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{"id":27982,"date":"2015-01-11T08:56:01","date_gmt":"2015-01-11T13:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=27982"},"modified":"2015-01-11T08:56:01","modified_gmt":"2015-01-11T13:56:01","slug":"doctor-who-the-ark-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/01\/doctor-who-the-ark-in-space.html","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who: The Ark in Space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"Ark_in_Space\"$ 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0patriarchal gender stereotypes dominant in the era in which the story was created.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"