4 episodes: Buttercups, Puffball, Camellias, Golfball. Running Time: Approx. 135 minutes. Written by: John Lucarotti. Adapted by: Jonathan Morris. Directed by: Samuel Clemens. Produced by: Simon Guerrier.
THE PLOT:
The TARDIS, with the recently regenerated Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Harry, dematerializes from UNIT HQ and rematerializes exactly where the Doctor had hoped:
"Noah's Ark!"
No, not the Ark of Biblical legend. This is a space station orbiting the Earth, aboard which are the cryogenically frozen survivors of humanity after a self-inflicted ecological catastrophe left the planet uninhabitable. Thousands of years have passed, and the Earth has slowly recovered. Now that it can again support life, the crew is set to awaken.
Except all is not well. The time travelers emerge to find the corridors covered in thick layers of dust. Harry discovers something that looks like a golf ball, but that is actually a capsule containing Narib (Terry Molloy), an alien with telepathic abilities. Narib uses his powers to take mental control of the crew as they wake. His plan is to take control of the Earth, to use it as a new home for his people, with humanity becoming a slave race.
The Doctor vows to stop him. But locked inside a cell, with no access to any systems, what can he possibly do?
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Tom Baker gives an enthusiastic performance... honestly, a little too enthusiastic. In the extras, director Samuel Clemens talks about having reigned Baker in a few times. I'm left a bit agog at the thought that there might have been an even more over-the-top line reading than Baker's orgasmic exultation of, "Just where I hoped we'd be - NOAH's ARK!!!" Thankfully, the performance evens out as the story goes along, and Baker does well with a mid-story confrontation between the Doctor and Narib that bridges the second and third episodes. Still, I'd have to rate this as one of his weaker performances.
Sarah Jane Smith: Sadie Miller, the late Elisabeth Sladen's daughter, took over the role of Sarah Jane Smith for Big Finish's audio range. The Ark is my first exposure to her performance, and I think she does rather well. Her voice is similar enough to her mother's that it's not at all difficult to visualize the character. As on television, the banter between Sarah and Harry is consistently enjoyable, and Miller plays well opposite Christopher Naylor. Unfortunately, for all of the story's differences with the televised Ark in Space, it shares one major similarity: Sarah gets the least to do of the three regulars.
Harry Sullivan: Christopher Naylor sounds nothing like the late Ian Marter, which should doom this recast... except that he sounds exactly right for the character of Harry Sullivan. It's an entirely different performance than Marter's, but it's so perfectly suited to Harry that by the end of his first scene, I had ceased to care about the difference. This is a strong story for Harry, too, with the frequently befuddled naval doctor using his initiative to turn the tables on one of their captors, getting into a couple of fistfights, and even engaging in a spacewalk.
BACKGROUND:
The Ark was written by John Lucarotti, who had previously scripted three of William Hartnell's best historicals: Marco Polo, The Aztecs, and The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve. Lucarotti's scripts ended up being completely rewritten by incoming script editor Robert Holmes, with the result being The Ark in Space.
Echoes of Lucarotti's Ark carried over to the televised version: Cryogenically frozen humans planning to repopulate Earth; an alien that has made its way onto the ark; the captain, named Noah, who falls under that alien's control; and a set piece with Sarah stuck in a ventilation duct. The Doctor even exults about humanity's indomitable spirit, a single line here that may have inspired Robert Holmes to write the Doctor's speech about humanity in the first episode of his story.
I found this a fascinating listen just on that basis. I enjoy glimpsing the nuts and bolts of the creative process, so I loved identifying pieces from Lucarotti's scripts that Holmes rethought, further developed, or recontextualized for the final serial - and though this is a very different story, there are quite a lot of bits that have counterparts in the televised version.
A NOTE ON PLACEMENT:
Despite those echoes, I can't stress enough how different this is from what was ultimately televised. Silver Nemesis has more in common with Remembrance of the Daleks than this has with The Ark in Space.
It's clear enough that Big Finish recorded this and the other two "alternative Season 12" stories as "what if" releases that are not in any way intended to "fit" into continuity. Still, if you're willing to blink away lines that establish both variants as Harry's first TARDIS trip, then you could just about crowbar this in between Robot and The Ark in Space. It's not a comfortable fit, because it's not intended to fit at all... but, probably alone of the "alt Season 12" audios, reconciling this with the television season is just about possible.
OTHER MUSINGS:
Another similarity with the televised Ark in Space is that the first half is better than the second half. The opening episode establishes the ark, introducing the setting while the Doctor deals with the problems created by space dust. The latter part of the episode sees the awakening of the first members of the crew, with it quickly conveyed that something has gone very wrong even before Narib makes his first appearance.
Part Two is the installment that's the most fun, as the Doctor quietly sabotages Narib's plans while playing the role of helpless captive. This is also the episode that makes the best use of all three regulars, with both Harry and Sarah given important tasks that move the plot forward. Unfortunately, while the second half remains entertaining, it also marks the point at which Sarah goes from full participant in the story to merely a witness of it. Most of her role in the final two episodes consists of watching other characters' actions.
Episode Three's big set piece is a spacewalk that morphs into an action scene. This sequence up being a poor fit for audio. On television, assuming halfway decent realization, this would have been a suspenseful set piece. Minus the visual element, however, characters are left to narrate their own actions. This isn't helped by a few editing choices. At one point, Sarah describes what is happening... leaving no pause for her to have time to actually watch and interpret the action she's describing. I admit that this took me out of the story for a moment.
This is less a fault with the script, though, than an issue with translating a visual moment to a non-visual format. A bigger problem, one that would almost certainly have afflicted the story just as much had it been televised, is a lack of tension. The Doctor talks a few times about how serious the situation is. But it's hard to believe that things are that dire when he seems to be in control throughout. Almost of his bits of sabotage in Episode Two work exactly to plan. Even when Sarah accidentally knocks over a plant that's key to his overall plan, the Doctor verifies that this changes nothing and that his plan is still on track.
Narib never comes across as a genuine threat. A floating head who is totally reliant on those under his control to actually accomplish anything, he seems more of a comedy creation than anything. He pauses to "calculate" the logic behind each situation and complication. He has two confrontations with the Doctor, and he doesn't even attempt to do anything to harm his adversary during either of them. He observes the plant that the Doctor is relying on as early as Episode Two, but he doesn't even try to do anything about it. For all his boasts about intelligence, Narib comes across as less of a menace than Robot's Think Tank did!
OVERALL:
It's not hard to see why this story was given a Page One rewrite. Holmes and incoming producer Philip Hinchcliffe were setting the tone for their new era: darker, with more focus on suspense and more direct attempts to unsettle viewers. This version of The Ark, with little tension and an abundance of humor, would have been right at home a few years later, after Graham Williams took over, but it would have been badly out of place during Hinchcliffe's tenure.
I don't think there's any question but that The Ark in Space is better. That said, I think I had more fun listening to this sillier variant. Its flaws are readily apparent. But I also found it to be consistently entertaining.
The story probably deserves a "6." But I enjoyed myself enough to award a bonus point to my final score.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
Alternate Version: The Ark in Space
Previous Story: Robot
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