Doctor Who - Colony in Space Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I figured its time for another review and this one will be on a Doctor Who story for a change, as I've been watching quite a few of them lately from the original series from the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker eras. So, the idea was for me to catch up on the stories I've not seen from the Pertwee era and this was one of them.

Now, Colony in Space (written by series regular of that time, Malcolm Hulke) isn't that well regarded by many fans, who see it as a pretty dull story and a letdown for Pertwee's first story that takes place outside Earth as most of his era saw the Doctor exiled on Earth by the Time Lords. But is Colony in Sapce really that bad?? Well, let's take a look.

So, I will issue the usual warning...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!! 

STORY

So, the story begins with the Doctor and Jo taking a surprise flight in the TARDIS for the first time together, as unbekwonst to the Doctor, the Time Lords are piloting his spaceship to an alien planet named Uxarieus on a special mission. As the TARDIS arrives on the planet, the Doctor and Jo soon meet some human colonists who are farmers trying to grow crops by failing to do so. However, the colonists lead by Ashe (John Ringham) tell the Doctor that some of their number are being killed by reptiles but they also met with some resistance from the alien natives of the planet known as the primitives. The colonists also are met with some resistance by the IMC, Inter-Planetary Mining Corporation, who are lead by the callous Captain Dent (Morris Perry) and its not long before fighting breaks out between the farmers and the colonists. 

However, as the resistance continues, Dent then calls for an Adjudicator from Earth to arrive and resolve the differences between the farmers and the IMC. However, as the Adjudicator arrives, we see it is a familiar figure, the Master (Roger Delgado) who poses as the Earth adjudicator with fake credentials, but he is really after something on the planet, that will allow him to carry out his plan for universal domination...

THOUGHTS

Despite not being considered one of the better stories of the Pertwee era, Colony in Space actually somewhat surprised me as despite some lagging in its pacing, its actually quite an ejoyable story for the most part. The story's main plot involving a conflict between two parties on the alien planet, the colonists and the IMC for the most part held my interest and even the somewhat unsurprising appearance of the Master (as he appeared in EVERY story this season!) naturally helps prop up the story when it does lag. The story's introduction for Jo to travel in time and space was also well done as despite her initial anxiety, she soon adapts to her new surroundings very well and this begins to show Jo's growing maturity in her role.

PERFORMANCES (no notable scenes this time!)

As for the performances, the cast all do very well here but I will not really mention any notable scenes as there is a big cast and I won't cover all of them, just a select few. 

For starters, Jon Pertwee is great once again in his role as the Doctor, who takes delight in finally getting a trip in the TARDIS to an alien planet, despite not knowing its being controlled by the Time Lords. And Jon provides his usual mix of commanding presence, warmth, drama and humour all rolled into one, as well as his usual traits such as saying "my dear chap", "you know" to a lot of things and of course his mandatory neck rubs when the Doctor says something that's awkward for him. The Doctor also plays yet another important part in trying to negotiate for the protagonists in this story, as he has in quite a few already up to this point. 

Katy Manning is also excellent in her role as Jo Grant, the Doctor's trusty companion and also a member of UNIT, who is alarmed by the surprise trip to an alien planet but she soon adapts well to the situation. Katy also is starting to settle very nicely into her role and begins to really play the part with more maturity here than before, as she takes control of the several situations in the Doctor's absence. 

Roger Delgado is also great once more in his role as the Master, who pretends to be an authoritative figure from Earth called the Adjudicator, who is to preside over the matters of the colonists and the IMC. Delgado's entrance into the serial is somewhat late, however as he doesn't appear until the second half of the story but his presence is always a welcome one in any story and he looks to enjoy himself in his imposter role as the Earth adjudicator and presiding over the fate of the colonists and the IMC.

As for the supporting cast, John Ringham is very good in his role as Ashe, the governor of the colonists, who seeks the Doctor's help and is also somewhat manipulated by the Master. Ringham's character, Ashe also plays a very important part later on in the story, which will greatly effect the survival of the colonists but I won't sat more than that for now.

Nicholas Pennell also is pretty good as Winton, one of the stubborn colonists, who sparks civil war with the IMC, as he tries to take control of the colony as they learn they have been manipulated by the IMC lead by Captain Dent. 

