The Ark (1966) Review

PARTY TIME!!

   
The Ark is a very silly story. The Doctor and co land on a future human spaceship(I bet RTD loves this story) that's on its' way to Refusis 2, a planet they intend to colonise. They've also brought along another race, the Monoids for a similar purpose, but treat them like slaves.
700 years later, the TARDIS lands again to find the Monoids have taken over the spaceship and now treat the humans as slaves. Having arrived on Refusis 2, all goes to hell as the Monoids start fighting the humans and their own kind.

My biggest problem with this relatively interesting story is the utter lack of explanation concerning the TARDIS landing in the same place 700 years later. I thought the status quo was that it was flying at complete random. The chances of it landing in the same spot PRECISELY on the day the Ark arrived are pretty slim. And it can't be attributed to the Doctor's driving skills because he was confused just like me.

As I said earlier, the story is interesting and well-written, but nobody besides the Doctor, Steven and the Refusian voice actors seem to take it very seriously. The Monoids look goofy enough(it's the hair) and the humans(particularly the Commander) behave strangely on occasion. The mood is always light and harmless. It's a children's story that gives you a little to think about. 

Dodo isn't very bad. She was annoying in the first episode, but mellowed out very quickly. I loved the way she kept driving Steven nuts. Another hilarious thing was that the Doctor promised to teach her English because he was irritated by her thick Cockney accent, yet by episode 4, all I heard was BBC English. Plus, she has a pixie cut, so that automatically makes her cute. A big thumbs-up to her costume at the end too.

William Hartnell is wonderful as the Doctor as always, with the occasional fluff here and there(but a lot less than one would expect with such notoriety).

Steven is great. I loved the way he volunteered to stand for the crew on trial(usually you'd expect the Doctor to do that). He's a very fierce and strong-moraled character. I admire him a lot. Kudos to Peter Purves(I'm gonna try and watch the next recon with his narration if possible).

The story felt a little inappropriate after all the gloomy stories we've had this season(with the semi-exception of The Myth Makers). I think this story should've been more cheerful, but definitely not childish.

Speaking of childish, what was up with the humans' clothes? They looked very silly for something future humans(no matter what "segment") would wear. Also, I was a bit shocked that their clothing or other parts of the ship hadn't changed after 700 years.
Another thing that confounded me was this line: "Ah, you speak of the distant past. After the recent revolution..."

When exactly did the Monoids take control? If it was after the distant past, but not much(the statue seems to imply that) then why does he say recent? And who built that statue anyway? It had to be done so that no one would know the bomb was in the head so not the head Monoids. And it couldn't have been the humans(who were still known as Guardians even though they kinda screwed up the guarding bit) because then they would've known were to find the bomb. And if the humans responsible had been killed, wouldn't it raise a few questions?

It's a bit convoluted, is all I'm saying. And why hide the fact from the other Monoids anyway?

Oh well. All in all, decent story, a bit strange cliffhanger(turning invisible=attack), acceptable acting for the most part. It's one of the worser Hartnell stories, but only because the others are so great.