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the ark

story 23 : season 3 : serial X : 4 episodes

Producer: John Wiles
Director: Michael Imison
Writer: Paul Erickson
Writer: Lesley Scott
Script Editor: Gerry Davis
Designer: Barry Newbery

cast information

William Hartnell (Dr. Who); Peter Purves (Steven Taylor); Jackie Lane (Dodo Chaplet); Eric Elliott (Commander); Inigo Jackson (Zentos); Roy Spencer (Manyak); Kate Newman (Mellium); Edmund Coulter (1st Monoid); Frank George (2nd Monoid); Michael Sheard (Rhos); Ian Frost (Baccu); Stephanie Heesom (1st Guardian); Paul Greenhalgh (2nd Guardian); Terence Woodfield (Maharis); Ralph Carrigan (Monoid Two); Terence Bayler (Yendom); Edmund Coulter (Monoid One); Brian Wright (Dassuk); Eileen Helsby (Venussa); Frank George (Monoid Three); Roy Skelton (Monoid Voice); John Halstead (Monoid Voice); Richard Beale (Refusian Voice); John Caeser (Monoid Four);

crew information

Chris D'Oyly John (Assistant Floor Manager); Daphne Dare (Costumes); Tony Leggo (Film Cameraman); Noel Chanan (Film Editor); Tristram Cary (Incidental Music); Sonia Markham (Make-Up); David Maloney (Production Assistant); Brian Hodgson (Special Sounds); Howard King (Studio Lighting); Ray Angel (Studio Sound); Ron Grainer (Title Music); Delia Derbyshire (Theme Arrangement);

episode information

  Title First UK Transmission Duration Ratings Archive Status
1 The Steel Sky 5 March 1966 at 17:15 24'00" 5.5mil 16mm telerecording
2 The Plague 12 March 1966 at 17:15 25'00" 6.9mil 16mm telerecording
3 The Return 19 March 1966 at 17:15 24'19" 6.2mil 16mm telerecording
4 The Bomb 26 March 1966 at 17:15 24'37" 7.3mil 16mm telerecording
  1. The Steel Sky
    » Negative film print recovered from Ents c.1978
  2. The Plague
    » Negative film print recovered from Ents c.1978
  3. The Return
    » Held by the FVTL when audited in 1978
    » Negative film print recovered from Ents c.1978
  4. The Bomb
    » Negative film print recovered from Ents c.1978

release information

In Print:
Novelised as: Doctor Who -- The Ark
Written by: Paul Erickson
Number 114 in the Target Doctor Who Library

Versions
1987 Published by W. H. Allen, UK in hardback
With cover artwork by: David McAllister
ISBN: 0 491 03963 8
19 March 1987 Published by W. H. Allen, UK in paperback
With cover artwork by: David McAllister
ISBN: 0 426 20253 8
December 1992 Published by Virgin Publishing Ltd, UK in paperback
With cover artwork by: Alister Pearson
ISBN: 0 426 20253 8

plot synopsis

Mistaking the jungle they have landed in for the surface of a normal planet, the TARDIS crew find they are actually inside a gigantic spaceship. The miniaturised population of earth are being taken to Refusis to start a new population there with the Guardians monitoring their safety, while the reptilian Monoids act as their servants. Dodo's cold starts to infect them all, and the travellers are put on trial but the Doctor soon puts this right, and they depart, only to materialise on the Space Ark again, hundreds of years in the future when the Monoids now rule, and the humans are their slaves...

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