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Ark in Space has one of the most fantastic speeches The Doctor has ever given when he praises the tenacity and indomitability of the Human race. It is a classic tale of an alien creature prowling a space station while the Humans battle for survival. Concepts of race purity and supreme sacrifice for the sake of Humanity are thoroughly explored as well as the fact that a cricket ball is organic. 10/10
Commentary Commentary is by Tom Baker, Elizabeth Sladen and Phillip Hinchcliffe. Phillip holds everything together with lots of discussion of the set design and other technical issues. He speaks highly of the people he worked with who are no longer with us like Robert Holmes. Elizabeth Sladen is chatty as ever. Tom is a bit irritating at times. But Phillip keeps him on the ground with references to the fact that he was new to the role back then. They all have a good laugh about the green painted bubble wrap monster. You get the old story about why Harry was brought in, to accompany what was thought to be an older actor in the role of The Doctor, only to be redundant when Tom Baker was cast. Tributes are paid, of course, to the lovely Ian Marter. 9/10 Extras New CGI effects is a sequence of space ship, space station effects reworked with modern CGI technology to add depth to the 1975 sequences. There is an option to have new CGI or old classic effects in the episodes, but seeing the difference is interesting. 10/10
8/10 Original Model Effects is the 16mm film of the space station, shuttle take off and space-walking Wyrnn. Again, great Who History and fascinating for anyone interested in effects design over the years. 9/10 The trailer is a reminder that BBC English prevailed in continuity announcements in the 1970s. 6/10
9/10 The photo gallery is frankly rubbish. The pictures are not full size and most are dull production shots. 4/10 Space Station Schematics is a strange, dull bit if computer graphics purporting to show the viewer around the station. Looks like something from the 80s. 4/10 TARDIS Cam is, apparently, the first of six model sequences of the TARDIS! The others pop up all over the place on these DVDs. I’ve never figured out why! 3/10 Roger Murray Leach interview is an interesting, intelligent and very informal chat in the designer’s front room. He talks about the limited budgets and the time constraints in designing sets for episodes like Ark in Space. Issues like disguising the studio floor, creating sets with different heights and feeling of 3 dimensional space are mentioned. And, of course, the bubble wrap incident! He talks with humour and obvious fondness of his time on Doctor Who and some of the more unusual problems like covering a Porsche with manure to disguise its presence on a Victorian street scene. 10/10 Extras are an odd mixed bag. The two interviews are enlightening. Some of the other stuff is just fluff. 8 out of 10
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Unused
Title Sequence is an earlier version of the titles which was later
refined into the one used for most of Tom Baker’s reign as The
Doctor. It was included here for the first time. Interesting detail
of Who History. But not ground-breaking.
Interview
with Tom Baker on the set of Revenge of Cybermen at Wookey Hole. A
local news journalist tracked down The Doctor and talked to him between
sets. It is interesting in that Tom was not yet famous as The Doctor
as the series had not yet been broadcast. He was somewhat in the same
situation that Matt Smith is right now. It is also interesting since
Tim was still new to the job and hadn’t developed the ego that
tended to become less charming as he got older. 
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