The Ark (TV story)

The Ark was the sixth story in the third season of Doctor Who. It was the first full serial for new companion, Dodo Chaplet, who had appeared only briefly at the end of the previous episode. It was also the first to take place in what was definitively humanity's far future, and the first to depict the demise of Earth.

Behind the scenes, it was notable for its then-groundbreaking use of out-of-sequence recording. The final episode, "The Bomb", was the first in Doctor Who history to be recorded according to set availability and then edited into proper sequence. (DCOM: "The Bomb") Director Michael Imison also notably achieved a number of special effects shots through the liberal use of, something which hadn't been widely attempted in Doctor Who to that time. Imison's use of playback to indicate that the bridge computers and control consoles on the Ark were fully operational was also unusually sophisticated for the Hartnell era.

Synopsis
The Doctor and his companions Steven Taylor and Dodo Chaplet arrive some ten million years into the future, on board a generation starship which is carrying the last of humanity away from an Earth that is about to fall into the Sun. However, the cold that Dodo has could prove devastating to these future humans and their servants, the Monoids.

The Steel Sky (1)
As the TARDIS materialises in a tropical rainforest a one eyed alien watches it in curiousity. Dodo emerges and immediately sneezes before going out to explore. Steven follows after her confused as to her bravery. Dodo seems convinced that she is in Whipsnade Zoo and points out a number of Earth creatures such as a chameleon and other lizards to back up her point. The Doctor seems to back up her point by saying that all readings seem to say that this planet has similar conditions to Earth.

Elsewhere a court has met populated by humans and the alien race, by the name of the Monoid. They are putting on trial a member of the human race that put the whole of their civilisation at risk. Despite pleading from the Commander daughter Mellium the Commander sentences the man to miniaturisation for 700 years. The man is led into a device that shrinks him down into a microcell and he is carried away.

Back in the jungle Dodo finds an elephant and uses this to prove that they must be on Earth however the Doctor points out that all of these animals are not indigenous to the same area. He also points out too other anomalies that he has discovered since their landing. One is that their is no sky and just a metal roof over them and the other is that the ground is rumbling as if mechanised. All this time the Monoid still watches over them.

Back at civilisation Zentos, a sceptical young understudy to the Commander, receives information from one of the Monoids, who communicate through sign language, that their are intruders on the ship. When he feeds this back to the Commander he doubts it but their is incontrovertible video proof. Zentos suggests they are immediately arrested and questioned, the Commander agrees to the questioning but that they should be invited.

As the Doctor and his companions explore they hear an alarm raised and discover that the Monoids are exploring the TARDIS. They rush into a nearby cave where they avoid detection, despite Dodo's sneezing almost giving them away. The Doctor berates her but she explains she is coming down with a cold. Once the coast is clear the Doctor and his companions go out and explore. As they mount the crest of a hill they see a city off in the distance. The Docotor immediately knows where he is now and explains that they are all on a giant spaceship. As he does they are immediately surrounded by small human-like figures.

The Doctor and his companions are led to the city where they are cross-examined hostilely by Zentos, whilst the Commander welcomes them with curiousity. The Commander explains that the Monoids are a peaceful breed of alien who came to Earth from their own planet which was dying. They helped the human race to build this ship to escape Earth, which was itself dying due to the solar flares that were engulfing the planet. The Monoids also taught the humans the miniaturisation process which allowed the whole human race to be transported to their destination, Refusis II, and brought back when they arrive in 700 years time. The Doctor suggests that this means they have travelled nearly 10 million years into Earth's history. The Commander allows the Doctor and his friends the run of the ship. Steven and Dodo are led away to be shown a statue by Mirian whilst the Doctor is shown the technology of the ship. Zentos is still sceptical of the Doctor's story, suggesting that he may be a Refusian come to scupper the ships progress to Refusis II.

Mirian shows Steven and Dodo the giant statue of a Homo Sapien that they are constructing out of Gregarian rock however the tour is interrupted by another alarm. They return to the main deck of the ship and see a Monoid laid out on a gurney with a fever and illness. As they flock round the alien the Commander also starts to complain of a severe fever and falls to the ground. Zentos overhears a conversation between the Doctor and Steven wherein he explains that this is down to Dodo's cold. The humans from the 57th segment of time are immune to all diseases so even the common cold could kill them. Zentos rushes to a podium and claims that it is Dodo that has started to spread this disease. As he talks the Monoid dies. The humans are in a fervour of excitement and shock and the Doctor and his companions are arrested and led away.

