Doctor Who XII.5-8: The Ark in Space (DVD, 'Special Edition')

[parrot_knight]

The new edition of 1975 serial The Ark in Space arrived this morning; and me being me, it was straight to the production information subtitles, a new set having been written for this release by Martin Wiggins, whose written commentary is rightly described in the notes as "a masterclass". The individual episode titles from John Lucarotti's version

Comments

[daniel_saunders]

Interesting: I knew about Puffball, but assumed Golfball was another Miles/Wood error/bad joke.

[parrot_knight]

More intriguingly, this isn't (as I and others had always supposed) a legacy of John Lucarotti's memories of writing for the Hartnell era, but seems to have been a reflection of Holmes's intention to return to the custom of giving each episode an individual title. Some other serials commissioned in 1974 apparently have them too.

'Golfball' refers to the climax of the Lucarotti version of The Ark in Space, where the Doctor practices his golf swing on the autonomous heads of the fungal Delc, having electrocuted their bodies and left the Ark smelling of fried mushrooms.

[daniel_saunders]

Also interesting! I like the individual episode titles of the Hartnell era and was glad to see them return in 2005 (even if it did lead to new fans treating two-part stories as two separate entities...) and would have been interested in an earlier return.

the Doctor practices his golf swing on the autonomous heads of the fungal Delc, having electrocuted their bodies and left the Ark smelling of fried mushrooms

I can see why Holmes re-wrote it...