Doctor Who:
Colony In Space
By Malcolm Hulke
“Then we must restore his
freedom for as long as it serves our purpose.”
The Time Lords have sent
the The Doctor and Jo on an errand for them.
They have noticed that The Master has stolen the plans for The Doomsday
Weapon and need The Doctor to stop him from getting his hands on the weapon and
thus putting the universe in his hands. The Time Lords dump The Doctor and Jo on the
planet Uxarieus where he discovers that the colonists are in a bitter dispute with
the mining company IMC. IMC wants the planet desperately and will do
anything to get it so they can mine duralinium which is one of the richest
minerals in the universe.
The despute has gotten
heated as colonists have been ending up dead killed by an IMC robot with animal
claws attached to it. It has gotten
pretty heated on both sides as it has gotten pretty violent to the point where
an Adjudicator has been called in to settle the dispute between both parties. The problem is this adjudicator is not what he
seems. In fact it is The Master and he
could care less of the squabble between the two groups as he is only interested
in the old city of the planets inhabitants. A city that is home to the most
destructive weapon in the universe The Doomsday Weapon.
After watching a brilliantly
done and excellent 6 part story in “The Mind of Evil” I was greatly disappointed with “Colony in
Space”. In all fairness the story is
your typical colony struggling to get a foothold while a big business like
company holds them down which is a plot device that has been done before and
much better. It is also a story against
strip mining also as it is the Seventies and there is a big movement for environmental
causes starting up.
The best part of the story
was Jo’s reaction to traveling in the TARDIS for the first time and being
scared of being on an alien planet. It
was great seeing her thinking the Doctor was just eccentric and did not really
travel in time and space. The conversation
she has with The Doctor telling him she was scared was pretty good as that hasn’t
been done before. It is a really good
scene and one of Jon Pertwee’s and Katy Manning’s best.
What is disappointing about
this story is that The Master does not show up until episode 4. It almost seems like an afterthought to
include him. That’s the impression I got
that this story was written before the came up with The Master season and
decided to add him into it. Otherwise
this story could have been better if it was shorter at that point as it just
felt like it was dragged out. Lots of
filler and back and forth between IMC and the colonists that seemed just a
waste considering it came from the guy who gave us the Silurians and Sea Devils.
This story was quite disappointing considering
how well good season is. I guess they
all can not be good but this one is just plain dull and boring and very
lifeless and a waste of a good character The Master not being utilized
correctly and wasting Roger Delgado's performance. By all means this is not the worst Master
story but it sure is pretty close to it.
Grade D+
No comments:
Post a Comment