The Plague (2)
A young Guardian called Manyak and the Commander's daughter Mellium undertake the Doctor, Steven, and Dodo's defence. Steven acts as the first defence witness, attacking the closed nature of the minds of the Guardians, but exhausts himself in the process and collapses with the fever. His words have no impact on Zentos, who orders their execution, but the ailing Commander intervenes to protect the three travellers and permit them access to medical equipment to devise a cure for the cold. The Doctor is thus able to recreate the cold vaccine from the membranes of animals on the craft, and this is administered throughout the crew. The Commander, Steven, and the others infected are soon on the road to recovery. Their work done, the trio have only time to observe the end of Earth on the long-range scanner before the Doctor leads them back to the TARDIS.

Curiously, when the TARDIS rematerialises, they are still on the Ark. As they look around, Dodo notices the statue has been finished—with a Monoid head.

The Return (3)
700 years have passed and there has been a major change: the Monoids are in control. They have completed the statue in the image of themselves, having staged a coup during the long journey. This was made possible by a genetic weakness introduced into the humans, but not the Monoids, by a second wave of the cold virus 700 years earlier. The Monoids also now have voice communicators and use numerical emblems to distinguish each other. The humans are now little more than slaves, with the odd exception like the collaborator subject Guardian Maharis, and have little hope of change. The Doctor and his friends encounter the Monoid leadership, installed in a throne room on the Ark, after which they are sent to the security kitchen to help prepare meals for the Monoids. Two humans, Venussa and Dassuk, believe the moment of their liberation is at hand. Steven tries to help them in a revolt which is unsuccessful.

The arrival on Refusis is close at hand and a landing pod is prepared. Monoid 1 wants to make sure that the new world is inhabited only by Monoids, despite promises that the human population will be allowed to live there too. A landing party is assembled: the Doctor, Dodo, Monoid 2 and a subject Guardian named Yendom. They soon reach Refusis II and start to investigate. A stately castle which seems to be unoccupied is in fact the home to the invisible Refusians, giant beings rendered invisible by solar flares. They welcome their guests and have been expecting them, but only want to share the planet with other peaceful beings. Monoid 2 and Yendom flee the castle, and en route Yendom realises the humans will not be allowed to reach Refusis with the Monoids. Monoid 2 kills him and is shortly afterward killed himself when the landing pod explodes. The Doctor and Dodo are stranded on Refusis.

The Bomb (4)
The tension of the situation ferments dissent in the Monoid ranks, with Monoid 4 openly opposing Monoid 1's plans to abandon the humans and colonise Refusis without more checks on the planet. Two launchers are sent to the planet, Monoids 1 and 4 commanding one each, and when the crews emerge Monoid 4 interprets the destroyed landing pod as evidence of the danger that Monoid 1 has led them to. A civil war erupts between the two Monoid factions. The Doctor, Dodo and a Refusian use the confusion to steal one of the launchers and pilot back to the Ark.

The Monoids have placed a bomb on board the ship and plan to evacuate soon to the planet surface, leaving the humans to die on the spaceship. Word of this threat spreads and spurs a human rebellion. The arrival of the Doctor and the Refusian spur things along, and they soon realise the bomb has been placed in the head of the statue. Thankfully the Refusian is able to help dispose of the statue into space before the bomb explodes. The humans now begin to land on Refusis themselves, having been offered support on peaceful terms by the Refusians. Many of the Monoids have been killed in their civil war and those that remain are offered peaceful settlement alongside the other two species.

Once more the TARDIS departs, and this time the curiosity is that the Doctor simply vanishes from the TARDIS control room in front of Steven and Dodo, although his voice can still be heard. Dodo wonders if this has something to do with the Refusians, but the apparently invisible Doctor says this is some form of attack...

