The Ark in Space: my review
jph...@aol.com
(or Dr. Who in an Exciting Adventure with Bubble-Wrap!)
4 episodes. Written by: Robert Holmes. Directed by: Rodney Bennett.
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. This likely
allowed viewers to feel comfortable that they were watching the same
show as Tom found his feet in the role. But there was little that was
individual in tone or character about Robot. This story, however, does
not feel like a 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.
Tom is still fresh in the role, and clearly very committed to it. The
opening episode helps to really establish this new team, as the
Doctor, Sarah, and Harry are the only characters in the first part. We
particularly see the two newbies (Tom and Ian Marter's Harry) dealing
with the various dangers and mysteries posed by the station. 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: Robot was a very strong story for Sarah Jane, so
it's probably not surprising that this story gives her much less to
do. The first episode 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. Fortunately, Elisabeth Sladen still
invests the character with likability and intelligence; and I can't
blame Robert Holmes for thinking it was 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 stories by this point). Still,
one hopes that now that the new Doctor and new companion are
established, that the remaining stories of the season don't sideline
her to this extent. My memory is honestly a bit wobbly on this point,
so I'll be interested to rediscover the remainder of Season Twelve.
Harry Sullivan: While a fairly weak Sarah story, The Ark in Space is a
much stronger story for Harry than Robot was. Here, we see Harry's
character 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. Still, 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 made a likable showing in his
first story, but here he starts to actually impress. And 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 in his early "settling period," before he got fully up to
speed, Hinchcliffe was weak on production. There really isn't a lot of
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, however, 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. This serial is the first of the 4-parters
I've reviewed to really fall victim to the infamous "Episode 3" curse.
The third episode here is by far the weakest. Part of that is
production, with the bubble-wrap bits being most predominant in this
episode, and turning moments that should be tense into comedy fodder.
Part of it is the script, however. There just isn't quite enough plot
to stretch from 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 surrounded by UNIT
trapping in Robot. 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.