Doctor Who and the Ark in Space

"You can at last begin the great awakening of your people."

Writer: Ian Marter

Format: Novel

Released: May 1977

Series: Target 04

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane, Harry

Synopsis

At a time in the far-off future, Earth has become uninhabitable. A selection of humanity is placed, deep-frozen, in a fully automated space station, to await the day of their return to Earth...

Thousands of years later, Doctor Who arrives. He finds things going suspiciously wrong, and the station under attack from the giant Wirrn, deadly creatures who, in their lust for power, now threaten the future of the whole human race...

Verdict

Doctor Who and the Ark in Space was a very good novelisation of the televised story that served as the Fourth Doctor's second serial on screen! I was a little surprised by how different this was to the televised version with Space Station Nerva being renamed as Terra Nova which I wasn't a fan of, and I also thought the linkage into The Sontaran Experiment was very strange in having the Doctor, Sarah and Harry go down to Earth in the TARDIS. That didn't seem to fit in with the arc of Season 12 in my view and just seemed a strange deviation. Ian Marter as author was an intriguing dynamic given that he starred in the televised serial this book is based upon as Harry. I was expecting a tad more of an insight from his character, but the story didn't really need that. I just thought it might have come given the authorship. One element of the adventure that I was a tad disappointed by was the lack of description of, what would be in this one, Terra Nova. It's such an iconic setting and that might be heightened because it was also a primary setting for Revenge of the Cybermen, but that just seemed lacking and quite generic with just a number of different rooms. Right, that's the negatives out of the way and now I can talk about the positives. It is a very good story and the concept of the entire future of humanity being on board is great. It works well for Harry's first venture in the TARDIS after his introduction in Robot and I liked how the Doctor didn't want him wandering off, but of course that is exactly what he did. The characterisation of the Fourth Doctor was decent with this being his early days and I also thought the writing of Sarah Jane was pretty good. I loved the moment where the Doctor challenges Sarah Jane to get through her tight squeeze, although it did seem quicker here for her to realise that she was just being gently encouraged. The Wirrn, weirdly referred to without the novelisation with three of the letter R, didn't come until pretty late in the game which I didn't expect, but I think they make a very good enemy and benefit from the novel format because the frame of reference to go off for their appearance is the tremendous cover. The cliffhanger moment of part one worked well in prose as a chapter conclusion with the Queen Wirrn falling out of the cupboard. One thing I noticed about this book was how frantic the pace was and I think that definitely worked in its favour. It was certainly a lot of fun and the decision to only have eight chapters definitely helped in my opinion. I found that I whizzed through things! Vira was an excellent character and I liked the development of her opinion on the Doctor throughout the adventure. It went from trepidatious to trusting in quick time. Noah was also good and him serving as the focus for the enemy was very good with him being infected by the Wirrn. The threat that befell Sarah Jane when she was put into cryogenic sleep was brilliant. Harry's desire to touch things made for some amusing moments. Rogin was also a very good character and I enjoyed his relationship with Vira a lot. The final two chapters in particular were very pacy and just exciting which is exactly what you want in a conclusion. Rogin's sacrifice along with Noah leading the Wirrn to be ejected from within was very good and a nice way to let Vira live on and essentially restart the human race. The brief moment where Sarah Jane and Harry firmly believe that the Doctor is dead was fantastic and it shows in the latter's reaction that he was new to travelling because he didn't seem so impacted. I'm not sure the Brigadier would be impressed though! Overall, a great novelisation.

Rating: 8/10