Synopsis:
Standing beside the smoking remains of the launcher which had brought them to Refusis, Dodo wonders if she and the Doctor will be stranded here forever...
They can only hope that the Monoids will send another launcher down to the planet, if only to learn what has happened to the first.
On the Ark, Monoid Four is becoming increasingly concerned at the actions of his leader. He thinks that One may be acting irresponsibly by insisting they relocate to Refusis when its dangers are still unknown. It will be reckless to destroy the Ark until they know that it is safe to leave it.
Monoid Three alerts their leader about this growing dissent.
The Refusian discusses the situation with the Doctor and Dodo, explaining why he destroyed the launcher. The Doctor tells him of the Monoid revolution, which he thinks was justified in many ways.
In the Security Kitchen, Steven and his new friends realise that they can exploit one of the subservient Guardians to escape. When Maharis next comes in, Dassuk will pretend to be asleep and slip out into the corridor. He can then open the door, which can only be unsealed from the outside.
They are aware of the increased activity by the Monoids and suspect that they are about to begin their exodus to Refusis.
The plan succeeds, and now they must locate the bomb which they know to be hidden onboard.
The Monoids take to their launchers. One confirms that the bomb will detonate automatically in twelve hours time.
Down on the planet the Monoids discover the wreckage of Two's launcher, and this convinces Four that they are being led into danger. The creatures locate the building and find the Doctor and Dodo there. They are able to truthfully claim that they haven't seen any native beings.
The Doctor is then able to contact Steven using the communications system in one of the launchers. He agrees to send some of the machines back to the Ark so that at least some of the humans might be able to escape. The Monoids are shocked to see one of the craft lift-off with no-one aboard, as it is being piloted by the Refusian.
Maharis insists on travelling down to Refusis, whilst the Refusian stays on the Ark to help there.
In the forest, Four openly challenges One and the Monoids split into two factions. They are soon at war with each other.
When the launcher lands, Maharis rushes out, desperate to be reunited with his master, but is shot down by a rebel Monoid.
Monoid One had let slip the location of the bomb in the Doctor's hearing, and he is able to warn the Ark. The humans are unable to move the statue before the device explodes, but the Refusian manoeuvres it into an airlock and it is jettisoned into space to detonate harmlessly.
Soon only a handful of Monoids survive. One and Three are dead, but Four still lives and throws down his weapon in disgust at the internecine carnage.
The Refusian will be happy to see the people of the Ark settle on his world - but only if the humans and Monoids reconcile and agree to live in peace with each other. The Doctor reminds Dassuk and Venussa of the way in which the Monoids had been exploited by their forebears.
The time-travellers depart.
Some time later, with the TARDIS in flight, Steven and Dodo are shocked to see the Doctor slowly fading away. They can still hear his voice, however. Thinking it might be something to do with the Refusians, the Doctor warns them that it is instead some form of attack...
Next episode: The Celestial Toyroom
Written by: Paul Erickson & Lesley Scott
Recorded: Friday 11th March - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 5:15pm, Saturday 26th March 1966
Ratings: 7.3 million / AI 50
Designer: Barry Newbery
Director: Michael Imison
Additional cast: John Caesar (Monoid 4)
Had this story been made in recent years, the treatment of the Monoids by the human Guardians would have formed the main thrust of the narrative.
We see the second half attempting to mirror aspects of the first - with the Monoids acting like slave-owners whilst the Guardians had previously treated the Monoids as their servants. We also have Zentos' fear of the unknown mirrored in the Monoids' worries about what may lie in wait for them on Refusis.
As it is, the Doctor does mention this servant / slave mistreatment at the conclusion of the episode, but the story in its final stage seems more interested in presenting a straightforward "bad aliens / good humans" shoot 'em up tale.
What makes it a little special is the fact that the people doing the shooting are the aliens, and the people being shot at are the same aliens. We've seen discord amongst aliens in the past - ever since the City Administrator worked to undermine the First and Second Elders in The Sensorites - but full blown civil war breaking out is something new.
Sadly, the Monoids have been reduced to villain status, and are fairly standard ranting monsters. The humans are supposed to be the good guys - but they are terribly weak (as written and in performance) and contribute little to the resolution of the story. The Monoids destroy themselves, and the Refusian disposes of the bomb threat.
It's all a bit rushed in the end, and you can't help feel that the promise of the first half has been squandered.
