In an effort to find something quick that can be written as part of Daily Doctor Who, we are continuing with Say Something Nice, where I look back at each of the Doctor Who stories and pull out one or two cool things about it.
(Daily Doctor Who #175)
Read the previous entry here. Today, we continue with the third season’s sixth story…
The Ark
The regular cast picks up from the the last serial, with just William Hartnell as the Doctor, Peter Purves as Steven Taylor, and Jackie Lane as the recently introduced as Dodo Chaplet.
The serial is written by Paul Erickson and Lesley Scott. Directed by Michael Imison.
Individual episodes are called The Steel Sky, The Plague, The Return and The Bomb.
Say Something Nice…
(Named for Missy–aka the Master–and her catchphrase from her first full appearance in Dark Water).
The Ark is one of the earlier stories to play with the potential of time travel (although neither the first nor the second). But it has the nifty novelty of taking place in two completely separate time periods, and thus has the ability to show the impact of the Doctor’s travels over a long period of time.
But because we’re equal-opportunity fans here, we’re not going to only be sycophantically complimentary.
You craven-hearted spineless poltroon!
(Another cry from the Master, but not exactly a catch-phrase, this time from The Deadly Assassin)
The Monoids are not an impressive looking alien creature, and despite the fact that the story is basically two separate two-parters, it’s quite slow to watch. The story brings up the uncomfortable reality that that the Doctor’s visit has directly led to the death of a bunch of people (via Dodo’s cold) but doesn’t ever seem to really deal with full weight of that fact.
Catch you next time!
Blue Towel Productions 