Colony In Space (1971) Review

ROAAAAAARR!!!!

Colony In Space is a fairly good story, although not spectacular. It's entertaining and as the first Third Doctor alien planet story, it could've been much worse.

PLOT

To prevent the Master from gaining possession of a doomsday weapon, the Time Lords dispatch the Doctor and Jo to a space colony to find and stop him.
There, they side with the colonists against a tyrannical mining corporation that threatens to destroy all their hard work for the sake of "duralanium".

Overall, it's basically a season 6 Second Doctor story that has the Time Lords, the Master and a big bomb tacked on it. I guess they were going for safe territory with Malcolm Hulke. It's a testament to his writing skill and the acting that the patchy story works so well and leaves a much more competent aftertaste than its recent predecessors.

CHARACTERS

Jon Pertwee has great fun uncovering the dilemma of the miners and colonists and acts as a reasonable mediator throughout.

Jo Grant might be from the 70s(or 80s, depending on the protocol), but I think she was a little too terrified of what is obviously a grey, harmless quarry.

The Master's(hell yeah!) presence wasn't asked for, but Delgado certainly doesn't make it worse. I did think it was better on its own though, without the doomsday weapon(which was reintroduced into the plot far too late). I liked that he was the Adjudicator, it was a clever twist.

Of the guest cast, everyone gives strong performances. I thought Captain Dent was a great villain with no redeeming qualities, very dangerous and self-centered. His assistant, whose name slips me was also pretty good and often made me wonder whose side he was on.

A notable reappearance from Bernard Kay(Tyler from The Dalek Invasion of Earth).

I liked that the upstart colonist wasn't treated as a secondary villain or nuisance, but ultimately turned out alright. The leader himself was also very dignified and realistically performed. Both thumbs up.

The aliens were never explained, which was really annoying, especially their last-minute turn to the good side.

NOTES

*I love that moment when the Master casually leaned on the buggy(at the entrance).

*Nice to see the Time Lords again. They don't look nearly as cool as they used to though.

*It's kind of funny how the Master's TARDIS looks much more like the one the Doctor used to have. He even uses the same kind of key, which really doesn't make sense.

*Although they weren't used enough, I think the aliens looked really good.

*It's funny how much smaller Delgado looks when compared to Pertwee. It makes him look like the little brother.

*When the rocket exploded, I was shocked. It was a perfect red herring.

*How much longer can they credit the Doctor as "Doctor Who" and the Master as "the Master"? It looks all kinds of awkward.

*Why would the Brigadier not understand what happened to them? Wasn't he the first person to accept the existence of the TARDIS?

CONCLUSION

It's a decent runaround and worthy of the occasional rewatch.