Colony in Space (TV story)

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Colony in Space was the penultimate serial of season 8 of Doctor Who. It was narratively significant for being the first off-Earth story recorded in colour. It was the first time that any companion had travelled in the TARDIS with the Doctor since The War Games, and naturally, therefore, Jo Grant's first visit to another planet. It also introduced the Interplanetary Mining Corporation (IMC), which would later feature in a number of stories in other media. The Virgin Missing Adventures novel, The Menagerie, would retcon a link between The Space Pirates and Colony through the IMC. Subtextually, the script was Malcolm Hulke's intentional science fictional comment upon the struggle between European settlers and Native Americans.[1]

Colony was also the first Doctor Who directorial assignment for Michael Briant, who had previously been a production assistant, amongst other things, during the Innes Lloyd and Peter Bryant producerships. Briant would later direct some of the most iconic serials of the 1970s, including The Robots of Death and The Sea Devils.

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

The Time Lords discover that the Master has stolen their secret file on the Doomsday Weapon, and decide to allow the Doctor temporary control of the TARDIS for him to deal with the situation. The Doctor is showing Jo around the TARDIS for the first time when it spontaneously activates and dematerializes. Jo is frightened at first, but the Doctor is energized at the prospect of being, temporarily at least, free from the bounds of imprisonment on Earth.

They arrive on the planet Uxarieus in the year 2472, where they encounter a struggling agrarian colony from Earth. Their crops are failing without explanation, the outer settlements are being attacked by a mysterious monster, and they fear they will lose their charter in favour of the powerful and corrupt Interplanetary Mining Corporation. Almost coincidentally, a man arrives claiming to be the last survivor of another colony that was wiped out, further disheartening the colonists. Even more coincidentally an IMC mining ship lands nearby, claiming mineral rights to the planet - Uxarieus is rich in the much-needed mineral duralinium - and are 'shocked' to discover an agrarian colony already there. Surely an Adjudicator would have to be summoned from Earth.

The Doctor investigates and discovers the 'monster' is actually an IMC robot (with a holographic device to create the image of an enormous lizard). The refugee colonist is actually an IMC employee, who then creates further problems when he vandalizes the colony's power supply. The IMC ship's Captain Dent attempts to force the colonists to leave, first with implied and then overt threats. Armed hostility erupts between IMC and the colonists before the Adjudicator arrives. Much to the Doctor and Jo's surprise, the Adjudicator is actually the Master, donning the disguise in order to discover the location of the Doomsday Weapon, which was developed by the ancient ancestors of the mute Uxariean primitives and is hidden somewhere on the planet. Jo is kidnapped by the primitives and taken to an underground city. The Doctor follows and discovers the Guardian, overseer of the city and the last of the ancient Uxarieans. The Doctor reasons with the Guardian, and he lets them go free provided they never return to the city.

The Master rules in favour of IMC, and the colonists are forced to abandon the planet and leave in their spaceship, despite their fears that the ship is in too poor condition. Jo watches in horror as the ship explodes shortly after takeoff.

The Master discovers the Doomsday Weapon, which can cause any star in the Universe to go supernova, in the Guardian's chamber. He intends to use the threat of the Weapon to rule the Universe and offers the Doctor a partnership, but the appalled Doctor declines. The Doctor successfully convinces the Guardian that the Doomsday Weapon is responsible for the fall of the Uxariean civilization. The Guardian then allows the Doctor and Master to leave, and destroys himself, the Weapon, and the ancient city. The Master escapes, but the Doctor and Jo are overjoyed to learn that the colonists are safe; they escaped shortly before takeoff except for their leader Ashe, who sacrificed himself to launch the ship. Dent and his henchmen are overpowered by the colonists, and there is enough evidence of Dent's illegal activity to ensure the real Adjudicator will rule in their favour. The radiation from the Doomsday Weapon was the cause of their crop failures, and the Doctor ensures the colonists that their future is now secure. The TARDIS returns the Doctor and Jo to UNIT seconds after they left.

Cast

Crew

References

The Master

Organisations

  • 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

Technology

  • IMC still use tape spools.

Weapons

Story notes

  • David Tennant was born the day after the original broadcast of Episode Two.
  • Director Michael Briant voiced the commentary accompanying a propaganda film watched by the Doctor on the IMC spaceship in Episode Two. This part was originally intended for Pat Gorman – who was subsequently still credited on Episodes One and Two as Primitive and Voice.
  • Briant had intended that the role of Morgan be played by Susan Jameson. However, he was overruled by Head of Drama Serials Ronnie Marsh, who believed that a woman in that role wouldn't be appropriate for a family audience, (REF: The Third Doctor Handbook) as it might impart an unintended sexuality to some scenes. Because she was already signed to a contract when Marsh got involved, she was still paid her full salary.[1]

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

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • 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 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.
  • 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.
  • In the last scene of episode six, after the Brigadier has repeated his "come back at once" line, the shadow of a crew member can be seen projected across his front.
  • In episode four, when the diminutive leader of the Primitives exits from the wall, its puppeteer, particularly his hand, is clearly visible.

Continuity

  • This is the first time since DW: The War Games that the TARDIS travelled 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 travelling 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.
  • The Doctor himself poses as an earth magistrate, the Examiner, on the planet Vulcan in The Power of the Daleks.

Timeline

Comic strip adaptation

  • The opening scenes of episode 1 were adapted as a two-page comic strip illustrated by Frank Bellamy in the 10th April 1971 issue of Radio Times.

Home video and audio releases

VHS releases

Released as Doctor Who: Colony in Space

Released:

Novelisation and its audiobook

1DoomsdayWeapon.jpg
Main article: Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Shannon Sullivan on Colony in Space

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