Doctor Who: Every Tom Baker/Hinchcliffe Era Story Ranked From Worst To Best

2. The Ark In Space

While Pyramids of Mars is one of the bleakest stories, The Ark in Space is one of the more optimistic. This story all hinges on a human desire to fight for what€™s right no matter what the cost and suggests that they will always pull through no matter the struggle. Noah€™s humanity is strong enough to keep him fighting the alien which takes over his body and finally allows him to win against it to save his people. If this era was to be charted, from here at the beginning to The Talons of Weng-Chiang at the end, it definitely saw a very steep downfall into bleakness from here. It€™s as though this episode is the optimistic precedent for the series that the era spends its whole time challenging. By the time the Robots of Death comes as the penultimate story, Commander Uvanov simply wants the mining operation to be a success despite the murder of the three of his crew and it takes more and more to bring out the humanity in him. The effect of this story has rippled throughout the way Doctor Who is written. The "indomitable" speech served as the main reference point for the Doctor€™s view on humanity throughout his incarnations and bought out what gave him his fascination with planet Earth. Furthermore, the threat in this story is largely existential. While viewers know the effect that the Wirrn will have, it focuses more on the characters themselves and their struggles against it. This would also set the precedent for Doctor Who as a whole and Hinchcliffe€™s desire to focus more on characters and emotion rather than attempting spectacle on a low budget. It€™s this which this story thrives on and what enlightened every writer as to what Doctor Who was really about.