295 Colony in Space: Episode Three

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 295
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 24 April 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Colony In Space
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"You know this is an act of piracy punishable by death under interplanetary law?"

The Doctor attacks Morgan seizing the remote control for the robot. The Colonists are struggling to restore power when IMC move their ship closer to the colony, announcing their presence. IMC Captain Dent summons an adjudicator, but the Doctor returns saying he was attacked by the robot. The Doctor tries to repair the generator while Norton denounces his story. Winton & Jo try to find evidence on the IMC ship but Norton radios Dent to tell him they are there. The Doctor restores the power back to the colony. Jo & Winton are imprisoned in a primitive dwelling chained to a drilling explosive to ensure the Doctor's co-operation. Winton escapes, but Jo is recaptured. Winton is saved from pursuing guards by Caldwell, then incites the colonists to attack the IMC ship. Caldwell arranges Jo's release to prevent the attack, but she's seized by the primitives. The Doctor helps colonists get into the ship to capture the crew. The Doctor & Ashe search for Jo, finding her guard's body. Jo is taken to the Primitive's underground city....

What possessed Jo to try to break into the IMC ship?

NORTON: What's he talking about? Optical trickery? I've been hunted by those things. You've seen them.
WINTON: I saw something. It could have been faked.
NORTON: I tell you the man's crazy. Those creatures are real and you know it!
JO: If the Doctor says they were faked, they were faked.
WINTON: Yes, but he hasn't managed to produce any evidence, has he?
JO: Well, why don't we do something?
WINTON: Such as what?
JO: Well, we could find some proof.
WINTON: Where?
JO: We could start with the IMC spaceship.

Honestly.....

It was obvious that something wasn't right about Norton, and now his true colours & allegiance are revealed:

NORTON: Norton to IMC. Urgent message. Two colonists are about to enter your ship.

On the positive side Caldwell's dissatisfaction with IMC's polices is coming over nicely

DOCTOR: Ah, Caldwell. Working out your future bonuses?
CALDWELL: What do you want?
DOCTOR: I want your help.
CALDWELL: I work for IMC.
DOCTOR: Did you know that Captain Dent had given orders to have me killed?
CALDWELL: No.
DOCTOR: Or that they've taken Jo Grant prisoner and may kill her?
CALDWELL: Look, Dent's just bluffing to scare you into keeping quiet.
DOCTOR: Tomorrow morning, the colonists are going to attack your spaceship.
CALDWELL: Then you'd better stop them. The guards will mow them down.
DOCTOR: I know. That's why I'm here. There's something that you can do to help me.
CALDWELL: What?
DOCTOR: Release Jo Grant before the attack starts.
CALDWELL: All right, I'll do what I can. But you'd better stop that attack, Doctor. It won't be a battle, it'll be a slaughter.

MORGAN: Message from Earth Control. An Adjudicator's on his way.
DENT: Did they say who?
MORGAN: No.
DENT: Doesn't matter. Allen's still guarding the girl?
MORGAN: Yes. I'd better send someone to relieve him.
CALDWELL: Never mind about relieving that guard, Morgan. You just have the girl brought back here.
DENT: What are you talking about?
CALDWELL: Now you heard me. Have her brought back.
DENT: You're not in command of this ship.
CALDWELL: I'm in command of the mining operation. If the girl isn't brought back, the survey stops.
DENT: You'd be breaking your contract.
CALDWELL: You would have to explain to head office.
DENT: Have her brought back. Caldwell, you've just committed professional suicide.

While you hope the Adjudicator's arrival will help to resolve the Colonists' issues their actions here won't have done them any favours. First one of them breaks into the ship with Jo and then they storm it capturing the IMC crew!

Of course you're very much getting the feel that the system is bent in IMC's favour anyway from what you hear from both sides in this story.

DENT: I can assure you, Mister Ashe, I'm as surprised as you are. How long have you been here?
ASHE: More than a year now. You realize this planet has been assigned for colonisation?
DENT: No, not according to my company. We've been assigned full mineral rights.
ASHE: Then your people must have made a mistake.
DENT: Or yours. In any event, we're both here, so there's only one remedy. We shall have to send for an Adjudicator.
WINTON: Yes, we know all about that. It takes years to reach a decision, and by then you've chewed up the entire planet.
DENT: I'm sure you agree we must apply the proper procedures.

