Colony is one of those stories that has often been dismissed as plodding and uneventful, but actually there's quite a lot going on to maintain interest, if you accept the early 1970s style of dramatic story-telling. After what starts off as a seemingly simple base-attacked-by-monsters plot, it rapidly splits into a number of parallel subplots, with various IMC schemes to acquire the planet from the colonists, through the initial disguise of 'Charlie' the robot as a lizard, infiltration by Norton to cause disruption within the colonist camp, and then the capture of Jo and Winton to manipulate the Doctor into supporting their side of the story. The TARDIS is taken away for the Doctor to have to track down. There is the history of Exarius (or Uxaerius) and how the Doomsday Weapon brought a great culture to ruin. And, of course, the Master's plans to seize the weapon for himself!
Being that this is the first time the Doctor travels to an alien world since his exile on Earth began, there is a fair bit of exposition over what the TARDIS is and what it can do, as much to re-introduce the audience to the concept as well as Jo. However, as I mentioned in my Claws review, this actually conflicts with the running order of the series, with Jo already familiar with the TARDIS's ability to dematerialise and rematerialise elsewhere. Furthermore, the Brigadier's exchange with the Doctor over the Master's whereabouts clearly sounds like he's only just escaped Earth, with even the Doctor saying "his TARDIS is working now, he could be anywhere in space and time", tying in with the ending of The Mind of Evil. Agents are still looking for him, and that also ties in with Filer's arrival to discuss the 'master criminal' in Claws as well. having rewatched the So, I still think that the season eight running order should be Mind, Colony, Claws in spite of Terrance's recollections! "A world where people can live as human beings and not battery hens"
This is also the first time the audience will see an alien planet in glorious colour, too ... so we get a lovely muddy gray clay pit in Cornwall to celebrate! This is typical Doctor Who territory, of course, alien planets always looked like that back then, though one has to wonder how any life manages to exist in these places at all?
This lack of food is a major plot element for the story, with the colonists that have settled on Exarius on the verge of complete starvation. It does seem odd that the Doctor needs to point this out to their leader Ashe (John Ringham), but then the colonists' leader does have a lot on his mind, especially with the recent lizard attacks. Mind you, the Doctor also points out about how could the "20 feet tall" lizards get through normal-sized doors, too, so maybe 25th Century IQ levels aren't as high - certainly, it sounds like Dent's wheeze works well on other colony worlds too. Imaginary giant lizards aside, though, how do the planet's natural inhabitants survive with the lack of a sustainable food source? Hmm, perhaps Jo should have been nominated for sacrifice a lot earlier for her indiscriminate picking of local flora upon arrival!
It is clear that Dent (Morris Perry) believes colonists are somewhat ignorant, and his initial attitude with the Doctor reflects that until he realises he is dealing with someone able to see through his version of what is happening on the planet - so he decides to arrange an accident straight away. Here is a man who clearly doesn't like anyone or anything that could potentially throw his plans into disarray, and it seems works for a company that is quite happy to look the other way too as long as profits are good, even paying off officials when they need to ...
... which leads us to the Master, who doesn't appear until the latter half of the story, turning up as an Adjudicator from Earth in a Joe 90 plane to (allegedly) resolve the colonists/IMC dispute over the rights to the planet. His appearance would perhaps have been more of a surprise had the story not opened with the Time Lord discussion over him stealing the Doomsday Weapon files in the first place - oh well!You'd have thought by now the Master would think a little more carefully about his nefarious schemes. First he has to switch sides at the last minute as he realises the Nestenes have no use for him after their invasion succeeds. Then he bites off more than he can chew with the mind parasite becoming too powerful to control. And then he brings the Axons to Earth but nearly finds himself a victim as their insatiable appetite for time travel builds up. Here he goes after the greatest weapon to have been devised only to be judged "you're not fit to be a God" and have the weapon destroyed in front of him! What next, re-awaken ancient powers that could erradicate him with a thought in a bid to take control of a planet he isn't actually that bothered about?
In terms of other main characters, the IMC contingent are by far the most interesting. We have Caldwell (Bernard Kay), whose conscience finally catches up with him over his employers' activities (though one has to wonder why he hadn't come to this conclusion on previous missions). Norton (Roy Skelton in a rare on-screen role) excels in his role as the supposed sole survivor of a previous colony and causing dissent behind the scenes, though he got his comeuppance in the end as his duplicity is revealed. Then there's the rather nasty Morgan (Tony Caunter) who relishes in doing his duty in the innoble style of other henchmen like Packer (The Invasion) and Hinks (The Green Death). In comparison, the colonists are a bit wimpy really! Winton (Nicholas Pennell) is about the best of the bunch, portraying the physical half of the colonists, with the intellectual half being Ashe (which as I said earlier isn't quite as intellectual as he ought to be) - he does at least get to play "the noble sacrifice" role by flying the doomed spacecraft. Mary (Helen Worth) is 'nice', but that's about it, nobody else is really memorable - except for Alec Leeson (John Tordoff) who perhaps stands out for entirely the wrong reasons!
