#10 (13.17 - 13.20): The Brain of Morbius.

Solon (Philip Madoc) attempts to revive the evil Morbius!

4 episodes. Approx. 99 minutes. Written by: Robin Bland (pseudonym), Terrance Dicks (uncredited), Robert Holmes (uncredited). Directed by: Christopher Barry. Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe.


THE PLOT

The TARDIS is diverted to Karn, a planet that has been reduced to little more than a wasteland, a graveyard for starships pulled to their deaths by the Sisterhood of Karn. An ancient order, long allied with the Time Lords, the Sisterhood guards its "sacred flame" within the mountains of Karn.  The flame provides the elixir of life, granting immortality to those who drink it. They guard this resource jealously and, when they recognize the Doctor as a Time Lord, they fear he has come to steal it.

Karn is also home to Solon (Philip Madoc), a skilled surgeon who has made this wasteland his home for the sake of experiments on living tissue. His experiments serve dark ends. Solon is a follower of the Time Lord tyrant Morbius (Michael Spice). After the Time Lords and the Sisterhood united against him, Morbius' body was executed. However, Solon saved the brain, plotting to transplant it into a new body so that Morbius can live again. The only piece he needs to complete his work is the head - and he believes the Doctor's will be a perfect fit! 


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Has become fed up with the Time Lords using him as their errand boy. When he realizes that he's been diverted to Karn through their intervention, his immediate inclination is to do nothing. Once he senses Morbius' mind, however, all hesitation vanishes. He becomes focused on stopping Solon from reviving the evil Time Lord, and is not above physical intimidation. As in Genesis of the Daleks and Pyramids of Mars, the Doctor's grim tone suits Tom Baker's strengths, bringing an extra dimension out in his performance - which still leaves plenty of room for clowning, particularly when taken captive by the Sisterhood, whose rituals he is pitiless in mocking.

Sarah Jane Smith: Notices that something's "off" about Solon instantly. While the Doctor drinks Solon's wine, she surreptitiously pours it out, feigning unconsciousness when the Doctor succumbs to the drug. She rescues the Doctor from the Sisterhood in Part Two when they prepare to sacrifice him to the flame. Even after she is blinded, when she hears a voice calling out in panic in Solon's lab, she follows it to try to help... Not realizing that the voice she hears is Morbius', just knowing that someone is in distress and wanting to help if she can.


THOUGHTS

As is quite well-known within Who fandom, The Brain of Morbius began life as a Terrance Dicks script, one which was given a Page One rewrite by Robert Holmes. An annoyed Dicks demanded his name be removed from the final product, and the "Robin Bland" pseudonym was born.

That this is, to all practical purposes, a Robert Holmes script shows, most vividly in the dialogue. With all due respect to Terrance Dicks, his words just don't have the richness, the poetry that Holmes can bring. Holmes has the ability to use language as a paintbrush, investing life into stock characters and resonance into standard scenes, as when Morbius bemoans his state to Solon:  

[I]"I can see nothing, feel nothing.  You have locked me into hell for eternity.  If this is all there is, I would rather die now... Even a sponge has more life than i.  Can you understand a thousandth of my agony?  I, Morbius, who once led the High Council of the Time  Lords, reduced to this - to the condition where I envy a vegetable!"[/I]

Holmes also gives every character or character group their own agenda. These aren't just servants of the plot.  Everyone in this story wants something and acts to get it.  Solon is a fervent devotee of Morbius, and of course he wants his lord restored to glory... but he also wants glory for himself. As Morbius observes, he is not content to be a servant; he wants to be acknowledged as Morbius' creator. The Sisterhood fears the Time Lords, believing that they have sent the Doctor to steal their "elixir of life," and everything they do within the story is to protect their elixir and their "sacred flame." Even Condo has his own personal goal, to recover his arm, something which makes him simultaneously a servant to Solon and a threat to him.