But don't forget: there's a tinsy hanging plot thread from the first episode: Why has the Doctor been sent here by the Time Lords in the first place?

We've seen Human colonies before in Doctor Who. The Ark is all about the remainder of the human race travelling to a new world, whereas the Doctor visits established colonies on Vulcan, in the Power of the Daleks, the unnamed planet in the Macra Terror and the Issigri Mining Corporation's base on Ta. Interestingly all three of these worlds show or mention Mining taking place in connection with the Colony. Here the focus is on living and there's conflict with those who want to mine. We'll return to Earth colonies in The Mutants, The Planet of the Spiders, The Ark in Space & The Sontaran Experiment (kind of), The Face of Evil, The Robots of Death, The Sunmakers, State of Decay, Kinda & Snakedance, Frontios, Revelation of the Daleks & The Happiness Patrol. In addition to these, there's many planets the Doctor visits inhabited by civilisations that could be human colonies that have evolved & changed or that might be actually be humanoid primitives that have evolved into a form similar to Humans - in most cases it's just no clear but I think we can be sure about the Kaleds, Thals, Time Lords & Sisterhood of Kahn aren't Earth originated humans! Insinuating that would be opening a whole can of worms that I don't want to go near!

Stanley McGeagh playing Allen, the guard watching over Jo, returns as Drew in The Sea Devils. He was in UFO twice as a SHADO Security Man in E.S.P. and a SHADO Guard in Mindbender

Playing IMC crewman Long is the great Pat Gorman, making what I think is his first speaking appearance in Doctor Who as a named character! So we probably should have a ceremonial reading of his full Doctor Who credits: he was a Freedom Fighter/Rebel in Dalek Invasion of Earth, a Planetarian in Mission to the Unknown: Delegate Detective thinks he's Sentreal the black Christmas tree, a Greek Soldier in The Myth Makers, a Guard in Massacre, a Worker in The War Machines, a Monk in The Abominable Snowmen, a Guard in The Enemy of the World, a Cyberman in The Invasion, a Technician in The Seeds of Death, a Military Policeman in The War Games episode two, the Silurian Scientist in The Silurians, a Technician in The Ambassadors of Death, a Primord in Inferno and the Auton Leader in Terror of the Autons. In he other episodes of this story he plays a Primitive. He returns as a Coven Member in The Dæmons, a Guard & Film Cameraman in Day of the Daleks, a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, a UNIT Soldier in The Three Doctors, an Earth Guard/Presidential Guard/Sea Devil in Frontier in Space, a Global Chemicals Guard / 'Nuthatch' Resident in The Green Death, a UNIT Corporal in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon, a Soldier in Planet of the Spiders, the Gate Guard in Robot part one, a Thal Soldier in Genesis of the Daleks, a Cyberman/Dead Crewman in Revenge of the Cybermen, a Guard in The Seeds of Doom, a Soldier/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Chancellory Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Medic in The Invisible Enemy, a Kro in The Ribos Operation, the Pilot in The Armageddon Factor, a Thug in City of Death part one, a Gundan in Warriors' Gate, a Foster in The Keeper of Traken, Grogan in Enlightenment, a Soldier in The Caves of Androzani, a Slave Worker and a Cyberman in Attack of the Cybermen. Of those it' easiest to spot his face in Abominable Snowmen, Planet of the Spiders, Robot and The Armageddon Factor! He's got several Blake's 7 appearances to his name as a Scavenger in Deliverance, Federation Trooper / Rebel in Voice from the Past, Trantinian planet hopper Captain in Gambit, Death Squad Trooper in Powerplay, Federation Trooper in The Harvest of Kairos & Rumours of Death, Hommik Warrior in Power, Helot in Traitor and a Federation Trooper in Games & Blake. We was also in Adam Adamant Lives! as a Guard in More Deadly Than the Sword, a Man at Club in Beauty Is an Ugly Word, a Coven Member in The Village of Evil, a War Office Guard / TA Soldier in D for Destruction and an S.S. Guard in A Sinister Sort of Service. He appears once in The Prisoner as a Hospital Orderly in Hammer Into Anvil and just once in Doomwatch as Man in Hear No Evil. His Porridge appearance in the second Christmas Special The Desperate Hours is another easy spot: he's the Prison Officer who comes into the loos as Fletcher and friends are sampling the contraband home brew. He was in two episodes of The Sweeney as a Flying Squad Officer in Thou Shalt Not Kill (director: D Camfield) & Latin Lady, and two The Tomorrow People stories: Worlds Away as the Vesh Hunter and War of the Empires as a US Marine. In the BBC The Day of the Triffids he played a Blind Man in episode 5 while in Douglas Camfield & Robert Holmes adaption of The Nightmare Man he played The Killer with Camfield using him again as a Legionnaire in Beau Geste. He was in The Professionals five times: as a Golfer in Killer with a Long Arm, a CI5 Agent in Close Quarters & Servant of Two Masters, a Security Man in Weekend in the Country and the Police Superintendent at inquest in Discovered in a Graveyard. He's a Policeman again in The Young Ones: Interesting and towards the end of his career Russell T Davies uses him in Dark Season as a Heavy.

