"The Ark" wrapup

Hello everyone, the Historian here, on the horns of a dilemma. How to go back and wrap up a story that we finished watching just over a month before? I am still determined to catch up, however, and I owe you all a post for this story!

When I say "story," I, of course, mean two small stories joined by a single setting in the scripts written by Paul Erickson (though joint credit was given to his wife, Lesley Scott, everything I've read says she didn't actually do much writing). The idea is fine; as others have pointed out, in the days when an audience had no idea how many parts a story would last (no internet! at this point, no full story titles, even!), the idea of the crew seeming to finish the adventure, leave and then come back hundreds of years later was surprising and fun! Unfortunately, in practice, you get a nice little, if oversimplified, two-parter with minimal characterization, followed by an overstuffed two-parter with, essentially, no characterization. (And, of course, with one of the most ridiculous lines ever spoken on Doctor Who: "Take them to the Security Kitchen.") As I've mentioned in the episode posts, I'm pretty sure that this is the first Hartnell story I ever saw in full and I have fond memories of it being charming and fun, many of which were borne out in seeing it again this time. But those memories don't make me blind to its shortcomings either. I'll direct you to the episode posts for more details. As a final story note, the elephant scene, even seeing it all these years later, is still absolutely magical!

On the production side, this story marked the end of the tempestuous tenure of producer John Wiles. As the second producer of Doctor Who, Wiles had the uncomfortable task of taking over from Verity Lambert around the same time the original cast had broken up, all of which reportedly upset William Hartnell terribly and the star (according to all reports) took a lot of that out on his new producer. Wiles hadn't really wanted to produce the show in the first place, and had been especially unhappy at being stuck with the twelve part Dalek story, and his relationship with Hartnell had put the finishing touches on his unhappiness. With this story, he joins story editor Donald Tosh (whose last televised credit was on "The Massacre") in leaving the show in new hands. Those hands, producer Innes Lloyd and story editor Gerry Davis, would see Doctor Who through some of its most important days to come...

But, enough of that! Here are the individual episode posts, so you can see what the Project team had to say.
"The Steel Sky"
"The Plague"
"The Return"
"The Bomb"

Here's the official BBC episode guide for the story and, for the full story I alluded to above as well as other behind-the-scenes info, here's the "Brief History" page.

Next up, one of the odder stories of the Hartnell era, and one where there was some division in the Project team's opinions! Posts coming very soon! Until then, I remain

THE HISTORIAN

"The Bomb"

Hello everyone, the Historian here, continuing my attempts to catch up to what the Project is actually watching. I'm only three episodes behind now, so I have hopes! I'm still going to be doing the truncated summaries, which are actually working well enough that I'm thinking of sticking with this format--which is closer to what we started with anyway. What do you, the readers at home, think?

So, on 17 June, 2011, I was joined by Ketina, Ronelyn, Schmallturm, Photobug and Cz, when we watched the last episode in this story. So, without further ado, let's get to the summary!

"The Return"

Hello everyone, the Historian here with another catch-up post. As I said last time, I'm having to forgo the detailed summaries I've been writing up for the past year or so in order to catch these posts up to where the Project has gotten to. I hope to go back and add full summaries at some point, but hopefully this will help me get back on track.

On 10 June, 2011, I was joined by Ketina, Ronelyn, Spoo, MiniSpoo, Photobug and Cz, as we returned to the giant Ark spaceship about to arrive at Refusis II. So, let's get to the (truncated) summary!

"The Plague"

Hello everyone, the Historian finally here. Let me, first and foremost, apologize deeply for the huge delay between posts. I have plenty of excuses, but none of that matters. I can only say that I will try to be more prompt in the future. Getting "meta" for a moment, I can say that what has been tripping me up has been the high level of detail in my summaries--they do take a lot out of me! The solution I've come up with, to try and catch people up with the discussions (which are actually the point of this whole thing) is to do a summary in a few sentences for now. I may go back later and insert longer summaries later. I will also include links to the episode transcripts that have helped me get the level of detail lately. Again, I apologize to our readers and the Project members.

Now, several weeks ago I was joined by Ketina, Ronelyn, Schmallturm, Spoo, MisterMother, Photobug and Cz to watch another episode aboard the ship to Refusis II. Let's get to the summary!

"The Steel Sky"

Hello everyone, the Historian here, welcoming you back to the TARDIS Project and apologizing for how irregular posts have been lately. Life has been a bit complicated lately and I can only say I'm sorry and hope to get things out regularly. Hopefully we haven't lost too many of you readers!

Anyway, getting back to this episode, I was joined by Ketina, Ronelyn, Schmallturm, Spoo, MisterMother, Photobug, Cz and SpookyGirl. We were also honored to be joined not only by seven year old MiniSpoo, but also by almost-six year old ElfGirl, for whom this was her first ever Doctor Who episode! What did she think? Well, for now, let's get to the summary!