User Reviews

Spoilers to all four episodes

The Tardis materialises amongst The Ark a giant spaceship containing a diverse cross section of Earth life . The Doctor finds out that the Earth is about to be consumed by the Sun and that Mankind is using a self aware race of Aliens called Monoids as servants . The Doctor's new companion Dodo Chaplett suffers a cold a virus unknown to humanity which then starts spreading amongst the Human race with deadly results

This is a story that has a very up and down reputation . It was held in fairly low regard until the 1987 novelisation came out and the novelisation was universally praised as being much better than the television story so much so that I was expecting a total turkey when I sat down to watch the original TV version in 1993 but was very surprised at what I saw because while never being classic material does show that even an average lowly regarded story from that era can be very entertaining , involving and engaging

There's no escaping the story structure . This is bluntly two different stories stuck together , but this doesn't really matter because if this was a two part Matt Smith episode 13 year old fangirls would bombard this site saying " OMG this is the most awesome thing ever in the history of mankind " and you could easily see this story being reproduced for the present show involving the first part where the race against time to find a cure for the virus is the focus for the story and the following week trying to save humanity from the jackboot of the Monoids . This is one of these stories that has a subtext about the nature of humanity both good and bad which wasn't actually explored all that often in the 1960s show and would become more frequent , though no less obvious in the Pertwee era

For a 1966 story the production values are a bit patchy and archive material shows the production team at the time bigged up the fact that so much wildlife was being used but as you might expect the sets are composed of small set interiors including the surface of Refus which is realised with putting a few plants around the set . The Monoids themselves might split opinion but if I was a kid , which I often am when I watch an episode for the first time I would have thought of the Monoids as being the most awesome monsters since the Daleks as they slither around gunning down humans

The characters themselves are very nondescript and one note such the paternalistic commander , the intelligent rebel , the cowardly , traitor , the cruel Mononoid leader. Most non descript character is new companion Dodo introduced in the previous story The Massacre which was massacred itself during the archive purges in the 1970s who right away becomes a plot device and to just spout lines but the production values of this story show so much imagination that the flaws themselves don't matter

The Doctor, Steven and Dodo land in a strange forest, which turns out to be a spaceship inhabited by two races, The Humans and Monoids.

I love this episode, it boasts a very atmospheric opening, unusual animals and the strange Monoid. I think all of the sets look pretty good, I like the variety of costumes too.

The idea of The Earth's destruction and subsequent crew sent into space was used several times, but this one would have a twist. Clever use of the common cold, I can't think of many other times where the TARDIS crew took a problem to a different time, rather than the reverse.

Dodo didn't really get much of a run, and sadly we don't get to see her at her best, in The Savages or Celestial Toymaker, instead we see her here, and in The Gunfighters. Fans will notice her accent has had a transformation from the previous episode, she's lost her regional accent, but hasn't picked up the posh one she'd develop in The War Machines.

Enjoyed this. 8/10

The Doctor (William Hartnell), Steve (Peter Purves) and Dodo (Jackie Lane) materialise in a strange zoo-like jungle only to discover that they are in a vast spaceship that houses the remnants of humanity and their alien servants, the Monoids, and that they have travelled ten million years into the future. This fine vintage four-parter plays with one of the classic tropes of space-opera sci-fi: the 'generation ship' that is serving as an 'Ark', ferrying the last hope of mankind to a new home. The story is cleverly divided into two parts as the TARDIS departs only to reappear in the same jungle 700 years later and the 'cliff-hanger' that ends episode 2 is one of the best in the long-running series. Hartnell continues his iconic interpretation of the Doctor as a tetchy, supercilious but kindly curmudgeon. Steve, a 'manly hero' and Dodi 'a mod teenager' are two of the less memorable companions. Like many of the early Whovian series, the special effects are more ambitions than effective and the Monoids are a bit silly looking (picture shuffling cyclopians in distressed Beatle wigs), especially as no attempt was made to mask the obvious seam down the back of the costume. The story is marred by the inclusion of that ultimate in production-frugalness: the invisible alien, and a solution to an apparently hopeless existential predicament: the convenient 'deus ex machina'. If a bit more thought had been put into the final scenes, this could have been one of the best stories in the canon.