Likewise, as we mentioned in episode one, this is Roy Skelton's first appearance in front of Camera as Norton. Usually a Voice Artist for he program he first appeared providing Monoid voices in The Ark episode 4: The Bomb before returning in The Tenth Planet as the Cybermen's voices, with a bonus go as the control room countdown voice. At the end of that season he finally starts work on his most famous Doctor Who role, as the Dalek voice, in The Evil of the Daleks episode 1 before playing the Computer voice in The Ice Warriors and reprising the Cyberman voice in the Wheel in Space, both in the next season. His one appearance in Patrick Troughton's final season as The Krotons' voice in The Krotons after which he didn't feature in the series again until this story. Following this he's Wester in Planet of the Daleks, invisible until his death when he is briefly seen, a story for which he also provides Dalek voices. He's called back to Doctor Who quickly as an emergency substitute playing James in The Green Death episode five after another actor fell ill. He's the Daleks' voice in Genesis of the Daleks before making two on-screen appearances under makes up as Marshall Chedaki in The Android Invasion and Rokon in The Hand of Fear. He's returns to Dalek voices in Destiny of the Daleks, where he also briefly plays K-9's voice too, before providing Dalek voices in The Five Doctors, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He's got an Out of the Unknown appearance to his name, providing Robot voices in The Prophet, which is the story who's robot costumes were reused for The Mind Robber and features The Stones of Blood's Beatrix Lehmann as Dr. Susan Calvin. Alas no recording of the episode survives so the only trace of it on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set is a series of off-screen images. Despite this mass of Doctor who work the roles which Skelton is most famous for are the voices of Zippy and George in Rainbow and when interviewed for Doctor who: Cybermen: The Early Years he can't resist signing off as his most famous creations!

This story is also a return for regular Dalek Operator John Scott Martin. He'd made his Doctor Who debut in The Web Planet as a Zarbi graduating to Dalek Operator in The Chase three stories later a role he'd repeated in Mission to the Unknown, The Dalek Masterplan,Power of the Daleks and Evil of the Daleks. He'll return as a Dalek in Day of the Daleks, Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks, Death to the Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks. He also plays the Robot in Colony in Space, Charlie in The Dæmons, a Mutant in the Mutants, Hughes in The Green Death, a guard in Robot and Kriz in Brain of Morbius. His distinctive hair makes him a familiar figure amongst bit part actors in many television roles: he was in Quatermass and the Pit as a T.V. Technician in The Wild Hunt and A for Andromeda as a Lab Assistant / Man in Pub in The Message. He appears in the missing Out of the Unknown episode The Naked Sun as a robot but misses out when The Daleks turn up in Get Off My Cloud. In Doomwatch he's a Man in The Islanders and e appears in the first episode of The Tripods as the Schoolmaster. Away from science fiction he was in I, Claudius as Julia's Lover in Waiting in the Wings and a Slave in Some Justice and appears on the big screen in Pink Floyd - The Wall as a Dancing Teacher.

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.

293 Colony in Space: Episode One

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 293
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 10 April 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Colony In Space
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Unless things improve radically, you're in grave danger of starving to death!"

