Doctor Who and how to tell a good mystery: The Classic Series structure

The Ark in Space is a virtually perfect example of how Doctor Who would tell its story over several weeks. But why?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Of the many genres that Doctor Who has used over the years, the mystery genre is, in some ways, one of the most common. We look at how well it’s been used, particularly in the Classic Series, and how the serial format used it.

One thing I’ve realized about Doctor Who is that it’s a series that has often fully embraced the mystery format. Not simply in terms of the crime genre, but in a much broader way.

This really leapt out to me while listening to The Dispossessed. When the story begins, you’re not sure what’s going on. And in fact, you’re left wondering what’s going on for a good long while.

Doctor Who has often had a strong element of mystery to it. Even back in the earliest days of the series, when the TARDIS crew arrived somewhere, they wouldn’t know anything about it. Where they were and when would only be the start of it. Because usually, something strange would be going on, and they’d need to find out what.

Take The Ark in Space, for example, which is perhaps one of the greatest Doctor Who stories ever made. In the first episode, the TARDIS crew have no idea what’s going on. They’re not sure where they are, why it’s so dark, or even why there’s hardly any air when they arrive.

In fact, The Ark in Space gives so many more clear example of how well Doctor Who used the serialized structure of the Classic Series in order to tell a good mystery. Let’s take a deeper look.

Raising questions

We mentioned that the first episode basically introduces the mystery. This is actually common to many other serials. For the first part of a story, there would usually be far more questions given than answers, at least at first.

Often, this episode would be used to introduce guest characters too, but not always. The Ark in Space actually averts this entirely by focusing on the Fourth Doctor, Sarah and Harry for the whole first episode. It’s not a bad way of introducing the mystery and the plot slowly before introducing anyone else.

The second episode may give some answers. But usually, it would be more focused on either character or simple plot development. Perhaps even introducing more questions than before.

For example, the second episode of The Ark in Space introduces us to several new characters, including Vira and Noah. It also lets us have more a glimpse of the alien in the story, without finding out what it actually is, and has something strange happen to Noah that not only leaves us guessing, but leads into one of the best cliffhangers of Doctor Who ever.

It might just be green spray paint and bubble wrap, but The Ark in Space’s cliffhanger for part two is still awesome.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

When to answer questions (and when not to)

Part three is usually around the point that, in a four-part story at least, questions would start to get answered. Not all of them, but at the very least, most. We’d start to get a good idea of what’s going on.

Going back to The Ark in Space, the Doctor and his companions started to learn a lot more about what they were up against. They learned about the Wirrn, about what they were after and even their weaknesses. So that’s a perfect example of how third episodes usually worked.

Finally, for the last episode, along with resolving the story, any key remaining questions would usually be answered. The Ark in Space had really just one major question left – i.e. why the Wirrn wanted to destroy the humans, which was actually a pretty solid reason – but that was about it.

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Overall, The Ark in Space is a perfect example of why the four-part structure of the Classic Series worked so well in terms of telling a mystery: keep the first part focused on raising questions, keep the story flowing in part two, answer a lot of questions in part three before wrapping everything up in part four. It’s a structure that’s not only worked well in the Classic Series, but has been used for quite a few great Big Finish stories, too.

That sounds really basic, and yet some stories weren’t able to pace their exposition well. Take Day of the Daleks, for example. While I absolutely love its story, it does save far too much of its exposition for one key scene in the final episode.

Conversely, Warriors of the Deep arguably reveals far too much of what’s going on in the first episode, even signposting the ending. For something like Doctor Who, or really just storytelling in general, it’s better to let the answers flow more naturally over the course of the story.

Do you think the Classic Series had the right template when it came to telling great mysteries and letting them unfold? Which story do you think used it best? Let us know in the comments below.