Colony in Space (TV story)

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

Three Time Lords meet at an observatory and discuss the theft of confidential files relating to "the Doomsday Weapon." They begrudgingly realise that only one man can help them — and the Doctor, accompanied by Jo, is temporarily released from his exile and sent in the TARDIS to the desert planet of Uxarieus in the twenty fifth century. There he finds an outpost of human colonists living as farmers. The colony is not a success — the land seems unusually poor and recently they are being besieged by representatives of rapacious mining corporations, and more recently, ferocious reptiles. The colony's governor, Robert Ashe, makes them welcome, and explains the colonists fled a year ago to the planet to escape the overcrowding and pollution on Earth.

Two colonists die in a reptile attack that night, and the next morning a man named Norton arrives at the settlement, claiming that he is from another colony that was wiped out by the reptiles. While the Doctor is investigating the dome of the dead colonists he is surprised by a mining robot controlled by Caldwell, a mineralogist for the IMC. Caldwell invites the Doctor to talk to his bosses and hear their side of the story. His superior, Dent, is a ruthless mining engineer, who has been using the mining robot to scare and now kill the colonists - something which Caldwell finds repellent. Dent knows the planet is rich in rare minerals and wants it for IMC and his greedy troops agree that this should be done at any cost.

The original inhabitants of the planet, known to the colonists as primitives, have a truce with the colonists - but this is tested when Norton kills the colony's scientist and blames it on a primitive, whom he insists are hostile. The Doctor meanwhile returns to the central dome of the colonists, having evaded an IMC attempt to kill him, and explains to Ashe that the miners are behind the deaths. An Adjudicator from Earth is sent for to deal with the complex claims over the planet - and when he arrives it turns out to be the Master. In this alias he determines that the mining company's claim to the planet is stronger.

The Doctor and Jo have meanwhile ventured to the primitive city. From images on cave walls they interpret it was once home to an advanced civilisation that degraded over time. In the heart of the city, in a room filled with massive machines and a glowing hatch, they encounter a diminutive alien known as the Guardian. It warns them that intruding into the city is punishable by death, and lets them go, but warns them not to return.

The Master's adjudication is heard by a returning Doctor and Jo. Still in the Adjudicator's guise he tells Ashe that an appeal will fail unless there are special circumstances, such as historical interest and is intrigued when Ashe tells him about the primitive city. By this ploy he finds out more about the planet and the primitive city while Ashe is drawn away from the Doctor, who begins to lose his credibility with the colonists. The Master then manipulates the Doctor into accompanying him to the primitive city.

The situation between colonists and miners has meanwhile reached flashpoint with a pitched battle between them. Dent and his forces triumph and he stages a false trial of Ashe and Winton, the most rebellious of the colonists, sentencing them to death but commuting the sentence if all the colonists agree to leave the planet in their damaged old colony ship which first brought them to Uxarieus.

Inside the city, the Master tells the Doctor that the primitives were once an advanced civilisation. Before their civilisation fell apart, they built a super-weapon that was never used - and he wants to claim this weapon for himself. The room with the machinery in the city is the heart of a weapon; so powerful that the Crab Nebula was created during a test firing. The Doctor rejects the Master's overture to help him rule the galaxy using the weapon, stating that absolute power is evil and corrupting. The Guardian appears, demanding an explanation for the intrusion. The Master explains that he's come to restore their civilisation to its former glory. The Doctor argues against him, and the Guardian recalls that the weapon led his race to decay, and its radiation is ruining the planet. It instructs the Doctor to activate the self-destruct, which he does. The city begins to crumble, and the Guardian tells them they must leave before it is too late. While the Doctor and the Master flee the decaying city, they find Caldwell and Jo, and the four get out before the city explodes.

The colonists' ship has meanwhile exploded on take-off as Ashe predicted it would. However, the colony leader was the only one to die. He piloted the ship alone to save his people. Winton and the colonists now emerge from hiding and kill or overpower the IMC men, with Caldwell having switched sides to support the colonists. Amid the confusion, the Master manages to make his escape.

With the battle over, the Doctor explains that the radiation from the weapon was what was killing their crops but this limiting factor has now been removed. He and Jo return to the TARDIS, which returns to UNIT Headquarters mere seconds after it left. Having accomplished what the Time Lords intended, the Doctor is once again trapped on Earth.

Cast

Crew

References

The Master

The Master pretends to be an Adjudicator.

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.
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.

Races and species

The Uxarieans have mutated into three varieties, all psychic, the highest of which can communicate and teleport small items.

TARDISes

The Master's TARDIS is a more advanced model than the Doctor's.
The Master uses a non-lethal gas in his TARDIS to capture the Doctor.

Technology

IMC still use tape spools.

Weapons

After 500 years, firearms, rather than energy weapons, are still the preferred weapon of choice within the Human Empire.
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.

Story Notes

David Tennant was born the day after the original broadcast of Episode 2.
Director Michael Briant spoke the commentary accompanying a propaganda film watched by the Doctor on the IMC spaceship in Episode Two. This was a late cast change, and was originally intended for Pat Gorman – who was subsequently still credited on Episodes One and Two as Primitive and Voice.

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

Production 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.
In episode two the monitor screen on board their ship turns bright blue in every close up.
Dent radios Earth referring to his ship as "Survey Ship 43" but the tail is clearly labeled 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.
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.
In Episode Three, as Winton, pursued by IMC guards, falls at Caldwell's feet, seagulls can be heard.
The 23rd March 2472 will be a Thursday, not a Tuesday.

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 DW: 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 DW: The War Games.
The Doctor and Jo gain entry to the Master's TARDIS using the key the Doctor obtained in DW: 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)