Harry Sullivan’s first trip in the TARDIS takes some unexpected turns…

By an odd coincidence the last full Doctor Who story I watched before listening to this was Tom Baker and Ian Marter’s debut, Robot, and one of the lines in the on-screen facts struck a chord – that Terrance Dicks was effectively proposing a new format for the show for the Baker era, but one that wasn’t followed. The original Ark in Space gave us some justly well-remembered moments and put Robert Holmes’ and Philip Hinchcliffe’s stamp on the show. But this was a hasty creation after John Lucarotti’s scripts proved unworkable – but they would equally have sent the show spinning off in a new orbit.

Now, thanks to Richard Bignell, the scripts have been found, and suitably moulded by Jonathan Morris into this audio. As he notes in the extras, Morris’ primary aim was to keep as close to the original as possible, but taking into account the necessity of providing visual clues through dialogue and sound effects, and a degree of smoothing in the way that Tom Baker and co. would have done in the rehearsal room (is that the reason for the Larry Grayson tribute?!). It would be an interesting intellectual exercise to compare Lucarotti 1974 with Morris 2021, but unlike some Lost Stories, I suspect what producer Simon Guerrier presents here isn’t too far at all from the tale whose 50th anniversary we would have been heading towards.

If you think you know this from its mentions in assorted Doctor Who histories over the years (including the recent About Time Volume 4A update), put aside your preconceptions. You can see the elements that appealed to Holmes and that he used in the new version, but pretty much from the off, the story heads in a new direction, in part because of the nature of the Time Lord at its heart. Tom Baker’s performance in Robot is quite different from elsewhere in his run, and there’s elements of that – as well as the often quoted William Hartnell-esque depiction that Lucarotti would have been familiar with – in this. (There’s a wonderful outtake where director Samuel Clemens lets Baker have his head and we get pure, unrestrained Tom!) There’s not a chitinous Wirrn (or even a Wirrrn) in sight, but instead a very different sort of enemy – although some of the body horror that epitomises the Holmes version is present here, albeit approached from a fresh angle.

There’s also quite a lot more for the companions to do, with Sadie Miller and Christopher Naylor delivering their best performances as Sarah and Harry to date. This could have been where the proximity of viewing Robot worked against this, but in fact, Naylor’s intonations, and the friendly bickering between him and Miller absolutely sell this. Terry Molloy has a great double role – and an opportunity to argue with himself – with Yasmin Mwanza, Cameron Johnson, Nicholas Khan and Lara Lemon given plenty to do as the crew of the Ark. Mwanza’s Viva plays the similar essential role that Vira did in the TV version but the relationship between her and Noah underpins the story in a different way.

Mark Hendrick’s sound design is effective – there are far more sequences in space than you might expect, and in particular the third episode cliffhanger only works so well because you buy into the environment created – and Nicholas Briggs’ Simpsonian score accompanies rather than leads the story.

Verdict: By the end, you can see why Holmes and Hinchcliffe chose to abandon the Ark in this form (some of the imagery would have been hard to achieve in 1974, let alone the characterisation issues), but perhaps more than any other of Big Finish’s Tom Baker era Lost Stories, this richly deserves its excavation. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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