“The Ark in Space” is one of the greatest Doctor Who stories ever made, and as such, it is filled with great moments. These include Noah slowly taking his hand out of his pocket. The Doctor and Vira finding Noah half-consumed by the Wirrn. Sarah crawling past Wirrn in an incredibly claustrophobic conduit. These are all extremely memorable moments from a classic story.
But there is one moment that stands out. It doesn’t add anything to the plot, but it’s still one of the best moments of the classic serial. At the very least, it’s a moment that highlights exactly how strange and alien the Doctor truly is. It’s the classic “indomitable” speech.
For context, the Doctor and Harry explore Space Station Nerva, looking for Sarah Jane who has disappeared. In the process, they discover what has happened to the human race following a great disaster. In a huge area containing hundreds of bodies, they discover that the survivors of the human race (or, as revealed in the next story, the elite) have kept themselves in stasis for thousands of years, waiting for the Earth to be habitable again. This leads to one of the Fourth Doctor’s best speeches, which begins at 2:55 in the clip below.
Alien admiration
There are two reasons why this speech stands out. First, it shows how much the Doctor admires the human race, but in a very outside way. At this point, the Doctor is still a very alien character, and this speech brilliantly highlights it. The Doctor doesn’t see himself as one of us because he isn’t. He comes from a far more powerful and ancient race, and this speech reminds us of that.
And yet at the same time, the Doctor isn’t looking down on the human race. Quite the reverse. It’s clear that, even with extremely limited resources, he’s genuinely impressed, perhaps even amazed at how humanity can survive virtually anything.
The other reason this classic speech stands out is of course Tom Baker’s delivery. It’s amazing to think that this is only his second story in the role. Robert Holmes has given him this fantastic speech, and Baker delivers it perfectly. We hear the Doctor’s sense of admiration, amazement, perhaps even a little bit of dread when he describes the human race as “indomitable”.
When we listen to him deliver this speech, he convinces us that he is truly alien, a complete outsider to the human race and even beyond. Decades later, it’s a speech that still delivers chills when listening to it, and was even referenced by Russell T Davies in the Tenth Doctor episode “Utopia”. 50 years on, it's still one of the Fourth Doctor’s most iconic moments.