The Time Lords discover that their report on the Doomsday Weapon is missing and so send the Tardis to Uxarieus, a struggling human Colony that has been established under the leadership of Ashe. Their crops are failing and the live in fear of the planet being mined. The Leeson colonists are attacked and killed by a monster. Norton, a survivor from another colony wanders in. He tells Ashe and his colleagues that his colony was destroyed by the monster that killed the Leeson. While searching for evidence in the Leeson dome the Doctor is attacked by a robot.

Very much setup for the rest of the story this episode: Get the Doctor off Earth and establish the struggling colonists. The Doctor stranded on Earth was the idea of the previous production team: Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts decided to get him off Earth as quickly as possible. They use "on a mission for the Time Lords" as a way to do it, and in the process treat us to a brief view of the Time Lords analysing files the Master stole on the planet and deciding to use the Doctor to deal with it.

TIME LORD: Are you are sure the Master knows?
TIME LORD 2: The report on the Doomsday weapon is missing from our files. Only he could have taken it.
TIME LORD: Then we can use the Doctor to deal with this problem.
TIME LORD 3: The Doctor resents his exile bitterly. Do you think he'll co-operate with us?
TIME LORD 2: I doubt it. We immobilised his Tardis, took away his freedom to move in space and time.
TIME LORD: Then we must restore his freedom for as long as it serves our purpose.

Given that as a start it's a bit of a surprise we don't see the Master in the rest of the episode, especially as the Brigadier believes he's found him:

BRIGADIER: One of my agents thinks he's picked up a trace of the Master.
DOCTOR: Your agents are always picking up traces of the Master.
BRIGADIER: This agent happens to be particularly reliable, Doctor. I'll let you what he says. If you're interested.
JO: Ah. Now you've offended him.
DOCTOR: Well, look what happened last time. The man they arrested turned out to be the Spanish ambassador!

The Doctor's line about The Spanish Ambassador being mistaken for the Master is a nod to Roger Delgado's previous role as Mendoza, the Spanish Ambassador in Sir Francis Drake!. That's it for the Brigadier for this episode and indeed till the very end of the story. A constant presence since Spearhead From Space 35 episodes ago, the middle four episodes of Colony in Space are the first time that Nicholas Courtney misses an episode since Jon Pertwee became the Doctor!

She may have been the Doctor's assistant for fourteen episode but this is the first time that Jo Grant sees the inside of the Tardis, with a fairly typical reaction.

JO: I don't believe it! It's bigger inside than out!
DOCTOR: Yes. That's because the Tardis is dimensionally transcendental.
JO: What does that mean?
DOCTOR: It means that it's bigger inside than out. Now then..... That's impossible!
JO: The doors have closed.
DOCTOR: What?
JO: Doctor, let me out of here.
DOCTOR: Well, I can't, Jo. I think we're taking off!
JO: Well, stop it.
DOCTOR: I'm trying to. Something's operating it by remote control. The Time Lords!
JO: All right, Doctor. The joke's over. Open the doors and let me out.
DOCTOR: I can't, Jo. We've taken off.
JO: All right, then. Where are we?
DOCTOR: At the moment we're nowhere.
JO: Oh, don't be silly. We can't be nowhere.
DOCTOR: We're outside the space time continuum.
JO: What?
DOCTOR: Look.
JO: What's happening? Where are we going?
DOCTOR: I've no idea. We'll just have to wait until we emerge.
DOCTOR: The planet Uxarieus. So that's our destination.
JO: Very impressive, but can we go back to Earth now please?
DOCTOR: I don't know, Jo. I just don't know.
JO: Is that supposed to be where we are?
DOCTOR: That is where we are.
JO: All right then. If we've landed on another planet, why don't you open the doors?
DOCTOR: Because the atmosphere out there might be poisonous, that's why. I'll just check.
JO: Well, is it?
DOCTOR: Is it what?
JO: Is the atmosphere poisonous?
DOCTOR: No. No, it's quite healthy. Similar to Earth before the invention of the motor car.
JO: Look, Doctor, are you going to open the doors or not?
DOCTOR: I can but try.
JO: Thank you. Doctor!
DOCTOR: That's an alien world out there, Jo. Think of it.
JO: I don't want to think of it. I want to go back to Earth.
DOCTOR: Look, do you realize how long I've been confined to one planet?
JO: All that talk of yours about travelling in time and space, it was true.
DOCTOR: Well, of course it was true! Before I was stranded on Earth, I spent all my time exploring new worlds and seeking the wonders of the universe.
JO: But you don't know what's out there.
DOCTOR: Then let's find out. Don't you want to set foot in another world?
JO: Well, yes, I do but I
DOCTOR: Good. Come on. We'll just take a quick look around, and then I'll try and get you back to Earth. All right?

