The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Ark In Space
The Ark In Space: Part One (25/01/15)
Well, that was a vast improvement on the last month of tripe! Only the Doctor, Sarah and Harry in the episode this week, thousands of years in the future on an Ark in Space thanks to Harry fiddling with the TARDIS controls. Sarah wandered off on her own (idiot) and nearly suffocated in an airless room, then got put on a short range matter transmitter (by accident) to recover and got put in cryogenic sleep!
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Harry were faced with deactivating a defence system in the next room which the Doctor had accidentally switched on when he repaired some cables that had been bitten through. Then they explored the Ark, narrowly missing some weird, green bug thing that seems to have eaten one of the Humans who are in cryogenic sleep.
The Doctor and Harry found the chambers containing the Humans and found sleeping Sarah, then Harry opened a cupboard to search for equipment to revive her and a giant insect came at him!
Really tightly plotted and well scripted this week (but it is Robert Holmes writing, so I can't say I'm surprised) with some nice elements of mystery and suspense. The set design is also really good, the rooms nicely shadowy to begin with, then bright and white once the power was switched on. The corridors around the outside of the Ark are a nice touch, and the cryogenic chambers are quite epic-looking with some nice high-angle shots.
Tom Baker was very good as the Doctor, a very different take to Pertwee. After the last story's silly shenanigans I may grow to like him. Sarah, however, is still annoying, being very negative and whiny in the first scenes. Fortunately, she wasn't in it much. Harry is being developed well and it was good to have him interacting with the Doctor throughout the episode. Unlike in 'Robot' you're starting to get an idea of his character! Considering the small cast and the slow progression of the plot, I'd say this was the best episode since 'Invasion Of The Dinosaurs', possibly even since 'The Green Death'! A very promising start.
The Ark In Space: Part Two (01/02/15)
Another good episode with some nice body-horror. The Ark's second in command, Vira, awoke (although how she would have revived if the Doctor and Harry hadn't been there to help is anyone's guess!) and helped revive Sarah, then 'Prime Unit' (leader) Lazar aka 'Noah', and another crewman named Libri.
The giant insect was dead, but it turned out that it had laid an egg in the body of Technician Dune (seen at the start of last week's episode) before dying (after encountering the defence system and sabotaging the Ark's controls). The grub that hatched, ate Dune and absorbed his knowledge (the one we briefly saw last week) entered the Solar Stacks and began absorbing energy. The Doctor saw it and went to tell Noah but Noah didn't want regressives around to pollute his crew and thought the Doctor, Harry and Sarah were saboteurs. So he shot the Doctor and went to the Stacks himself where he got gooed on the hand by the grub, and the goo has turned to green bubblewrap and it's taking over his body. His mind went first, though, indicating to Vira that he wasn't fit to be in charge (because he wants to shut down the revivification process), so she sent Libri to stop him, but Noah shot Libri dead.
It's all rather good, very dark and creepy. The grub effect isn't bad; the bubblewrap isn't awful and the acting is rather good and convincing, too. As is the scripting of the people from the future. This is a vast improvement on the first story (so far) with lots of nice bits of dialogue painting an interesting picture of a very ordered future Earth society (which seems to mirror the insect culture in a very clever piece of commentary). Very enjoyable!
The Ark In Space: Part Three (08/01/15)
Still pretty good, this one. Noah spent the episode turning into a Wirrn and confronted the Doctor at the end of the episode but passed command to Vira before his mind was completely taken over.
The green bubblewrap they're using for the mutation and the grubs is obvious but quite effective. Vira revived two more crew with Harry's help and the Doctor stripped apart the Wirrn Queen's eye and, with the new crew's help, hooked the eye to his cerebral cortex (?) to see what happened to kill the Queen and if he could discover their weakness. The Queen was shot by the electrical defence machine that attacked the Doctor and Harry in Part One, but the grub attacked them while the Doctor was hooked up and one of the crew was got.
The remaining new crewman, a slightly (very) out-of-place wide boy type called Rogin, went with Harry to get weapons and they returned and fought the grub (which looked vaguely rude) but were followed by Noah and trapped in the room just off the cryogenic chambers. Fortunately, the Doctor managed to transmat Harry and Rogin to the room where Sarah nearly suffocated in Part One, but then the Wirrn cut the power, meaning they couldn't escape and would eventually run out of oxygen. So the Doctor went to the Stacks to turn the power back on, figuring the Wirrn had entered their inert, larval state, but was confronted by Wirrn Noah!
Really good, actually, though Sarah did bugger all. Tom Baker is really good in a nothing-like-Pertwee way, which is nice. Whilst Pertwee was very much a hero who could be spiky yet moral, Baker has a dark side to him (at least, in this story) and comes across as very alien at times. That said, it could just be Robert Holmes' macabre humour being more apparent through a different actor. Think I might grow to like him, but we'll have to see what other writers do with him first.
