- Colony in Space
-
Not to be confused with space colony.
058 – Colony in Space Doctor Who serial 
The Doctor takes Jo on her first TARDIS journeyCast Others- Nicholas Courtney — Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
- Roger Delgado — The Master
- Graham Leaman, Peter Forbes-Robertson, John Baker — Time Lords
- John Ringham — Ashe
- Helen Worth — Mary Ashe
- David Webb — Leeson
- Sheila Grant — Jane Leeson
- John Tordoff — Alec Leeson
- Nicholas Pennell — Winton
- John Line — Martin
- Mitzi Webster — Mrs Martin
- Roy Skelton — Norton
- Morris Perry — Captain Dent
- Bernard Kay — Caldwell
- John Herrington — Holden
- Tony Caunter — Morgan
- Stanley McGeagh — Allen
- Pat Gorman — Long/Primitive/Voice
- John Scott Martin — Robot
- Roy Heymann — Alien Priest
- Norman Atkyns — The Guardian
Production Writer Malcolm Hulke Director Michael E. Briant Script editor Terrance Dicks Producer Barry Letts Executive producer(s) None Production code HHH Series Season 8 Length 6 episodes, 25 minutes each Originally broadcast April 10–May 15, 1971 Chronology ← Preceded by Followed by → The Claws of Axos The Dæmons Colony in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 6 weekly parts from April 10 to May 15, 1971.
Contents
Synopsis
Three Time Lords meet at an observatory and discuss the theft of confidential files relating to "the Doomsday Weapon." They begrudgingly realise that only one man can help them — and the Doctor, accompanied by Jo, is temporarily released from his exile and sent in the TARDIS to the desert planet of Uxarieus in the year 2472. There he finds an outpost of human colonists living as farmers. The colony is not a success — the land seems unusually poor and recently they are being besieged by representatives of rapacious mining corporations, and more recently, ferocious reptiles. The colony's governor, Robert Ashe, makes them welcome, and explains the colonists fled a year ago to the planet to escape the overcrowding and pollution on Earth.
Two colonists die in a reptile attack that night, and the next morning a man named Norton arrives at the settlement, claiming that he is from another colony that was wiped out by the reptiles. While the Doctor is investigating the dome of the dead colonists he is surprised by a mining robot controlled by Caldwell, a mineralogist for the IMC. Caldwell invites the Doctor to talk to his bosses and hear their side of the story. His superior, Dent, is a ruthless mining engineer, who has been using the mining robot to scare and now kill the colonists - something which Caldwell finds repellent. Dent knows the planet is rich in rare minerals and wants it for IMC and his greedy troops agree that this should be done at any cost.
The original inhabitants of the planet, known to the colonists as primitives, have a truce with the colonists - but this is tested when Norton kills the colony's scientist and blames it on a primitive, whom he insists are hostile. Later, Norton is seen communicating with Captain Dent, implying that he is in fact a spy sent from IMC to further disrupt the colonists and not the sole survivor of a similar colony as he claimed. The Doctor meanwhile returns to the central dome of the colonists, having evaded an IMC attempt to kill him, and explains to Ashe that the miners are behind the deaths. An Adjudicator from Earth is sent for to deal with the complex claims over the planet - and when he arrives it turns out to be the Master. In this alias he determines that the mining company's claim to the planet is stronger.
The Doctor and Jo have meanwhile ventured to the primitive city. From images on cave walls they interpret it was once home to an advanced civilisation that degraded over time. In the heart of the city, in a room filled with massive machines and a glowing hatch, they encounter a diminutive alien known as the Guardian. It warns them that intruding into the city is punishable by death, and lets them go, but warns them not to return.
The Master's adjudication is heard by a returning Doctor and Jo. Still in the Adjudicator's guise he tells Ashe that an appeal will fail unless there are special circumstances, such as historical interest and is intrigued when Ashe tells him about the primitive city. By this ploy he finds out more about the planet and the primitive city while Ashe is drawn away from the Doctor, who begins to lose his credibility with the colonists. The Master then manipulates the Doctor into accompanying him to the primitive city.
