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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
- 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
- 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
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
- Pat Gorman plays half the characters.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
DVD, Video and Other Releases
Video Releases
Released as Doctor Who: Colony in Space
Released:
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
