Doctor Who (TV Series) Colony in Space: Episode Six (1971) User Reviews

Some interesting ideas round off a rather boring story

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 22 August 2015]

The final episode comes down to two battles, The Doctor v The Master, and the Colonists v The IMC crew.

The Master is about to destroy Jo, when the primitives arrive and imprison them both. Jo is released. We learn why The Master wanted to gain access to the primitive's city. Naturally the Master has a concealed weapon, allowing him and the Doctor to roam free in search of the Doomsday weapon. IMC force the Colonists to fire up the engines and take off. Caldwell and Jo break in to the City in order to rescue The Doctor. The Guardian intercedes and destroys the city, the Doctor, Master Jo and Caldwell escape as it explodes, taking the Doomsday weapon with them.

Great scene between The Master and The Doctor, discussing the Primitives history and the Doomsday weapon.

The fight in the clay between a guard and Winton is really effective, well realised and possibly the high point of the episode.

The Primitives have been fairly badly designed, they look like giant runner beans with spears, whereas the Alien priests look particularly unconvincing.

Why did the Guardian suddenly hit the self destruct button, it truly made absolutely no sense.

Nicholas Pennell's character Winton improved a lot as the story went on, he put in some good performances in the latter episodes.

A good story idea which was very averagely realised. Part 6 has at least been more interesting then the last few, it's been desperately overlong, Dicks and Letts should have had the sense to cut it down to 4 parts, they continually commissioned 6 parters, they should have learned a lot sooner that the 4 part stories worked better.

Way Out West

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 8/10 · 26 September 2014]

Review of all 6 episodes:

This is basically a Western plot adapted to space with a colony of farmers who equate to Wild West settlers, alien 'Primitives' playing the role of the Native Americans, the mining corporation which equates to mining companies, railroads etc in Westerns and The Master playing the role of a corrupt Marshall. The Doctor is sent on a mission by the Time Lords, presumably because they see he is far more suited than anyone in their society to engage in such actions, to stop The Master getting his hands on a 'doomsday weapon'. He is sent to the colony on a barren planet where a small group of humans are struggling to forge an existence with crops failing. There are indigenous 'alien' inhabitants known as 'primitives' who are mistrusted and slightly threatening from outside the colony but with some subservient primitives within the colony. The mining company seeks to push out the colonists and exploit the planet's minerals while the Master masquerades as an adjudicator to gain access to the Primitives ancient doomsday weapon.

The worst aspect of the story is the effects, sets and costumes which are all pretty shoddy. It does let down the production but the writing and acting mostly makes up for it.

The first episode is very interesting and really well done in terms of script and characterisation. It is not the most exciting or polished of episodes and the production values are disappointing but thanks to the acting and dialogue it holds up as a decent episode. The quality steps up in the next couple of episodes 2 & 3 with intriguing, absorbing drama, great characters, intelligent ideas, political and moral themes and smart dialogue. Pertwee is at his best as the Doctor and almost all the guest cast are strong. The story runs out of steam a bit in episodes 4 & 5. Once again it shows that stories longer than 4 episodes, with notable exceptions, often stretch a story. It puts pressure on keeping the quality up and on keeping the credibility up and those both suffer here as events get a bit silly at times and it gets less political and less interesting. It becomes more just a run-of-the- mill sci-fi adventure with very unimpressive and rather laughable aliens. Acting and better aspects of dialogue keep it from falling too far and the arrival of Roger Delgado as the Master is the main plus in these 2 episodes. His conniving, smooth villainy, superbly played by Delgado, maintains interest. The final episode is stronger again though not as good as parts 2 & 3.

My ratings: Part 1 - 8/10, Parts 2 & 3 - 9/10, Part 4 - 7/10, Part 5 - 7.5/10, Part 6 - 8/10. Overall average - 8.08/10

Average story.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 20 November 2007]

Doctor Who: Colony in Space: Episode Six starts as the Master (Roger Delgado) reveals to the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) that he has the plans for a doomsday weapon which was built by the inhabitants of Uxarieus before their civilisation deteriorated & he intends to use it to rule the universe. Meanwhile Captain Dent (Morris Perry) has loaded all the colonists onto their old spaceship to leave the planet, the Doctor somehow has to prevent the Master gaining control of the doomsday weapon & the colonists from being forced of Uxarieus...

