Review of Doctor Who: The Ark in Space (1975) by Ashley S — 17 Aug 2010

Doctor Who goes all out Star Trek in this futuristic story of the last remaining humans, suspended in time as they wait for a decimated Earth to recover from a cataclysmic event thousands of years ago. As they wake, they find they are not alone, as a giant parasitic lava has started to take over the ship and its inhabitants.

The ideas are intriguing ones, reused in part in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Red Dwarf series. The sets are by far some of the best I've seen on the Who series; taking influence from Space Odessy and Star Trek. Unfortunatly though, the 'monster' itself is a real let down, and does somewhat ruin what is a good story. It's a shame there wasn't better material available to the production team than bubblewrap and clingfilm, because this makes what could have been a classic piece of sci-fi tele into rather a laughable one at times (though not throughout I wouldn't say). Still, the Doctor, his companions and even the bit-part actors do well in this story and it's a pretty watchable addition to the series as a whole; showing rather an exciting potential for the 'new' Doctor of the time.