Doctor Who: William Hartnell’s 10 Best Episodes

3. The Ark

Episode: Season 3, Episode 6

Companions: Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet, Steven Taylor

The TARDIS lands on a spaceship in 10,000,000 AD. They find that the spaceship is an ark to another planet since the sun was about to expand and the Earth's new-found would be unsuitable for them. Among the humans are mute Monoids who are servants to the humans. Dodo reveals that she has a cold and various people on the ship catch it, and some die from it. The Doctor finds a cure, everyone is healed and they leave in the TARDIS. Good times ensue, the end. Or is it? The TARDIS materializes in the exact same place they left in, however they land 700 years later, where the crew of the spaceship are about to arrive at their destination. In the 700 years that have passed the Monoids have created voice communicators, and now treat the humans as slaves. The Monoids plan to kill off the humans upon their arrival at the planet, and take the planet for their own. The Doctor and his crew decide that it is up to them to help the humans and stop the Monoids. This episode is great because of the plot twist. It is really fascinating to see how time plays out. Instead of just ending the episode after two parts, the writers take it a step further and create another plot. The humans on the ark treat the Doctor as though he is legend, since all they know of him are stories from their ancestors, and even though he fights for the humans to live with the Monoids in harmony, the Monoids are set on the destruction of all human life. This episode reveal that more can change through time than we imagine.