The Ark in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from January 25 to February 15, 1975. It featured Tom Baker as the fourth incarnation of the Doctor. It should not be confused with the 1966 First Doctor serial, The Ark. Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor Thomas Stewart Baker (born January 20, 1934) is a British actor, mainly associated with playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, whom he played from 1974 to 1981. ... Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor Thomas Stewart Baker (born January 20, 1934) is a British actor, mainly associated with the role of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, whom he played from 1974 to 1981. ... This entry is about the television scriptwriter. ... John Lucarotti (born 1926 in Aldershot, Hampshire) was a British screenwriter who contributed three scripts to the Doctor Who programme for the BBC in the 1960s. ... Philip Hinchcliffe (born 1944) is a British television producer, who is probably best known for the overseeing of the golden era of British television series Doctor Who in the mid-1970s. ... This is a list of Doctor Who television serials. ... January 25 is the 25th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... Robot is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 28, 1974 to January 18, 1975. ... The Sontaran Experiment is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in two weekly parts on February 22 and March 1, 1975. ... This is a list of Doctor Who television serials. ... A broadcast of the long-running and popular British science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... List of Doctor Who serials Doctor Who audio releases Doctor Who spin-offs - includes a discussion of the many novelisations and original novels based on the series History of Doctor Who The Doctor (Doctor Who) List of supporting characters in Doctor Who, including villains and aliens List of robots in... January 25 is the 25th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor Thomas Stewart Baker (born January 20, 1934) is a British actor, mainly associated with playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, whom he played from 1974 to 1981. ... Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor Thomas Stewart Baker (born January 20, 1934) is a British actor, mainly associated with the role of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, whom he played from 1974 to 1981. ... 1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... The First Doctor is the name given to the first incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. ... The Ark is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 6 to March 26, 1966. ...

Synopsis

Aboard a space station orbiting Earth thousands of years in the future, the last survivors of humanity sleep on, waiting to begin civilisation again. However, something else is on the station, something that looks on humans as dinner. Luckily, the Fourth Doctor and his companions may have something to say about that. A space station is an artificial structure designed for humans to live on in outer space. ... Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third planet outward from the Sun. ... Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor Thomas Stewart Baker (born January 20, 1934) is a British actor, mainly associated with the role of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, whom he played from 1974 to 1981. ...

Plot

Noah is steadily being transformed into a Wirrn.

On board a space station orbiting Earth, something opens up a compartment containing a sleeping human and enters it. Years later, and leading on from the end of Robot, the TARDIS materialises in a darkened room on board the station, and the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan emerge. As Harry apologises, the Doctor complains about Harry's turning the ship's helmic regulator too far, which is what made the TARDIS travel randomly to begin with. The sealed room also does not have much air or heat in it and the travellers find it hard to breathe. The Doctor manages to turn the lights on, revealing instrumentation on the walls. Harry curiously presses a button that opens an adjacent chamber into which Sarah wanders while the Doctor and Harry's attention are focused on the controls, only to be trapped as the door slides shut. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (864x663, 48 KB)Noah, a crewmember of the Ark carrying the refugees of humanity, is being transformed into an alien Wirrn (from Doctor Who - The Ark in Space). ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (864x663, 48 KB)Noah, a crewmember of the Ark carrying the refugees of humanity, is being transformed into an alien Wirrn (from Doctor Who - The Ark in Space). ... A space station is an artificial structure designed for humans to live on in outer space. ... Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third planet outward from the Sun. ... Robot is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 28, 1974 to January 18, 1975. ... The Third Doctor emerging from the TARDIS (from the 1970 serial Spearhead from Space). ... Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor Thomas Stewart Baker (born January 20, 1934) is a British actor, mainly associated with the role of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, whom he played from 1974 to 1981. ... Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... Harry Sullivan is a fictional character from the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. ...