Alliances are formed and switched throughout the story. Solon attempts to save the Doctor from the Sisterhood in Episode Two, then later sends him into a trap.  In both cases, he's serving his ends: If the Sisters sacrifice the Doctor, his head will not be usable; but both Solon and Sisters want the Doctor nullified as a threat.  The Doctor helps the Sisters in Episode Three, hoping to gain them as an ally.  He even teams up with Solon team in Episode Four, to track down the Morbius-creature. Again, both men's aims are served: The Doctor wants to stop a rampaging monster, Solon wants to subdue Morbius long enough to finish his work.  This makes both Sisterhood and Solon temporary allies and enemies at multiple points in the story, keeping the pace alive and allowing the narrative to turn in some interesting directions.


PLOT HOLES: OR, WHY DID THEY DO THAT?

Not that Dicks isn't right that the redraft introduced some plot-holes. Even on my very first viewing of the story, I wondered why Solon was so keen to stick the Doctor's head on his mish-mash of mobile body parts. Surely it would be more efficient and have a more desirable end result to simply transplant Morbius' brain into the Doctor's head, on the Doctor's own body?  A throwaway line to explain why the head has to go on the mongrel body, or a reference to the body being an experiment like the fishbowl that Solon doesn't really intend to use, would adequately cover this.

Episode Four then sees the Doctor becoming deeply stupid. Having intimidated Solon into agreeing to dismantle Morbius, he then... leaves Solon alone with Morbius, only to act surprised when his enemy double-crosses him.  "I should never have left him alone," the Doctor grits when he realizes.  No, he shouldn't have - and he's frankly far too smart to have done so, save that the plot demanded it.

Neither of these bumps stop this from being a very good serial. Minor plot issues and convenient character stupidity to advance the plot have been part and parcel of Doctor Who since 1963, and will likely continue to be a part of the series for as long as it survives. It's enough to keep me from giving this the "9" I had been leaning toward - but this is still wonderfully entertaining viewing.


Overall Rating: 8/10.

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#8 (13.9 - 13.12): Pyramids of Mars.

Possessed by Sutekh.

4 episodes. Approx. 98 minutes. Written by: "Stephen Harris," Lewis Griefer (uncredited), Robert Holmes (uncredited). Directed by: Paddy Russell. Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe.


THE PLOT

The TARDIS is thrown off course again. It materializes in the right place, but the wrong time, arriving in the priory that once stood on the site of UNIT headquarters. The year is 1911, and the priory is home to Marcus Scarman (Bernard Archard), a professor of Egyptology. Marcus discovered an ancient tomb linked to the prison of Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf), the last of the Osirans. When the archaeologist opens the site, Sutekh is able to reach out with his mind to possess him, giving him a chance to free himself from his prison and resume his reign of destruction.

After he witnesses the possessed Marcus, the Doctor quickly realizes the nature of this enemy. Sutekh's power is greater than any adversary he's ever faced. He has help from Marcus's brother, Laurence (Michael Sheard) - but Laurence's concern for his brother makes him unreliable. As the Doctor's every plan fails, he is forced into a direct confrontation with Sutekh. It's a battle he cannot hope to survive...


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: This is a rare story in which we see him genuinely scared. He knows that he is no match for Sutekh, and his fear manifests in extreme crankiness. He snaps left and right at Sarah Jane, and even more at Laurence. When Laurence's hopeless desire to save his brother disrupts one improvised plan, the Doctor reacts with cold fury. Sarah complains about his coldness, stating that he barely seems... "Human?" he says, finishing her sentence pointedly. The desperation lends urgency to Tom Baker's performance, which vies with Genesis for his best work up to this point.

