Colony in Space: Episode Two

The Doctor is joined on Uxarieus by Caldwell, an employee of the IMC (Interplanetary mining corporation) who's carrying out a mineral survey, looking for Duralinium. The Doctor is encouraged back to his spaceship where he meets Captain Dent, who is frustrated by the Doctor's presence on Uxarieus, and wishes to mine the planet until it becomes a slag heap. A man has turned up at the colony, claiming to be the last survivor of another colony further away, which was wiped out by giant lizards, he's asking lots of questions, and soon starts making trouble.

It seems the threat on the planet is coming from the IMC, they're keen to up their profits, and drive away the Colonists. Why has Jo turned into a tea lady?

Typical Pertwee episode, toys and automobiles, and plenty of combat.

Some of the sets are fairly well designed, the IMC's ship is rather good, no wobbly sets on show here, this one's rather well made, loving the retro lamp, chair and decanter, I'd have those!!!

I quite like Caldwell and Morgan, both are fairly well played and have their own strong characters, whereas Dent is a bit bland, we've had many characters exactly the same as him before, sadly the Colonists are a little uninteresting too.

It's starting to feel a little bit of a run of the mill Pertwee episode from the Dicks/Letts era, the good guys take on the big corporation.

I've quite enjoyed it, but it's a little slow, and it feels like they're repeating the cliffhanger from part 1.

Review of all 6 episodes:

This is basically a Western plot adapted to space with a colony of farmers who equate to Wild West settlers, alien 'Primitives' playing the role of the Native Americans, the mining corporation which equates to mining companies, railroads etc in Westerns and The Master playing the role of a corrupt Marshall. The Doctor is sent on a mission by the Time Lords, presumably because they see he is far more suited than anyone in their society to engage in such actions, to stop The Master getting his hands on a 'doomsday weapon'. He is sent to the colony on a barren planet where a small group of humans are struggling to forge an existence with crops failing. There are indigenous 'alien' inhabitants known as 'primitives' who are mistrusted and slightly threatening from outside the colony but with some subservient primitives within the colony. The mining company seeks to push out the colonists and exploit the planet's minerals while the Master masquerades as an adjudicator to gain access to the Primitives ancient doomsday weapon.

The worst aspect of the story is the effects, sets and costumes which are all pretty shoddy. It does let down the production but the writing and acting mostly makes up for it.

The first episode is very interesting and really well done in terms of script and characterisation. It is not the most exciting or polished of episodes and the production values are disappointing but thanks to the acting and dialogue it holds up as a decent episode. The quality steps up in the next couple of episodes 2 & 3 with intriguing, absorbing drama, great characters, intelligent ideas, political and moral themes and smart dialogue. Pertwee is at his best as the Doctor and almost all the guest cast are strong. The story runs out of steam a bit in episodes 4 & 5. Once again it shows that stories longer than 4 episodes, with notable exceptions, often stretch a story. It puts pressure on keeping the quality up and on keeping the credibility up and those both suffer here as events get a bit silly at times and it gets less political and less interesting. It becomes more just a run-of-the- mill sci-fi adventure with very unimpressive and rather laughable aliens. Acting and better aspects of dialogue keep it from falling too far and the arrival of Roger Delgado as the Master is the main plus in these 2 episodes. His conniving, smooth villainy, superbly played by Delgado, maintains interest. The final episode is stronger again though not as good as parts 2 & 3.

My ratings: Part 1 - 8/10, Parts 2 & 3 - 9/10, Part 4 - 7/10, Part 5 - 7.5/10, Part 6 - 8/10. Overall average - 8.08/10