Bernard Kay however provides the best supporting performance here as IMC miner, Caldwell, who is sympathetic to the miners and reluctant to carry out the ruthless orders of the IMC under Dent's command. I'd also say out of the supporting characters, he was probably the most memorable. Kay himself previously appeared in other stories from the William Hartnell era, namely The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Crusades. 

Morris Perry also is very good in his role as Captain Dent, the ruthless and cold IMC leader, who tries to quell the resitance from the colonists and his stern features are perfect for the role itself. Perry in fact almost resembles the American actor, Donald Sutherland at times and died at the ripe old age of 96 back in 2021. 

Tony Caunter also does well in his role as Morgan, another ruthless IMC officer and second in command to Captain Dent. Caunter himself would later on appear more memorably in the BBC soap drama, Eastenders as Roy Evans, a car dealer, who ends up in a romance with series regular, Pat Butcher. 

And last of all is a rare in-person appearance of Roy Skelton, who usually voiced the Daleks, but here he plays the character of Norton, who is (SPOILER!!!) a devious double agent working from the IMC but pretends to gain favour with the colonists. 

DIRECTOR

As for the director, Michael E. Briant, he does a good job for the most part here, however there are of course same pacing issues with the story as it does drag at times with some repetition of the action shown between the conflict of the colonists and the IMC. This is also an issue where it does show that 6 episode stories, such as this one, can tend to outstay their welcome but more on that soon. As for Briant however, he was one of the series stalwart directors, who worked on plenty of other stories in this era and Tom Baker's era even, and even though this isn't one of his best, its still a decent directorial effort overall.

MUSIC 

Moving onto the music score, it was once again composed by the series regular composer, Dudley Simpson, who provides another full electronic score, which he performed by himself and its not bad and features of course the Master's familiar sinister theme. The series producer in the Pertwee era, Barry Letts, later said that Simpson found writing and recording the electronic music himself provded too exhausting, so for the remaining seasons, Simpson would work with other musicians when composing his scores. Overall though, even if its not too memorable, its still a decent score for the story.

FLAWS

As for flaws...yes, Colony in Space certainly isn't perfect.

So, for starters, I think the main problem here is that the story being six episodes, is simply too long and the pacing of the story suffers badly at times as a result of this, which can make for some duller moments in the story itself. This results in a lot of padding when it comes to the conflict between the miners and colonists, as they have several shootouts in later episodes, which get's kind of boring and repetitive pretty quickly. 

I also felt the arrival of the Master took a bit too long in the story, as he doesn't show up until the second half in episode 4 (I think!) which was also a bit disappointing and a result of poor pacing. However, at this stage, the Master's constant appearances in this season (season 8 of the original series and Pertwee's second) got to be quite predictable at this point, so it was just a matter of time before he would show up!

I also thought that the alien race in the story, the primitives are pretty boring overall, as they don't do much other than slowly lumber around most of the time or wield a spear now and then. This, is also very notable in the scenes where Jo and the Doctor are held captive and they are given plenty of time to escape from their cell as the primitives are so slow to move or do anything to stop them! Plus their make-up is also pretty goofy looking, especially the make-up of their leader, who is much smaller and wears a naff looking mask. 

Another issue I had was to do with how the Time Lords did NOT let the Doctor that they were going to let him use the TARDIS for this trip but instead they just did it in a clandestine manner and wait for the Doctor to test out his TARDIS once again to see if it will work! I mean given the fact they were so concerned about the Master stealing confidential information that could lead to him gaining universal domination, I think it would have been more prudent for them to let the Doctor know about it in the first place, but nope, they just let him saunter off instead without any help!

And last of all (WARNING BIG SPOILER AHEAD!) its funny how the colony governor, Ashe, was able to fool Captain Dent into thinking that all the colonists were onboard their doomed spaceship after Dent forces them to leave, despite the fact he was the only one onboard the ship at the time. I mean, you'd wonder if they wouldn't have access to other video camera feeds from the ship to see if there were others onboard or even if Dent was remotely bothered to do a head count of the colonists just in case something was a miss. However, in the end Dent does care and is just glad to allegedly to see the colonists leave the planet, one way or another. 

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Colony in Space is a somewhat underrated story from the Pertwee era imho as it tells a fairly enjoyable story of a conflict between two groups on an alien planet and again the regular cast of Pertwee, Manning and Delgado are all excellent. The story also features a solid supporting cast particularly with good performances from John Ringham as Ashe, Morris Perry as Captain Dent and Bernard Kay as Caldwell. 

