a single episode of Doctor Who until 2007's "Voyage of the Damned" placed second for both that week and the entire year. The highest rated episode (in terms of viewing audience) is Part Four of City of Death. The story was edited and condensed into a single omnibus edition, broadcast at 6:35 pm on 20 August 1975 and reached 8.2 million viewers. The compilation was included on the Special Edition DVD release of the story. Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping gave the serial a favourable review in The Discontinuity Guide (1995), writing, "The Ark in Space rises above the dodginess of the effects by treating its themes so seriously it's a possible influence on Alien (1979)". This was a view echoed by Steven Moffat, prior to the broadcast of the 2014 Doctor Who Christmas Special; replying to a question on borrowing material from the Alien films, he countered with "they never asked Doctor Who to borrow the plot of The Ark in Space". In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker wrote that the story "contains some of the most horrific material to have been featured in the series up to this point". They praised the set design and the dramatic tension, as well as the effects of the Wirrn. In 2010, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times was positive towards the series' turn towards horror, writing that the poor effects were successful in conveying what they intended. Mulkern also praised the cast. DVD Talk's J Doyle Wallis gave the serial three and a half out of five stars, calling it "a neat little slice of science fiction adventure". Reviewing the 2013 rerelease for the same site, Ian Jane gave it four stars, saying that it was "a lot of fun" despite the production values being a "mixed bag". Will Salmon of SFX rated the serial four and a half out of five stars, calling it "brimming with confidence". Salmon wrote that the concept of the Wirrn were so terrifying that the poor effects did not matter. In an analysis of apocalyptic themes in Doctor Who, academic Andrew Crome highlighted the explicit religious influences on the writing of The Ark in Space. He considered the eponymous Ark to be an analogue of the Biblical story of Noah's Ark, the ancient flood myth related in the Book of Genesis, and that the naming of the Nerva