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Serial: 4C  Episode Nos. 386, 387, 388, and 389.  Title: The Ark in Space

The TARDIS arrives on a strangely dormant space station.  Exploring, the Doctor and his friends find hundreds of people in suspended animation, but their revival systems have been sabotaged by an intruder: a giant alien insect called a Wirrn.  When the sleepers start to revive, the Queen Wirrn's larvae also awaken...

starring Tom Baker as Doctor Who, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, and Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan. Written by Robert Holmes, Produced by Phillip Hinchcliffe, and Directed by Rodney Bennett.

Originally transmitted from 25 January 1975 to 15 February 1975 on BBC1.

DVD Contents:

- Graphical menus, episode selection features, and scene selection features.
- Commentary track by actors Tom Baker (the Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah), and Producer Philip Hinchcliffe.

- Production Notes Subtitles.

- Original 4:3 aspect ratio.

- New CGI Model Sequence - The exterior shots of the Ark and its transport ship can be replaced as you view the episodes with newly-made computer-

   generated images.  You can choose to either watch all the new shots at once or let them appear during the episodes as you play them.  (The new CGI shots

   only appear within the story if you select this option.  If you don’t, you see the original unaltered episodes with the original model footage.)

- Unused Title Sequence

- Original Model Effects - Selecting this plays some film reels of the original modelwork from 1974 of the Ark’s transport ship launching and of the Wirrn

   space-walking around the Ark.

- Trailer for Episode 1 

- Photo Gallery

- Who’s Who – displays actors’ biographies

- Space Station Schematics - This selection displays a computer-generated schematic animation of the structure of the Ark.

- Howard Da Silva Intros - This selection plays a 15-minute featurette that shows all of the introductions and end-of-episode teasers narrated by Howard Da

   Silva that were used in the initial 1978 American syndication package of the first four Tom Baker seasons of the series.  (This option is exclusive to the North

   American Region 1 DVDs.)

- TARDIS-Cam- This selection plays a 1-minute modern modelwork featurette of the TARDIS having landed on a desolate planet which has the remains of a

   Cyberman’s head on it.  This is as a sort of promo for the BBC’s own official Doctor Who website at www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho  for which other TARDIS-

  Cam short subjects are made and shown. 

- Two interview featurettes.  One with set designer Roger Murray-Leach, shot recently, and the other with Tom Baker while filming on location for the next

   story that was in production after Ark, Revenge of the Cybermen.

- DVD Subtitles

- There has been only one flaw found with this disc, and it’s a pretty minor one.  If one has the subtitles selected on (either the closed captions or the production

   notes), the picture dims for about 1 second at a few various points in Parts Three and Four and also during the Howard Da Silva featurette.  This doesn’t

   happen if the subtitles are not on, and when it does happen with them on, it’s very, very brief.

-There are some “Easter Egg” hidden features built into this disc for you to hunt for.  However, if you’re not much for hunting, use your mouse to highlight the

  blank-looking area below and you’ll see how to find them.

o       There are three Easter Eggs to find.  They are the same ones that were hidden on the Region 2 UK discs, but they are hidden in different places to those discs.

o       Egg 1:  Go into the Episode Selection menu.  When you enter, if you press the “up” button you’ll see that you can highlight the Doctor Who logo on this page.  Click on the logo, and the Doctor will appear for about 17 seconds, tell you “goodbye” and that he can’t stay long because he’s going to Blackpool, and that you should brush your teeth.  A caption card for a Doctor Who exhibition in Blackpool then displays.  (This was an advertisement for said exhibition.)

o       Egg 2:  At the conclusion of the final episode, after the credits have finished rolling, the Doctor appears again in another short segment for that Blackpool exhibition that would appear to have been used at the exhibit itself as people left because he asks you to tell everybody about it, and to mind the steps. 

o       Egg 3:  In the Special Features menu, go down to highlight the Photo Gallery selection.  Now, press your left arrow and you will see a Doctor Who logo appear out of nowhere.  Click the logo, and you will see the 30-second countdown clock and slate for Part Two of the story used at the start of its master video tape.