The Doctor estimates the construction of the controls dates to the 30th Century, but that the station has been here for several thousand years. As the air grows thinner, Harry and the Doctor notice Sarah is missing and manage to open the door to the control room again. Sarah and Harry grow weaker and the Doctor discovers the life support circuits have been bitten through. He manages to reconnect it with his sonic screwdriver and the rest of the power and oxygen comes up. Harry and the Doctor lay the recovering Sarah on a nearby couch and go exploring, only to run into the reactivated defence system that nearly electrocutes them. While Harry and the Doctor manage to distract the Autoguard and trigger the shut-off control, Sarah is teleported away by the couch to another part of the station. The Fourth Doctor and his sonic screwdriver (from The Sontaran Experiment). ... Teleportation, or teletransportation, is the process of moving objects from one place to another more or less instantaneously, without using conventional transportation. ...

Lying half-sedated in the receiving chamber of the matter transmitter, Sarah hears a pre-recorded voice telling her to remain still and prepare for the "final phase" of her processing. Another voice, that of the High Minister, praises her for making the supreme sacrifice that will preserve all their pasts. Cryonic gas flows over Sarah as she falls asleep. Harry and the Doctor find Sarah missing, and go in search of her. Harry spots something moving in the corridor and they discover a slime trail on the floor, like that left by a giant gastropod. Passing through a decontamination chamber, the two find the room where Sarah was, containing cryogenically preserved botanical and animal specimens and a wall of containers holding microfilm with the sum total of human knowledge. Harry suggests that the station is a sort of lifeboat, and the Doctor agrees. Some cataclysm must have occurred on Earth, and this Ark is humanity's response. Cryonics is the practice of preserving organisms, or at least their brains, for possible future revival by storing them at cryogenic temperatures where metabolism and decay are almost completely stopped. ... Subclass Subclass Eogastropoda     Patellogastropoda Subclass Orthogastropoda   Superorder Cocculiniformia   Superorder Hot Vent Taxa     Neomphaolida   Superorder Vetigastropoda   Superorder Neritaemorphi     Neritopsina   Superorder Caenogastropoda     Architaenioglossa     Sorbeoconcha   Superorder Heterobranchia     Heterostropha     Opisthobranchia     Pulmonata The gastropods, or univalves, are the largest and most successful class of mollusks, with 60,000-75,000 species, and second largest class... Cryogenics is the study of very low temperatures or the production of the same, and is often confused with cryobiology, the study of the effect of low temperatures on organisms, or the study of cryopreservation. ... Microfilm is an analog storage medium for books, periodicals, legal documents and engineering drawings. ...

Another panel slides open, and beyond that are chambers full of human bodies contained in individual compartments and in suspended animation. The Doctor soliloquises on the indomitability and tenacity of the human species to survive any catastrophe and being willing and ready to outsit eternity. They then find a slime trail similar to the other one emerging from a vent. Exploring further, they find Sarah in one of the cryogenic pallets, deep in suspension. Harry searches for a resuscitation unit, but as he opens a storage cupboard, the gigantic corpse of an insect nearly falls on him. Suspended animation is the slowing without termination of life processes by external means. ...

The Doctor notes that the alien insect has been dead for a long time and is almost mummified. Just then, one of the pallets activates and a woman revives from suspension. She introduces herself as Vira, a senior medical officer, and demands to know who the Doctor and Harry are. When they explain what has happened to Sarah, Vira injects her with an agent that will revive her. While that runs its course, she does the same to the Ark's leader, Lazar, nicknamed "Noah". In answer to Vira's questions, Harry says he is from Earth, but Vira says that is impossible as solar flares destroyed all life and it would have taken 5,000 years for the biosphere to be viable again. The Doctor tells Vira that the Ark's inhabitants have overslept by several millennia, thanks to the insect visitor that sabotaged the control systems. Extraterrestrial life is life that may exist and originate outside our planet Earth. ... A solar flare is a violent explosion in the Suns atmosphere with an energy equivalent to tens of millions of hydrogen bombs. ... The biosphere is that part of a planets outer shell—including air, land, and water—within which life occurs, and which biotic processes in turn alter or transform. ...

