Well, this is awkward. After spending the previous episode bidding farewell to the Hinchcliffe/Holmes partnership, we find ourselves with a new producer: Graham Williams, whose first story could very easily be mistaken for a Hinchcliffe story. This is to be expected, of course. The writer is Terrance Dicks (Robot, The Brain of Morbius), the director is Paddy Russell (Pyramids of Mars), the script editor is still Robert Holmes and even the regulars haven't changed with the Fourth Doctor/Leela partnership still the main focus. The Williams era will make its mark, but its fair to say that it doesn't start its era the same way that the Hinchcliffe era did, with a story unlike anything else in The Ark in Space.
But that's not to say that this is bad. The story moves along at a good pace, the darkness and horror elements are good and exacerbated by the claustrophobic nature of the setting: a lighthouse. The direction is good, with some nice POV shots from the perspective of the unknown alien attacker as we see the fear in its victim's eyes. This is all not forgetting the excellent writing from Holmes and Dicks of course, where the characters are allowed to feel realistic with arguments about the lighthouse lamp. So despite the fact that there's not been much change yet, this may not necessarily be a bad thing, and as the old saying goes: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
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