Sarah Jane Smith: The "alternate 1980" scene in Episode Two is a justly famous one. Safely in the TARDIS, the ever-pragmatic Sarah Jane wonders why they can't just leave. After all, they've seen the future, and they know Sutekh doesn't destroy the world. The Doctor refutes her argument in the most direct way possible - by taking her home. But since they didn't stay to stop Sutekh, this alternate 1980 is a wasteland. Sarah Jane looks out onto it, and you can read the emotion on her face. She retreats into denial, accusing the Doctor of trickery, before resigning herself to reality: "We have to go back." It's a terrific scene - not least because Elisabeth Sladen sells it superbly, making what might have been merely an interesting detour into something that feels emotionally real.


A SHORT DIGRESSION...

There's no such thing as an "unbiased review." Reviews are, by nature, opinion pieces. Still, my bias for Pyramids of Mars is greater than any other single piece, because this was the serial that sucked me back into Doctor Who, 15 years after I had viewed it religiously as a child.

I had watched Who avidly during its weekly PBS showings during the 1980's. I saw every story from Robot through to Trial of a Timelord, and I enjoyed most of them. But after Trial, my local PBS station looped back to the First Doctor. The Hartnell era is now my favorite, but my young self had no interest in watching a creaky old black & white show. So I drifted away and more or less forgot about the series.

In the late 1990's, I discovered a few old Who stories in the collection of my local video store: Pyramids of Mars, The Brain of Morbius, and The Robots of Death. Pyramids was the most interesting-looking of the three, so I brought it home to indulge some nostalgia, figuring that I'd laugh at the cheapness of the program and at myself for ever having enjoyed it.

I did exactly that... for about the first five minutes (it should be noted that the opening Egyptian tomb scene is appallingly tatty). But once that opening scene was done, I found myself drawn in by excellent performances and a well-scripted story. After that, I quickly rented the other two tapes, and then I began actively seeking out more. Pyramids got me hooked. Though I've taken a few breaks from Doctor Who since, and I will again in the future, it's a show that I know I'll always come back to.


THOUGHTS

This is one of those rare cases in which all the elements of a production come together just right. This is almost a surprise, given its chaotic origins. Writer Lewis Griefer was commissioned delivered a 4-parter involving the Brigadier and UNIT, which was not to the liking of producer Philip Hinchcliffe or script editor Robert Holmes. Holmes proceeded to rewrite it from scratch, with the final product credited to the pseudonymous Stephen Harris.

The result is a superior piece of craftsmanship, one of Robert Holmes' best scripts even if it doesn't bear his name. At the start, it seems as if it's going to be standard fare. The Doctor is pretty much his usual self through Episode One, casually clowning about as when he does an exaggerated "crouch walk" under the priory windows. Then he sees the possessed Marcus and hears the name "Sutekh," at which point all facetiousness vanishes. From that point to the end, he is focused, snappish, and grim.

The story's effectiveness heavily depends on us believing that Sutekh truly is such a threat, even though he doesn't directly do much. The biggest factor in making him so formidable is the Doctor's own reaction. He doesn't simply proclaim Sutekh to be powerful - He reacts viscerally, growing ever more agitated as his plans fail. The serial also shows the fraction of Sutekh's power that is wielded by the possessed Marcus Scarman (Bernard Archard), who isolates the area in an invisible dome and dispatches people with a single touch.

Critically, the story sees the Doctor failing repeatedly. One gambit is scuttled by a misguided Laurence. Another is stopped because of Sutekh's mental control. Finally, the Doctor is brought face-to-face with the Osiran... and he is rendered powerless, with the dark god sneering that he is now "the plaything of Sutekh" before explaining the nature of good and evil from his warped perspective:

"Your evil is my good. I am Sutekh the destroyer. Where I tread, I leave nothing but dust and darkness I find that good!"


OVERALL

Pyramids of Mars is one of the series' best stories. Veteran director Paddy Russell helms it with an eye toward the visual, from the Doctor's introductory shot which sets a tone from the off, to the grounds of the priory, to the bleakness of the alternate future in which the villain isn't stopped. It's flat-out excellent, and I think it's a nearly ideal pick for viewers new to the Classic Series.


