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
- 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.
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.
- Although The Daemons followed this story in broadcast order, in many ways Day of the Daleks provides real continuity with Colony. Indeed, it is not until Day, the Season 9 opener, that we find out that the Doctor's TARDIS has not, in fact, been fixed. Because the Doctor was more interested in tinkering with Bessie at the top of Daemons, viewers had to wait across the season break to discover that Colony was just a one-off ride in the TARDIS.
- 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:
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
