Doctor Who had explored the scenario of humans sending an ark into space to survive the possible destruction of our planet, in the episode The Ark from the era of the First Doctor. In that episode, the stories about Noah and the ark have been completely forgotten. In this episode, the leader of the humans on the ark, Lazar, has been nicknamed Noah as an amusement, saying it is a name from mythology. Symbolism of resurrection is poignantly present, not only in the name of the leader, but also in reference to all humanity being asleep, “awaiting the trumpet blast.”
The Doctor discovers that a species known as Wirrn are present on the ark, laying their eggs in victims. To depict the transformation process, the episode famously used spray-painted bubble wrap, and this continues to serve as a go-to example of the low-budget special effects on Doctor Who.
While it is easy to simply treat the Wirrn as horrifying monsters, we are eventually told that the Wirrn had been killed and driven from Andromeda, and so the hijacking of the last humans in order to survive has a karmic element to it.
The episode depicts the supreme commander of Earth, in a recorded message, as being a woman. Harry Sullivan expresses surprise at this. Although it did not do so consistently, Doctor Who, like all good science fiction, challenged patriarchal gender stereotypes dominant in the era in which the story was created.
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