4 episodes. Written by: Robert Holmes. Directed by: Rodney Bennett. Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe.
THE PLOT
The Doctor's attempt to prove the TARDIS' properties to Harry by taking him on a quick trip to the moon goes awry. The TARDIS goes off-course, materializing on a space station in the far future. The Nerva station is an ark, carrying the cryogenically-frozen survivors of a global catastrophe. Discovering evidence of sabotage of station systems, the Doctor begins bringing the power back on-line, awakening the command crew in the process.
It isn't long before it becomes apparent that something has gotten into the station. The insect-like Wirrn have invaded the station while its crew has slept, and laid its eggs within one of the crew. Now, the larval Wirrn has taken control of the station commander - leaving the Doctor and his friends, along with the remaining station crew, into a race against time to prevent this last outpost of humanity from being consumed by the soon-to-hatch Wirrn!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: In many respects, this is the first "real" Tom Baker story. Robot was heavily tied to the Pertwee formula, with little that was individual in tone or character. This story, by contrast, is no Pertwee hand-me-down. Gone is the UNIT set-up, and in its place is an outer space thriller that allows this new Doctor to establish some of his own territory. The opening episode helps to really establish this new team, with the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry the only characters in the first part. Tom is marvelous here, with several terrific individual moments: trying to use his hat and scarf to deal with station defences (and giving a perfect nonverbal reaction when both of the aforementioned get zapped); the "homo sapiens" speech when he discovers the frozen bodies; berating Sarah to get her moving, then grinning with affection after she completes her task. The Fourth Doctor is emerging as a very distinct incarnation, more intellectual and more distant than his immediate predecessor.
Sarah Jane Smith: Writer/script editor Robert Holmes probably thought it more important to make Harry a full part of the team in this serial than to give yet more focus to Sarah Jane (who had already been in six serials by this point). The first episode, in particular, puts all the focus on the Doctor and Harry, reducing Sarah Jane to "woman-in-peril" status and then literally putting her into storage. Even after she is thawed out in Episode Two, she is given much less to do than the two male characters, with her only truly memorable moment in the entire four episodes being her claustrophobia in the air vents. Elisabeth Sladen still invests the character with likability and intelligence, but I hope that now that the new Doctor and Harry have been established, the remaining stories of the season don't sideline her to this extent.
Harry Sullivan: Harry's character is given a chance to emerge and stretch a bit. The character - too often dismissed as "a nincompoop" - actually has quite a strong showing. There is something very humorous in his attempts to take everything in stride, almost like a more intelligent Bertie Wooster in outer space. He never loses his head, nor does he behave recklessly. In fact, he makes a rather good team with the Doctor, keeping up with him to just enough of an extent that the Doctor can usefully bounce ideas off of him, without ever being in risk of being at the Doctor's own level. Ian Marter's Harry made a likable showing in his first story, but here he starts to actually impress. His rapport with his co-stars remains excellent. 4th Doc/Sarah Jane/Harry... The 1970's best line-up of regulars? It's arguable (and I'd probably say that the Season Seven UNIT line-up just edges it out, to my tastes), but I do think a strong case could be made.
THOUGHTS
Incoming producer Philip Hinchcliffe's first story is a sharp break with the Letts era, in both tone and presentation style. Reputation has it that Hinchcliffe was initially weak on production. There isn't much evidence of that here, save for the too-obvious bubble wrap of the Wirrn larval stage - which, admittedly, is seen a bit too clearly, a bit too often, particularly in Part Three.
Bubble wrap aside, most of the production values are quite a bit stronger than they were in Robot. The station sets are superbly realized, for their time. White, antiseptic corridors in a circular shape, to match the station models (and to make it easier to convincingly reuse one stretch of curving corridor for different parts of the station), around a central core that allows for more dimly-lit shots. The station architecture feels convincing throughout the serial, and there is little to interfere with the sense that you are in a station orbitting Earth, rather than a BBC studio set. Even the Wirrn are passably realized, with smart directorial choices keeping their on-camera appearances to a minimum.
The story itself is a good one, even if Parts 2 - 4 never quite live up to the mystery and atmosphere of that superb opening episode. Robert Holmes does a fine job of maintaining tension throughout, largely by shifting the focus from threat to threat. In Part One, the regulars are in jeopardy from the station's automated defense systems. Once the crew start being revived, Part Two sees them in danger from the vaguely fascist, highly trigger-happy commander. In Part Three, the characters must evade the larval Wirrn, while the Doctor probes for weaknesses in his enemies. It is only in Part Four that the adult Wirrn emerge. This variation prevents a potentially limited "base under siege" setup from wearing out its welcome. It's quite a clever structure, well-designed to keep the audience engaged throughout the four episodes without giving them too much to keep track over the course of four weeks.
There are a few quibbles. The third episode is by far the weakest. Part of that is production, with the bubble-wrap bits being most predominant in this episode, turning moments that should be tense into comedy fodder. Part of it is the script, however. There just isn't enough plot to fill an episode between Noah's possession to the emergence of the adult Wirrn, leading to a few scenes feeling rather stretched.
Another issue is the performance of Kenton Moore as Noah. Even before he is taken over by the Wirrn, his performance tilts just a bit too much toward ham. Between his over-enunciating of syllables and over-clenching of his jaw, and the heavy-handed fascist overtones in his dialogue ("We must eliminate the regressives!"), I found it difficult to keep a straight face during some of his early scenes. After the Wirrn take him over, this gets even worse. I'm afraid I actively burst into laughter at the Part Two cliffhanger, when he regards his bubble-wrapped hand with exaggerated horror. I then giggled my way through the scene in Episode Three in which he arm wrestles against himself. Sometimes it's good when an actor just gets in there and goes for it. This... isn't one of those times.
Other guest performers are much better, with Wendy Williams acquitting herself quite well as the Med Tech, Vira, and Richardson Morgan's chronically complaining Rogin making for an entertaining supporting player. Even so, none of these characters are particularly vivid or memorable, making it hard to be terribly concerned about which ones live or die. With a bland guest cast and the certain knowledge that the regulars are immune from harm, it is left to the script's pace, the variation in specific threats, and the atmosphere to create tension.
Fortunately, it succeeds in all of these areas. The new Doctor and new TARDIS team are given strong material to work with, and the new team comes together here in a way that wasn't possible when they were still surrounded by the UNIT trappings. With solid performances by the regulars, superb set design, and an adeptly-structured script, The Ark in Space is certainly a good story. But, to my tastes at least, it falls a fair bit short of being a great one.
Rating: 7/10.
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