rather than something worked out in rehearsals, as it’s specified in the script, and it wouldn’t surprise me if a team as interested in old cinema as Hinchcliffe and Holmes had this exact — and iconic — moment in mind.
Oh, okay, one more ‘one last thing’, because I can’t let this episode pass without highlighting another brilliant bit of dialogue;
Vira: ‘You claim to be med-techs? ’
Harry: ‘Sorry?’
Doctor Who: ‘My doctorate is purely honorary, and Harry here is only
qualified to work on sailors.’
