DOCTOR WHO-COLONY IN SPACE

 

DOCTOR WHO-COLONY IN SPACE 1 and 2

It felt like many years since the TARDIS had been to another planet. It was only last episode the TARDIS flew into space in order for the Doctor to fool the Master and Axos to get them away from Earth and into a time loop. These two episodes benefit from not having the Master in them: I love Roger’s Master but not having him in these two episodes means that when he does appear it will be a bit more surprising. Jo Grant: dear, bless. She seems genuinely shocked that the Doctor’s TARDIS has moved and landed on another planet and even comments that all the Doc’s stories of traveling in time and space…are real. As if she thought he was just making it all up before this! For all the talk of the planet being a quarry, I think it looks terrific.

 

Pertwee in space is just as great as Pertwee on Earth battling monsters, aliens, missiles, and the Master. The opening of him sparring a bit with the Brig is cute and of note TARDIS makes the sounds of vanishing slowly but it honestly just pops out and pop in. The regular scanner and the regular doors work. Ep 1 has the first shot look JUST like opening credits of STAR TREK. We see three Time Lords (?) on Gallifrey discussing how they will sent the Doctor on a mission. Wouldn’t it have been well and good if they informed him that…the Master stole files (so actually scratch that comment I made about the Master showing up a surprise!) rather than just make his TARDIS go to the planet Uxarieus---and oddly, no one seems to notice or discuss that THE DOCTOR SEEMS TO KNOW THE PLANET by sight!

 

The aliens look great, the machine looks a bit clunky, but is okay. The domes’ exteriors and interiors are more than adequate. I like Jo’s interaction with Mary and the other colonists. She seems to fit right in and her warmth makes this believable. In fact with spears and a grounded nature look the look might …who’s kidding who…this story inspired by probably many literary sources and maybe even the original premise of LOST IN SPACE’s Robinsons (colonization), the story in turn inspired EARTH 2 (which, itself had LOST IN SPACE as its main inspiration, something not really widely known is that Spielberg met with Irwin Allen’s widow Sheila to get the rights to LOST IN SPACE, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and probably TIME TUNNEL and LAND OF THE GIANTS, too but she didn’t solely own them). EARTH 2 had colonists moving on a journey across a planet but it also had aliens quite like the ones here and colonists living in domes like the ones the Eden Project in EARTH 2 FIND and must live in for a time during a bad winter. They also left because Earth seemed unlivable. Polluted. In DOCTOR WHO, the Doctor, while waiting in the IMC rocket ship (which looks great, too, inside and out) watches news on an Entertainment Machine (which looks like a computer, sort of). He finds out there are high buildings being made to house so many people. Pertwee’s reactions to this are perfect, one of sad frustration from the Doctor.

 

In any case, some books like ABOUT TIME, claim the Doctor didn’t have to fight the aliens physically in Ep 2 but the way I saw it he saved them from being shot by the evil henchman Morgan. In ep1 when Jo and the Doc arrive the Doc uses Venusian karate on Leeson to stop the doomed colonist from harassing him. Also contrary to what some say, the lizard effect in ep 1 is just fine.

 

The cliffhangers at the end of 1 and 2 are similar but don’t detract from the story.

 

IMC comes into the story right at the start of ep2 and adds a lot of intrigue (also another Earth 2 extraction, sort of as various forces that knew about the planet ahead of the Eden group arriving, vie for the various benefits of the planet). Dent is a nasty piece of work but curiously there is a nice man among them, tempted by wealth but with a conscious…Caldwell.

 

At the same time, the colonists are visited by the seemingly ailing man Norton, who’s claims to be another colonist from another colony that was wiped out the lizards AND the alien natives proves, quickly, to be false. He kills poor ole Jim (“Jim’ll fix it!” Mary says) and the alien friend he has helping him in a rather sad scene. Norton, of course, lies about all of this. I seem to recall Norton dying in a future episode and …who can blame anyone wanting him to. He’s one of the most despicable humans in all of DOCTOR WHO, spearing poor Jim down after hitting his alien friend over the head with a spanner. Creep. 

