386 The Ark in Space Part One

EPISODE: The Ark in Space Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 386
STORY NUMBER: 076
TRANSMITTED: 25 January 1975
WRITER: Robert Holmes
DIRECTOR: Rodney Bennett
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Ark In Space

On a space station orbiting Earth something opens a chamber containing a slumbering human. The Doctor, Sarah & Harry arrive in the darkened and seemingly deserted space station. Sarah becomes trapped in an adjoining room then the Doctor & Harry are trapped with her in a rescue attempt finding evidence of malicious damage. Sarah is transported to another room and put into suspended animation. Restoring the oxygen systems activates the security system, which attacks the Doctor & Harry. When the finally deactivate the machine they realise Sarah is missing and search for her finding a slimy trail. The Doctor finds the humans on the station held in suspended animation. The Doctor deduces that this is all that remains of humanity after some global catastrophe. They find Sarah in suspended animation and while searching for resuscitation equipment Harry finds a giant alien insect.

Essentially "The Doctor, Sarah and Harry poke around a space station" for two episodes. Sarah gets separated from the others twice in 25 minutes - Deary me! But the Space Station looks fabulous, especially the set of all the humans in storage. And I think I can see the UFO moonbase computer banks again, here looking odd as their curved shapes are set into a straight wall and turned round so the longest & curved edge runs top to bottom.

Essentially this episode is a three hander between the main cast but also heard during it is Peter Tuddenham who does the initial voices that speaks to Sarah. He'll be back in The Masque of Mandragora and Time and the Rani providing a similar role but he's most famous for providing the voices of Zen, Orac and Slave in Blake's 7. He's the second regular member of the Blake's cast to be in Doctor Who after Paul Darrow (Avon) in the Silurians. So as promised then we're going to look at the first season of Blake's 7 and see which of it's cast had been in Doctor Who. All of the show's first season was written by Terry Nation of Dalek fame, script edited by Chris Boucher, who we'll see writing Face of Evil, Robots of Death and Image of the Fendahl shortly, and produced by David Maloney who directed many a Doctor Who story.


EPISODE: A1 The Way Back
DIRECTED BY: Michael E. Briant Colony in Space, The Sea Devils, The Green Death, Death to the Daleks, Revenge of the Cybermen & The Robots of Death
BROADCAST ON: 02/01/1978

Robert Beatty (Bran Foster) General Cutler in the Tenth Planet
Jeremy Wilkin (Dev Tarrant) Kellman in the Revenge of the Cybermen (directed by Michael E. Briant)
Robert James (Ven Glynd) Lesterson in Power of the Daleks & High Priest in Masque of Mandragora
Gillian Bailey (Ravella) is the current head of Drama at Royal Holloway College, where I did my degree.
Margaret John (Arbiter) Megan Jones in Fury from the Deep
Nigel Lambert (Computer operator) Hardin in The Leisure Hive, but is probably best known for being the narrator of the superb first series of Look Around You. If you've not seen it by the DVD. Trust me.


EPISODE: A2 Space Fall
DIRECTED BY: Pennant Roberts The Face of Evil, The Sun Makers, The Pirate Planet, Shada, Warriors of the Deep and Timelash
BROADCAST ON: 09/01/1978

Glyn Owen (Leylan) Rohm-Dutt in The Power of Kroll
Leslie Schofield (Raiker) Leroy in War Games Calib in Face of Evil
Norman Tipton (Artix) Idas in the Underworld


EPISODE: A3 Cygnus Alpha
DIRECTED BY: Vere Lorimer (No Doctor Who directing credits)
BROADCAST ON: 16/01/1978

Brian Blessed (Vargas) King Yrcanos in Trial of a Timelord
Pamela Salem (Kara) one of the many voices of Xoanon in The Face of Evil, Toos in The Robots of Death and Professor Rachel Jensen in Remembrance of the Daleks.
Peter Childs (Arco) Jack Ward in Mark of the Rani


EPISODE: A4 Time Squad
DIRECTED BY: Pennant Robert (see A2 above)
BROADCAST ON: 23/01/1978

No Doctor Who cast members involved


EPISODE: A5 The Web
DIRECTED BY: Michael E. Briant (see A1 Above)
BROADCAST ON: 30/01/1978

Richard Beale (Saymon) Refusian Voice in the Ark, Bat Masterson in the Gunfighters, Broadcaster in Macra Terror and Minister of Ecology in The Green Death (directed by Michael E. Briant)
Miles Fothergill (Novara) SV7 in The Robots of Death (directed by Michael E. Briant)
Deep Roy (Decimas) Mr Sin in The Talons of Weng Chiang and all the Oompa Loompas in Tim Burton's version of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.


