"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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