In another part of the station, the larva-like creature Harry saw earlier tampers with a hatch leading to the solar stack which supplies power to the Ark. This interrupts the power to the revivification process. The Doctor turns on the secondary supply from the control room and goes to check the main stack as Noah and Sarah finally awaken. Noah is aggressive at the sight of Harry and Sarah, concerned that "regressives" could contaminate the Ark's carefully balanced genetic pool, but Vira tries to assure him the travellers are harmless. Noah goes in search of the Doctor. In the meantime, the Doctor reaches the power room and sees, through an observation port, something growing inside the stack. He then proceeds to the control room. A larva (Latin; plural larvae) is a juvenile form of animal with indirect development, undergoing metamorphosis (for example, insects or amphibians). ... Solar power describes a number of methods of harnessing energy from the light of the sun. ...

Noah finds the Doctor there trying to deactivate the stack to prevent the creature inside from absorbing more energy. Before the Doctor can convince him of the necessity of preventing the creature's growth, Noah shoots him with a stun gun. Meanwhile, Vira finds that technician Dune's body is missing, and when informed, Noah is convinced that the TARDIS crew are responsible. When Noah investigates the power room himself, the creature there brushes his hand with slime and he collapses. The Doctor awakens, and rushes to find Noah but meets him in the corridor instead. Noah accuses him of sabotage, informing the Doctor that the observation port was broken. The Doctor realises that, whatever the creature was, it has escaped.

Returning to the cryogenic chamber, they find Vira has revived Libri, who at first reacts to Noah with horror, claiming he saw a shape. Noah asks Libri to guard the travellers while he goes to shut down the revivification. When Vira questions him as to why, Noah seems to be struggling with some internal conflict. Noah then claims that he is Dune, or that Dune is "inside" him, before he rushes off. Vira is worried about Noah's outburst and concerned that something might have gone wrong with his revival, as stopping the revivification now could be damaging to the sleepers.

The Doctor suggests that Noah's mind is no longer his own — the alien consciousness was what Libri was reacting to — and convinces Libri to go and stop Noah. While examining Dune's empty pallet, the Doctor finds part of an egg membrane. Closer examination of the insect corpse shows that its egg tube is empty — it had laid its eggs in Dune and the larvae digested his body and knowledge of the Ark's power systems. Libri confronts Noah, but is unable to shoot his commander, and Noah kills him instead. Noah's hand is covered with a green growth where the larva had touched him before and he is slowly transforming into something else.

The High Minister's voice echoes through the Ark, identifying it as Space Station Nerva, praising the passengers for their efforts and encouraging them to rebuild human civilisation. Noah manages to fight off some of the alien influence and orders Vira via the communications system to expedite the revivification and get everyone off the station before the Wirrn, the insect aliens, absorb them and take over the Earth. The Doctor and Vira go to find Noah while Harry and Sarah revive the rest of the technical crew.

When they find Noah, the growth has taken most of the left side of his body over. The Doctor tries to get Noah to tell him how long they have before the Wirrn reach maturity, but he runs away. Vira, sadly, tells the Doctor that Noah and her were pair-bonded for their new life on Earth. Lycet and Rogin, the only two left of the technical crew, are awakened and shocked to hear what has transpired since their suspension. The Doctor tells Harry to dissect the Wirrn corpse to see if they can find a weakness. Vira wants to carry out Noah's last orders and continue the revivification, but the Doctor tells her it would take too long, as the Wirrn will have matured from the larval into their imago stage before then. He proposes that they can destroy the Wirrn while they are in their dormant, pupal stage and Vira agrees. The imago is the last stage of development of an insect, after the last ecdysis of an incomplete metamorphosis, or after emergence from pupation where the metamorphosis is complete. ... Chrysalis of Gulf Fritillary in Georgetown, South Carolina Pupation of Aglais urticae A pupa (plural: pupae or pupas) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation. ...

