Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The Ark

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In a show which features a time machine, you'd think that time travel would play an important role is a number of stories. Back in the early days of the show, this certainly wasn't the case - the TARDIS was a means of getting there, and time travelling essentially occurred between stories. Not so with 'The Ark'.

In his straightforward adaptation of his own script, Paul Erickson brings us a story where the TARDIS arrives on a spaceship and explores, but gets into trouble when Dodo accidentally infects the crew with the common cold, a disease so long eradicated that they have no immunity to it.

While the Doctor saves the day by inventing a cure, the TARDIS crew then journey on and arrive 700 years in the future to see the consequences of their actions.

This story features an alien race called the Monoids, who are initially depicted as working in a subservient fashion with the humans. (There is some claims that they are partners, but it is plain that it is the humans who are in charge here.)

What sets this story apart from the majority of Doctor Who is that it looks at the impact of the TARDIS crew on the lives of groups of people. It is, perhaps, unfortunate that it is done in such a heavy handed way, although it would probably have been much harder to have produced a story based on a more subtle impact when the original version was broadcast back in 1966.