Rating: 10/10.

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#5 (12.17 - 12.20): Revenge of the Cybermen

The Cyberleader (Christopher Robbie) threatens the Doctor.

4 episodes. Written by: Gerry Davis, Robert Holmes (uncredited). Directed by: Michael E. Briant.  Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe.


THE PLOT

The Time Ring returns the Doctor, Harry, and Sarah Jane to Station Nerva. They arrive centuries early, however, in the time before the solar flares, when the station is being used as a beacon to aid in space travel.

Nerva Beacon has been set up around Voga, a seemingly uninhabited asteroid that has been drawn into Jupiter's orbit to become a new satellite, creating a hazard to space navigation. All is not well. The station has been ravaged by plague, with only a handful of its original staff still alive.

The Doctor suspects that this is no natural disease - and when a metallic worm is caught attacking Sarah Jane, his fears are confirmed. The worm is a Cybermat, injecting the "plague" into its victims. The Cybermen are on their way. Their target: Voga, which is anything but uninhabited, and whose plentiful gold marks them as a threat to the Cybermen!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Tom Baker is noticeably more manic here than in most of the stories of this season (Robot excepted). I half-suspect that the actor, now comfortable in the role, recognized this as a weak script and decided to compensate by playing against as many lines as possible. Earlier stories already introduced his tendency to grin while making grave pronouncements. In this story, he does that several times, drawing out words a beat or two past their natural endpoint. This is not a complaint, as Baker's quirks make this vastly more watchable than it might have been otherwise.

His best moment comes in Episode Two. Shady Professor Kellman (Jeremy Wilkin) has been exposed as a traitor, but he is still protesting his innocence. The Doctor responds by using one of Kellman's items, which turns out to be a control device for the Cybermats, to threaten him.  He observes that after the metallic creature strikes, Kellman will have about 10 seconds to give the needed information if he wants to live. It's a standard enough scene, but Baker turns it just enough askew to make it memorable, grinning maniacally and seemingly reveling in the game of threatening the traitor. It's effective, and just the tiniest bit disquieting, just how much he seems to be enjoying himself.

Sarah Jane Smith: She gets thrust into the role of "damsel-in-distress" early on, when she's poisoned by the Cybermat. She then plays companion to Harry, who very much takes the lead on Voga.  Finally, she thrusts herself right back into peril by going back to the Beacon in Episode Four... just so that the Doctor will have to rescue her all over again. Though it's not a great story for Sarah, it is fun to watch the rapport that's developed between Elisabeth Sladen and Tom Baker. Their interplay is positively buoyant, each seeming to feed off the other's energy.

Harry Sullivan: "Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!" Not really a fair summation of the character at any point, but he does spend this story as the inexplicable butt of the Doctor's ire. As early as Episode One, he's earning glares for little real reason (such as when the Doctor is dragged by a sliding door), and he even he seems to get a little fed up, asking, "What have I done now?"

This distracts from Revenge of the Cybermen being quite a strong story for Harry.  He helps to save Sarah after she's attacked. Then he takes the lead on Voga. He observes the significance of the gold shackles, engineering an escape. When the Cybermen arrive on Voga and send their prisoners to the core of the asteroid with Cyber bombs attached to them, he determines that there must be a way to delay the Cyber bombs from being planted. His only substantial misstep is sending Sarah back to the Beacon, but that isn't so much idiocy as simply acting on incomplete information.

The Cybermen: This story marks their return after a five-year absence. Though the submission was by their creator, Gerry Davis, his scripts were heavily rewritten - and with regard to the Cybermen themselves, not for the better. The Cyberleader (Christopher Robbie) has a booming voice rather than the mechanical drone of previous stories, and he spends a lot of time gloating. He gives the Doctor the upper hand at one point by throwing a temper tantrum, literally tossing the Doctor at one of the Cyber bombs. The plan to destroy Voga is needlessly complicated; their backup plan seems both simpler and more likely to actually succeed! All told, it's not hard to see why it was 8 years before the next Cyber story. It's just a shame that, when they did return later, the Revenge Cybermen seemed to be the template, rather than the more effective 1960's versions.