Jo's predecessor, the Doctor's previous assistant Liz Shaw didn't get to see inside the Tardis at all! It wasn't until the third episode of Claws of Axos that we saw inside the Tardis during the Third Doctor time.

I called attention to the Tardis doors and walls when we saw it in Claws of Axos. Here the doors open into the ship, showing Roundels on the outer side, as they did there but we're back to seeing straight out the doors into the outside.

The photographic flat of a Tardis wall, which was outside the doors in Claws of Axos, is back inside the strip and is actually the right way round, with the roundels in columns as opposed to the rows which have been seen the last few times this piece has been used.

Of course once they're out of the Tardis, they're in trouble nearly straight away as they're mistaken by the colonists as mineralogists working for a mining company:

LEESON: They were examining rock samples. They're mineralogists. It was bound to happen.
DOCTOR: Look, we are not mineralogists. And even if we were, why all the hostility? It's a respectable profession.
LEESON: Because we don't want our planet gutted. This is our world. You've no right to be here.
DOCTOR: Look, we've as much right to be here as anybody else.
ASHE: This planet has been classified as suitable for colonisation. Once your big mining combines move in, you'll reduce it to a galactic slagheap.
DOCTOR: Haven't you got laws to deal with this kind of thing?
LEESON: Yes, there are laws. We can complain to Earth's government just like all the others. By the time you'll get a final decision, the planet's useless.
DOCTOR: I see. Yes well, I can sympathize with you, gentlemen, but I can assure you that I'm not working for anybody.

Mining companies aren't the colonists only worries though:

DOCTOR: These are your crop records, I take it?
ASHE: That's right, but I really don't see what it has to do with you.
DOCTOR: It's a very poor showing, isn't it? Are you operating above subsistence level?
LEESON: We're surviving. Come on!
ASHE: No, no, just a minute. I'd like to hear what he has to say.
DOCTOR: Unless I'm very much mistaken, you've got far more to worry about than mineralogists.

The Doctor believes that external forces are to blame for their crop failure:

DOCTOR: Let's see if I've got this right. You brought your colonists to this planet just over a year ago.
ASHE: Yes.
DOCTOR: You set up your main dome here, with all your subsidiary domes around it.
ASHE: That's right. I made a preliminary survey before I sent for the others.
DOCTOR: And you were convinced that this planet was suitable for habitation, despite the exhaustion of the soil?
ASHE: Well, worn out soil can be reclaimed, Doctor, as you well know. We should have had subsidence crops within the year.
DOCTOR: Exactly. Should have.
ASHE: The cover crop refuses to grow. We plant it, it shoots up and then withers, again and again. There seems to be no reason for it.
DOCTOR: Well, in theory, you should have a bumper crop by now.
ASHE: I can't feed my people on theories, Doctor.

Lots of the cast have form in Doctor Who: John Ringham, as Ashe, was previously Tlotoxl in The Aztecs & Josiah Blake in The Smugglers. Early in his career he appeared in An Age of Kings the BBC adaptation of William Shakespeare's history plays playing Lord Berkeley in Richard II Part 1: The Hollow Crown & Richard II Part 2: The Deposing of a King, Vintner in Henry IV Part 1 Rebellion from the North, Porter / Fang in Henry IV Part 3 The New Conspiracy, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester in Henry IV Part 4 Uneasy Lies The Head, Henry V Part 1 Signs of War, Henry V Part 2 The Band of Brothers, Henry VI Part 1 The Red Rose And The White, Henry VI Part 2 The Fall of A Protector & Henry VI Part 3 The Rabble From Kent, A Father That Hath Killed His Son in Henry VI Part 4 The Morning's War, Watchman in Part Thirteen The Sun in Splendour and Sir William Catesby in Richard III Part 1 The Dangerous Brother & Richard III Part 2 The Boar Hunt. He appears in the first Dad's Army episode The Man and the Hour as Bracewell but his character was dropped because it was deemed to similar to Private Godfrey! He returns later in the series playing Captain Bailey 4 times in A Stripe for Frazer, Under Fire, Room at the Bottom & Don't Fence Me In. In the first series of Juliet Bravo he plays Superintendent Lake in Shot Gun, The One Who Got Away & Lake in Relief. In The Tripods he plays Herr Krummel in the third episode of the second series. I first saw him in Just Good Friends where he plays Norman Warrender, Penny's father. Later he features in The Piglet Files as Major Andrew Maxwell. Very late in his career he was in V for Vendetta as an Old Man . He died October 20 2008, aged 80.

