Doctor Who: The Lost Stories: The Ark – Review

I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of The Ark in Space. Apart from the “indomitable” speech, I’ve always found it a bit of a dull story. Of course, it also starts off the true Tom Baker era better than the previous story, Robot, but there isn’t much here to keep my attention, (I know, revoke my Doctor Who fan privileges!) So I wasn’t overly excited when this story was announced as one of The Lost Stories, using the original script from John Lucarotti, I decided I’d probably not be all that interested in this one, and while I still don’t think it the most interesting story, I was pleasantly surprised that I did have a decent time.

Having listened to Daleks! Genesis of Terror, I was a little unsure if this story would follow the same format, one dramatized episode with the rest of the runtime taken up by the cast giving you a rundown on what else happened in the following episodes, I was really pleased that this release was at least a full cast audio drama. And while Daleks! was a disappointing little curio, The Ark felt like something someone spending fifteen pounds on would get their money’s worth from.

One might also wonder if in adapting this story, Jonathan Morris might have felt a little intimidated because of how well-regarded the original story is. Luckily though, this doesn’t seem to have fazed him as the story gets off to a great start, ignoring Tom Baker’s terrifying reading of the story’s original titles!

Of course, the first episode feels like a bit of a remake of the original story, The TARDIS arrives on the Ark and the Doctor, Sarah and Harry find it seemingly abandoned, they wander around for a little bit, get split up and then discover the humans in suspended animation. The key change to the first episode is the dialogue, there is a line that this is definitely Harry’s second adventure, though the television story only implies it and there is a a situation in which Sarah goes off to make some tea is rightly challenged.

There are some minor changes in the pacing too, gone is the Doctor and Harry trying to stop the security detector which ultimately destroys his hat and the first episode ends with the Doctor and company beginning to revive the crew, which doesn’t happen until a lot later in the television serial.

It’s also really nice, if a little strange, hearing Christopher Naylor and Sadie Miller delivering dialogue originally spoken by Ian Marter and Elisabeth Sladen. Luckily though the pair still have the same bickering sibling relationship that the original actors had. Its really brilliant to hear Sarah telling Harry off for referring to her as an “Old Girl”, but secretly quite liking it and Harry calling her just because he knows it seems to irritate her.

Of course, this story really shines in its narrative changes from the original story, there’s the Doctor using the sonic screwdriver a lot more here than he did in the original but there was also the great implication that the Doctor had originally helped humanity into the ark in the first place and has purposely returned to check up on things, the sort of Machiavellian machinations the Seventh Doctor would be proud of. Something else that the Lucorroti original focuses more on is the dust and dirt and fauna that the Doctor, Sarah and Harry find, Lucorroti was very into plants and botany and so this works as an interesting look into a man who had previously only written for the Hartnell era and this is miles away from the sterilised environment we find ourselves in in the television episode.

Unfortunately where The Ark falls a little flat is in its handling of the human characters. Of course, their television counterparts are excellent but here they seem to lack the warmth they had in the original. While this is supposed to be the point, they almost sound like robots here, not really doing much to make you care when they meet their various fates. The original monsters are all that interesting either, making you wish that the Wirrn would turn up at some point but they never do.

So there are moments here when you can see why Robert Holmes was tasked with almost completely rewriting the script. But this is supposed to be the point of this new iteration of The Lost Stories, to see the differences between both the good and bad and compare the two products, this story feels much more akin to last year’s original take on Revenge of the Cybermen was I thought was much better than the original, and maybe proves why Daleks! Genesis of Terror was a rare misstep from Big Finish.

Of course, there will always be arguments to be made against recreating something that has already been done, I’m a massive horror movie fan and know well the pain of remakes! But what Big Finish are doing a brilliant job with these Lost Stories is offering a glimpse into an alternate universe where familiar stories took place differently. One might imagine this is how Sarah Jane and Harry from Pete’s World from Doomsday might have had these adventures. This version of The Ark In Space offers enough differences to feel completely like a different story after the first episode and while some of the human characters might not quite hit the mark, this adaptation makes for a fantastic version of a fan-favourite story.

You can pick up Doctor Who: The Ark on CD (including digital) for £14.99 and on digital for £13.99 now from Big Finish.