The Ark in Space 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 Beacon commander as Noah was
Noah's Ark (2007 film) him to build an ark, upon which he will board his family and two of every animal, to survive the world-enveloping flood He will send. Noah then informs his family. Already unhappy with Noah's leadership, they assume he has lost his mind, particularly when he fashions a model of the ark out of mashed potatoes and begins cutting down his father's forest for lumber to build it. Noah sells his home to the greedy merchants Farfan and Esther for a flock of pigeons to deliver messages to all the animals of the world. However, the birds immediately abandon their task