 

All the main colonists seem to have personalities and backgrounds and POVs. It all seems VERY real with problems created by outside forces, mostly human but the mysteries remain a focus…who’s causing what? Also, almost a first for DW, a woman dies (off screen but still almost a novel thing for the series).

 

As ever in the Pertwee Era, another two great, entertaining eps. And…we’re in SPACE and TIME in the future!

 

DOCTOR WHO-COLONY IN SPACE episodes 3 to 6, THE DAEMONS episode 1

 

COLONY IN SPACE is addictive. You can’t just watch one. From the start of this story, with its vast opening in space, one wonders if you’ll hear or see William Shatner at any moment but it’s really more LOST IN SPACE and EARTH 2 than anything else.  I am also quite impressed that they held the Master back until episode 4, where it is a real surprise as opposed to the DAEMONS where a poor, cute dog is killed off in the first minute (mind the old man too). There’s also a horror feeling for the first time in the series…at least as a horror story through and through, though we’ve had horrific moments in many Troughton stories and a few Hartnell stories, this seems to be steeped more in the traditions of horror (rat, cat, frog, lightning storm and rain, an old village…all in the first minute!) and almost resembles a Hammer movie, sort of. I don’t know what Benton means in ep1 when he talks of his night being put off. Back to COLONY: there’s plenty of action to go around, if it’s not the Doctor kicking a remote that will kill Jo out of the Master’s hands or the colonists have a huge gun fight with the IMC mining murderers (mind Caldwell, though, and I’m glad when Norton gets shot by Winton; ahh yes Winton, man of action and slim!), there’s the exploding doomsday weapon inside the ancient city and the tall green alien primitives attacking the miner who holds Jo (good on them!) prisoner or Jo and the Doctor gassed in the well dressed Master’s well dressed TARDIS interior, which I think we might see here for the first time. It looks great. I’m sure ABOUT TIME has a huge section on both COLONY IN SPACE and THE DAEMONS but…I don’t care about the flaws, I love them both!

 

In DAEMONS, which stands out, part 1: the Doctor is cranky and nasty to the bar men and this time, I see it as rightfully so because they’re being deliberately silly and one of them seems to be working with the Master, who’s infuriation over not being able to stop the local white witch, Miss Hawthorne (a terrific character) with hypnosis is fun to watch. Delgado, as ever, is a joy to watch. I feared for her life when he sent a man after her.

 

As ever in DW, Ash has to sacrifice himself to save his colonists; the Master gets away in his TARDIS, the machine disguised as a traditional rocketship. The cliffhangers in COLONY are wonderful, especially the cliffhanger that has a build up to there’s some creature in the cave bit of discussion…to have the tall green savages herd Jo into the cave in the dark and closing, the stone wall entrance to their built in the mountain city, Jo is almost in the dark, totally…and hears a sound. It’s terrifying to NOT see the monster. I like the three races in this. The little priests are hilarious enough but when we see the Doomsday Weapon’s guardian, the leader, the highest evolved one and the one who seems to talk telepathically, it’s downright laugh out loud and sort of horrific at the same time. He’s kind of cute. He’s kind of terrifying. Of course, BLAKE’S SEVEN would use this same puppet thing to a more horrific tone.

 

Jo’s one huge mistake here is to walk into the beam she and the Doctor just crawled under and she gets herself and the Doctor gassed as her action lead to the Master being alerted that they were in his TARDIS. There’s a bit of continuity in that Jo recalls the Master’s TARDIS being a horse box (BUT she must have seen it in THE CLAWS OF AXOS as not) and that the Doctor has the Master’s key. He takes quite a chance dropping it in front of the TARDIS where the evil Morgan finds it but gives it to Caldwell, who’s the one good IMC guy. Morgan is happily also shot in the last shootout with the rebels. The one who gets away with life is the evil Captain Dent, who is as bad as the Master with is evil plotting. He knows the colonists’ spaceship will blow up on lift off but continues to fake that it will not, planning to kill them off with cold efficiency. He’s a horrible man. I wonder if there are any returns for this character in novels or audios.

 

Of course, that the IMC evil men can use that robot to fool anyone is silly but you take it as given.