The Ark in Space

Frozen humans, squishy bugs, and bubble wrap body horror — welcome to the future.

Extended Storyline

Our heroes materialize on Nerva Beacon, a space ark designed to preserve humanity while Earth gets a cosmic spring cleaning. Unfortunately, things haven’t gone smoothly: the crew is still snoozing in their cryo-beds, and the place is starting to feel like a haunted house with a slightly higher tech budget.

While Harry blunders about pressing random buttons (medical officer, remember), Sarah Jane accidentally gets herself frozen in suspended animation. The Doctor and Harry, proving to be about as useful as a flat battery, spend ages trying to revive her, which includes Tom Baker delivering lines somewhere between Shakespeare and a Monty Python sketch.

But the real trouble? The Wirrn. Imagine giant space insects with a taste for human flesh and an unfortunate fondness for body-horror reproduction. Their life cycle involves turning people into bug incubators wrapped in clingfilm and bubble wrap — which looked hilarious in 1975 and still manages to be deeply unsettling today.

Noah, the Ark’s commander, is infected by a Wirrn grub and slowly mutates into a bubble-wrapped monstrosity. His transformation scenes are peak 70s Who: half horror, half Blue Peter craft project. As the Wirrn swarm Nerva, the Doctor rallies the awakened humans with one of his best speeches: humanity, despite its flaws, is stubborn, brilliant, and somehow worth saving. (Basically, the Doctor’s pep talk doubles as Tom Baker’s audition for “Greatest Doctor of All Time.”)

In the end, Noah sacrifices himself by luring the Wirrn into a shuttle and blowing them up — tragic, yes, but also slightly funny when you remember he’s basically a man covered in bubble wrap waddling into space. Humanity is saved, the Doctor looks smug, and Sarah Jane and Harry probably vow never to trust a “safe nap” again.