294 Colony in Space: Episode Two

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 294
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 17 April 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Colony In Space
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Purely business, you understand. Nothing personal."

The Robot is controlled by Caldwell, from the Interplanetary Mining Corporation, who takes the Doctor back to his ship. Norton incites the Colonists against the primitives. On the way to the ship the Doctor discovers the Tardis gone. Caldwell is appalled to discover that Colonists have been killed but his Captain & second in command Morgan aren't: Morgan claims there was an accident that killed the Leesons. IMC have been assigned the mining rights for the planet, claiming there has been an administration error permitting the Colonists to come. Morgan takes the Doctor back to the colony. On the journey they are attacked by primitives. Winton is showing Norton round the colony. The Colonists are having trouble their power generator. Norton kills the Electrician and sabotages the generator, blaming the primitive helper who he also killed. Morgan has the robot attack the Doctor using fake monster claws......

.... and now the Mining company show up becoming the evil bad guys!

MORGAN: I've just got the first survey results.
DENT: Well?
MORGAN: The computer predicts there's enough duralinium here to build one million living units on Earth.
DENT: Excellent.
MORGAN: The thing I can't understand is why this planet was assigned for colonisation.
DENT: Does it matter?
MORGAN: Look, Caldwell's found us a colonist. I wonder why he's wearing fancy dress?
DENT: All colonists are eccentric, Morgan, otherwise they wouldn't be colonists.
MORGAN: Hmm. And what are you going to say to this eccentric?
DENT: The usual story. That we've just arrived and we're surprised and shocked that the place has been colonised.
MORGAN: Suppose they don't believe us?
DENT: It doesn't matter what they believe. They won't be here for long.

The Colonists fears from the first episode seem to be well founded!

When Liz saw this story with me for the first time she picked up that there was something not right about Norton long before they explicitly showed it on the screen.

First he makes the Colonists feel like they're in danger from the Primitives:

WINTON: So no one from your colony survived?
NORTON: The lizards killed most of them. The primitives finished off the rest.
JO: The primitives attacked you as well?
NORTON: Well, after the lizards there were only a few survivors. When the primitives saw how weak we were, they turned on us. They killed my family, my friends, everyone.
JO: Your primitives don't seem too hostile.
WINTON: They were when we first got here. Some of my friends were killed.
JO: You get on all right with them now.
NORTON: So did we, till we were defenceless.

Then he sows dissent between the Colonists and the Doctor:

WINTON: Maybe now Robert Ashe will listen to me. We must move on to another planet.
JO: You're not just going to give up, are you? After all the work you've done here?
WINTON: Well, there's a time to cut your losses. We can't even grow our own food.
JO: I'm sure the Doctor will be able to help you.
NORTON: What Doctor?
WINTON: They turned up out of nowhere. This girl and a man.
NORTON: Who are they? Where do they come from?
WINTON: Well? We don't really know much about you.
JO: We told you we're explorers.
WINTON: Just the two of you? With a spaceship all to yourselves?
JO: That's right.
NORTON: Do you work for the government?
JO: No, we don't work for anybody

And *then* take a suspicious interest in the power systems and their sole maintainer:

MARY: What do you think of our colony?
NORTON: I think you're managing very well.
WINTON: You mean considering how old the equipment is.
NORTON: Well, some of it is getting on a bit.
WINTON: Yes.
JO: Was your colony better equipped?
NORTON: Yes. Didn't do us much good. That junction box of yours, it looks dangerous.
MARY: That's what Jim Holden says, but he manages to keep it going.
NORTON: Is he your only electrician engineer?
WINTON: He's the only one we could get to come with us. We'd be lost without him.

At which point he suspiciously disappears...

NORTON: Well, yes. I feel a bit tired. I'll just go and lie down until dinner.
WINTON: All right. See you then.

.... and goes and does Jim Holden in making it appear a Primitive is responsible, with catastrophic results for the colony!

ASHE: What happened?
NORTON: I was just coming by. I saw it all. He didn't have a chance.
ASHE: The primitive killed him?
NORTON: He went for me too. I grabbed a spanner and hit him. It was self-defence. I had to.
ASHE: I don't understand it. They were such friends.
NORTON: They're all the same. Treacherous. They get your confidence and then they turn on you.
ASHE: The relay circuits have been destroyed!
NORTON: Your man must have caught him messing about with the controls.
ASHE: But unless we get this repaired, the whole colony will come to a standstill. He was the only one who could fix it.

