The Time Lords discover that the Master has stolen their secret file on the Doomsday Weapon. They grant the Doctor a temporary reprieve from his exile on Earth to deal with the crisis. He and Jo arrive on the planet Uxarieus and become enmeshed in a struggle between an agrarian colony and a powerful mining corporation.
This one really annoys me. The way it deals in commentary on colonialism is incredibly off, bordering on disingenuous. Like, on one hand, it highlights megacorporations as caring more about profit margins than sentient life, which is nicely based for the '70s. But on the other hand, the colonists themselves are weirdly romanticised, while the natives of Uxarieus (in my view, at least) are presented as self-destructive and unable to be trusted with their own culture. It gives ‘these poor savages need to be colonised for their own good’ (barf!)
What’s the opposite of “damning with faint praise”? If a specific phrase exists, that’s what this story’s whole vibe comes across. Kinda gross, not to mention disheartening coming from Malcolm Hulke after how hard I fell in love with … And The Silurians.
I don’t care for this story. Maybe I need to rewatch and re-evaluate. I enjoyed Jo’s first TARDIS trip (even though the set is terrible), and how it differed from the usual first trips in the sense that she was actually quite frightened by the prospect.
This has the very bad misfortune of being sandwiched between two stories that I love, so I had to rewatch it to remember what happened in it. This is an odd one, with corrupt mining companies trying to pretend they did know a colony was there to be able to claim mineral rights, and The Master disguised as an adjudicator all in his efforts to get a powerful weapon that the colony had. It was okay, but sadly it is after The Claws of Axos and before the Daemons (which is probably my all time favorite Third Doctor episode) so I kinda forgot about it in comparison.
Really looking forward to getting stuck into this one since, when I recalled tiny aspects of the previous two stories (and knew Terror of the Autons fairly well), I remember literally nothing at all about this serial. Zilch. Zero. I’m hoping this doesn’t mean it’s pants…
Part One
Time Lords! I have to say, they’ve featured far more throughout this season than I expected (which was not at all). In my brain, there were no Time Lords seen other than the Doctor and Master between The War Games and The Three Doctors. I do get excited when they show up.
Jo is remarkably un-fussed by the TARDIS.
Is this one where the Brig is totally shafted out of the story? That’s sad.
This is also far sooner than I expected to have a story set elsewhere than Earth - for all the talk about the era being earth-bound, we’ve only had seven stories on the trot there and one of them featured some brief off-world scenes. There’s a case to be made for this season being less Earth-bound than Eccleston’s!
That said, this certainly is an era where very little effort is made to disguise the quarries!
It’s nice to have Jo playing more of a companion rather than assistant role. Oh how I wish Liz had gone off-world.
Wow, this has really taken a sharp downturn. I see now why I tuned out last time I watched it and remember so little.
Return of the War Machines.
Verdict after Part One - I loved the opening scenes so much, but goodness me everything that followed once they landed was dull. Hoping things perk up again…
“I’m every kind of scientist.” The man’s a legend.
My internal Woke Alarm isn’t loving the constant references to ‘primitives’, but I suppose it’s an accurate attitude some would have.
I’m finding all these white men quite tiresome, none of them seem particularly distinctive or memorable, and I think that might be the main thing that’s hampering this story.
Wait, so is this anti-colonialist or anti-capitalist? It’s like they’re colonising the colonists.
Jo and whatsherface should join Frantic Assembly with that synchronised chair movement.
Speaking of whatsherface[1], she’s quite an abysmal performance.
Not a Jim’ll Fix It reference hundreds of years in the future. Eek.
I know it’s part of the character, but Dent’s voice is so monotonous, I really struggle to pay attention to a word he says.
I can’t help but feel those machines should be fairly easy to evade…
Verdict after Part Two - Okay, this is a real drop in quality from all previous Pertwee. I can appreciate what they’re trying to do, but it’s not an engaging or exciting way of doing it…
I’ll tell you something this serial does well. Facial hair.
Jo is incredibly trusting of the Doctor having not known him ages, considering he whisked her to another planet without her consent. But then, the colonists are all very trusting of Jo with even less reason. So maybe she’s just a great person.
“I took a course in escapology once.” Sorry? What? That’s incredibly convenient and super random.
These buggies are really amusing to me. I didn’t expect them to pop up as often as they do. Got quite a pair on them.