The situation between colonists and miners has meanwhile reached flashpoint with a pitched battle between them. Dent and his forces triumph and he stages a false trial of Ashe and Winton, the most rebellious of the colonists, sentencing them to death but commuting the sentence if all the colonists agree to leave the planet in their damaged old colony ship which first brought them to Uxarieus.
Inside the city, the Master tells the Doctor that the primitives were once an advanced civilisation. Before their civilisation fell apart, they built a super-weapon that was never used - and he wants to claim this weapon for himself. The room with the machinery in the city is the heart of a weapon; so powerful that the Crab Nebula was created during a test firing. The Doctor rejects the Master's overture to help him rule the galaxy using the weapon, stating that absolute power is evil and corrupting. The Guardian appears, demanding an explanation for the intrusion. The Master explains that he's come to restore their civilisation to its former glory. The Doctor argues against him, and the Guardian recalls that the weapon led his race to decay, and its radiation is ruining the planet. It instructs the Doctor to activate the self-destruct, which he does. The city begins to crumble, and the Guardian tells them they must leave before it is too late. While the Doctor and the Master flee the decaying city, they find Caldwell and Jo, and the four get out before the city explodes.
The colonists' ship has meanwhile exploded on take-off as Ashe predicted it would. However, the colony leader was the only one to die. He piloted the ship alone to save his people. Winton and the colonists now emerge from hiding and kill or overpower the IMC men, with Caldwell having switched sides to support the colonists. Amid the confusion, the Master manages to make his escape.
With the battle over, the Doctor explains that the radiation from the weapon was what was killing their crops but this limiting factor has now been removed. Earth has agreed to send a real Adjudicator to Uxarieus, and Caldwell has decided to join the colonists. He tells them that he can help them with their power supply. The Doctor and Jo return to the TARDIS, which returns to UNIT Headquarters mere seconds after it left. Having accomplished what the Time Lords intended, the Doctor is once again trapped on Earth.
Continuity
- This is the first time since season six that the Doctor travels to another planet in the TARDIS, although it is not the first time he has left Earth; he travelled in a more conventional space ship in The Ambassadors of Death, travelled to an alternate Earth via the TARDIS console in Inferno, and briefly took the TARDIS to Axos in The Claws of Axos.
- Excepting a brief CSO shot of one wall in Terror of the Autons, this is also the first time that the inside of the Master's TARDIS (a redress of the Doctor's TARDIS set) is shown.
Production
Serial details by episode Episode Broadcast date Run time Viewership
(in millions)Archive "Episode One" 10 April 1971 24:19 7.6 PAL colour conversion "Episode Two" 17 April 1971 22:43 8.5 PAL colour conversion "Episode Three" 24 April 1971 23:47 9.5 PAL colour conversion "Episode Four" 1 May 1971 24:20 8.1 PAL colour conversion "Episode Five" 8 May 1971 25:22 8.8 PAL colour conversion "Episode Six" 15 May 1971 25:22 8.7 PAL colour conversion [1][2][3] - Working titles for this story included Colony.
- Script editor Terrance Dicks has frequently stated that he disliked the original premise of the Doctor being trapped on Earth, and had meant to subvert this plan as soon as he felt he could get away with it. He recalls in a DVD documentary interview (on the Inferno release) having had it pointed out to him by Malcolm Hulke that the format limited the stories to merely two types: alien invasion and mad scientist, and says he'd immediately responded, "Fuck Me! You're right!" (on the The Invasion release). The story is one of the first to use the show for social commentary - in this instance, the dangers of colonialism.[4]
Cast notes
See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
- Bernard Kay appears as Caldwell. This is his fourth and final appearance on the series.
- Director Michael Briant spoke the commentary accompanying a propaganda film watched by the Doctor on the IMC spaceship in Episode Two. This was a late cast change, and was originally intended for Pat Gorman – who was subsequently still credited on Episodes One and Two as 'Primitive and Voice'.
Broadcast and reception
16mm colour film trims of location sequences for the story still exist and short clips from this material was used in the BBC TV special "30 years in the Tardis" (1993).
