Talk:The Ark (Doctor Who)

Lesley Scott

Was Lesley Scott really trying "to break into screenwriting" as this article suggests? What's the source for that? CzechOut 22:44, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Michael Sheard

Features a guest appearance by Michael Sheard.

Was Sheard billed as a guest star at the time (I think the Radio Times often gave featured guest stars a near top billing) or was this just an early role for someone who later became famous? Timrollpickering 19:03, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Lesley Scott

As Lesley Scott didn't write this story despite being credited on it, she doesn't really meeting the notability requirement for writers. Her own article is only a paragraph about her non-authorship of this story, so I suggest moving the content into this article instead. Whouk (talk) 15:53, 1 July 2012 (UTC)

I agree. Judging from her article, she has basically zero claims to notability; all the content about her is really about this story, so it should simply be merged into this article. Robofish (talk) 15:20, 30 September 2012 (UTC)

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GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

This review is transcluded from Talk:The Ark (Doctor Who)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Rhain (talk · contribs) 06:30, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: Olliefant (talk · contribs) 21:01, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Lead

• [companions] [Steven Taylor] is an MOS:SOB error
• "Erickson, who wrote the scripts" Erickson being the writer is stated in the first paragraph, also if Erickson wrote the script what role did Scott play?
  • The next sentence clarifies her credit, hence the reiteration that Erickson wrote the scripts. ☔

Production

• "due to the twelve-part The Daleks" -> "due to the twelve-part serial The Daleks"
• Delink "zip" and "pots"
  • zip is apparently best known as zipper in American English (where zip is the verb), so I think it's safer to link. ☔
• "Dry-ice" is two words not one
  • Its usage here was as a compound modifier (dry-ice mist), though the MoS doesn't specify its necessity so I've removed. ☔
• I think it should be stated that "Compact" is a series and not another Doctor Who serial
• Write out "clothes peg" for clarity
  • The ref only calls it a "peg"; I assume it's the same but am hesitant to rephrase. ☔

Reception

• "first third-season serial to still exist in its entirety" what do you mean first?
  • The first in release/chronological order; the first, second, third, and fourth serials all have missing elements. ☔
• I think its worth mention there was alternate cuts produced for international releases
• "third-season" should be "third season" for consistency
  • Hyphenated is correct; it's a compound adjective. ☔
• It says "Viewership steadily increased" yet there was a dip from two to three

Commercial releases

Looks fine

Notes

• Note B seems trivial
  • Maybe a little, but that's why it's only a footnote. ☔
• What is the relevence of note D? Lloyd ins't mentioned in that section
  • Just to make the point that Lloyd was particularly happy with Beale's work in the serial. ☔
• I think notes E, G, and H could be incorporated into the prose. H in particular as it helps give context to audience perception of the episode
  • I'm hesitant to add an indiscriminate list of countries per MOS:TVINTL, so G seems more appropriate as a footnote. The audience perception already seems pretty clear in prose; the footnote is just for additional context. ☔

References

• "Doctor Who in Time and Space: Essays on Themes, Characters, History and Fandom" the year range has an MOS:DASH violation

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by HurricaneZeta (talk) 15:02, 28 January 2026 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that a baby elephant who starred in The Ark was kept in a van outside the director's home the night before filming?

• Source: Wright 2018, p. 50

• • ALT1: ... that the first woman to receive a writing credit on Doctor Who may not have actually written anything? Source: Wright 2018, p. 46; Brunt 2024, p. 544; Frankel 2018, p. 3
  • ALT2: ... that the Monoid performers in The Ark could move their ping pong ball eyeballs with their tongues? Source: Wright 2018, pp. 48–49
    • ALT2a: ... that actors playing one-eyed aliens in the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Ark used ping pong balls in their mouths as eyes?
  • ALT3: ... that Dodo's costume in the final scene of The Ark was the first appearance of a miniskirt on British television? Source: Smith 2011, 1:36:40
  • ALT4: ... that Dodo's accent was changed in The Ark after concerns about a character not speaking good "BBC English"? Source: Wright 2018, p. 53
  • ALT5: ... that while rehearsing The Ark, Michael Sheard offended William Hartnell by calling him "Billy"? Source: Smith 2011, 38:52
  • ALT6: ... that shortly before filming the last episode of The Ark, the director was told that his contract was not being renewed? Source: Wright 2018, p. 57
  • ALT7: ... that The Ark marked the first time that Doctor Who failed to chart in the top 100 since its first ever episode? Source: Wright 2018, p. 59
  • ALT8: ... that the sixth serial of Doctor Who's third season is the first to exist in its entirety? Source: Muir 1999, p. 123
  • ALT9: ... that reviewers compared the hairstyles of a Doctor Who monster to those of the Beatles? Source: DVD Talk, IGN, Total Sci-Fi Online, SFX
  • ALT10: ... that a Doctor Who serial has been compared to the Race Relations Act 1965 and the Spanish flu? Source: Crome 2013, pp. 178–179; Brake 2021, p. 85
  • Reviewed: Hubert H. Humphrey Building
  • Comment: May be worth holding this until the 60th anniversary of this serial's first episode, 5 March (or its last episode, 26 March).