THOUGHTS

Revenge of the Cybermen is a mishmash of barely-connected elements in service of a thin and derivative plot. Kellman's double-agent shenanigans make very little sense. The Vogans' plan depends entirely on there being only four Cybermen left in existence. The story can't seem to keep straight whether Voga is an asteroid or a planet. It's all ludicrous, sub-Buck Rogers nonsense, that by no reasonable critical standard could be labeled as "good."

It is also a heck of a lot of fun to watch.

For all of Revenge's many faults, it is never boring. The story keeps piling on incidents and set pieces, moving along with enough sheer verve that I find it impossible not to enjoy it. The Doctor's investigation of Kellman early in the story leads to an amusing set piece in which he avoids a trap involving an electrified floor ("the floor is lava"). Sarah Jane and Harry dodge Vogan troops, then a few minutes later join forces with them. The Cybermen attack Voga with a relentless force of... um, two. There are cave-ins and bombs and two countdowns to Doomsday. Then, when it's all over, the Doctor still has to avoid a massive collision in what looks like a primitive version of a Disneyland ride.


OVERALL:

It's a silly, ramshackle serial... but it also captures one of the enduring appeals of Doctor Who: even its weaker stories are often quite a lot of fun to watch. Revenge of the Cybermen is about as dumb as a 2-month-old beagle. It's not a patch on Genesis of the Daleks. But there are many times that I'd opt not for the gritty drama of Genesis, but for the amiable idiocy of this.


Rating: 6/10.

Alternate Version: Return of the Cybermen (not yet reviewed)

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#3 (12.9 - 12.10): The Sontaran Experiment

Sontaran Field Major Styre (Kevin Lindsay) menaces Sarah.

2 episodes. Written by: Bob Baker & Dave Martin. Directed by: Rodney Bennett.  Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe.


THE PLOT

The Doctor, Sarah, and Harry have transmatted down from Space Station Nerva to repair the transmat system, so that the waking survivors can recolonize the Earth... but Earth is not as lifeless as they had believed.

A group of astronauts were lured by a false distress signal, and their group has been growing smaller. Out of a crew of nine, only three remain. When they find the Doctor, they decide that he is responsible. While they interrogate him, Sarah befriends one of their missing colleagues, Roth (Peter Rutherford), who is half-crazed after escaping from an "alien in the rocks."

That alien is Styre (Kevin Lindsay), a Sontaran Field Major and scientist who is studying the humans in preparation for an invasion. The Sontaran battle fleet is already preparing to secure Earth as a foothold in the endless war against the Rutans - which leaves very bleak prospects for both the astronauts and the humans on Nerva.

The Doctor has a more immediate problem: Sarah has been taken prisoner, and she is about to be subjected to the Sontaran's latest experiments!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: This was the first recorded story of the production block, and writers Baker & Martin would only have had Robot to go on in their characterization. This may explain why the Doctor doesn't come across as strongly here as in The Ark in Space. Tom Baker remains in fine form, but the script makes the Doctor useless and even borderline stupid for much of the first part, notably when he falls down the same trap that entangled Harry through willful recklessness. The climax feels like a leftover of the Pertwee years, relying on physical combat, which leaves only major "Doctorish" moment at the end, when he attempts to bluff the leader of the Sontaran fleet.

Sarah Jane Smith: With the Doctor having an unusually weak outing, Sarah ends up practically taking on his role in the first episode. She befriends Roth, rescues the Doctor from the astronauts, and asks all of the key questions about Roth's fear of his shipmates and about the alien in the rocks. Yes, the second episode falls back on the tried and true formula of her being captured and needing rescued, but this still emerges as a strong story for her.