The primitives and the priests are well-realised, though the zips in the former's costumes are a bit obvious at times. It's hard to imagine quite how their society actually works though, and as I mentioned previously food must be quite an issue ... though it is possible that they had food dispensers as a regular power supply was in evidence! The guardian of the Weapon is also well-realised, and gives a good account of how their great invention brought their planet to ruin, but its logic as to why now is the time to destroy the weapon eluded me somewhat, especially as it didn't explain how this might restore life to the planet - and probably destroyed whatever the primitives were feeding upon as well!"What have you got in there, a policeman?"
There's always been a bit of experimentation with how the TARDIS dematerialises, and here we have an immediate 'popping' dematerialisation - this ties in with the way in which we see the Time Lord that visits the Doctor in Terror of the Autons travel, so it isn't a precedent in that regard, being that the Time Lords are the ones navigating the TARDIS. (mind you, the Master's TARDIS also disappears the same way at the end of the story, so maybe we shouldn't rationalise it into continuity - especially as then new director Michael E Briant says on the documentary he made it up being he didn't know previous approaches!).
The Brigadier was taking a chance, standing in the very place the TARDIS was when he demands that the Doctor "come back at once". Though, would he have been squashed or would the TARDIS materialise around him as seen in a number of modern stories (not to mention Logopolis!).
Speaking of the Fourth Doctor, Christopher H Bidmead added a lot to the Doctor Who lore regarding the various TARDIS functions, but it is nice to see that Malcolm Hulke was 'first in the door' with the Doctor's home being "dimensionally transcendental"!
There's also a nice nod back to the early days of TARDIS travel, with the outside surface of wherever they landed being visible through the doors of the TARDIS when they open. It isn't used that often (even recently), so is a genuine thrill to see!
Another bit of ammunition in my Colony/Claws argument is when the subject of the Master's TARDIS comes up and Jo mentions she hadn't seen his horsebox around (from Terror of the Autons) - okay, so perhaps she wasn't quite aware of how its shape can be altered in Claws, but when the Doctor mentions the Master's key it still feels as if it should have been an earlier story. [Okay, I've hammered this theory enough, now!]It's nice to see the Master's TARDIS is full of paraphenalia too, and I especially like row of cabinets he keeps handy for his files.
"Don't try and explain"
A few little factoids and observations during the story:
- At the beginning, the Doctor jokes about the the Spanish Ambassador being mistaken for the Master. At the time it was an 'in-joke' with regard to Roger Delgado's appearance and various roles he'd undertaken in the past, but would that ever be allowed now in our politically correct world?
- ... speaking of which, would Mary's 'in-joke' about Jim fixing it find itself excised in future releases after the recent scandal regarding that show's presenter - the production notes would most certainly get revised if nothing else (there's already been talk of a Jim'll Fix It clip with Tom Baker being dropped for The Ark in Space special edition, and A Fix With Sontarans might also fall foul of the censor should The Two Doctors also be re-released).
- Third-Doctor-Moments: The Doctor watches a video of apparent mindless violence, followed later by a propaganda report on overcrowding on Earth; this is something of a Hulke favourite, with the same method popping up in Frontier in Space and Invasion of the Dinosaurs too!
- A calendar shows Monday 2 March 2472, though this won't actually be a Monday it'll be a Wednesday [assuming we don't start adding Leap Days!]. The month happens to reflect the time the first episode was recorded, too, in March 1971 - but why 501 years into the future ...
- Geodesic domes - they might have been a good shape for futuristic (and Antarctic) habitats, but they made for great climbing frames in the 1970s too!
- Jon Pertwee's This Is Your Life was recorded during this story. It's strange to think that he had already had a long career by this point, but was yet to find even more fame a few years little bringing a tatty scarecrow to life.
Third-Doctor-Moments: The Doctor's engages in conjuring tricks during episode four, and it's easy to see why Vorg thought him a showman in Carnival of Monsters - not to mention the flower-antics in The Three Doctors. About the only thing missing is the Doctor trying out something different to wear ... oh hang on, whose that new IMC recruit?!!- During the 1980s we had no end of episode cliffhangers featuring a close-up of the Doctor or other star's face - it's nice to see that this isn't a 'crime' to be laid at JNT's feet, Michael E Briant is perfectly able to achieve this, too, with a very obliging Pertwee expression! He gets three of the five cliffhanger close-ups, with Katy Manning receiving the episode three treatment ... at least episode five is dedicated to the Master's finger!
- Speaking of which, this story marks only the third credit for "John Turner" in the series thus far, doing F.A. (floor assistant!) ... and the premiere production role of assistant floor manager for a chap called Graeme Harper, wonder what happened to him ...
- Third-Doctor-Moments: The Pertwee era is well known for 'some kind' of speech - and it isn't just an impediment of the Doctor, Caldwell uses it too!
- Third-Doctor-Moments: there's three stunt battles between IMC and the colonists to enjoy during the course of the story!
- Shame we lost the female Morgan, that would have been interesting character, if a bit daring for the time. It certainly would have evened things out a bit, stories of these times are very male-oriented - here we only have one main female role (Katy excepted) with Helen Worth's Mary Ashe, plus a couple of supporting colonists in episode one (Sheila Grant and Mitzi McKenzie), and thinking about it there's only Corporal Bell in Claws (unless you want to include the 'female' Axon of course!)
- There are female extras of course, including Antonia Moss who's grown up a bit since her other appearance right at the start of the series as a child from the Tribe of Gum ... not that you'd recognise her in her alien priest costume!
