“Colony In Space” was novelized as “The Doomsday Machine”. Why I
mention that is because I have clearer memories of the Target book than I do of
the story itself. It is a significant story in its own right, even if for no
better reason that it’s the first time that the third Doctor gets to take a
trip in his TARDIS. This is the doing of the Time Lords, who decide to use the
Doctor to foil the Master’s plans to obtain aforesaid doomsday weapon. Now, the
Master appears in all 5 of the stories of this eighth season, and this is
probably the one which has had least acclaim from fans over the years, which is
a bit surprising when you consider that the alien setting should at least give
the story a bit of novelty value if nothing else. I’m looking forward to seeing
how much, if anything, we get to see of the Time Lords. Maybe this doesn’t
feature in the story on screen, but in the book I’m pretty sure that it started
with the Time Lords discovering that the records concerning the Doomsday weapon
had been either tampered with or stolen – can’t remember which myself. Well, if
the general consensus, that this isn’t much cop, proves to be correct, then
never mind. “The Daemons” is just around the corner.
After Watching
I found that as I watched “Colony in Space” I found myself indulging
in one of those prolonged bouts of “this-should-be-better-itis”. Were my
expectations so unreasonable? Well, there are reasons for thinking that this
was going to be better than it was. Let’s examine them.
Malcolm Hulke
If we look at Malcolm Hulke’s Doctor Who pedigree you’ll hopefully
agree that he’s been one of the writers whose involvement always holds out
promise that you’ll get something of interest. He co-scripted “The Faceless
Ones”, which was one of the unexpected treats of season 4, and also the
brilliant “The War Games” which I loved. In season 7 he scripted the always
enjoyable “The Silurians” and did uncredited work in writing the actual scripts
for several of the episodes of “The Ambassadors of Death”.
So what is the essential problem of “Colony in Space”? To an extent
with the previous 2 stories there was a feeling of the Master being added to
the script at quite a late stage, and that’s true of this story as well. In
fact, it does feel like a four parter that has been unnaturally prolonged
simply to include him, and the weapon and the alien city too. For most of the
first 4 episodes at least what we have is a dour gritty ‘western’ about the
plucky settlers being subject to the unscrupulous attempts of the evil mining
company to force them off their claims. And the problem with that is that I’m
just not really all that interested in cowboys and indians. They were my Dad’s
generation’s thing, not mine. It would maybe have worked better had the two
stories been more integrated, but they really aren’t. The alien natives, their
city and their weapon don’t hardly impinge on the main story about the Colony,
and I kind of think that another draft to integrate them more fully with each
other might have worked wonders. Just my opinion, and as always, feel free to
disagree.
The Actors
You know that I have my list of faves whom I always like to see
guesting in a Doctor Who story, and there’s no less than two of them in this
one. First of all we have one of the three Bernards, Bernard Kay to be precise.
We last saw Bernard Kay in “The Faceless Ones”, and he does his usual excellent
job with what is only really a subordinate role. Ideally, if you’re going to go
to the trouble of getting Bernard Kay, then you want to make the best use of
him. I wouldn’t have minded seeing him given something a little more meaty to
do. He plays Caldwell, a mining engineer who is subordinate to Captain Dent,
the real villain of the piece, and although he does have to play out the moral
dilemma of deciding whether to do what the company, in the person of Dent,
orders him to do, or whether to do the things his conscience orders him to do.
But truth be told, he is under used here.
We also get John Ringham. John Ringham memorably played Tlotoxl in
“The Aztecs”, and was then seen playing a more heroic role in “The Smugglers”.
Here he plays Ashe, the leader of the colonists, trying to tread a fine line in
sticking up for his people, and at the same time not letting their defence of
themselves descend into anarchy and violence. It’s a decent part, and he plays
it very well, as you’d expect.
This story is rarely written about without somebody pointing out
that this story also featured Helen Worth, who went on to spend the next 40
years playing Gail in “Coronation Street”. Now, I haven’t watched “Coronation
Street” for years, but I have always had a soft spot for Gail/Helen, and so I
was a bit disappointed to see that her role in the story is pretty much
cardboard for the most part. Given a proper chance she could have done a lot
more.
So could Tony Caunter. Maybe best known as Roy in Eastenders, Tony
Caunter certainly had a fine body of TV work on his CV, but his character in
“Colony in Space”, Morgan, is just a one dimensional thug, and there’s little
or nothing any actor could do with him without wildly over acting, or ad
libbing.
I can’t write a review of a “Master” story without mentioning Roger
Delgado. I personally think that this is the weakest of the 4 stories we’ve
seen so far which features him, for which I don’t blame the actor. You can see
him as a purely functional character in this story though. It has to be a Time
Lord who steals the records of the weapon, nobody else would be powerful enough.
The records have to be stolen from the Time Lords, or else they wouldn’t have
sent the Doctor there. As it is he doesn’t turn up for a lot of the story, and
I’m afraid that the dialogue between himself and the Doctor is rather lumpen
and uninspiring compared with previous stories. I guess even Delgado and
Pertwee couldn’t build bricks without straw.
The Alien World
This is the first time that the Third Doctor gets to take a trip in
time and space, and the first time we get to see an alien world in colour. It’s
a bit of a shame. We’ve already explored how the story seems to relegate the
alien city and its inhabitants to a subsidiary narrative, but it does have the
effect that nothing is developed. On the first trip you maybe expect to see an
alien civilization, and we really don’t. On his first visit to the alien city
ideas are introduced – the idea of a once great race that has fallen from its
lofty perch, descending into superstition and barbarism is an interesting one,
but it’s not developed. Again, the separate castes or grades of the
‘Primitives’ is an interesting idea, but it’s not developed. I don’t know if
it’s deliberate either, but as we go up the brain chain of the Primitives’
society they become less and less impressive. The priests are shorter, more
wrinkly and shriveled than the warriors, although they have a more interesting
dress sense, and the Guardian of the weapon is sadly the most pathetic of the
lot. Now, in a way this is actually clever if it’s deliberate. If you’re trying
to put across the message – well, this is what the degenerated race who built
the machine had come to and this is why their civilization collapsed, then fair
enough. But there’s pathetic, and then there’s too pathetic.
A word too about the Primitive warriors. At least the temptation to
give them dark skins was resisted. Even then though, maybe it’s just me, but
their masks seemed to bear some resemblance to some African tribal art that
I’ve seen.
The Time Lords
I was intrigued to see the prologue with the Time Lords at the
start, but I did feel that there were a couple of problems with it while I was
watching. They’re almost in this story like a halfway house between the all
powerful super-monks of the last episode of “The War Games”, and the quasi
military quasi air traffic controllers of “The Three Doctors” Their appearance
does pose a few questions to me.
If the Doomsday weapon is so powerful, and they are so scared of the
Master getting his hands on it, then why don’t they get it themselves? Since
the Master is the one who’s after it, surely this is a Time Lord matter, and
their interfering can be permitted? Since as it is they are interfering anyway
by sending the Doctor. Likewise, if it’s so important, then why leave it to the
Doctor to find out what his mission actually is? Why not at least give him a
clue or two, even if you can’t be bothered to give him proper instructions.
------------------------------------
Well, at least dear old Jo is a ‘real’ companion now, having taken
her first trip in the TARDIS. Also, and
I know I often say this, but even with a story like this, where you can’t say
that it is particularly gripping, at least you can say that in the main story,
the ‘plucky if sometimes misguided colonists v. evil big business’ if it is a
little facile then at least its heart is in the right place.
What Have We Learned?
The Time Lords trust the
Doctor enough to send him on a mission they should sort out themselves, even
without telling him what he’s supposed to do for them.
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