Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Another Doctor Who story written by Robert Holmes? Tom Baker's in it? Good enough for me then! Go buy the damn thing.

Really, that's all the review we need. Unfortunately since I only get paid if I’m over 200 words, looks like I have to pad this up a bit. Alright, then - here we go:

From 1963 to 1989 (and a couple of false starts thereafter) the BBC ran an immensely popular family program called Doctor Who. The main character is called The Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. He travels the universe in the TARDIS, a wondrous spaceship that can go anywhere in time and space - provided that the Doctor can steer it correctly. During his adventures, he and his companion (usually a young human female with weak ankles and good lungs) combat evil and injustice wherever they find it. Key to the longevity of the series - Doctor Who can do what the James Bond movies have done several times. When fatally injured, Time Lords have the ability to regenerate, totally changing their faces and personalities, allowing the ability to swap out the lead roll when the actor wants to leave the series. So there have been several Doctors with different faces (ten, so far), but all of them the same character.

Oh, and the name of the show is Doctor Who. The main character is simply called The Doctor.

The fourth Doctor (the one with the scarf) is taking Sarah Jane and his new companion Harry in a short hop in the TARDIS from 20th Century Earth to the moon. As these things tend to do, the TARDIS goes off course and winds up in inside a futuristic orbiting space station.

Being the ever nosey traveler, the Doctor begins investigating the station before surmising that the satellite was built in the late 29th or early 30th Century but could be millennia beyond that point. As Harry disbelieves, they find the station's cryogenic suspension facility, including samples of the flora and fauna of Earth - and the survivors of the human race!

After awakening one of the preserved people they learn the station was put out as an intergalactic life boat so that some remnant of the human race could survive a series of deadly solar flares that would devastate the planet below. Unfortunately their alarm clock failed and the survivors remained suspended for some 5,000 years past their wake up call.

Even more unfortunate - they were not alone in all that time. During their long sleep, they were visited by alien race known as the Wirrn. The one member of the Wirrn on board is long dead, but the dormant Wirrn larvae are beginning to grow. And when the station's commander is attacked by the larvae he begins to slowly transform into an adult Wirrn. Can the Doctor save what's left of the human race before they all become Wirrn food?

That’s what I love about Bob Holmes - the man had a diverse range as a writer. Ark in Space is nothing like The Deadly Assassin which is nothing like The Two Doctors. Ark is a very moody, clausterphobic story that draws upon such classics as Quatermass And The Pit and the various Hammer Horror films to deliver a very solid story

In fact, I'd be so bold as to say that Bob sets the tone for the next few years of the show, and is a marked turning point. The previous story Robot was very much a left over Pertwee script, - but as the Doctor transmats down to the planet at the end of the story, the show is definitely moving off in a direction it hasn’t been in a long while. While Pertwee was a great doctor, it's nice to see the space opera stories coming back into the fore.

Speaking of, it's nice to see Tom setting into the roll nicely. The Doctor was too quirky bordering on insanity at times, but now he's more calm and in-control. That trend would last for the next couple of years until the production team too it too far and let Four really cut loose and go for laughs in season 17.

The rapport between Tom Baker and Ian Marter really carries the first half of the story with some nice chemistry and witty dialogue, such as "My doctorate is purely honorary and Harry's only qualified to work on sailors", "An ordinary brain. But mine is exceptional!"

In the last couple of episode, the narrative moves better, Sarah gets more to do (having been unconscious for most of episode one and the bulk of two), and considering how crap they looked in the first episode, the mature Wirrn costumes/puppets work surprisingly well here. And of course theres the surprisingly emotional ending between Noah and Vira.

In the end, Doctor Who was lucky to have a writer like the late Mister Holmes to write as many episodes as he did. Ark in Space is a rock solid story with some really great moments and some fine acting. A wonderful start to the Tom Baker era.

THE DVD -
The Ark in Space was mastered from the BBC's D3 digital source tapes, which got the noise-reduction treatment and then manual repair of a large number of videotape dropouts throughout all four episodes. End result - fantastic, as usual!

THE EXTRAS -
We get a commentary track featuring Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Philip Hinchcliffe, an unused title sequence based on the season 11 sequence but with Tom Baker replacing Jon Pertwee and including a 'TARDIS tunnel' effect, an original BBC1 trailer, some original 16mm model shots including various versions of the rocket take-off, flying through space and exploding, and the Wirrn crawling over the outside of the space station. It also includes shots which were never seen in the final program.

Also included is a design Feature with story designer Roger Murray-Leach, a news Item, an interview with Tom Baker, recorded on the location for Revenge of the Cybermen prior to him actually being seen as the Doctor on television. There's also a short TARDIS-cam special effects demo, production subtitles and a photo gallery

Lastly -we get a series of new CGI Model shots, replacing some of the special effects in the show. The Ark and its shuttle were modeled and animated and inserted seamlessly into the story. Very cool - but it is a bit jarring to go from a very high tech nice looking exterior with lens flair and details to a man crawling along the floor wrapped in bubble paper spray painted green.

Oh, and don’t worry purists - you can watch the original effects in the story, too, wobbly models and all.

OTHER DOCTOR WHO EPISODES ON DVD:

DOCTOR ONE -
* The Beginning * Doctor Who and the Daleks * The Aztecs * The Lost in Time Collection*
DOCTOR TWO -
* Tomb of the Cybermen*
DOCTOR THREE -
* Spearhead From Space * Carnival of Monsters*
DOCTOR FOUR -
* The Ark in Space * Genesis of the Daleks * The Pyramids of Mars * The Robots of Death *
DOCTOR FIVE -
* The Five Doctors * The Caves of Androzani*
DOCTOR SIX -
* Vengeance on Varos * Revelation of the Daleks*
DOCTOR SEVEN -
* Rememberance of the Daleks * The Television Movie*
THE NEW SERIES -
* Doctor Who - Series One * Doctor Who - Series Two * Torchwood - Series One * Doctor Who - Series Three * The Infinite Quest*


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12