The Tiger Who Came To Tea: The Ark in Space

downthetubes @johnfreeman_dtb · One of my favourite stories

Tranmere Steve @Tranmeresteve · Always astonished how good this is especially the awe inspiring episode 1

John Bensalhia @JohnBensalhia · Remember borrowing the book in Summer 1982 - a great way to discover Who in the days before video & DVD. The cover illustrations were pretty cool too - especially the early Wingate/WH Allen ones.

I think this one of the few pre-me stories where I actually saw the VHS before reading the Target novel!

I always forget about that weird pinky green tint on the titles here.

50dw50 @50dw50 · oooh those oddly coloured opening titles that made me return my VHS back to Smiths! This was the first DVD I ever bought, so much money under the bridge since then.

I guess we could have got used to it.

It's only a model!

James Cooray Smith @thejimsmith · The opening fx shot is shamefully bad, by the standards of both the era & the Doctor Who of it.

Watching the broadcast version BTW. Like the CGI but not watched it this way for ages. I like it.

Tom's 2nd story on screen, 3rd filmed.

He's magnificent already.

What a team Tom, Ian & Lis were.

atruedrwhofan @atruedrwhofan · indeed. A sadly short lived team, but they got some of the most well remembered stories of the 4th Doctor era.

Isaac Dakin @IWhittakerDakin · The Doctor testing the gravity using a yo-yo. That's why Tom's my second favorite Doctor.

Nicely resurrected by Capaldi in Kill the Moon.

50dw50 @50dw50 · a lovely "series 1" feel to this, the regulars arriving and exploring

The boys get excited by all the lights in the apple shop & ignore Sarah when she finds an open door - which closes.

Sarah's trapped in an airless room; in danger already.

The Doctor and Harry are oblivious, debating about what era they're in. (Psst, lads, it's the Hinchcliffe era, now!)

"Bennett Oscillator" woo! Also referenced in Kill the Moon.

That might actually be a new record for Sarah.

The Doctor and Harry finally notice Sarah's absence.

Tom's on the verge of a "Harry Sullivan is an imbecile" already...

"Well, there are only two of us here and your name is Harry."

Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · and now they're all trapped! DOH!

"Always hated sliding doors!" Harry's not keen on Gwyneth Paltrow.

Tranmere Steve @Tranmeresteve · He needs to watch Blind Chance great Polish original Kieslowski

Something's been nibbling the wires. Wasn't me, this time.

"Call me old girl again and I'll spit in your eye!"
"Welcome back, Sarah Jane!"

That disco ball's got a right temper on it. I'm going to call him Sparky.

Sarah's faded away...

Tom distracts Sparky with Harry's stinky old shoe and pulls the plug.

"Poor old scarf; Madame Nostradamus knitted it for me. Witty little knitter!"

Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · got to love how The Doc just knows that switch is the auto-guard cut-out!

The High Minister hypnotizes Sarah on behalf of the World Executive.

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Politicians, eh? Tsk...

"High Minister? Yes, of course - that's another name for Mistress..."

50dw50 @50dw50 · i knew hypnosis would not be to far away, if Dr Who starts talking about an old Hermit he knew i will phone the police!

James Cooray Smith @thejimsmith · Hypnosis is routine in Holmes' stories. A fact ignored by those who objected to McCoy doing it.

Love the look of the Ark interiors, all clean white, curves and (ahem) arcs. Vaguely apple before its time. Genius, that Roger Murray Leach.

50dw50 @50dw50 · my Who claim to Who fame is one of my fathers best friends worked with Roger at the Beeb! I remember this story as a very tiny child, I always described it as the "White one" must have been the sets and costumes

Bek Hobbes @Greebobek · Maybe apple designed the interiors? I mean within the canon of the show.

Jason McLaughlin @jangomac72 · If he was designing today, he'd be the permanent designer on the show, man at the top of his game back then!

Isaac Dakin @IWhittakerDakin · It's quite a bright looking spaceship interior yet no one has a problem with it like in Warriors of the deep

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Works here... fails utterly on Seabases...

Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · because it looks better and seems more appropriate. Oh, and it's a far better story.

Isaac Dakin @IWhittakerDakin · Of course it's a far better story no one tries to karate kick a Wirrn fortunately

Urgh. Slugs.

This is like a Terry Nation episode 1 - just the regulars wandering around for the 1st 20 minutes.

Chris Cwej @chriscwej · Yes, it's very Hartnell era, like Nation, or Sensorites or Space Museum. And unlike most fans, I mean that in a good way!

Early Tom oddness: "You're improving Harry!... It's entirely down to my influence, you mustn't take any credit."

When they discover a hidden chamber containing the human race...

...Harry thinks it's a mortuary. Another astounding set from Roger Murray Leach, the cryogenic chamber.

Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · dead as a door knocker! Are we sure he's a doctor?

50dw50 @50dw50 · he is a navel doctor which is rather specialized.

"Homo Sapiens..." one of the most magical scenes in Who history.

Indomitable...

It completely resets the Doctor as alien, after 5 years pretty much living as a human.

I think it would have just sounded patronising coming out of Pertwee.

Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · fantastic, especially considering how early this was in Tom's run.

50dw50 @50dw50 · it is a totally different show from the previous story,

Isaac Dakin @IWhittakerDakin · The 4th Doctor is probably the most alien which is why the UNIT setting wouldn't have worked with him I think

John Bensalhia @JohnBensalhia · Tom already has this unpredictable, alien take on the Time Lord to a tee in his 3rd recorded story.

Harry's found Sarah - mint in packaging!

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · but who reclothed her, eh?

Harry checks the cupboard...

...and a giant insect looms out!

Hate it when that happens.

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · did they ever consider calling in a, you know, exterminator...?

Such a great atmosphere in this story; the silent sterile future setting is so eerie.

Ah, the titles are back to normal...

It's okay, the bug's dead.

And the Doctor's found the 1st aid kit.

50dw50 @50dw50 · you can tell this is fiction, real first aid kits are always empty

Harry and the Doctor awaken Vira.

Well, she has to do most of the work herself, but they help by standing & watching.

Wonderful performance from Wendy Williams as Vira.

"My doctorate is purely honorary, and Harry here is only qualified to work on sailors..."

50dw50 @50dw50 · love the "sailors" gag

Holmes' joke, or Tom at it already?

"You dawn timers have a language all of your own." They speak funny too.

"The systems have no capacity for failure." Yeah, have to assume they're maintained by Network Rail.

Vira starts Sarah's revivification process...

...and introduces the Ark's leader, Lazar AKA Noah.

The Doctor breaks it to Vira that someone forgot to put the slug pellets down before they all turned in.

That hairy slug's a clever bugger, turning that handle.

Noah's woken up grumpy.

Steve Powner @StevePowner ·All that sleep and still in a bad mood, lol! The Ark in Space is so good, though; Tom Baker's "Humanity" speech such a defining moment.

"I'm no regressive, I'm a Naval Officer!" Love Harry.

Noah's not too pleased to learn that the Doctor's proposing to check out the solar stacks.

Yeah, OK, it's fairy lights on a back cloth, but you know what, why does that background really *need* to be more?

Yet another great set for the solar stacks; after all that bright white, a darkened industrial style area...

Sarah has a bit of trouble with her indoor voice when she comes out of the freezer...

Harry just loves showing off his pet dead bug now.

Noah's shot the Doctor! Well, his 4th incarnation didn't last very long, did it?

50dw50 @50dw50 · good fall from Tom!

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · "I felt a quick coma coming on, but that's SOOO last incarnation..."

As Noah's stopped the Doctor shutting down the solar stacks, the Wirrn larvae has matured, and breaks free...

One of the crew, Dune, is missing...

50dw50 @50dw50 · Dune is missing, to feature in some books i could never get into

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · That's Sandy...

Adrian Last @LeffeAt49DS · Dune is a book where fans say it improves after the first 50 odd pages. Trust me it doesn't...

Now Noah's been slimed...

...and has decided to have a little lie down.

50dw50 @50dw50 · "Slime My Noah" new to CBBC...

Elsewhere, Sarah and Harry manage to wake the Doctor.

They bump into Noah and are shepherded back to the cryogenic chamber.

Libri has a funny turn when Noah greets him, as if he saw something else standing there...

Something else with its hand permanently shuffling about in its pocket, no doubt. Terrifying.

50dw50 @50dw50 · I wonder if thats why Adric always kept a hand in his pocket?

Davison favoured both hands at once.

"You're here to answer questions, not ask them." Talk about regressive, Noah's turned into Cliche-man.

"But I'm here... I am Dune!" Oh dear, Noah's definitely not right. Sounds like the slug absorbs minds...

50dw50 @50dw50 · only Tom Baker can look serious waving a green used condom on a stick

This new Doctor Who is all insensitive, making tasteless jokes about Dune's knowledge being digested. Is he a good man?

atruedrwhofan @atruedrwhofan · a great example of the Doctors alien nature. Saying something so gastly with a grin, before turning serious.

Noah overpowers Libri and shoots him down.

John Bensalhia @JohnBensalhia · Good to see Libri paying homage to Pertwee with a gurning Worzel Gummidge fall!

Noah's hand's gone a bit manky...

Don't see why an alien insect's membrane/pupa couldn't form like a plasticky substance. I'm cool with it being bubblewrap.

Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · I might paint some bubble wrap green and see if I can scare folk down the pub with that one.

50dw50 @50dw50 · "i would go out tonight but i have no bubble wrap to wear"

MAW Holmes @MAW_H ·I believe that the kids call that a "pop" tune...

Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · I think they should make a new series appearance. At least the effects would do them justice now.

Isaac Dakin @IWhittakerDakin · Villains i want back are: The Mara, The Rani, The Eternals, The Wirrn, Morbius and Omega

Noah stops in his tracks when an old recording of Earth's High Minister is set off, presumably by them awakening from their chambers.

The High Minister seems to be giving it her best Mystic Meg & her rhetoric is stuffed with biblical phrasing. Isn't that a bit "regressive" going on about "human love and faith" and "God willing", "the prayers & hopes" etc.?