EPISODE: A6 Seek-Locate-Destroy
DIRECTED BY: Vere Lorimer
BROADCAST ON: 01/02/1978

Peter Miles (Rontane) Dr. Lawrence in the Silurians, Professor Whitaker in Invasion of the Dinosaurs & Nyder in Genesis of the Daleks
John Bryans (Bercol) Torvin in The Creature from the Pit
Peter Craze (Prell) Dako in the Space Museum, DuPont in The War Games & Costa in Nightmare of Eden
Ian Cullen (Escon) Izta in the Aztecs


EPISODE: A7 Mission to Destiny
DIRECTED BY: Pennant Roberts (see A2 above)
BROADCAST ON: 13/02/1978

Barry Jackson (Kendall) Ascarius in the Romans, Jeff Garvey in Mission to the Unknown and Drax in the Armageddon Factor. He's best known as Doctor George Bullard in Midsomer Murders.
Nigel Humphreys (Sonheim) Bulic in The Warriors of the Deep (directed by Pennant Roberts)
John Leeson (Pasco) K-9 voice
Carl Forgione (Grovane) Land in Planet of Spiders, Nimrod in Ghost Light
Stuart Fell (Dortmunn) The Curse of Peladon (as Alpha Centauri), The Monster of Peladon (as Alpha Centauri), Planet of the Spiders (as a tramp), The Ark in Space (as a Wirrn), The Android Invasion (as a Kraal), The Brain of Morbius (as Morbius Monster), The Masque of Mandragora (as an entertainer), The Invasion of Time (as a Sontaran) and State of Decay (as Roga)


EPISODE: A8 Duel
DIRECTED BY: Douglas Camfield (directed The Crusade, The Time Meddler, The Daleks' Master Plan, The Web of Fear, The Invasion, Inferno, Terror of the Zygons & The Seeds of Doom)
BROADCAST ON: 20/02/1978

Isla Blair (Sinofar) Isabella in The King's Demons
Patsy Smart (Giroc) Ghoul in The Talons of Weng Chiang


EPISODE: A9 Project Avalon
DIRECTED BY: Michael E. Briant (see A1 Above)
BROADCAST ON: 27/02/1978

David Bailie (Chevner) Dask in Robots of Death (directed by Michael Briant)
John Rolfe (Terloc) Captain in The War Machines, Sam in the Moonbase and Fell in The Green Death (also directed bt Michael Briant)

This episode also features Glynis Barber (Mutoid) years before her regular appearances in Blake's 7 as Soolin


EPISODE: A10 Breakdown
DIRECTED BY: Vere Lorrimer
BROADCAST ON: 06/03/1978

Julian Glover (Kayn) King Richard in The Crusade & Count Scarloni/Scaroth in City of Death


EPISODE: A11 Bounty
DIRECTED BY: Pennant Roberts (see A2 above)
BROADCAST ON: 13/03/1978

T. P. McKenna (Sarkoff) Captain Cook in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy


EPISODE: A12 Deliverance
DIRECTED BY: Michael E. Briant (see A1 Above)
BROADCAST ON: 20/03/1978

Tony Caunter (Ensor) The Crusade (Thatcher), Colony in Space (Morgan - directed by Michael Briant) and Enlightenment (Jackson)


EPISODE: A13 Orac
DIRECTED BY: Vere Lorrimer
BROADCAST ON: 27/03/2011

No Doctor Who cast members involved.

That's it for Series 1. Join us in Robots of Death where we'll cover second season Blake's 7 cast members who've been in Doctor Who!