Review for all 4 parts:

This is a 4 part story beginning with The Steel Sky.

Quite a fascinating story which features the TARDIS landing in a jungle which turns out to be aboard a huge spaceship which is dubbed by Dodo (the new companion) as an 'ark' because it preserves humans, animals and plants from Earth travelling into distant space in the far future. They also have alien servants called Monoids who are treated more like slaves. The first two episodes revolve around Dodo bringing the common cold on board the ship thus threatening the whole vessel with a plague as there is no resistance or cure. The Doctor and his companions are suspected of deliberately bringing the virus. This is a clever idea in itself and the production as a whole is good.

The Monoids are created well with the actors holding the eye in their mouth and moving it with their tongue. This is amazingly effective. The humans are not as interesting but there is sufficient interest in the story as a whole and there are one or two good human characters such as the Commander. The dialogue is good with the Doctor and Steven providing good performances as usual and Dodo is an adequate, if unexceptional, addition.

The twist that takes episode 3 and 4 into a further future time aboard the same ship now officially named the Ark is what maintains the strong interest for me as a viewer over the full 4 parts. It is a very clever plot device which changes the scenario and gives thoughtful developments such as the Monoids having taken over after years of servitude once the virus allows them to overcome their human masters. The fact this is shown not as an evil act as such but as an understandable reaction to their previous unfair treatment is intelligent writing.

Not among the best but mostly quite impressive despite its average reputation.

My Ratings: Episodes 1-3 - 8.5/10, Episode 4 - 8/10

A distinctly average four-part serial from the Hartnell era. It starts off intriguingly enough, as the TARDIS arrives on a huge spaceship filled with a selection of Earth life, so essentially a sci-fi twist on the Noah's Ark story. Later it moves more into TIME MACHINE territory, with a split between species and plenty of time travel as our protagonists travel into the future of the ship and discover big changes. The alien costumes are pretty cool-looking here, but the stuff about the mystery virus doesn't really thrill in a post-Covid world and the later episodes lack menace. There are worse Hartnell stories out there, but this is strictly middle of the road.

I really like the concept of the travelers visiting a civilization then going back to it some hundreds of years later. It's a really cool idea that I kinda wish they'd try again at some point because I don't feel like they lived up to it's potential here. Sure the civilization has undergone a massive role reversal and hearing the travelers talked about almost as myths is neat, but beyond some details like those it doesn't do anything new with it. This show has already done a curing a plague episode (although they do approach it in a different manner here so I can let that one slide) and there have been so many freaking revolutions at this point I have a hard time caring about them anymore. The Monoids have a really cool design, but the way they go from slaves to basically the very thing they fought for freedom against was pretty disappointing. When I first saw them I really thought they lived equally with the humans (of course things could have gotten worse for them after the Doctor left or maybe it already was just behind closed doors), but after they gained power I would have really liked to see some of them try to work out a balance between them and the humans. Instead they're all just cartoonishly evil.

Steven gets a whole lot less to do here, they really should have kept Vicki in this group because he spends most of his time here practically babysitting Dodo. Its kind of a let down because I still genuinely enjoy his character and Britbox only has 4 serials with him in them so one holds out hope they'd at least be his best ones, but then you get something like this where he kinda fades into the background. Dodo is so annoying, how we went from Vicki to her I'll never know (because those episodes aren't on Britbox so I'll look into them when I'm done with the ones that are). She feels like every kid character shows add to relate to a younger demographic, but they're written by people who don't know anything about kids so they come across as caricatures. Her sense of fashion is good though so she has that going for her.