The Series:

The second full serial to feature Tom Baker in the lead, the four part storyline Doctor Who: The Ark In Space was originally aired in late January through mid-February in 1975. Directed by Rodney Bennett and written by Robert Holmes, the story begins when the TARDIS materializes inside a large space station. When the doors open, out walk the Doctor (Baker) and his companions, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Sullivan). They explore the facility and before you know it, against the Doctor's orders Harry has pushed a button, a door closes locking Sarah in a room, and she's soon without oxygen. This is fixed quickly enough but they soon realize that the auto-guard programmed to protect the place has a pretty itchy trigger finger.

Once the Doctor and Harry neutralize the defenses they're able to further explore the place and soon realize that they've essentially wandered into an 'ark' chock full of people in suspended animation chambers. Before you know it, Sarah's been put into one of the pods but soon a 'med-tech' named Vira (Wendy Williams) wakes up and explains things to Harry and the Doctor. Also revived early on is the stations leader, Noah (Kenton Moore), who is understandably suspicious as to the space stations newly arrived guests. Unfortunately for all involved, humans are not the only creatures onboard. At some point during its journey the station's integrity was compromised by the presence of some wasp like aliens called the Wirrn. Having had ample time to use the humans' onboard as hosts, there are larvae crawling around the ship causing trouble. When Noah heads into the thick of it to check things out, he becomes a host and soon starts mutating into one of the Wirrn - at which point his personality changes and he starts to use the space station's technology to let the Wirrn take over and eliminate what is left of the human race.

Picking up where the last serial, Robot, left off, The Ark In Space wastes no time getting to the good stuff. There's quite a bit of action here and some solid moments of suspense as well and we can't help but notice how Baker is quickly beginning to make the role his own. Having really only had one proper story prior to flesh out the character to suit his style, it's impressive that even this early on in the fourth Doctor's run his take is distinct and unique and not at all like the three who came before him. There's a slightly unhinged aspect to Baker's work on the series that his predecessors lacked and it's easy to see how and why he'd become, in the eyes of many fans who grew up on his incarnation, the definitive Doctor, or at the very least the actor most instantly recognized for his work on the series. Supporting efforts from the charming Elisabeth Sladen and the amusing Ian Sullivan make for some fun moments, particularly the back and forth that occurs between them and the Doctor which is often the source of this particular storyline's only real humor. Wendy Williams is great as the slightly pretentious medical technician while Kenton Moore does a pretty solid job as the space station leader, Noah (subtle, right? Let's name the guy in charge of the 'ark' Noah!).

As far as the production values go, it's a bit of a mixed bag. The set design is great, with clever use of mirrors used to coyly make the interior of the space station look far bigger than it really is. There's a very clean, sort of 2001 inspired look to the inside of the space station that works well in the serial's favor and the few exterior shots that there are work fine given the age and technology used in the show. The monster effects are a different story, the main problem being that once Kenton Moore's Noah starts turning into the Wirrn, they've obviously just wrapped parts of him in green bubble wrap. Now, the extras explain that bubble wrap was fairly new at the time and not as common as it is now, so maybe this was more effective back then, but by modern standards, yeah, that guy is obviously wrapped in green bubble wrap and that's a little hard to look past. Fans of the series won't likely take issue with this, however, as the show was, at the time at least, always made with a pretty modest effects budget. As to the fully formed Wirrn, they fare a little better, but are still obviously men wobbling around in costume, which explains why we never see them shot from the ankles down.

Overall, however, despite some questionable effects and production values, Ark In Space is a lot of fun. Baker has started to come into his own, the set design is impressive and the storyline is both exciting and enjoyable, even occasionally offering up some minor food for thought. Fans will eat this one up, and it's easy to see all these years later why it remains a very popular entry in the Baker years run.

Video:

Doctor Who: The Ark In Space arrives on DVD in its original fullframe aspect ratio. There are moments where the picture is muddy looking and fairly murky and detail is generally below average throughout playback as the transfer is sourced from the master tape - but this is probably as good as it's ever going to get and those accustomed to other releases of Who material from the same era will more or less know what to expect. It's all watchable enough and scenes shot inside tend to look cleaner and clearer than those shot outdoors (probably due to better lighting and the fact that in this particular series a lot of the outdoor shots use miniatures and effects work), but this isn't really a great transfer even if it's obvious that the powers that be have done their best with the material that they had available. The disc is well authored in that there are no problems with compression artifacts and as soft as it all is, at least it's clean in that there aren't any nasty issues with print damage. Again, for what it is, this looks fine and those accustomed to earlier DVD releases from this era of the show will know what to expect and have no problems - but those expecting pristine quality will be disappointed.