By far the most famous member of the cast is making her only Doctor Who appearance. Now I'm obsessive about what other actors have been in but Helen Worth, as Mary Ashe the daughter of the colony's leader, should be recognisable to almost anyone: She's Gail Rodwell (nee Potter, Tilsley, Platt, Hillman & McIntyre) from Coronation Street.

John Line plays Martin. He'd been in the Out of the Unknown episode Thirteen to Centaurus, where he played Capt. Sanger, which you can see on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. He later appears in Survivors as Alistair McFadden in Face of the Tiger and The Professionals as Somerfield in Operation Susie.

Mrs Martin is played by Mitzi Webster who returns under the name Mitzi McKenzie to play Nancy in The Green Death.

David Webb plays Leeson. He appears in the Blake's 7 episode Star One as Stot and later became known for his work as an anti-censorship_campaigner.

Jane Leeson is played by Sheila Grant who previously voiced the Quarks in The Dominators. She can be seen in the surviving 1971 Doomwatch episode No Room for Error, as Gillian Blake, which is on The Doomwatch DVD. She later provides voices for the Captain Zep - Space Detective episode The Lodestone of Space.

Completing the named colonists in the first episode we have Nicholas Pennell who plays Winton.

We've heard him many times before as the voices of the Daleks & Cybermen but making his on screen d�but in Doctor Who is Roy Skelton as Norton. He's got four further in front of camera appearances in Planet of the Daleks as Wester, The Green Death as James, The Android Invasion as Chedaki and The Hand of Fear as King Rokon.

His Dalek co-conspirator John Scott Martin is the Robot here, making his first appearance in the show since 1967's Evil of the Daleks.

Frequent Doctor Who extra Pat Gorman plays the Primitive. There's two Primitives in this episode so I'm not sure which one is Gorman, who was credited, and which was Les Clark, who isn't.

All three Time Lords we saw at the start of the episode also have had or will have other Doctor Who appearances:

Graham Leaman previously played The Controller in The Macra Terror Price in Fury from the Deep and The Grand Marshall in The Seeds of Death episode five & six. He's a Time Lord here and in The Three Doctors, presumably the same Time Lord. He also has Doomwatch on his CV appearing in the second season opener You Killed Toby Wren as Professor Eric Hayland, which exists and can be found on The Doomwatch DVD, and Cause of Death as Wilfred Ridge, the father of one of the leading characters, John Ridge. Sadly this appearance is one of the many later Doomwatch episodes which is missing.

Peter Forbes-Robertson was a Guard in The Power of the Daleks and will be the Chief Sea Devil in The Sea Devils. He appears in The Tripods as Schenker in the first episode of the second series.

John Baker returns as Ralph in The Visitation. He appears in Blake's 7 as a Scientist in Project Avalon.

The outfit one of the colonists is wearing catches my eye: he appears to be wearing a spacesuit from Ambassador of Death!

292 The Claws of Axos: Episode Four

EPISODE: The Claws of Axos: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 292
STORY NUMBER: 057
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 03 April 1971
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Michael Ferguson
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - the Claws of Axos - Special Edition
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Do you mean to say that you are actually prepared to abandon your beloved Earth to the Axon's tender mercies?"

