Colony in Space (TV story)

Colony in Space
Doctor:	[[doctor::Third Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Jo Grant Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Main enemy:	The Master
Main setting:	Earth; circa 1970s Uxarieus; 3rd & 4th March, 2472
Key crew
Writer:	Malcolm Hulke
Director:	Michael Briant
Producer:	Barry Letts
Release details
Story number:	58
Release number:	Season 8
Premiere broadcast:	10th April - 15th May 1971
Format:	6 25-minute Episodes
Production code:	HHH

Synopsis

The Time Lords discover that the Master has stolen their secret file on the Doomsday Weapon and decide to send the Doctor to retrieve it for them.

The TARDIS takes the Doctor and Jo to the desolate planet Uxarieus in the year 2472. There they become involved in a dispute between some beleaguered colonists and the crew of an Interplanetary Mining Corporation (IMC) spaceship over the ownership rights to the planet. The Doctor learns that the indigenous Primitives and their High Priests worship a large machine tended by a creature called the Guardian.

The Master meanwhile arrives in the guise of an Adjudicator sent from Earth to decide the fate of the planet. He forces the Doctor to take him to the Primitives' underground city, where they learn that the machine is in fact the Doomsday Weapon, capable of destroying entire planets. Its radiation emissions have brought about the decline of the Guardian's race and are also responsible for the crop failures that the colonists have been experiencing.

The Doctor persuades the Guardian to destroy the Weapon rather than let it fall into the Master's hands. The two Time Lords get clear just in time as the machine explodes, and the Master then escapes in his TARDIS. The colonists, meanwhile, attack the IMC men and force them to surrender.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
• Jo Grant - Katy Manning
• The Master - Roger Delgado
• Winton - Nicholas Pennell
• Ashe - John Ringham
• Leeson - David Webb
• Jane Leeson - Sheila Grant
• Norton - Roy Skelton
• Mary Ashe - Helen Worth
• Martin - John Line
• Mrs. Martin - Mitzi Webster
• Primitive and Voice - Pat Gorman
• Robot - John Scott Martin
• Time Lord - Peter Forbes-Robertson
• Time Lord - John Baker
• Time Lord - Graham Leaman
• Caldwell - Bernard Kay
• Captain Dent - Morris Perry
• Morgan - Tony Caunter
• Holden - John Herrington
• Allen - Stanley McGeagh
• Long - Pat Gorman
• Alec Leeson - John Tordoff
• Guardian - Norman Atkyns
• Alien Priest - Roy Heymann
• Colonist - Pat Gorman
• Rogers - Terry Walsh
• Extra - Brian Gilmar
• Extra - Valentino Musseti

Crew

• Assistant Floor Manager - Graeme Harper
• Costumes - Michael Burdle
• Designer - Tim Gleeson
• Film Cameraman - Peter Hall
• Film Editor - William Symon
• Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
• Make-Up - Jan Harrison
• Producer - Barry Letts
• Production Assistant - Nicholas John
• Script Editor - Terrance Dicks
• Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
• Studio Lighting - Ralph Walton
• Studio Sound - David Hughes, Tony Millier
• Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
• Title Music - Ron Grainer
• Visual Effects - Bernard Wilkie

References

• The Master pretends to be an Adjudicator.
• The Master's TARDIS is a more advanced model than the Doctor's.
• The Time Lords secretly send the Doctor to Uxarieus, since they're aware that the Master has stolen the Doomsday Weapon report and the file on the planet.
• The Uxariens have mutated into three varieties, all psychic, the highest of which can communicate and teleport small items.

Organizations

• IMC has a mining contract for Uxarieus.

Planets

• The Doctor recognises the planet Uxarieus.
• Earth during this period is home to 100 billion people, and is polluted, with a repressive government.

Story Notes

• The TARDIS pops in and out rather than fading in and out. (It has been suggested this is because it was under the Time Lord's control)

Ratings

• Episode 1 - 7.6 million viewers
• Episode 2 - 8.5 million viewers
• Episode 3 - 9.5 million viewers
• Episode 4 - 8.1 million viewers
• Episode 5 - 8.8 million viewers
• Episode 6 - 8.7 million viewers

Myths

• The main action of this story takes place on the planet Exarius. (The name given to the planet in Malcolm Hulke's script for Episode One is Uxarieus.)

Filming Locations

• Old Baal Clay Pit, Carclaze, Cornwall
• BBC Television Centre (Studio 3 & 4), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

to be added

Continuity

• The Adjundicators are expanded upon in NA: Lucifer Rising and Original Sin.
• This is the first time since DW: The War Games that the TARDIS has been to another planet.

DVD, Video and Other Releases

Video Releases

Released as Doctor Who: Colony in Space

Released:

• UK November 2001 (As part of the Master box set which also contains The Time Monster)
• Australia December 2001 (As part of the Master box set which also contains The Time Monster)
• US January 2003 (The only place it is available separately)

Target Novelisations

• This story was novelised as Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon in 1974 by Malcolm Hulke.

External Links

• Official BBC Episode Guide forColony in Space
• Outpost Gallifrey Colony in Space page
• The Doctor Who Reference Guide detailed synopsis of Colony in Space
• A Brief History of Time (Travel) Guide to Colony in Space
• The Locations Guide to Doctor Who - Colony in Space
• The Tardis Library see here [1] and here [2] For video release information