The story is of course not perfect and does have some issues with its plot and slow pacing at times and it feels too long at six episodes and would have worked better at four instead. However, those issues aside, Colony in Space is really not that bad and if you go with low expectations, you might ending just enjoying it. 

So, I will rate Colony in Space:

6.8 out of 10 

So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post, which might possibly be another Doctor Who one, we'll see. 

Until the next one, its bye for now! 

Lies of P Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, figured its time for another review as we are into October now and its been a while since I've done one and I've decided to review a game I recently completed, the action adventure game, Lies of P, which is another Soulslike video game that pays homage to Bloodborne and also the story of Pinnochio.

So, how does Lies of P stack up compared to the Soulsborne video games? Well, let's take a look...

STORY 

So, a bit about the story of the game, which is based loosely on the Adventures of Pinnochio written by Carlo Collodi and sees its main character, P, a silent puppet, rewakened by a voice and exits a train cart into the city of Krat. Krat was previously a flourishing city only then to be ravaged by a rare petrification disease that turned the people into essentially walking dead called caracases. The city has also seen its puppet inhabitatns effected by a strange frenzy that turns them hostile and resulted in a massacre of the city's population. 

So, P is summoned by the voice of a woman named Sophia, who tells him he must find his creator named Geppetto in order to help them out and then make their way to one true safe haven in the city left, Hotel Krat. However, in order for P to reach Geppetto, he must first fight his way past the hostile puppets and more powerful puppet enemies that stand in his way...

THOUGHTS

As far as Soulslikes go, Lies of P is a very solid and enjoyable game and one that pays as much homage to the acclaimed Fromsoft RPG, Bloodborne as it does to the story of Pinnochio. The game also makes good use of its period settings that give a Victorian-esque time feel albeit with the characters having mixed accents of English and American (as well as Italian!). The combat also borrows alot from the Souls format with a similar mix of weapons, powerful enemies and of course boss fights but does it in its own unique way that keeps its own formula fresh. And unlike the Souls games it also offers some morale ambiguities where P has to make choices at key moments to either lie or tell the truth, which helps keep the Pinnochio theme going, the only difference though is P's nose doesn't grow when he lies! Lies or not, this is still a really solid game.

GAMEPLAY  

As for the gameplay, the game adopts a similar challenging style of combat to the Soulsborne games but also adds some of its own ideas while also adopting the third person perspective for the action but I'll say more on the gameplay in the sub sections below.

COMBAT & WEAPONS

So, in terms of combat mechanics, P can perform strong and light attacks with each weapon and in addition to this, he can perform parries and block attacks with his own weapon, which will cause P to take some damage but he can restore it with a counterattack. P can also perform backstab (or more like back slash) attacks on sneaking up behind enemies for further damage. P can also perform rolls and dodges to evade incoming enemy attacks but this will of course drain his stamina. P can also break enemies weapons are several strikes depending on the strength of enemies themselves. 

As for the weapons, P has a good array of weapons to select from as he works through the game, you will pick up different melee weapons as he goes but you will start with the choice of just one initial weapon. So, each starting weapon will be of a different class with one for strength, one for balance (essentially a quality weapon in the Souls games) and one for dexterity. In a unique feature of the game however, P can also swap out weapon handles and use them with different blades, which will give weapons different abilities and movesets. The weapons available feature a mix of longswords, greatswords, axes, daggers, clubs, halberds and spears. 

P will also have his own unique mechanical arm called a legion arm, which has special abilities, and you can craft new arms for P at Hotel Krat as you progress through the game. The legion arm can perform different attacks such as fire and lightning attacks as well as perform grapple attacks and these can be modifed and created at the Hotel with the use of specific items. P can also use items called legion cartridges, to restore the usage of your arm's capabilities as P uses the arm in combat.  

FABLE ARTS 

Another unique feature in the game are fable arts, which are the special skills that can be used on different weapons to perform powerful attacks or strikes. P himself will need to however collect fable catalysts, which he can use on himself in order to use the weapon's fable art skills, some of which can also change the shape of weapons. As you progress through the game, P can also gain more fable slots that will allow him to reuse his fable skills but you can also restore his fable gradually on defeating enemies. 

