Colony in Space: Episode Three (24 Apr. 1971)

The Doctor makes it back to the colony and warns Ashe what Dent is up to but when Jo and Winton try to find proof they are captured.

Director:

Michael E. Briant

Writer:

Malcolm Hulke (by)

Stars:

Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Bernard Kay

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Jon Pertwee	...	Doctor Who
Katy Manning	...	Jo Grant
Bernard Kay	...	Caldwell
Nicholas Pennell	...	Winton
John Ringham	...	Robert Ashe
Morris Perry	...	Dent
Tony Caunter	...	Morgan
Roy Skelton	...	Norton
Helen Worth	...	Mary Ashe
Stanley McGeagh	...	Allen
Pat Gorman	...	Long
John Scott Martin	...	Robot

Storyline

The Doctor makes it back to the colony and warns Ashe what Dent is up to but when Jo and Winton try to find proof they are captured.

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Plot Keywords:

dandy | master | military officer

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 April 1971 (UK)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

24 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This episode was watched by 9.5 million viewers on its original transmission.

User Reviews

"This planet is ours, the sooner your of it the better!" Alright but nothing special.

Doctor Who: Colony in Space: Episode Three starts as Ashe (John Ringham) discovers the power supply to the colonists domes has been sabotaged, the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) manages to fix it though after he tells the colonists of the IMC people's underhand methods. Meanwhile Jo (Katy Manning) & Winton (Nicholas Pennell) decide to help out & sneak aboard the IMC spaceship in order to find proof they were behind the killings, unfortunately they are quickly captured by Captain Dent (Morris Perry) taken to some primitive ruins & chained to a bomb. Winton manges to escape back to the colony & organises a full scale attack on the IMC spaceship which the Doctor fears will mean the death of Jo & many colonists....

Episode 17 from season 8 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during April 1971, directed by Michael E. Briant this has been fairly standard fare so far. The script by Malcolm Hulke has turned into a full blown giant company only interested in money against the little guy morality tale with the Doctor stuck in the middle, most of the sci-fi elements of Colony in Space are purely co-incidental & with a few simple modifications the basic story could easily be applied to a contemporary Earth setting. I'm not impressed with the character's in Colony in Space either, Capatin Dent for instance keeps going on about doing things legally but then chains Jo & Winton to a bomb which he threatens to explode & he orders the death of several colonists so since he has committed various illegal acts without any problem why is he so bothered about doing other things by the book? Why not just kill all the colonists & lie when the adjudicator gets there? His character is just very inconsistent & randomly makes decisions depending on what's good for the story rather than logic & sense. I also love the way the Doctor in this episode tries to make out the IMC people are to blame & are the bad guy's by saying that Morgan tried to shoot one of the primitives & someone else hurt another yet he makes no mention of the small incident where he single handedly beat three of them up on his own in the previous episode!

Pertwee gets to use a fair bit of his trademark Venusian karate in this story & he puts it to good use. The sets so far have been pretty good actually, sure there's some bad 70's type decoration but otherwise they look suitably futuristic & the costumes aren't too bad either. There really hasn't been many special effects so far, a giant lizard in Episode One & some robots is about it. Those green primitive aliens look really bad though, almost like they were painted green & their heads look like they are made from paper mache.

Colony in Space: Episode Three is alright just like the previous two. This isn't a Doctor Who classic so far by any stretch of the imagination with a dull plot, some poor character's & a lack of any real excitement.