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Some things never change... unfortunately.

50dw50 @50dw50 · yes!

Noah's still in there, struggling to get a message to Vira, but he's fighting a losing battle.

50dw50 @50dw50 · "wyrrnman wyrrnman, does whatever a wyrrn can, absorbing flesh, acting bad, watch out, her comes the wyrrnman"

So, aliens that lay their eggs in humans and then burst out to grow and menace a futuristic crew in space... Sounds like a good idea for a film - eh, Ridley?

Vira and the Doctor go to track down Noah.

Harry recruits Sarah as a nurse to help him reanimate a frozen Jurgen Klinsmann.

The lurgy's spread all over Noah's face and shoulder now.

That was the (clumsy) edit right there; where Noah was originally scripted to beg Vira to kill him.

They were "pair bonded."

Rogin's great. Much more of a Robert Holmes character and surely a total regressive. "There's been a snitch up!"

With the slug on the move again...

...the Doctor needs to know what the Wirrn knows...

...and prepares to take desperate measures.

They can't get everyone off in time. Fnur fnur.

Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · here's this week's...

Hurrah!

Tom grinning at the danger of linking in his brain is great. "My brain is exceptional!"

"It might be quite irrational of me, but human beings are quite my favourite species!"

This Doctor seems to blow hot & cold through his era. Sometimes it's "Earth again, urgh, boring!" & others it's his "home from home"

John Bensalhia @JohnBensalhia · First "Aaaagghh!" Out of all the Doctor actors Tom's the best at doing agony acting (see also Zygons, Pyramids, Assassin etc).

While the Doctor channels the dead Queen's memories...

...Rogin and Lycett are on the trail of the bubble wrap slime grub.

They soon find what they're looking for, but Lycett's done for.

Harry and Rogin have to see Noah off again. "Fools! Human fools!"

Loving those electric spark guns, especially the sound FX.

Tom's cardigan/waistcoat thing's really odd, isn't it. Not sorry he lost that.

Credit to Dudley Simpson here, too. I'm as guilty as anyone of calling his dafter flourishes, but 99% of his season 12 stuff is as moody and mature as the new feel of the show under Hinchcliffe.

John Bensalhia @JohnBensalhia · Still the best Doctor Who composer for me. Can capture the subtle mood and atmosphere of the scene with tuneful skill.

It's the electricity that the Wirrn fear. If they can electrify the infrastructure and hole up in the escape rocket, they can win.

They just need to transmat across...

...so it'll all be fine as long as the Wirrn don't cut the power.

Oh. Guess what?

It's all gone a bit eggy in the solar stacks.

Noah's gone the full Wirrn now. Or Wirrrn. Or Wirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrn, if you prefer.

50dw50 @50dw50 · that's how McCoy would say it.

The Doctor is saved by Vira arriving to shoot "Noah" in the back.

Turns out this is all the humans' fault after all, they drove the Wirrn from Andromeda.

Kenton Moore gives a great vocal performance as the Swarm Leader. Different from just Noah.

"Anyone for a jelly baby?" Here, Holmes creepily sets up the idea of the Wirrn eating their way through the sleepers.

50dw50 @50dw50 · good old Sarah, comes up with the best idea

Tom hiding in the vac-formed cryo-chamber is great.

Now Sarah goes all Die Hard with a crawl through some air ducts.

Jason McLaughlin @jangomac72 · "Come to Space Station Nerva they said, we'll have a few drinks, a few laughs.."

Lovely lighting here, now that the power's off.

I can easily imagine Pertwee giving Sarah this reverse psychology bit.

"Oh, Doctor. Is that all you can say for yourself? Stupid, foolish girl. We should never have relied on you. That's the trouble with girls like you..." Sorry, what?

"Me, a brute? Don't be ungrateful. I was only encouraging you!"

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · The "stupid girl" gambit is a big risk, but it plays out beautifully...

When the scripts were written there wouldn't have been much recorded Tom for Holmes to work with.

Almost without fail the best scripts are written for "The Doctor" and not a particular Doctor or actor.

When you start scripting in the "Allons-y"s and whatnot, they descend into caricature. The actor only has 1 way to play it.

"Resistance is Useless!" Ooh, are we going to get rare clips from Hartnell & Troughton stories not out on VHS yet?

Anyone fancy a roast Wirrn?

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · Tastes like chicken, I'm told...

Shame about the space-walking Wirrn. Oh well.

Rogin knocks the Doctor out and saves the day, as the Wirrn are tricked aboard teh launching rocket...

...with a little help from the last vestiges of Noah's humanity.

And now the Ark arc really begins...

...as the Doctor decides to go down to Earth to fix the transmat.

He gives Vira his jelly babies...

but has another bag in Genesis Of The Daleks and again in Revenge Of The Cybermen without being able to go to the TARDIS for a refill.

Must have a bag in every pocket!

Isaac Dakin @IWhittakerDakin · His pockets are bigger on the inside!

John Bensalhia @JohnBensalhia · One of the all time greats, Ark has stood the test of time brilliantly - even with the flares & sprayed green bubble wrap.