Harry Sullivan: A nice character beat sees him enjoying the tranquility of an Earth with no people, half-regretting that the people on Nerva will change this idyllic countryside all too quickly. Once it becomes clear he is not going to be rescued from his trap anytime soon, he finds his own way out, just in time to witness Sarah being kidnapped by Styre. He wisely doesn't attempt to rush in, instead doing what he can to try to help where he can while retaining his own freedom.

Villain of the Week: Styre may be the only Sontaran in a televised story to be genuinely menacing.  The Time Warrior is a better story, but Lynx was more amusing than frightening, while later stories would tend to play them more for comic relief. Styre is anything but amusing. The dispassionate, meticulous way he goes about his "experiments" is quite chilling. "You are nothing," he tells Sarah, and he means it. His victims are mere data points, with him neither enjoying nor bothered by their cries as he tortures them.


THOUGHTS

Classic Who had very few two-part, 50-minute serials, and that was mostly for good reason. The series tended to be at its best when it had time to explore settings and characters. Lacking that breathing space, most Classic Series two-parters tended to come across as rushed.

The Sontaran Experiment is one of the better 50-minute stories. The Doctor's weak role aside, the first episode is genuinely good. Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin establish the base situation quickly, and they give each of the regulars something to do. The problems are small at first: Harry's fall, the Doctor's capture by the astronauts. In working to solve these problems, Sarah Jane encounters larger ones - "the alien in the rocks," the tortured Roth. This progression fuels the first episode, building to the effective reveal of Styre, with Sarah recognizing him as a Sontaran with genuine fear.

Unfortunately, in Part Two, the action becomes a bit too rushed, and the resolution comes a bit too easily. The Doctor defeats Styre by challenging him to single combat and just avoiding the Sontaran until he gets conveniently tired.  Meanwhile, Harry yanks a Thingamajigee out of the ship, which conveniently is enough to resolve the situation with minimal effort. In short, a lot of things suddenly happen with a lot of convenience for the regulars, with even the Doctor's grand bluff at the end - a scene with the potential to be great - going by too quickly to be particularly dramatically effective.

This isn't to say that Part Two is bad. Styre himself is well-written and wonderfully portrayed by Kevin Lindsay. The scenes involving his experiments evoke the "scientific research" of Dr. Josef Mengele during the Second World War, as the alien methodically tests humans' reaction to lack of fluids and to "immersion in liquid." He tests Sarah's responses to fear, and he begins a rather gruesome experiment that involves the resistance of the human ribcage to extreme pressure. Realization is variable, particularly if you've read Ian Marter's much, much better novelization, but his clinical reactions to each test makes it effective.


OVERALL:

I honestly think that part of the reason this story is a fan favorite is its novelization, which takes the ideas of this story and develops them to far more memorable effect. In its televised form, Part One is mostly excellent, but Part Two rushes through the plot and finishes with a rather limp conclusion.

It's never bad, and I would rate it as one of the Classic Series' better 50 minute stories. Still, given how well it starts, the weak conclusion is a definite disappointment.


Rating: 6/10.

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#2 (12.5 - 12.8): The Ark in Space

Noah (Kenton Moore), captain of Space Station
Nerva, undergoes a terrible transformation...

...or Dr. Who in an Exciting Adventure with Bubble-Wrap!

4 episodes. Written by: Robert Holmes. Directed by: Rodney Bennett.  Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe.


THE PLOT

The Doctor's attempt to prove the TARDIS's properties to Harry with a quick trip goes predictably awry. Instead of materializing on the moon, they find themselves in the far future, on a space station orbiting Earth. Space Station Nerva is an ark, carrying the cryogenically frozen survivors of a global catastrophe. The station's systems have been sabotaged, but the Doctor brings the power back on-line, awakening the command crew in the process.

