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!
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