A story with some clever ideas and a strong identity, but that doesn’t make it an automatic masterpiece.

The Doctor, Steven and new companion Vicki land in a weird jungle landscape. They soon discover they are on a spaceship that has collected all of earth’s population and is on its way to a new home.  But it seems Dodo wasn’t the only new companion aboard the Tardis. There’s something living in her nose….

Structurally, this story is split right through the middle. We have one plot in the first two episodes and another in the last two. Between the two plots, the tardis has travelled 700 years into the future. I love this idea. It allows for great worldbuilding around a location, since we’ve seen it in different times. But from a practical point of view, it is also a great excuse to get more out of the used sets and locations. If used well, I can only see benefits. I wouldn’t mind it if Doctor Who tries this approach more often.

Anyway, after leaving the Jungle, the party discovers the crew of the spaceship. They have shrunk the entire population, except for themselves. Allowing them to easily move a large quantity of life to their new home.

The crew does not only consist of humans, however. With them are the Monoids, who basically serve as slaves. We’ll come back to them later.

Problems arise however, when we discover that Dodo is sick and has brought germs with her on the spaceship. Since the advanced human civilization has long wiped out the common cold, they have absolutely no resistance to it. Both human and monoids quickly fall ill, and the party is blamed for the sickness. After a bit of back and forth, the Doctor saves the day by killing the virus. Big party moment. Soon after, the party takes off again.

On its own, this story is fine. The threat of a viral infection is interesting and all the setup is done well  (Although I wish we could've had a small nod to Preslin from last time, since he discovered germs). The problem lies mostly in the back and forth that follows. You might’ve noticed that in my short summary, I jumped pretty quickly from problem to eventual solution. That’s because not much happens in between those moments. It’s the usual “can we trust them?” shenanigans you’ve definitely seen before. And that’s pretty boring.

There’s one moment in the bickering that doesn’t quite sit right with me, however. Eventually, the fate of the party is put to a vote. And the crew votes to throw them off the spaceship. I am heavily resisting an Among Us joke. But this vote is overruled when the sick leader comes on the speaker and announces that they should just let the Doctor solve the problem. All of them quickly accept this.

I can’t say that I really like the implications of that moment. That the ideas of one leader overrule the vote of the majority. There might be some elements of mob mentality in the vote, and I think that could be tackled, but I don’t think having one leader announce his opinion is the right way to go about it. I realize I’m probably thinking too deep about it, but it felt very off when I was watching it. Maybe if the leader had made a stronger case about the trusting nature of humans, or if he called for a revote after his plea, I wouldn’t feel so irked.

Other than that, the story is fine. An original threat and a cool location. The only real problem is the dawdling in the story and maybe the resolution.

So, with our party once again celebrated as heroes, we leave for the Tardis, only to end up in the same location again. But how much time have we covered? An answer is soon presented thanks to a giant statue the humans were building. It was supposed to be finished when they were nearing the new planet, and it is now done! So we should be close to the end. Except for one little oddity: The statue does not look like the original human design. It looks like a monoid.

So what happened in those 700 years? Well, apparently Dodo’s viral infection had some long term consequences, which allowed the monoids an opening to take over the ship and reverse the roles. The humans are now the slaves.

Like I mentioned previously, I like this way of storytelling. It builds up the location. And the information about the statue we got in the first part servers as a solid connector between the two parts. It is a fun setpiece.

But sadly, it although the concept is solid, I don’t love the execution. The second plot is very standard. Monoid are bad and push the party around while we land on the new planet. A planet inhabited by an incorporeal species that is very welcoming and has even build homes for the new inhabitants of their planet. But the incoporeals are worried that the new inhabitants will be violent. Which makes the Doctor and co immediately vouch for the human race.

And that doesn’t sit right with me. The monoids are currently in charge, yes. But in the past, they were enslaved by the humans. So why are the humans presented as a more peaceful option, when they have done the exact same thing as the monoids. On top of that, it was only in the previous episode that we almost saw them throw innocent people into space because of mob mentality. So why is it so easy to accept them as the initially superior survivors on the planet?

One of the reasons I’m so hung up on this, is that we’ve seen similar concepts before. Think back to “The Sensorites” where the doctor was a diplomatic mediator between the humans and the alien Sensorites. Looking to cover both sides and make the right arrangements for both to thrive. A similar solution is not found here. For 99% of the story it is “monoid bad, human good”. It is only at the end that the Doctor mentions that both should live in peace together. Which is way too late.

What I would’ve liked is a more similarity between the two species. In the first part of the story, the enslavement of the monoids is barely touched upon. It is accepted and not questioned. It is only when the roles are reversed, that it becomes a problem.

But let’s be real, we’ve seen these people in the past. They were dicks. They tried to throw innocent people into space. Several of them were clearly malicious during the trial as well. They were never perfect. So let’s make slavery a problem in both halves. Show that both sides aren’t perfect and make the similarities more obvious. Make them use the same weapons against each other. Make them degrade and look down on each other. Hell, make it so the humans can only speak using sign language, just like the monoids in the past. Make it completely equal.

Then, in the second part of the story, you can talk about how slavery is always bad. That revenge can be understandable, but that cruelty against cruelty is the wrong approach. I know that might sound ambitious for 60s Doctor Who, but I would not mention it if I didn’t think it would be realistic. Similar topics have been tackled. Again, look at the Sensorites, or the incredibly flawed Galaxy 4. Tackling topics like this has been part of the show since the start, even if it is sometimes flawed. I wish it had been done here, because now the story looks incredibly hypocritical.

It's not like there isn’t time to do this properly either. Like the first part of this story, it second part can also feel really padded in places. Just moping around on location without getting to the point. At times, it feels slower than “The massacre”, which currently can only be watched as a series of stills.

On the character side, things are a bit more interesting. The one-off cast isn’t that noteworthy, but we get some fun moments with our party. Mostly revolving around Dodo.

Both the Doctor and Steven get pushed into a more parental role. The Doctor because he wants to, Steven because he has to. Steven is now a worn traveller with loads of experience under his belt. Meanwhile Dodo is kind of oblivious. It’s an okay dynamic for now. But I do hope we get to a bit more fallout of the last few stories. This currently feels very temporary.

The Doctor, on the other hand, tries to be a grandfather again. But it isn’t as warm and loving as it was with Vicki. He’s a bit more hardened. A bit sterner. He’s clearly trying, but most of the time, it’s just complaining. Yet sometimes he gets it exactly right, which makes it feel like he’s not being mean, but unsure. Again, let’s see what the future brings.

As for Dodo herself, if I had to describe her in one word, it would be “Oblivious”. She doesn’t seem to care about what’s going on and isn’t easily impressed. Still very two dimensional. Like I said last time, that might be the point, but I need a bit more time to pin her down.

And that’s all “The Ark” has for us. A clever concept with a mediocre main story and some story points that just keep gnawing at you. It could’ve been more, but I don’t consider this one to be all that bad. It’s just not all that good either. For the characters, this feels like a midpoint. For the viewers, it mostly feels like a mediocre break from the darker elements.