In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Malcolm Hulke, was published by Target Books in April 1974 as Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon. This was the first serial of the 1971 series to be so adapted; as a result, Hulke breaks continuity by having Jo Grant introduced to the Doctor for the first time, even though on television her introduction was in Terror of the Autons (and this would be reflected in the later novelisation of that serial). There is another extensive Malcolm Hulke prologue as an elderly Time Lord describes the Doctor-Master rivalry to his assistant and learns of the theft of the Doomsday Weapon files. There have been Dutch, Turkish, Japanese and Portuguese language editions. An unabridged reading of the novelisation by actor Geoffrey Beevers was released on CD in September 2007 by BBC Audiobooks.
Doctor Who book 
Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon Series Target novelisations Release number 23 Writer Malcolm Hulke Publisher Target Books Cover artist Chris Achilleos ISBN 0-426-10372-6 Release date April 1974 Preceded by ' Followed by ' VHS and DVD releases
- Although the PAL mastertapes had been wiped NTSC copies were returned to the BBC in 1983 from TV Ontario in Canada. In November 2001, this story was released together with The Time Monster, in a VHS tin box set, entitled The Master. A new transfer was made from the converted NTSC to PAL videotapes but no restoration work was carried out for this release.
- The story was released on DVD in the UK on 3 October 2011. The single disc release has restored picture quality (unrestored clips, cropped and scanned into 16:9 ratio, can be seen in the "making of" featurette, giving some indication of the amount of work that was done), and contains four seconds which were missing from VHS & US masters of the story, restoring two lines of dialogue.[5]
References
- ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "Colony in Space". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2006-03-24. http://web.archive.org/web/20060324070256/http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=3h. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
- ^ "Colony in Space". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_3h.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
- ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-07-05). "Colony in Space". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/hhh.html. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
- ^ Butler, David (2007). Time and Relative Dissertations in Space: Critical Perspectives on Doctor Who. Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-7682-4.
- ^ Marcus (21 July 2011). "Colony in Space DVD release for October". The Doctor Who News Page. http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/07/dwn210711123412-colony-in-space-in.html. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
External links
- Colony in Space at BBC Online
- Colony in Space at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- Colony in Space at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
Reviews
- Colony in Space reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- Colony in Space reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
Target novelisation
- Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
- On Target — Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon
Doctor Who season 8 serials Doctor Who: The Master television stories Third Doctor Terror of the Autons • The Mind of Evil • The Claws of Axos • Colony in Space • The Dæmons • The Sea Devils • The Time Monster • Frontier in SpaceFourth Doctor Fifth Doctor Sixth Doctor Seventh Doctor Eighth Doctor Tenth Doctor Minor appearances Audio Dust Breeding • Sympathy for the Devil • MasterSee also Doctor Who: UNIT television stories Second Doctor Third Doctor Fourth Doctor Seventh Doctor Tenth Doctor "The Christmas Invasion" • "The Sound of Drums" / "Last of the Time Lords" • "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky" • "Turn Left" • "The Stolen Earth" • "Planet of the Dead"Torchwood "Fragments" • Children of EarthThe Sarah Jane Adventures Minor appearances Colony in Space • The Mutants • The Time Warrior • The Seeds of Doom • The Five Doctors • "Aliens of London"/"World War Three" • "Journey's End" • The End of TimeSee also The Web of Fear • Mawdryn Undead • Dimensions in Time • Wartime • Downtime • Auton • Auton 2: Sentinel • Auton 3 • History of UNIT • List of UNIT personnel • UNIT dating controversyGallifrey stories Second Doctor Fourth Doctor Fifth Doctor Sixth Doctor Tenth Doctor Minor appearances Colony in Space • The Three Doctors • "The Sound of Drums" / "Last of the Time Lords"Doctor Who audio dramas The Sirens of Time • The Apocalypse Element • Death Comes to Time • Shada • Neverland • Zagreus • Omega • Unregenerate! • Urban Myths • Human Resources • "Sisters of the Flame" / "Vengeance of Morbius"Gallifrey audio series Weapon of Choice • Square One • The Inquiry • A Blind Eye • Lies • Spirit • Pandora • Insurgency • Imperiatrix • Fractures • Warfare • Appropriation • Mindbomb • Panacea • Reborn • Disassembled • Annihilation • ForeverUnbound audio plays See also Categories:- UNIT stories
- Third Doctor serials
- The Master television stories
- 1971 television episodes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
