Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Who Reviews Colony in Space by Matt Rabjohns



"I'm afraid you're about to
become the victims of stray bullets...!"​
From a very strong season of Doctor Who, with Terror of The Autons and The Daemons and the brilliant Mind of Evil, it might be very hard for the other tales to come close to those excellent stories. But Colony in Space is highly entertaining and actually quite brilliantly done.
I love the fact that the Time Lords are portrayed as totally devious hypocrites is really good. After their decrying the Doctor's lamentable tendency to interfere with people and planets, here in this story they want to send him to interfere! What a gang of absolute two-faced hypocrites! This makes them as a race fascinating and joyous to watch, and indeed Robert Holmes would later take them to even higher heights of deceit and degradation as well. Then later than that the new modern era would make them just as bad as the Daleks in all honesty.
My own major quibble with this story is why the Primitive ruler didn't just destroy the doomsday weapon himself if it had brought so much trouble and death to his world. But maybe he wouldn't kill all his people who were still inside the weapon and worshipping it and sacrificing to it, I don't know, but it is a little bit of a plot hole, but doesn't have nowhere near as many as new series episodes that's for sure. ​
But in all other respects, this story is very engaging. And the theme of battling between the colonists and the ugly pig headed and psychotic miners is done almost to perfection, in Ashe we have a highly sympathetic leader figure for the colonists. That he later gives his life to save his colony too proves what a superb and selfless character he is​
But my favourite character has to be Helen Worth as Mary Ashe. She's very young here, but she's really flipping good. She's one of those apparently feeble looking Girl characters, but actually has quite a heart in her when needs be. I really like that she seems to quickly bond with Jo and it’s nice to see on screen.
Also, there are the three sublime performances given by Morris Perry, Tony Caunter and Bernard Kay. These three men bring such delightful colour to the IMC men. Dent is a totally hot-headed malicious ruler, Caldwell is the more restrained and reasonable man ready to listen to reason, and Morgan is the hired thug, being deliciously unkind and psychotic. This is definitely a winning trio which acts as a brilliant addition to help make the story enjoyable and very watchable.
Roger Delgado as well puts in his usual brilliant performance as the Master, and steals all the scenes he's in. His act of trying to persuade the Doctor to join him in his scheme is an excellent scene, full of tension and revelation all at the same time. And the two actors just work so brilliantly together. The part three cliffhanger is particularly good, and one I always remember well from childhood.
Katy Manning gets her first trip into space, to a grubby looking quarry again but what's wrong with that when those kinds of places resemble an alien clime at any rate? And this one is particularly barren and awash with mud, as two of the cast in particular find out in their rather wet and disgusting scrap! Couldn't have been easy doing that scene in an absolute quagmire, but it does make the scene very amusing to watch indeed. I can’t think of a time where I’ve seen a dirtier fight!!​
I like Doctor Who in the Jon Pertwee time, it has a lot to say on many different and highly relevant and necessary subjects, it had a high moral fibre that was greatly riddled throughout many of the stories, Barry Letts said he never wanted the stories to be about nothing, and they never were. (Although a few were less tinged by the notion than others) This story tackles human rights to land and food, a very sore subject on this planet in many areas indeed, and the script addresses these elements with just the right approach, as ever!​

Perhaps some of the scenes of the fights between the colonists and the IMC men do become a little strained and repetitive after a while, but the story is still not overtly protracted. These scenes are also very well directed and performed, and are convincing and highly charged all in all.
So, in all, this is yet another very fine script from Malcolm Hulke, full of his trademark good and interesting characters, with the one single niggle that keeps it from being a ten out of ten effort. But as this was also Michael Briant's first directors outing, its rather splendidly done all in all. A great slice of Doctor Who​
An 8.0 out of 10 from me. A very solid and decent effort indeed.

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