The Ark in Space Part Four

The one where Noah saves the day...

The Wirrn costumes are a triumph of design over practicality. They look splendid, they have some nice texture and a great silhouette; they really are very memorable Doctor Who monsters. But they look nothing more than a rubber monster suit, thanks to a lack of flexibility. Whenever you see them move, the first thing that comes to mind is how they're walking. In reality, they'd scamper along on their many legs, but as far as we can ascertain (because director Rodney Bennett never shows us!) they're hobbling along on the end of their abdomens. One behind-the-scenes photo on set shows operator Stuart Fell's little legs sticking out of the bottom!

Mutant Noah takes time to explain the Wirrn's modus operandi, revealing that this is all the humans' fault to start with. Mankind destroyed the Wirrn's breeding colonies on Andromeda, making the creatures homeless, so now they are wandering through space looking for new territories to colonise and breed from. And what better place than a space station crammed full of defenceless human bodies? This is about revenge, as well as the survival of both species.

The Ark in Space Part Three

The one where the Wirrn attack...

Events are interrupted by a doom-laden female voice claiming to be the Earth High Minister. It's great that writer Robert Holmes makes the boss of Earth a woman, because, you know, this is the future and all, when attitudes have changed. Disappointingly, Harry Sullivan lets the side down with his sexist surprise that a member of the fair sex is "top of the totem pole". Gladys Spencer's High Minister actually chose to record a pretty melodramatic speech, and when she signs off her "pre-match pep talk" with "God speed you to a safe landing", it tells us that mankind still has religion in the far-flung future.

Meanwhile, poor old Noah is struggling to fight against being totally absorbed by the Wirrn consciousness, and Kenton Moore does a grand job of portraying the turmoil and the inner conflict going on inside him. It could quite easily have been a very silly scene, with Noah fighting against his own bubble wrapped hand, but he manages to play it convincingly, and you do actually start to feel for this poor, conflicted victim.

The Ark in Space Part Two

The one where the hibernating humans come to life...

Yay, the blue titles are back! It must've been Harry fiddling with the helmic regulator last week.

So the terrifying insectoid monster lurching toward the camera at the end of last week's episode is actually a mummified insectoid monster locked in a cupboard (Who by? How did it get in there? Did it open the door itself?). There are lots of Doctor Who cliffhangers with curveball resolutions, but this one is up there with the weirdest!

The dead bug on the floor doesn't occupy our heroes for long though because Sarah Jane is still in suspended animation, so it's fortuitous that one of the sleeping crewmembers suddenly decides to wake up. Vira's revivification looks terribly painful, and it's interesting that the first sensation anybody feels when coming out of suspension is searing pain (welcome to the real world!). Wendy Williams is elegantly beautiful, and puts in a marvellously removed performance as a human from the very far future who, quite naturally, would be very different in manner and outlook to "dawn-timers" like Harry. The way she glides across the floor like she's on a Paris catwalk, her head high and proud, is lovely (and I love how the little yellow trolley glides effortlessly alongside her too. She has a way with castors).

The Ark in Space Part One

The one where Harry loses his shoes and the Doctor burns his scarf...

What's going on with the funny opening titles this week? They're all brown and green and metallic. I thought someone had fiddled with the colour settings on my TV for a while. It's not that I dislike variations in the opening titles (which will be a boon when I reach the Matt Smith era!), but this sludgy, coppery version isn't as good as the Robot one.

The episode opens with a shot of a wheel in space (oh no, not a sequel!), and someone - or something - approaching a sleeping man within. The sequence means next to nothing to me at this point, but it's suitably intriguing, and as it leads into a shot of the TARDIS materialising in the darkness, it sets the episode up with a spooky start.

Robot Part Four

The one where the robot grows to giant size...

Professor Kettlewell may be a genius, but he's also tremendously naive to think that he'll be able to persuade the world to look after the environment better by ganging up with a bunch of fascists with their finger on the atomic trigger. When he discovers that Hilda Winters is deadly serious about exploding the nuclear bombs if the world fails to heed her wishes, he realises the folly of his ways. Despite this, he still agrees to activate the nuclear countdown, which just makes him stupid rather than misguided.

Once the countdown has begun, only then does Miss Winters think to check they've got enough food and water to last nuclear Armageddon. Although the Scientific Reform Society seems to have the world's governments over a barrel, they haven't really thought things through very carefully, have they?

Robot Part Three

The one where Professor Kettlewell reveals his true colours...

After a lengthy reprise lasting 2 mins 20 secs, the giant robot breaks out onto location to fight back against Benton's UNIT troops, and it looks mighty impressive too. Despite the fact visibility must have been next to zero for actor Michael Kilgarriff, he manages to strike an imposing figure as the robot smashes its way (tentatively) out of Kettlewell's lab. So what if he stumbles a little at one point, the robot is a design triumph and looks just as awesome on film as it does video.

Kettlewell mentions that the robot is made of a new invention, something he calls "living metal", which can grow like a living organism. So basically the professor has invented validium, the living metal created by Rassilon and Omega as the ultimate defence for Gallifrey, all by himself. What a genius he must be!

Robot Part Two

The one where both Sarah and the Doctor are threatened by the giant robot...

I love how Tom Baker inhabits an awkward presence in any scene, but still manages to command it. Just look at our first shot of him, lying on his back on a bench with his hat covering his face. It's unconventional to say the least (I'd love to know whether the Doctor's positions are dictated in the stage directions, but I'd wager they're all Baker's ideas), but gives this new Doctor an instant quirkiness, an unpredictable presence which means you're never sure what he's going to say or do (for instance, he's randomly building a tower of circuit boards at one point!). And this feeling pretty much stays with him for his entire tenure, perhaps only receding in his final season.

We finally get to see the K1 robot full-length when Miss Winters shows him off to a rather rattled Sarah, and what an impressive design it is too! It's huge! The actor inside is Michael Kilgarriff, who was 6ft 5in in his stockinged feet, and although the nature of the robot's design makes movement a little clunky, Kilgarriff makes for an awesome presence, especially when director Christopher Barry emphasises the robot's size in comparison to the human cast.

Robot Part One

The one where the Doctor dresses as David Bowie...

It might have been three days after Christmas, but the biggest gift to children in 1974 was seeing the debut of the new Doctor Who in the tersely titled Robot. It only struck me on this occasion that it seems odd that we first see the new Doctor's outfit (on screen) in the opening titles, rather than in the show itself. With the Third Doctor you just saw a white collar, but with Robot you get full-on scarf round the shoulders of a maroon jacket.

It's been said before, but Tom Baker is the Doctor from the very moment he sits up and starts talking about placid dinosaurs and spinning rodents. If ever there was somebody born to play Doctor Who, this man is he. But taking a step back from the tricksy over-familiarity we all have with him in the part, I wouldn't be surprised if it took a little longer for younger viewers to warm to the new Who at the time. He's utterly bonkers, unpredictable, and at times even a little abrasive, and nothing at all like the dependable uncle figure of his predecessor.