The Ark In Space: Part Four (15/02/15)
Well, that was a very satisfactory ending...or was it? The Doctor, Sarah and Harry have transmatted down to the Earth, so it looks like next week is a continuation, albeit in a different location.
Vira and Sarah saved the Doctor from Wirrn Noah who then went on the explain that Human colonists drove the Wirrn away from their breeding grounds in Andromeda, slaughtering millions, and the Wirrn have travelled across space looking for a new home, finding the Earth. Discovering the Ark, it's the Wirrn's plan to use the Humans as their hosts (as opposed to the 'senseless herbivores' on Andromeda) and absorb all Human knowledge to become a fully technological species.
The Doctor figured out a way to keep the Wirrn from the cryogenics chambers which involved Sarah dragging electrical cable through some conduit (about which she complained a lot despite volunteering to do it, silly cow!) and eventually, Noah and the Wirrn swarm boarded the Ark's shuttle (which the Doctor was using to electrify the chambers). Everyone legged it to safety (except Rogin, who punched out the Doctor and put him in an airlock because he knew that the person who pulled out the release of the shuttle would die, so he did it himself). Then Noah did something to blow up the shuttle, proving that he'd retained his Humanity despite being transformed into a Wirrn.
Without the shuttle, Vira will have to transport the awakening Humans to Earth using the Transmat (three at a time!) but it's faulty, so the Doctor et al. have gone down to mend it.
A really good story, though Sarah is still pretty unlikable and I'm not 100% sure where all the other Wirrn came from. Regardless, a thrilling, intelligent, well paced and nicely upbeat story. And next week we get to see a post-Apocalyptic Earth! After a very shaky start things are looking good for the new Doctor!
Well, that was a vast improvement on the last month of tripe! Only the Doctor, Sarah and Harry in the episode this week, thousands of years in the future on an Ark in Space thanks to Harry fiddling with the TARDIS controls. Sarah wandered off on her own (idiot) and nearly suffocated in an airless room, then got put on a short range matter transmitter (by accident) to recover and got put in cryogenic sleep!
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Harry were faced with deactivating a defence system in the next room which the Doctor had accidentally switched on when he repaired some cables that had been bitten through. Then they explored the Ark, narrowly missing some weird, green bug thing that seems to have eaten one of the Humans who are in cryogenic sleep.
The Doctor and Harry found the chambers containing the Humans and found sleeping Sarah, then Harry opened a cupboard to search for equipment to revive her and a giant insect came at him!
Really tightly plotted and well scripted this week (but it is Robert Holmes writing, so I can't say I'm surprised) with some nice elements of mystery and suspense. The set design is also really good, the rooms nicely shadowy to begin with, then bright and white once the power was switched on. The corridors around the outside of the Ark are a nice touch, and the cryogenic chambers are quite epic-looking with some nice high-angle shots.
Tom Baker was very good as the Doctor, a very different take to Pertwee. After the last story's silly shenanigans I may grow to like him. Sarah, however, is still annoying, being very negative and whiny in the first scenes. Fortunately, she wasn't in it much. Harry is being developed well and it was good to have him interacting with the Doctor throughout the episode. Unlike in 'Robot' you're starting to get an idea of his character! Considering the small cast and the slow progression of the plot, I'd say this was the best episode since 'Invasion Of The Dinosaurs', possibly even since 'The Green Death'! A very promising start.
The Ark In Space: Part Two (01/02/15)
Another good episode with some nice body-horror. The Ark's second in command, Vira, awoke (although how she would have revived if the Doctor and Harry hadn't been there to help is anyone's guess!) and helped revive Sarah, then 'Prime Unit' (leader) Lazar aka 'Noah', and another crewman named Libri.
The giant insect was dead, but it turned out that it had laid an egg in the body of Technician Dune (seen at the start of last week's episode) before dying (after encountering the defence system and sabotaging the Ark's controls). The grub that hatched, ate Dune and absorbed his knowledge (the one we briefly saw last week) entered the Solar Stacks and began absorbing energy. The Doctor saw it and went to tell Noah but Noah didn't want regressives around to pollute his crew and thought the Doctor, Harry and Sarah were saboteurs. So he shot the Doctor and went to the Stacks himself where he got gooed on the hand by the grub, and the goo has turned to green bubblewrap and it's taking over his body. His mind went first, though, indicating to Vira that he wasn't fit to be in charge (because he wants to shut down the revivification process), so she sent Libri to stop him, but Noah shot Libri dead.