The dissection of the Wirrn corpse reveals a lung structure than can recycle carbon dioxide back into oxygen. This self-contained system suggests the Wirrn live in space and only need to occasionally touch down on planets for food and oxygen. The Doctor tries to hook a neural cortex amplifier and a video screen to a sample of Wirrn skin in order to gain access to its latent memories. When the signal proves too weak, the Doctor attempts to stimulate it by running it through his own cerebral cortex, despite the others' protests. Carbon dioxide is an atmospheric gas composed of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. ... General Name, Symbol, Number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 16, 2, p Appearance colorless Atomic mass 15. ...

The larva breaks through into the adjacent cryogenic chamber, killing Lycet. The others seal the door, but cannot interrupt the Doctor's procedure in case the shock kills him. On the screen, they see the memories of the Wirrn, how it came to the Ark and was fatally wounded by the Autoguard. However, the Wirrn managed to cut the power circuits and lay its eggs in Dune before it died.

Rogin and Harry get fission guns from the armoury, encountering Noah, who is now nearly transformed, covered in the green growth. They fire at him, managing to drive him back, and return to the specimen room where the others are. As the larva tries to break through, they fire sustained bursts at it, finally making it retreat back into the vents. The Doctor asks Rogin if they can electrify the infrastructure, electricity being the Wirrn's weakness. Rogin says it can be done from the control room, but Noah is roaming the corridors. The Doctor reverses the transmat chamber in the specimen room to send the others back to the control room, but only manages to sent Rogin and Harry before the power fails. As the Wirrn do not need oxygen in their pupal stage, they have shut off the systems to suffocate them. Knowing that the Wirrn are now dormant, the Doctor goes to the power room, where he finds Wirrn pupae. As he tries to reactivate the solar stack, a now fully insectoid Noah charges him. Sketch of induced nuclear fission, a neutron (n) strikes a uranium nucleus which splits into similar products (F. P.), and releases more neutrons to continue the process, and energy in the form of gamma and other radiation. ...

However, Vira and Sarah have followed the Doctor. Vira shoots at Noah, allowing the Doctor to reach them. As they back out of the room, Noah tells Vira to leave the station in the transport ship, or else the Wirrn will hunt them down when they emerge. Noah explains that a thousand years ago, the Wirrn were driven from their home, Andromeda, by human space settlers. Since then, they have drifted through space, looking for a new world, and have now claimed the Ark for their own. While the Wirrn can live in space, their breeding colonies are terrestrial, and they need humans as hosts. They intend to absorb all human knowledge and become an advanced technological species within a generation. Terrestrial literally means of the earth and is used in a variety of contexts: In biology and in the general sense, terrestrial means indicates ground-dwelling (compare aquatic). ...

Behind Noah, the pupae begin to crack open, and the Doctor and the two humans retreat to the control room. They have to somehow electrify the cryogenic chamber to stop the Wirrn from feeding on the sleepers, but the Wirrn control the solar stack. Sarah suggests using the transport ship, which must have its own power generators. The ship is close by, but they will have to run the cable through conduits or else the Wirrn will simply cut it. The conduits are narrow, and without a mechanical cable runner, only Sarah is small enough to fit through them.

As Sarah navigates through the conduits guided by Rogin through a two-way radio, the Doctor hooks up the cables in preparation for Sarah as the Wirrn emerge and wander the Ark. Sarah gets stuck just metres from the Doctor, and almost gives up, until the Doctor goads her into crawling the last of it by calling her useless. Connecting the last cable, the Doctor gives the word to Rogin in the ship and the walls of the chamber electrify, driving the Wirrn back. One nearly gets through a broken vent, but the Doctor manages to force it away with a live cable.

Noah turns the Ark's power back on and, as the swarm leader, offers the others safe passage from the Ark if they surrender, leaving the sleepers to the Wirrn. If they do not, the Wirrn will shut down the oxygen pumps. The Doctor tries to appeal to what is left of the human in Noah with reminders of what Earth is like, asking him to lead the swarm into space where the Wirrn belong, but Noah claims he has no memory of Earth. Meanwhile, the Wirrn try to board the transport ship but Rogin and Vira fire up the engines to warn them off.

