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"I have an appointment to see Dr. Fleischmann at 3:45. My prescription ran out a week ago, and what started out as a rash has become an exoskeletal shell."

Stories like “The Ark in Space” emphasize how idiotic the BBC was for not sinking more money into what has become one of Britain’s flagship television programs.  Once again, Doctor Who boasts solid writing, sharp performances, interesting, economical production design, and really sorry monster effects.  Conceptually, the Wirrn are a classically creepy creepy-crawly race of alien baddies: giant insects who feast on human flesh for physical sustenance as well as mental absorption.  The setting is also classic sci-fi: a ship full of cryogenically frozen people, survivors of a cataclysm waiting to resettle their world after a long, long sleep… if only they aren’t killed by the alien invaders.  Modern viewers might balk at a scenario that seems to lean heavily on Ridley Scott’s Alien, before noting that “The Ark in Space” predates that film by several years, and the tropes that inform it had been around well before that. Read the rest of this entry »