There’s some really nice design work in this story. Nice in a sort of ‘creative and looks quite cool’ way, but not in a ‘this is believably both a different planet and the future’ way.
Ohhh I want to like it, but it’s just so slow.
I’m interested in very little of this, but every time the Doctor shouts ‘HAI’, it makes my life.
Even in the 70s, you’d think they’d find some way of making prop spears look slightly sharp/heavy/in any way threatening.
Verdict after Part Three - I’m struggling with this one, guys. I’m struggling.
Really hoping this ‘adjudicator’ malarkey makes things a bit more interesting…
WHAT ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH IS THAT.
The futuristic cave drawings are a fun touch, it’s a clever way of aligning with the implied regression of humanity.
Not sure why Jo said this dude isn’t humanoid. It’s(?) a lotto behold for sure, but it’s definitely humanoid.
Oh woah hey the Master, I’d actually totally forgotten he would be in this. Feel like this is the story that would have benefited from the previous wasted big reveals but never mind. Fully should have seen this coming but I absolutely didn’t.
Oh hey wow, it’s Max Capricorn meets Kiv (with a touch of baby-hands Deadpool).
Kind of weird that he(?) has a mouth but doesn’t use it to speak…
Delgado is so classy. I’ll never be over it.
Oh good, more aimless shooting.
Verdict after Part Four - You know what, this has really picked up. Some proper alien shenanigans and the Master being delightful. Things could turn around yet…
Yes, more Delgado, let’s go, rescue this serial for me, my beautiful king of suavity.
The Doctor and Jo are best friends now and I totally buy it. Still not her biggest fan, but their little smirks to each other are adorable.
Mad that these 25th-century colonist offices model themselves so tightly on 1970s Britain isn’t it?
Also, the fact they’re all called things like Tony and Eric.
I miss the Brig.
Okay, Ashe is quite cool. I’ve warmed to him. The other supporting characters can remain in the bin.
More booby-buggies!
The boulder/booby-buggy ‘collision’ is pretty laughable, but I guess they tried.
Ooo I think a shot from this cliffhanger was used for the Master Short Trips cover for Time Lord Victorious. I never notice stuff like that![1]
Verdict after Part Five - Well it didn’t do the big 180 I was hoping for and I was gutted not to see any more of the aliens properly. But the Master is lovely. It’s an improvement on the first half, I’m invested to see where it’s going, which I wasn’t three episodes ago.
I’m pretty much in sync with the general consensus here. It’s a solid 3rd Doctor story weirdly undercut by some native people we pretty much ignore despite having a right to the planet by the exact same logic applied to the colonists.
Yeah, I know what I said about her friendship with the Doctor, but I’m really not a fan of Jo. Or maybe it’s that I like Jo but I’m not a fan of Katy Manning…
Little known fact that instead of Doctor Who and the Colony in Space, the novelisation of this story is actually titled Doctor Who and the Booby Buggies.
Question. Is this the first time Doctor Who actually did literal ‘little green men’?[1]
I don’t really buy that the Doctor even seems to consider the Master’s bargain. Feels fairly out of character to be honest.
The sound effects (is it meant to be music? Who can tell in this era) during the build-up to the explosion are so textbook Third Doctor. It’s charming but it’s tiresome. There are eras that benefit from chronological viewing but I feel that this one (or at least the early days of it) may be better enjoyed sporadically and out of order.
Again, I don’t buy that the Doctor wouldn’t keep half an eye on the Master to ensure he doesn’t get away. For someone so intelligent, sometimes the Doctor isn’t very intelligent.
And we’re back with the Brig, praise be.
Verdict - Yeah, sadly, things really didn’t ramp up like I hoped they would, bar the appearance of the Master, who was on pretty good form. I completely see why I remembered nothing of this serial. I expect in a year or two, I’ll be saying exactly the same thing again. Still, there are worse out there. It had a couple of nice moments and I suppose I should applaud it for… trying to say… something… I’m not sure what. It’s not like the natives of the planet got much redemption. I know the corporation are the bad guys but like, was colonialism still so celebrated in the 70s?
Answer: I suppose, given that the first six years were in black and white, the answer is literally yes. ↩︎
One of the definitively middling Three stories for me. It’s not super interesting, the plot itself isn’t quite sure what it wants to do and that’s not even mentioning the weird colonialism aspect. There’s some fun moments with the dated effects (yippee for miniatures and the goofy green screened iguana) but it’s just okay.