Vira warns the Doctor that the swarm is making its way to the transport deck via the outer hull of the Ark. The Doctor tells Rogin to cut the power, initiate automatic take off and evacuate the ship. He and Sarah rush to the transport deck, helping the others back into the Ark as the swarm enters the ship. The locking mechanisms need to be released so that the transport ship can launch. Rogin and the Doctor each tackle one the three locks, meeting at the third. The Doctor orders Rogin to leave but Rogin, realizing that whoever stays will get killed in the back blast knocks the Doctor out. He drags him to safety on the other side of the hatch before returning to the mechanism. He is able to free the last lock just before the transport ship engines fire killing him instantly.

Returning to the control room, the Doctor wonders aloud whether Noah still had some vestige of human spirit left in him, and was one step ahead of them all along by leading the swarm into the ship knowing what they would do. This turns out to be correct, as Noah "neglects" to engage safety features for the engines. He transmits one final good-bye to Vira before the transport ship explodes with the swarm on board. Mankind is safe to repopulate the Earth.

However, before that can happen, the transmat to Earth must be repaired. The Doctor offers to go down to the planet and repair the receiver unit — it is probably just some corrosion, a quick fix, and it will give him a chance to see if Earth is viable again. Harry and Sarah insist on coming along, and the Doctor tosses a bag of jelly babies to Vira as they use the transmat to beam down to Earth. Jelly babies are a type of confectionery that look like little babies in a variety of colours. ...

Notes

1. The script, written by Robert Holmes, is from a story by John Lucarotti, which was rewritten because it was considered unusable. Holmes rewrote The Ark in Space as a 4-part serial as a lead in to the 2-part The Sontaran Experiment. Lucarotti does not receive any on-screen credit.
2. The title sequence for Part One was tinted pink and green as an experiment, but was not repeated for subsequent episodes. The title sequence would stay constant for the next six years.
3. This serial forms part of a continuous series of adventures for the TARDIS crew, beginning from the end of Robot and continuing through to Terror of the Zygons, although the Virgin Publishing novel A Device of Death takes place in a possible gap between Genesis of the Daleks and Revenge of the Cybermen, and BBC Books' novel Wolfsbane is set in another such gap between Revenge and Zygons.
4. In the script, Wirrn is spelled with only two 'r's. In Ian Marter's novelization of The Ark in Space, Wirrrn is spelled with three 'r's.
5. The DVD release of this serial includes new CGI footage replacing the models of the Ark and the transport ship as an option.
6. The Wirrn also appear in the BBV audio play Wirrn: Race Memory. The Eighth Doctor encounters the Wirrrn (sic) in the BBC Books novel Placebo Effect, by Gary Russell.
7. Features a guest appearance by Peter Tuddenham. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
8. This story was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2002.

This entry is about the television scriptwriter. ... The Sontaran Experiment is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in two weekly parts on February 22 and March 1, 1975. ... Robot is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 28, 1974 to January 18, 1975. ... Terror of the Zygons is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from August 30 to September 20, 1975 // Synopsis The Loch Ness monster is let loose. ... Virgin Publishing is the book publishing arm of Virgin Enterprises, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. ... Genesis of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in six weekly parts from March 8 to April 12, 1975. ... Revenge of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from April 19 to May 10, 1975. ... BBC Books is the book publishing division of BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ... Ian Marter in 1983. ... The seawater creature in The Abyss marked CGIs acceptance in the visual effects industry. ... BBV is a video and audio production company specialising in science fiction drama, known for its links with the British science fiction television series Doctor Who (founder Bill Baggs is a fan, and BBV productions often feature characters and/or actors from the series). ... Paul McGann (born November 14, 1959) is an actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role. ... BBC Books is the book publishing division of BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation. ... Peter Tuddenham is an actor who provided the voices of Zen, Orac and Slave, computers on the science fiction TV show Blakes 7. ... Several celebrities have made guest appearances in Doctor Who. ... DVD is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for storing data, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Cast and Crew list, on the BBC website