It quickly becomes apparent that something has gotten into the station. The insect-like Wirrn have invaded the station while its crew has slept, laying their eggs inside one of the crew. Now, the larval Wirrn has taken control of the station commander, Noah (Kenneth Moore) - leaving the Doctor and his friends, along with the remaining station crew, in a race against time to prevent this last outpost of humanity from being consumed!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Robot introduced the new Doctor in a story that was otherwise indistinguishable from a Pertwee offering. By contrast, this outer space thriller allows Tom Baker and the incoming production team to establish their own tone and style. This story sets the new template that would largely exist through producer Philip Hinchcliffe's tenure, with the Fourth Doctor being not only quirkier than his immediate predecessor, but also more intellectual and more emotionally remote. Tom Baker is marvelous, with several terrific individual moments: trying to use his hat and scarf to deal with station defenses (and giving a perfect nonverbal reaction when both of the aforementioned get zapped); the iconic "homo sapiens" speech when he discovers the frozen bodies; berating Sarah to get her moving, only to grin with pride and affection after she completes her task.

Sarah Jane Smith: Writer/script editor Robert Holmes gives more focus to new companion Harry than to Sarah.  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 less to do than in most of Season 11's entries, with her only memorable moment being an attack of claustrophobia in the air vents. Elisabeth Sladen still invests the character with likability and intelligence, but I hope that 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, and he's immediately likable. There is something very humorous in his attempts to take everything in stride. In contrast with the character's intermittent reputation as a nincompoop, 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 just enough so that the Doctor can usefully bounce ideas off of him, without ever being at risk of being at the Doctor's own level. Ian Marter's rapport with his co-stars remains excellent, and I'd argue that the 4th Doc/Sarah Jane/Harry line-up is a strong contender for my favorite 1970s team.


THOUGHTS

Incoming producer Philip Hinchcliffe's first story is a sharp break with Barry 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, I'd rate this as possibly the best-looking Doctor Who story since The Sea Devils. 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), running the circumference of a more dimly-lit central core. The station architecture is effectively established in the early episodes, and there is little to interfere with the illusion of being in a station orbiting Earth, as opposed to a BBC studio set. Even the Wirrn are passably realized, with smart directorial choices keeping their on-camera appearances to a minimum.

I like this story - but I don't love it the way much of fandom seems to. The first two episodes are excellent, building atmosphere and mystery. The second half just doesn't quite hit the same mark. I honestly think the third episode drags a bit, while the final installment is slightly rushed, with a sequence of the Doctor and Sarah besieged in the cryo chamber seeming like a beat that should have been held longer. Wendy Williams' Vira is a strong guest character, just hesitant enough at taking charge to feel human while still being a convincing leader, but the other guest characters are too thinly sketched to get invested in. This includes Noah; his few pre-infection scenes make him seem a little too much like a Pertwee-era pompous bureaucrat for his fate to particularly resonate.

It's still a good story, mind you. Robert Holmes does a fine job of maintaining tension, with the characters dealing with one threat after another. In Part One, the regulars are in jeopardy from the station's automated defense systems. Once the crew start being revived, they become suspicious of the Doctor, with Noah seeming almost eager to summarily execute him and his companions. In Part Three, the characters evade the larval Wirrn, while the Doctor probes for weaknesses. It is only in Part Four that the adult Wirrn emerge, effectively putting the characters under siege. It's a clever structure, well-designed to keep the audience engaged without giving the audience too much to keep track of.


OVERALL:

It's easy to see why this story is a fan favorite. The set design is superb, the alien design is above the series' average, and the script is adeptly structured. Tom Baker is particularly good here, and the 4th Doctor/Sarah Jane/Harry line-up is a strong contender for the best set of 1970s regulars.

All of this makes The Ark in Space a good story. But the third episode feels a bit overstretched, whiel the guest cast are mostly too bland to get invested in. I like the story... but on this viewing, as in previous ones, I find that my reaction just doesn't match the serial's reputation.


Rating: 7/10.

Alternate Version: The Ark (audio)

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