It's all rather good, very dark and creepy. The grub effect isn't bad; the bubblewrap isn't awful and the acting is rather good and convincing, too. As is the scripting of the people from the future. This is a vast improvement on the first story (so far) with lots of nice bits of dialogue painting an interesting picture of a very ordered future Earth society (which seems to mirror the insect culture in a very clever piece of commentary). Very enjoyable!
The Ark In Space: Part Three (08/01/15)
Still pretty good, this one. Noah spent the episode turning into a Wirrn and confronted the Doctor at the end of the episode but passed command to Vira before his mind was completely taken over.
The green bubblewrap they're using for the mutation and the grubs is obvious but quite effective. Vira revived two more crew with Harry's help and the Doctor stripped apart the Wirrn Queen's eye and, with the new crew's help, hooked the eye to his cerebral cortex (?) to see what happened to kill the Queen and if he could discover their weakness. The Queen was shot by the electrical defence machine that attacked the Doctor and Harry in Part One, but the grub attacked them while the Doctor was hooked up and one of the crew was got.
The remaining new crewman, a slightly (very) out-of-place wide boy type called Rogin, went with Harry to get weapons and they returned and fought the grub (which looked vaguely rude) but were followed by Noah and trapped in the room just off the cryogenic chambers. Fortunately, the Doctor managed to transmat Harry and Rogin to the room where Sarah nearly suffocated in Part One, but then the Wirrn cut the power, meaning they couldn't escape and would eventually run out of oxygen. So the Doctor went to the Stacks to turn the power back on, figuring the Wirrn had entered their inert, larval state, but was confronted by Wirrn Noah!
Really good, actually, though Sarah did bugger all. Tom Baker is really good in a nothing-like-Pertwee way, which is nice. Whilst Pertwee was very much a hero who could be spiky yet moral, Baker has a dark side to him (at least, in this story) and comes across as very alien at times. That said, it could just be Robert Holmes' macabre humour being more apparent through a different actor. Think I might grow to like him, but we'll have to see what other writers do with him first.
The Ark In Space: Part Four (15/02/15)
Well, that was a very satisfactory ending...or was it? The Doctor, Sarah and Harry have transmatted down to the Earth, so it looks like next week is a continuation, albeit in a different location.
Vira and Sarah saved the Doctor from Wirrn Noah who then went on the explain that Human colonists drove the Wirrn away from their breeding grounds in Andromeda, slaughtering millions, and the Wirrn have travelled across space looking for a new home, finding the Earth. Discovering the Ark, it's the Wirrn's plan to use the Humans as their hosts (as opposed to the 'senseless herbivores' on Andromeda) and absorb all Human knowledge to become a fully technological species.
The Doctor figured out a way to keep the Wirrn from the cryogenics chambers which involved Sarah dragging electrical cable through some conduit (about which she complained a lot despite volunteering to do it, silly cow!) and eventually, Noah and the Wirrn swarm boarded the Ark's shuttle (which the Doctor was using to electrify the chambers). Everyone legged it to safety (except Rogin, who punched out the Doctor and put him in an airlock because he knew that the person who pulled out the release of the shuttle would die, so he did it himself). Then Noah did something to blow up the shuttle, proving that he'd retained his Humanity despite being transformed into a Wirrn.
Without the shuttle, Vira will have to transport the awakening Humans to Earth using the Transmat (three at a time!) but it's faulty, so the Doctor et al. have gone down to mend it.
A really good story, though Sarah is still pretty unlikable and I'm not 100% sure where all the other Wirrn came from. Regardless, a thrilling, intelligent, well paced and nicely upbeat story. And next week we get to see a post-Apocalyptic Earth! After a very shaky start things are looking good for the new Doctor!
This story couldn't be more different from its forerunner and has been rightly praised over the years, so there's no need for me to iterate it. There's conviction from everyone - writer, cast and crew - and it shows, which is all the more astonishing considering so many of them are new to the game.
ReplyDeleteWas bubble wrap a thing in 1975? I have this nagging doubt that it's something we mock today that wouldn't necessarily have seemed so obvious at the time. Either way, again, the conviction with which it's presented as horrifying and alien is really sold to the audience, and when it's covering half of Noah's torso it looks much better, and properly scary.
Bubblewrap was invented in 1960 (by accident) and was used for packing in industry but, as far as I'm aware, it wasn't in the public domain in 1975. It really is a genius way of creating an effect on a low budget and the acting really does sell the body-horror. This is where the Tom Baker era really starts and all that comes after it has a lot to live up to. Judging by a tally I did earlier this year, it's my 8th favourite Tom Baker story (and my second favourite of this season, only two places below my favourite on the list of all the Classic stories). It's a statement of intent for the Hinchcliffe/Holmes partnership and utterly brilliant because of it. A million miles away from 'Robot'!
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