Cast

 * The Doctor — William Hartnell
 * Steven Taylor — Peter Purves
 * Dodo Chaplet — Jackie Lane
 * Commander — Eric Elliot
 * Zentos — Inigo Jackson
 * Manyak — Roy Spencer
 * Rhos — Michael Sheard
 * Mellium — Kate Newman
 * Baccu — Ian Frost
 * Monoids — Edmund Coulter, Frank George, Ralph Carrigan, John Caesar
 * Monoid Voices — Roy Skelton, John Halstead
 * Maharis — Terence Woodfield
 * Dassuk — Brian Wright
 * Venussa — Eileen Helsby
 * Yendom — Terence Bayler
 * Refusian Voice — Richard Beale

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Chris D'Oyly John
 * Costumes - Daphne Dare
 * Designer - Barry Newbery
 * Film Cameraman - Tony Leggo
 * Film Editor - Noel Chanan
 * Make-Up - Sonia Markham
 * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
 * Studio Lighting - Howard King
 * Studio Sound - Ray Angel
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
 * Incidental Music - Tristram Cary
 * Production Assistant - David Maloney
 * Writer - Paul Erickson, Lesley Scott
 * Story Editor - Gerry Davis
 * Director - Michael Imison
 * Producer - John Wiles

Story notes

 * This story had the possible working title of The Space Ark.
 * Although Lesley Scott, Paul Erickson's then-wife, was credited as a co-writer, she did no work on the scripts. Erickson would later give his reasons for sharing credit with her: "It was a personal arrangement I had with her, which was my own personal business at the time. The circumstances went into history. I need say no more than that." (REF: The First Doctor Handbook)
 * The Monoids were played by actors, each holding a ping-pong ball in his mouth to represent the alien's single eye. The upper portion of the actor's face was hidden by a 'Beatle' wig.
 * This was the first story in which Michael Sheard, a frequent and favourite guest star on Doctor Who, appeared.
 * Future Dalek voice Roy Skelton did his first work on Doctor Who, voicing the Monoids in "The Return" and "The Bomb".
 * There are occasional lapses by Jackie Lane into the Cockney accent in which she rehearsed the story, before the production team were instructed by their superiors that it was unacceptable for a regular character in Doctor Who to speak in anything other than 'BBC English'. Companion Ben Jackson (introduced only four stories later in TV: The War Machines) was allowed to keep his Cockney accent.

Ratings

 * "The Steel Sky" - 5.5 million viewers
 * "The Plague" - 6.9 million viewers
 * "The Return" - 6.2 million viewers
 * "The Bomb" - 7.3 million viewers

Filming locations

 * Ealing Television Film Studios
 * Riverside Studio 1, Hammersmith, London

Production errors

 * At the start of "The Plague", a cue can be heard off-screen.
 * When the Commander and Zentos question Steven about the TARDIS in "The Steel Sky" in the Ark's Control Room, the Commander strangely describes the Time/Space craft as being a "black box". It would appear that Eric Elliott misremembers the script here, though it could also be argued that the scanner screen in the Control Room shows a monochrome picture.

Continuity

 * In TV: The Ark in Space, the Earth was also evacuated because of solar flare activity that rendered the biosphere uninhabitable for five thousand years. There, however, the survivors of mankind slept in suspended animation and returned to repopulate the planet after that period had passed.
 * When questioned by the humans as to things he has seen on his travels, the Doctor seemingly mentions events from TV: The Romans and The Myth Makers and mentions the Daleks. All of this took place in what the humans now call the first section of time.
 * The Earth is seen trailing smoke as it heads towards the Sun at the close of episode two. However the National Trust, over the billions of years that followed, preserved it and restored it into a 'classic Earth' before it was finally destroyed by the expanding sun in the episode TV: The End of the World.
 * The Monoids also feature in the Bernice Summerfield audio drama AUDIO: The Kingdom of the Blind.
 * The Silurians built an ark of their own, when they believed much earlier that the Earth was about to be destroyed. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)

Video releases

 * This story was released on VHS in 1998.
 * Editing for the VHS release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

DVD releases
A commentary for this story was recorded in October 2009, and it was released on DVD on the following dates:

Region 2 - 14 February 2011

Region 1 - 8 March 2011

Region 4 - 3 March 2011

The following special features are included:
 * Audio commentary by Peter Purves (Steven), director Michael Imison and Toby Hadoke
 * All's Wells That Ends Wells - exploring the influence of H.G. Wells on Doctor Who
 * One Hit Wonder - What gives a monster staying power?
 * Riverside Story - Peter Purves returns to Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, home to numerous 1960s Doctor Who stories
 * Photo Gallery
 * Production Note
 * Subtitle Option
 * PDF Materials: Radio Times Listings

Audio releases

 * BBC Audio released an audio CD edition containing the audio tracks from the original episodes, along with descriptive narration by Peter Purves, in 2006.