With Axos disrupted by the power the Master is feeding it, The Doctor & Jo managed to escape. Axos feeds the power back to the Nuton complex, killing Hardiman as he disconnects the link. The Doctor arrives back at the Nuton complex saying he is needing the Master's help to defeat Axos. However when he has the Master alone in the Tardis he tells him he needs his help repairing the Tardis so they can both escape. Axos begins to surface ready to start feeding energy from the distributed Axonite causing the observing Yates & Benton to flee. The Doctor & Master depart together to the horror of the Jo and the Brigadier as Axons attack the Nuton complex. The Doctor brings the Tardis saying he wishes to bargain the secret of time travel for an alliance against the high council of the Time Lords. Axos agrees and the Doctor wires it into the Tardis intending, as the Master notices, to Time Loop Axos. The Master flees, attempting to get to his own Tardis. Axos and the Axons dematerialise becoming Time Looped but the Doctor, shielded by the Tardis, escapes by rematerialises in the Nuton complex just as it's destroyed in a huge explosion.

The Doctor persuades the Tardis to make another short journey rematerialising in the ruins of the Nuton complex.

DOCTOR: Well, it's perfectly simple, Brigadier. A time loop is, er. Well, it's a time loop. One passes continually through the same points in time. Passes through the same. Yes. Well, the Axons said they wanted time travel and now they've got it.
FILER: What about the Master?
DOCTOR: Well, I sincerely hope he's with them.
FILER: Hope?
DOCTOR: Well, I can't be absolutely sure. I was pretty busy at the time. But I'm ninety percent certain though.
FILER: How much?
DOCTOR: Well, pretty certain. Well, I suppose he could have got away. Just.
BRIGADIER: This time loop thing. How did you get out of it?
DOCTOR: I simply boosted the circuits and broke free.
BRIGADIER: And you came back of your own accord?
DOCTOR: Well, I
JO: Doctor?
DOCTOR: No. No, I'm afraid not. No, obviously the Time Lords have programmed the Tardis always to return to Earth. It seems that I'm some kind of a galactic yo-yo!

The Doctor is quite duplicitous here, first deceiving the Brigadier and co, making them believe he's abandoned them and fled Earth with The Master.

DOCTOR: Ah, thank you, Jo.
JO: Doctor, what are those figures?
DOCTOR: Oh, they're just some course coordinates, that's all.
FILER: What do you want course coordinates for, Doc? You're not thinking of leaving us, are you?
DOCTOR: Here you are. Everything ready?
MASTER: Just the check.
DOCTOR: Good. Yes, as a matter of fact, we are.
FILER: Not if I can help it!
DOCTOR: Drop that, Filer!
JO: Doctor! Doctor!
DOCTOR: Sorry, Jo. Ah, Brigadier, just in time to say goodbye!
JO: No, you can't!
DOCTOR: I'm sorry, Jo, we must.
FILER: We?
DOCTOR: Yes. After all, we are both Time Lords. Goodbye, Brigadier, Mister Chinn. Goodbye, Bill. Goodbye, Jo. I shall miss you.
JO: No!

Then he deceives The Master to gain his co-operation in his scheme.

MASTER: Well, Doctor? I'm still waiting to hear this marvellous scheme of yours.
DOCTOR: Actually, there isn't one.
MASTER: Well, then why?
DOCTOR: Because if you mend the Tardis, we can both escape.
MASTER: Both? Tell me, Doctor, are you suggesting an alliance?
DOCTOR: Why not? I don't want to spend the rest of my life as a heap of dust on second rate planet to a third rate star. Do you?
MASTER: Do you mean to say that you are actually prepared to abandon your beloved Earth to the Axon's tender mercies?
DOCTOR: Certainly. After all, we are both Time Lords.
MASTER: Maybe. Look, why should I help you?
DOCTOR: Because if you don't I shall hand you over to UNIT and you'll become a prisoner on a doomed planet.
MASTER: Yes, well, you'll be doomed along with me.
DOCTOR: Exactly. We either escape together or we die together.
MASTER: Oh, very generous! But look, why not just hand me over to UNIT and make your escape by yourself? Well?
DOCTOR: Because the Time Lords have put a block on my knowledge of dematerialisation theory, that's why!
MASTER: Oh, I see.
DOCTOR: Yes. Well, we haven't got much time. What's your decision?
MASTER: All right, I accept.

Finally he deceives Axos forcing them into the Time Loop.