ERGO AND STATS

As for the game's currency, its known as Ergo, which is a blue energy source that is dropped from enemies after P defeats them, which he can use to buy items or level up his stats. Also as P's character upgrades his levels, the amount of Ergo required will rise as well, simialr to the other Soulslike games and the Souls series themselves. 

Moving onto the game's stats, there are six main stats in the game that are vitality, that relates the amoutn of health P has, vigor, which connects to P's stamina. Then there is Capacity, which relates to the equipment load that P can carry, Moitivity, which is to do with strength, Technique which relates to dexterity and finally Advance, which boosts your elemental damage e.g. acid, fire or lightning attacks. Also as mentioned above, these stats can be upgraded and the amount of Ergo required will raise as you do so and P can upgrade himself via the character Sophie at the main hub of the game, which is Hotel Krat. 

THROWABLES AND CONSUMABLES

In terms of throwable items, this is basically Lies of P's answer to ranged attacks, as P can carry so many items at once that he can throw at enemies. These items include containers of fire, lightning or acid as well as other items as saw blades, sharp pipes, grenades and short puts. P however can only carry a limited amount although this can be increased by upping your skill tree level at Hotel Krat. 

As for consumables, P can also use items to restore his health or cure him from certain status ailments, which will effect him throughout the game. In terms of heath restoration, P's primary source are pulse cells, which he will gain more of as he progresses through the game but he can also use certain cubestones that do the same. P will take different types of damage as well in the game such as corruption, which is like poison, break damage, shock, which is lightning damage and worst of all is disruption, which will outright kill P if the disruption bar reaches full. So, P can take items such as attribute purification ampoules to cancel out these damaging ailments. 

HOTEL KRAT 

As for Hotel Krat itself, this is the central hub of the game similar to Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls or the Hunter's Dream in Bloodborne. So, here P can talk to several characters, who have questlines that he can follow or he can buy items from or sell to, as well upgrades his weapons and level himself up via Sophie. The hotel will also have many rooms that branch off in different directions and lead out to different areas of the game, which will unlock themselves as you progress. 

P ORGAN SKILLS & GOLD COIN TREE

There are also another couple of key aspects to the gameplay, the first being the P Organ skills, which are essentially a skill tree that can be unlocked during the game after a certain point. From here, P can upgrade many different abilities such as offensive and defensive capabilities as well upgrades to the ites he can carry or the ability to heal himself. The tree itself however can only be unlocked via the use of a special item called quartz, which P can collect in different areas of the game or from fighting powerful enemies or bosses.

As for the Gold Coin Tree, this is a special tree where P can collect golden coins that regrow on it, which he can talk to an NPC, which you can purchase special items from known as cubestones. These cubestones will also grant P different abilities such as stamina regen or HP recovery as well as restorative or enhancements to your summonable NPC during boss fights known as Spectre. 

STARGAZERS 

In terms of the travelling between different areas, P can use special devices known as Stargazers, which are essentially the game's version of the bonfires from Dark Souls, which allow P to fast travel between different points of the game. P can also perform other tasks at the stargazer as well such as switch his legion arm, store weapons or assemble them from different blades and handles. 

ENEMIES AND BOSSES

As for the enemies and bosses, there are plenty to be found in the game but they are mainly split into three different categories of humans, puppets and caracasses. The human enemies are generally of two rebellious factions known as the Stalkers and the Bastards, where as the puppets are a mixture of basic mechanical puppets that wield melee weapons such as swords or in some cases also guns, to far more powerful puppets that can deal greater damage. As for the carcass enemies, these are humanoid enemies that have been infected by the petrification disease and essentially almost like the infected in The Last of Us that are either standard or powerful elite versions that deal greater damage.

Boss wise, there are also plenty of bosses to be found here as P will face a mixture of powerful bosses to fight that are a mix of the above enemy type. The bosses usually start with the health bar and have two phases, which change at roughly half health but later bosses will have two separate health bars and will provide a greater challenge. The boss difficulty is certainly mixed here but there is a fairly decent challenge level here to be found all the same in line with the other Soulslike games.

LIE OR TRUTH SYSTEM

And last of all is the lie or truth aspect of the game, where P will be forced to either tell a lie or the truth when faced with a certain situation or NPC. This can also have an affect on the outcome of the game's ending depending on which choices P makes as essentially, the more P lies, the more human it makes him appear as puppets are seen as being incapable of lying. Also depending on P lying or telling the truth to different NPCs, he will gain different items that can be useful. 