The battle between the Monoid factions was one of the first things recorded for this story, on 1st and 2nd February. Seven of the creatures were assembled at Ealing, and by swapping their numerical collars there could appear to be a great many more of them. As well as the four principal speaking Monoids, we also see numbers 6, 9, 21, 33, 45, 63 and 77. The actors also swapped sides in the battle, in different scenes, to help swell their ranks.
The model shots were filmed on 4th February. The movement of the statue was achieved very simply, without recourse to strings which might show up on screen. A VFX assistant raised the model manually by holding the base, their hand out of shot below the picture. When the statue was at a certain height, with the top now out of shot, the assistant took hold of the head and let go of the base, which could now move into picture.
For its destruction, the 2-foot high prop was simply pulled out of the Ark model and a bright light was superimposed to save on actually breaking the model.
On the evening of Friday 11th March, just as he was about to go into the gallery to direct the episode, Michael Imison was informed that his contract with the BBC was not going to be renewed. As previously mentioned, there was some animosity towards him from Drama Department head Gerald Savory, after he had directed a serial featuring Savory's wife. At the time, however, Imison thought the decision was due to his over-runs.
Up until this point, episodes of Doctor Who had, for the most part, been recorded in story order. Very occasionally - such as in The Brink of Disaster - certain shots had been recorded out of sequence and edited in later. Even the location filming was edited onto the episode at the point when those scenes would be seen by the audience.
Imison decided to record this final instalment very much out of sequence, basing his work on the sets rather than the narrative.
The first scene recorded was the episode ending in the TARDIS, with Peter Purves and Jackie Lane wearing the outfits they would be wearing in the next story. Hartnell was filmed against a black backdrop for his disappearance into invisibility.
The action then switched to the Refusian dwelling, and all scenes using this set were recorded. After the battle sequences and the model shots of launcher landings had been edited in, recording resumed on the kitchen set.
Scenes on the Ark then followed, with the final sequences of the evening being those set on Refusis, after the large launcher prop had been moved from the Ark.
This manner of recording meant six recording breaks were planned through the course of the evening. In the end, a total of eight were needed.
Unfortunately some of the inlay shots failed to work, such as when the tops of Guardians' heads disappeared when standing in front of the large command deck screen.
This was Paul Erickson's only contribution to Doctor Who. He continued to write for a great many episodic serials until his death in 1991. He also novelised this story for Target Books. He and Lesley Scott had long since gone their separate ways, and he tended to sidestep any talk about her involvement in the writing of the story.
With The Bomb, John Wiles, who passed away in 1999, departed from the BBC to return to freelance work. He had never felt comfortable as producer, much preferring writing and direction. His vision for Doctor Who had been for high-concept, hard science-fiction stories, but the imposition of a twelve-part Dalek story in the middle of his first season, and the realities of producing a complex show with the time and budget available, had quickly disillusioned him.
He had actually resigned only a matter of weeks into his contract, with his Story Editor Donald Tosh - who very much shared his vision - opting to leave alongside him, though he in fact got to leave earlier, after the third instalment of The Massacre.
The Ark was the one story of his tenure which Wiles felt matched what he wanted to do with the series.
Further stories in the season would have seen their input, but both would very much disassociate themselves from the finished programmes - as we'll see next time.
- The ratings see another upswing of more than a million viewers, whilst the appreciation figure remains stable. This episode made the top five children's TV for the month.
- The statue was made by sculptor John Friedlander, who would go on to design and make many iconic Doctor Who aliens, including Draconians, Ogrons and Davros.
- The critic of Television Today was one of those who claimed they would miss the Monoids, though they were less enamoured of the story overall, thinking it "jerky" and hard to follow.
- This episode was one of those selected to represent the Hartnell era in 1983 at the National Film Theatre, when a season of archive episodes were shown under the banner of Doctor Who - The Developing Art.
- When it came to overseas sales of the story, close-ups of the Monoids appear to have been a sticking point. Such images were cut for broadcast in both Australia and New Zealand. The closing TARDIS scene was cut for broadcast in the US when the story was sold there in the 1980's.
- The Monoids never were marketed as toys or as comics characters, as Michael Imison hoped, though they did have a bizarre afterlife in 2013. One of the creatures appeared at Verity Lambert's leaving party in 50th Anniversary drama An Adventure in Space and Time, only to be cut from the finished programme. Its inclusion wouldn't have made any sense anyway, as Lambert had left long before The Ark was produced...
- Then, just a few weeks later, a puppet Monoid appeared, Punch & Judy style, in The Time of the Doctor...
- And finally, a wonderful retro-style poster by artist Oliver Arkinstall-Jones reimagines the story as a 1950's sci-fi movie - the alliterative "Rocket to Refusis":
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