AXOS: Why have you returned?
DOCTOR: That's simple. Because you are winning. And we have a proposition. You may have conquered this tiny speck in space but you've yet to conquer time.
AXOS: Well?
DOCTOR: We are prepared to give you this power on one condition. That we join forces against the High Council of the Time Lords.
AXOS: How can we do this?
DOCTOR: By linking our drive systems. In this way, Axos will become a Tardis and the Tardis will become a part of Axos.

I'm pretty certain he was intending to make his getaway at the end of this episode but alas he discovers the limits the Time Lords have placed on him..... which we will shortly see relaxed so he can do their bidding.

But at the end of these 4 episodes I still find myself left with no great love for the Claws of Axos. I'm sorry, it just doesn't appeal to me.

This time round I'm struck by the irony that Chinn was right at the start of the story: Axos is a threat. If they'd have destroyed it initially he whole problem would of gone away. THEN his tomfoolery in the following episodes, insisting Britain distributes the Axonite, delays things preventing it's spread and making a major contribution to saving the planet!

Just in case you're in the slightest doubt, Chinn really REALLY annoys me!

Although the end of this story is the last we see of Axos and the Axons we do get to see an Axon monster costume again. One was later resprayed green and used as a Krynoid in the fourth Doctor story the Seeds of Doom

One particular technical element of this episode has attracted considerable debate over the years: As Benton & Yates are attempting to drive a jeep back to the Brigadier they're attacked by Axons. During this sequence the long shots of the jeep are on location and the close ups of Yates & Benton are filmed in the studio. Behind them is a featureless blue grey background. The argument runs is that a poor attempt at a sky, which doesn't really match the location sequences, or is it a CSO shot where someone's forgotten to key in the background? For years watching this story on video I was a subscriber to the later theory but now I'm not so sure especially when compared to a similar shot of Filer driving his car in episode one that while a different colour looks equally bad compared to the location footage around it. Two other factors weigh against it being CSO: Firstly the blue isn't that bright as it's usually a bright colour used for CSO. The second is that Doctor Who tended to avoid using the colour blue as the Background for it's CSO work due to one of the major props in the series, the Tardis, being coloured blue!

A couple of points about the Tardis doors: Outside the console room doors in this episode there's a roundelled lobby that we've not seen before.

This is made up of one of the studio flats that made up the walls of the Tardis control room. It's noticeable because at some point in it's life it go stuck on it's side so the roundels are in rows, not columns!

Previously when the Tardis doors are open we've seen directly onto the exterior surrounding that the ship has materialised in!

It's worth noting, mainly because it will change shortly, that the rear of the doors have roundels on them, just as they have from the beginning of the series.

Ok yes, the roundels did change from sticking out to being recessed somewhere between The Web Planet and Time Meddler, but apart from that the rear of the doors has always been the same:

We also get to see the Master's Tardis again. When we last saw it, it was a horsebox in Terror of the Autons. Are we to assume this plain blocky shape is it's native form?

There is a slight error in this episode: The Tardis in the lab when UNIT and co are attacked by the Axons. However the Doctor has taken it to Axos at this point

The Nuton Complex technician is played by Royston Farrell. He was a Guardian in The Return & The Bomb, the last two episodes of The Ark, an Elder in The Savages, a Technician in The Seeds of Death, and returns as a Guard in The Curse of Peladon. He also performed stunts on Flash Gordon.

This is the last episode Director Michael Fergusson's fourth and final Doctor Who story following The War Machines, The Seeds of Death & The Ambassadors of Death.

The Claws of Axos was novelised in 1977 by Terrance Dicks. In 1979 it became one of the first Target Doctor Who books to be rejacketed with a new cover. A video version of Claws of Axos was released on 5th May 1992 alongside Tomb of the Cybermen and the Woolworths exclusive The Twin Dilemma. It was released on DVD on 25th April, 2005 and was the fifth Third Doctor DVD to be released. At this point a reasonable portion of the range was Pertwee releases but that slowed down leaving the last few years of the DVD range with several Pertwee stories a number of which need extensive restoration work. Doctor Who The Claws of Axos Special Edition DVD was released on 22nd October 2012 featuring improved picture quality and many more special features.

Doctor Who Season 8, containing this story, was released on Blu Ray on March 8th.