Doctor Who: The Ark in Space (Story 076) - Special Edition

An Exceptionally Good Doctor Who Serial!
At the end of the Doctor's adventure in "Robot" (Tom Baker's 1st serial as the Doctor), the Doctor invites UNIT medical officer Harry Sullivan inside the TARDIS. At the beginning of "The Ark in Space" we see the result. The Doctor had meant to impress Harry with "a short hop to the moon", but Harry messed with the TARDIS Helmic regulator. So instead of the moon, the Doctor, Harry and Sarah Jane Smith find themselves on Nerva, an apparently deactivated space station orbiting Earth. The Doctor repairs the sabotaged life support system. Unfortunately that also reactivates the automatic guard, ceiling mounted lasers which attack any biological form. In a favorite sequence, the Doctor and Harry cleverly fool the guard, sacrificing Harry's shoes in the process. "I think we've done it Harry. Pity about the scarf."

To the Doctor's delight, they realize that Nerva is an ark. It has frozen animals and plants, as well as a wall of drawers containing microfilm with "the entire body of...

Totally enjoyable
The Doctor, Sarah and Harry are at it again. You have to love the special effects of the 70's. I am not sure how you can take a guy with green bubble wrap on his hand seriously but the Doctor and his companions do. Special effects are not what they are today so an episode like this had to rely on things like a plot line and acting. I loved this episode and eagerly await more special editions.

Classic Doctor Who, one of the best
While I heartily recommend Ark in space as just one of the great batch of Hinchcliff/Holmes/Baker/Sladen adventures, die hard fans will probably already have gotten this adventure when it initially came out.

I do disagree with the other guys' low rating only because of his reasoning. I'd give the BBC release schedule lower stars as well but it shouldn't reflect on this adventure. As a side note, I'm hoping, praying that part of the reason for the massive delay in releasing Terror of the Zygons is because they'll hopefully redo the Saracen monster in CGI. They really should.

As for the special editions, I usually don't get them because they don't add much for me except a few extra features. Any other additions are not worth it to me. I'd recommend finding the original DVD and getting that, which I'm sure will be cheaper.

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