Improved to Good Article status by Rhain (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 97 past nominations.

– Rhain ☔ (he/him) 21:22, 21 January 2026 (UTC).

• ... that actors playing one-eyed aliens in the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Ark used ping pong balls in their mouths as eyes Source: Wright 2018, pp. 48–49

Cnbrb (talk) 00:55, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, added as ALT2a above. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 03:46, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

• I'll review this. ミラP@Miraclepine 18:17, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

General: Article is new enough and long enough
New enough: Long enough:

Policy: Article is sourced, neutral, and free of copyright problems
Adequate sourcing: Neutral: Free of copyright violations, plagiarism, and close paraphrasing:

Hook eligibility:

• Cited: - Outside of ALT9, none of the hooks have anything directly verifiable as WP:DYKCITE requires. I'd prefer quotes for this case.
• Interesting:

QPQ: Done.

Overall: Promoted to GA yesterday - so quickly the GA icon hasn't even appeared! Prose size 21 KB. Prefer ALT2a > ALT9 > ALT0 as more interesting to a broad audience than to Doctor Who fans. ALT1/3/7/8 are too based on superlatives. @Rhain: fix the issues and you're good to go. ミラP@Miraclepine 20:21, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the review, Miraclepine. Here are quotes from the sources:

• ALT0: "Born in Sri Lanka around 1954 and brought to Ireland by Chipperfield's Circus in 1956, Monica was apparently touring the UK with Sir Robert Fossett's Circus and Zoo in the north of England, and the night before the shoot had been kept in a van parked outside Imison's flat overnight, since the BBC would not give permission for the driver to park on their premises." (Wright 2018, p. 50)
• ALT1: "Erickson's agent asked the BBC to amend the writer credit from being solely Erickson to a co-credit between Erickson and his then-wife Lesley Scott, although most documentation does not bear her name. The script copyright, established in 1966, attributes the scripts solely to Erickson" (Wright 2018, p. 46); "She will be credited as co-writer on all four episodes of The Ark, although it is uncertain how much – if any – involvement she has in the writing." (Brunt 2024, p. 544); "Writers Lesley Scott (The Ark), Barbara Clegg (Enlightenment), Paula Woolsey (Attack of the Cybermen) and Rona Munro (Survival)" (Frankel 2018, p. 3)
• ALT2/a: "In four of the costumes, a peg inside the skin allowed the actor to move the ping-pong ball eye about with his tongue." (Wright 2018, pp. 48–49)
• ALT3: "It is the first ever appearance of the mini-skirt on British television." (Smith 2011, 1:36:40)
• ALT4: "Jackie Lane's accent was already different from the broad northern tones that Dodo had sported in The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve. This was because after recording Lane's first episode, concern had been expressed about a character that did not speak good 'BBC English'." (Wright 2018, p. 53)
• ALT5: "During rehearsals, Michael Sheard offended William Hartnell by calling him 'Billy'." (Smith 2011, 38:52)
• ALT6: "Just before recording The Bomb, Michael Imisonw as informed that his contract with the drama series and serials department was not being renewed and believed that this was due to his overruns in studio." (Wright 2018, p. 57)
• ALT7: "The declining ratings during The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve continued and hit The Steel Why which, for the first time since 100,000 BC took Doctor Who outside the Top 100 Rated Programmes for the week." (Wright 2018, p. 59)
• ALT8: "All four parts of 'The Ark' still exist today, the first serial of Season 3 to have that distinction." (Muir 1999, p. 123)
• ALT10: "The message of 'The Ark' is that surviving the apocalypse will never lead to a creation of human society as it was in its pre-apocalypse days ... Rather, continuing life after the apocalypse leads inherently to the creation of new communities and new trials ... In the context of national debates of immigration following the 1965 Race Relations Act, this suggestion might seem particularly worrying for the future unity of the British state." (Crome 2013, p. 179); "'The Ark' reminds us of the real horror of a plague threatening to annihilate the human race during the Spanish Flu pandemic between 1918 and 1919." (Brake 2021, p. 85)

Please let me know if you need anything else. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 21:07, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

No need. This'll all do. ミラP@Miraclepine 21:12, 22 January 2026 (UTC)