We Must Prepare Ourselves For... The Ark

[Rob McCow]

You couldn't move for Sensorite merchandise at Christmas 1965.

This fits in nicely with my 'Things that happened before I was born never actually happened' theory.

Does 'Adventures Into Space' count as Doctor Who, or as a spin-off?

[Lissa]

If we're not including spinoffs then you can chalk the Monoids' appearence in "Son of Doctor Who" off as well. Shame as it was far broader and deeper than The Ark despite Son of Doctor Who being part of the "Watch With Mother" strand.

[Perry Vale]

I was rather surprised to find a copy of this in CEX t'other day (they don't normally have anything remotely recent), so picked it up for £12.

The story has everything going for it, a very interesting premise, nice spacious sets, and rather cool-looking "monsters". But for a few reasons, it's really rather terrible.

The direction is possibly the worst I've seen in any DW story, even worse than The Chase. The camera work is just dreadful, with not one well framed shot throughout the whole four episodes. Lots of shots of the back of people's heads, badly timed cuts, and wobbly camera pans.

Add to that a cast where no-one comes close to shining, and you're always on to a loser. My interest picked up for a few brief moments in episode 2 (I think?) when Michael Sheard turns up, but his brief dialogue has to fight against some overly loud background noise, and then the director cuts him off mid-sentence to jump to another scene!

The incidental music, whilst being fine, just isn't used well to compliment anything.

And lastly, the writer(s) just cannot write believable dialogue. And with the cast we're given, this is even more of a disaster. An idea like this (story), in the hands of someone more capable (like Douglas Adams) could have really shined, but instead we get unbelievable characters and magical chicken wings (??) created from dropping a tablet into a bowl of water.

Oh well, looking forward to the extras at least....