Episode 20 from season 8 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during May 1971, directed by Michael E. Briant this has been pretty average fare by Doctor Who standards. The script by Malcolm Hulke has felt rather drawn out over it's six episodes with it having probably worked better as a four parter & the central story about a power struggle between a big company & the little guy has been both predictable & clichéd with some terrible character's & inconsistent situations. The Doctor & Jo were caught in the middle until the Master arrived at which point it's revealed he has some evil plan which the Doctor has to foil, very routine stuff to say the least. The whole doomsday weapon thing has suddenly been revealed in this episode & it's a somewhat dull plot device to get the Master involved in the story. Colony in Space isn't the worst Doctor Who story ever but it's far from the best, it's watchable but nothing particularly special or memorable.

For some strange reason the TARDIS doesn't gradually fade away when it takes off & lands, it just instantly appears & pops into the picture which is at odds with just about every other Doctor Who story I've seen. Colony in Space has been as much a drama as anything else, there's definitely nothing scary in this & to my eyes didn't even try to be frightening. The sci-fi elements are also tenuous with the central story being applicable to a contemporary setting with a few minor changes to the script. There hasn't been many special optical effects in this, there are a few OK model spaceships & some outer space shots but very little else in the way of post production effects work.

Colony in Space: Episode Six is about as good as the previous five which is to say it's average. Across it's six episodes I'll give Colony in Space an OK but unspectacular 5 stars out of 10, it's not the worst Doctor Who story ever but it's all rather average & forgettable. You certain won't find Colony in Space topping any Doctor Who fans best stories list.

S8: Colony in Space: The aspects that don't work stuck in my mind more than those that did (SPOILERS)

[bob the moo · 5 October 2014]

Following the perfectly functional Claws of Axos, this serial appears to have gotten itchy feet in many ways. Most obviously it sees the action move off Earth and take a format more common to the pre- Pertwee episodes, but it also appears to be trying to do something more than just have monsters walk towards soldiers. The plot features people colonizing a planet who come up against a more exploitative mining company, but most also face the fact that an indigenous race is already present. The Doctor and Jo drop into the middle of this – and find an old friend along the way.

Being a longer serial, the suggestion is that there will be more substance, but unfortunately the serial seems to reach for more than it is able. The plot very quickly becomes clunky in how obvious the characters are – the natives are inherently peace-loving and it is the exploiting humans that are the ones doing the harm. Just in case you do not get it, the serial also gives them spears and the humans rifles. While it could do something more interesting perhaps, it ultimately does end up sort of having a thriller plot, while also not really doing much of interest with the setup. It does have some good aspects in some of the characters and some of the ideas, but mostly I didn't feel like they worked particularly well.

The addition of the Master sees it move away from the core narrative, although his presence is always welcome; needless to say he escapes again – this time driving off on some form of moon-buggy to get to his TARDIS; following his legging it on a bus in his first escape, the lesson is that you should never leave the keys in an unattended vehicle or a Time Lord will 'ave it. The cliffhangers are delivered as required, but they struck me as quite cheap in this serial – one is repeated twice (the Doctor being faced down by the mining robot), while all of them seem to be very easily resolved within 5 seconds of the next episode.

Performances are solid enough; Pertwee is gruff but not unpleasant, while Manning has material that fits her character and thus does well (albeit with a weak character). Courtney's absence is felt but the actor playing Caldwell is a good presence in his stead. The creatures are as simple as their characters and didn't do much for me as either a threat or as characters. It wasn't a bad serial, and it did have aspects that worked well, but it seemed to be the aspects that didn't that stuck with me. Not sure why this was the case but it was and as a result the serial left me with the memory of the plot not really working, of it engineering temporary cliffhangers for the sake of it, and dragging it out to 6 episodes when fewer would have done.