I found it odd when the Doctor & Caldwell were travelling to the IMC Spaceship that the Doctor was driving and not Caldwell's whose vehicle it was.

ASHE: Oh, here we go again.
MARY: Don't worry, Jim'll fix it.
NORTON: You've got to come with me.
ASHE: It's all right, it's only a power failure.

The "Jim'll fix it" line that Mary Ashe uses, in reference to the base electrician fixing the power supply, sounds dreadful to modern ears. Even before the scandal surrounding it's presenter, it would have automatically been associated with the television show. But Jim'll Fix It the TV shows started in 1975 four years after this episode was broadcast!

Most of the IMC crew are known to us:

In his fourth and final Doctor Who role Bernard Kay plays Caldwell. He was previously Tyler in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Saladin in The Crusade and Inspector Crossland in The Faceless Ones. Outside of Doctor Who you can see him in the Out of the Unknown episode Come Buttercup, Come Daisy, Come...? as Det. Sgt. Crouch which is one of the surviving episodes on the Out of the Unknown DVD set. He was in Space: 1999 New Adam New Eve as the Humanoid, Survivors as Sanders in Mad Dog, Future Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies' Century Falls as Richard Naismith and Jonathan Creek Jack in the Box as Oliver with a whole load of other people who've been in Doctor Who. He'd previously acted opposite First Doctor William Hartnell in Carry on Sergeant as an Injured Recruit. He appeared in The Sweeney episode Trap as Thomas as well as playing Matthews in the first Sweeney movie, and was Harry Scott in The Professionals episode When the Heat Cools Off. Toby Hadoke interviewed him for Who's Round #18 and following Kay's death on Christmas Day 2014 released Who's Round #101 which features more of the original interview that had to be cut!

Captain Dent is played by Morris Perry who while not having any Who form has a pretty long television career. He was in Out of This World as Alastair in Dumb Martian and appears in Doomwatch as Prof. Alec Hetherington in the missing 1972 episode Hair Trigger. He has a recurring role as the Flying Squad Commander Det. Chief Supt. Maynon in The Sweeney appearing in Jackpot, Thin Ice, Queen's Pawn, Visiting Fireman and the first film. Like Bernard Kay he's also in the Survivors episode Mad Dog where he plays Richard Fenton. In The Professionals he plays Radouk in Stopover. Toby Hadoke interviews him in Who's Round 177

Tony Caunter, who was also in The Crusade as Thatcher, appears here as Morgan and later as Jackson in Enlightenment. His other major science fiction role is in Blake's 7 as Ensor Jr in Deliverance. He was in The Sweeney as Derek Clarke in Queen's Pawn and The Professionals twice as the Detective Sergeant in Long Shot and Maurice Richards in Hunter/Hunted. His best known role is as Roy Evans in Eastenders. Toby Hadoke interviews him in Who's Round 193

John Herrington, appearing in this one episode as Jim Holden the colony electrician, worked with The Crusade's Director Douglas Camfield in another of his productions: he was Rhynmal, one of the scientists, in the surviving The Daleks' Masterplan episode 5 Counter Plot. Prior to that he'd been in the Quatermass II, as an Extra in the Riot Sequence in The Frenzy, and it's sequel Quatermass and the Pit as the Coffee Stall Owner in The Enchanted. He's also seen in Timeslip as the News Vendor in The Day of the Clone: Part 2.

Frequent Doctor Who extra Pat Gorman is credited with providing a voice for this episode, as well as playing the primitive he did in episode one. But the only voiceover heard this episode is for the film The Doctor watches on he IMC ship and that's provided by first time director Michael Briant.

One of the most prominent pieces of casting for this story never made it to the screen! Susan Jameson was cast as Morgan, but BBC executives objected to having a leather clad sadistic female villain and Tony Caunter was elevated from a more minor part. Jameson was paid for the work she would have done and, to date, has not appeared in televised Doctor Who though she has done some audio plays with the fourth Doctor Tom Baker. However a photo of her appears on Ashe's desk throughout this story representing his deceased wife.