GRAPHICS

Moving onto the game's graphics, Lies of P is quite a stunning looking game as it features beautiful environments and very solid character models. The game's environments are also very varied in choice as P will navigate abandoned train stations, beauitful hotels and other buildings, dilapidated buildings and factories as well as poison swamps. As for the character models, they also look very good and are step up from the models seen in the Souls game, which look pretty dated by comparison. 

MUSIC 

As for the music score, Lies of P, it was composed by Korean composer, Silun Lee and overall its quite a good one and features some good tracks. However compared to the soundtracks of the Fromsoft Souls games, it pales by comparison in terms of quality overall and even to the soundtrack of the similar Soulslike released at the same time, Lords of the Fallen, which was phenomenal (albeit Lies of P is the better game of the two imho!). Despite this though, the score does have some highlights particularly the theme for the boss, Laxasia the Complete, which is excellent and also the Hotel Krat main theme, which is poignant and haunting all at once. So, its a pretty good score in all even if not a world beater.

FLAWS

As for flaws...yes Lies of P isn't quite perfect.

For starters, I felt that the game at one point made some annoying choices that made things shall we say pretty difficult at one stage in the game. So, without TRYING to giving it away for sake of not spoiling things, there is a boss you need to fight (wont say who!) and at this point you are cut off from fast travel to other stargazers, so you can't buy any items and have to depend on farming nearby enemies for random items of use. So, this really annoyed me at the time as I was left with just 8 pulse cells for healing and that's all! So, I felt this was a really stupid decision by the developers to make, which really does leave gamers high and dry at this stage in the game.

I also felt the ranged weapon options in the game were distinctly lacking as you had to resort to purely using throwable items such as saw blades, pipes, or fire or lightning containers to throw at enemies from afar. This is further compounded by the fact that P can only hold so many, before you need to go and buy some more, which inevitably means you need to farm more ergo to get them in the first place! So, its a pity that didn't come with more effective ranged options than they did here, as even some guns or other projectile weapons would have been a good option (although the legion arms do offer a limited soultion to this).

I also found the boss difficulty again was a bit of mixed bag at times, as some bosses were very easy but others were frustratingly difficult but this is of course nothing new in Souls games. However, I did feel that the final boss for e.g. (won't say their name!) was somewhat lacking in challenge compared to the previous boss before them (again won't say who!). So, it would have been good if the final challenge in itself was a greater one, although there is apparently another boss at the end that does indeed offer greater challenge, which I didn't fight. 

The game is also guilty at times of some very frustrating runbacks to bosses, which is not a problem so much early on but much later into the game, it does become an issues, as there are some very annoying enemies you need to pass in order to get to certain bosses. So, I felt like boss runback definitely became an issue as the game went on. 

Another issue I had to do with the game, was the question of weapon durability as some weapons really had low durability (mostly the smaller or dex based weapons) but I was shocked also to find even some of the more potent weapons such as the bone cutting saw, a greatsword, was at breaking point with relative ease at one point! You can of course use grinder to repair your weapon, but it would be nice if they felt more durable than they are but I guess I just miss the infinite durability weapons had in Elden Ring! 

Last of all, I also felt the game is just a bit too long toward the end, as without giving anything away, you do have one massive climb up a big tower in order to get to the final boss but it feels like it takes FOREVER to get to the end of it! Also, the path up to them can be quite annoying at times to cope with as well, so that adds to your problems. So, I think towards the end, the game does slightly wear out its welcome and I was easily about 60 hours of gameplay by the end of my first run. 

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Lies of P is overall an excellent Soulslike Action RPG, that offers a solid experience with plenty of challenging combat as well as unique features that help make it stand out over other games. It has a stunning visuals with some good character models and a decent soundtrack that features a mix of different styles in places. There are of course some gameplay issues and choices made here than can be frustrating to deal with at times such as lenghty runbacks, mixed boss difficulty and illogical developer choices too(!). But that all aside, this is still a very enjoyable Soulslike game that will keep you entertained and challenged for many hours.

So, I will rate Lies of P 

8.8 out of 10

So, that's it for now and I will be back soon with hopefully another review fairly soon.

Until then its bye for now!