Colony in Space (TV story)

Colony in Space
Doctor:	[[doctor::Third Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Jo Grant Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (cameo only)
Main enemy:	The Master Captain Dent of the IMC
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.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
• Jo Grant - Katy Manning
• The Master - Roger Delgado
• David Winton - Nicholas Pennell
• John Robert Ashe - John Ringham
• Eric 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
• Jim 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.

That would be not too far off from the description given of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire in DW: The Long Game.

• In a discussion between the Doctor and the Master, it is revealed that the Earth's sun will explode about 10,000,000,000 years from the point of this story.

As the Master is specifically referring to the moment the Sun explodes, this figure may or may not be in conflict with other episodes' statements about the Solar System's future. In particular, one might wonder how this figure compares to the one given in The End of the World and The Ark.

Story Notes

• David Tennant was born the day after the original broadcast of Episode 2.

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

• The manner of TARDIS dematerialization and rematerialization is quite different to how it had been depicted during the 1960s. Both TARDISes in this story "pop" in and out of frame, rather than fading in and out. Given that TARDISes would return to "fading" after this serial, the depiction here can be seen as an error.

• IMC still use tape spools. In Genesis of the Daleks, the Kaleds use Magnetic Tapes, so its not beyond the possibilty that goverments have returned that medium for storage (much like records/vinyls becoming popular again in the 21st Centaury in our world)

• In episode two the monitor screen onboard their ship turns bright blue in every close up.

• The Brigadier is fortunate that when he walks to where the TARDIS vanished and tells it to 'come back at once', that it does so in a different corner of the room.

• Jo's scepticism about the TARDIS being mobile is odd as she saw it dematerialize in the last story.

• If the Master was so ready to kill the Doctor at the end of episode four, why does he use a non-lethal gas when the Doctor goes into his TARDIS? He only learns that the Doctor can guide him into the primitive city after he releases the gas

• Dent radios Earth referring to his ship as "Survey Ship 43" but the tail is clearly labelled 157.

• When Jo and the Doctor are sneaking into the Master's TARDIS, the Doctor jostles one of the doors that had the alarm beam. This would certainly break the beam. And why does the Master's alarm use a light beam instead of going off when the door is opened? Besides, given the placement of the beam, it would have been broken until the doors were open. The alarm should have gone off the second the Master closed the doors.

• When Morgan finds the key to the Master's TARDIS, the "ground" it is on is a flat concrete floor with a little sand thrown on it.

Continuity

• This is the first time since DW: The War Games that the TARDIS traveled to another planet.
• From the Brigadier's perspective, the Doctor and Jo were only away from UNIT headquarters for a matter of seconds. It is thus the only televised example of Rose Tyler's admonition to her mother in World War Three that the TARDIS is "a time machine. I could go traveling around suns and planets and all the way out to the end of the universe, and by the time I get back, ten seconds would've passed. Just ten seconds."
• This story gives us a glimpse of Time Lords on Gallifrey. Time Lords are again depicted as wearing black and white robes, as they were in The War Games.
• The Doctor and Jo gain entry to the Master's TARDIS using the key the Doctor obtained in Terror of the Autons. However, the Doctor appears not to have the key at the conclusion of this story.
• This is the first time Jo Grant sees the interior of the Doctor's TARDIS. Much of the first half of episode one revolves around Jo's adjustment to her new status as a time/space traveller. Though having been the Doctor's companion for some time, she reveals that she never really believed that the Doctor could travel in time and space until this story. Thus, this story has many features of the traditional "first story" for a new companion.
• The Adjudicators are expanded upon in NA: Lucifer Rising and Original Sin.

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)

Novelisation

Main article: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon

• 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