296 Colony in Space Episode Four

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 296
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 01 May 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.1 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Colony In Space
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"My city is forbidden. Why have you come here?"

The Adjudicator's ship arrives on Uxarieus. Winton finds the projector that IMC having been using to create their Monsters but the IMC guards regain control of the ship and capture the colonists. The Doctor finds the entrance to the primitives city and attempts to bargain for Jo's life. Within the city he finds a pictorial record of the Primitives history showing that some great catastrophe befell the people there. The Adjudicator arrives to mediate the dispute between IMC and the Colonists: it's the Master. The Doctor & Jo attempt to escape from the city but are recaptured by the Primitives. They are taken to the city's Guardian, a shrunken Primitive with the power to speak and bargain they're freedom. They are told that if they return they will be destroyed. The Master is about to deliver his verdict when the Doctor returns to the colony. He rules against the colonists and orders them off the planet. Ashe wants to appeal against the decision but Winton plans to attack the IMC ship. The Master questions Ashe about the Primitive City. Norton is discovered with an IMC radio by one of the colonists but kills him. The IMC crew are lured into a trap in the main dome. Norton warns them, but is killed by Winton. A gun battle ensues, giving the Master an opportunity to kill Jo & the Doctor making it appear as if they were caught in the crossfire......

Oh look, it's the Master disguised as the Adjudicator, what a surprise! Well we shouldn't be surprised because the Time Lords flagged his interest in Uxarieus at the start of the first episode. And he's been every story so far this season. Would the audience at the time have cottoned on to this though?

Having walked in and taken charge, The Master is a bit surprised when The Doctor and Jo walk in as he's handing down his final judgement on The Colonists vs IMC

MASTER: Right. Well, I have now heard the statements from both sides. I think you should know that on my way here I contacted Earth and had a check made of planetary records. Now obviously, an error has occurred. A faulty computer on Earth has allocated this planet both for colonisation and for mineralogical exploitation. It will therefore be my duty to judge this case upon its merits.
JO: It's the Master!
MASTER: Since however the issues are extremely complicated, I shall need time to consider my decision. This tribunal stands adjourned.

Jo *is* surprised to see The Master there, obviously not having caught onto the whole "he can travel in time & space thing too"!

The Doctor however isn't remotely surprised and treats it as if he's run into his mate on the bus!

DOCTOR: And why are you impersonating the Adjudicator?
MASTER: My dear Doctor, I am the Adjudicator!
DOCTOR: Rubbish.
MASTER: What are you doing here anyway? Did the Time Lords send you?
DOCTOR: Nobody sends me anywhere. I'm a free agent.

Our Survey Says UH UH!

MASTER: So you've at last succeeded in escaping from your long exile on Earth. Congratulations. What are your plans now?
DOCTOR: Well, my immediate plans are to expose you as an imposter.
MASTER: That would be very foolish of you. My credentials are immaculate.
DOCTOR: Forged, of course.
MASTER: Of course, but immaculate. May I see your credentials, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Don't be absurd.
MASTER: What? No interplanetary travel permit? No registration for your Tardis? No personal identification?
DOCTOR: Bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo.
MASTER: Maybe, but in this regimented age of ours, essential. Without these, my dear Doctor, you do not exist.

A somewhat prescient piece of dialogue from Malcolm Hulke there!

MASTER: I could have you sent back to Earth as a prisoner.
DOCTOR: Oh, is that what you plan to do?
MASTER: Not, not unless you force my hand. I think you'd be well advised to keep silent, for both our sakes? Now if you'll excuse me.

The observant amongst you might have spotted a white Power Station Control panel in the Colony! It's colour makes it stand out amongst the browns used for most of the set:

We've seen this one before in Dalek Masterplan, War Machines & Fury from the Deep: to the left of the Dalek Masterplan picture is John Herrington who appeared in episode 2 of this story as Jim Holden.

But besides the Adjudicator's table there's another, darker panel:

I don't think we've seen this particular one before, although darker ones are seen in Fury from the Deep, Mind Robber and Seeds of Death.

Having forced the Doctor's hand, the Master sends down a verdict in favour of IMC.

MASTER: The tribunal will reconvene. Well, I have had time carefully to consider the statements that have been put before me. On the one hand, while I have every sympathy with the aspirations of the colonists, there can be little doubt that their stay here is not proving a success. On the other hand, we have this planet, rich in duralinium, a mineral that is much needed on Earth. I therefore have no alternative but to rule that colonisation on this planet is unsuitable and the settlers will leave here as soon as possible.

Now he's not heard where The Doctor stands on this issue at all but he doesn't need to be the Evil Genius that he is to work out that the Doctor has sided with the Colonists and that going with IMC is likely to be the decision that annoys the Doctor. However you almost feel that handing down a decision in favour of the Colonists would have given The Master some leverage over the Doctor. "Do what I want or I reverse my decision!"

I also rather suspect, given the evidence available at this stage, that an independent Adjudicator would have gone with IMC. If, and it's a big IF, a mistake has been made at Earth Central then the admission of that ought to have come with compensation for the colonists with them found somewhere else to live, but you can see how their actions during the last episode could have influenced a real Adjudicator into an identical decision with any potential compensation forfeited! Of course the insinuation very much is that Earth central didn't make a mistake, IMC discovered the presence of the minerals much later and barged in with force to take the planet, as they seem to have done elsewhere.

However, given how badly things are going, I bet the Colonists would have snapped up an offer to be taken somewhere else more agreeable! As it is it looks like they're being turfed off the planet in a spaceship which we already know, from episode 1, to be old and in poor repair.

MARTIN: Why can't you admit defeat, Ashe? We've got to get back to Earth.
ASHE: If we go back to Earth, we'll be worse off than we were before. All our savings have gone into this.
WINTON: Then we must move on to another planet. If we stay here, we'll be dead.
ASHE: I'm not sure that we can move on. Our spaceship was old when we bought it. It may not survive another trip.
WINTON: Oh, Robert, why won't you admit your mistakes?
ASHE: We've invested a year of our lives in this place. We've got the beginnings of a colony.
WINTON: Our food stocks are getting lower all the time. We can't even support ourselves.

With the colonists over a barrel, the Master now moves to try to get the information he needs by dangling them some hope....

ASHE: Maybe, but we can appeal.
MASTER: And anyway, Earth is crying out for minerals.
ASHE: Then you think an appeal would fail?
MASTER: I do. Unless of course, there were some special circumstances.
ASHE: Such as?
MASTER: Well, a claim to unusual historical interest, for instance.
ASHE: This is a very old planet. We know there was once a very great civilisation here.
MASTER: Indeed? Tell me, did they leave any traces?
ASHE: There's a ruined city not far from here.
MASTER: That's very interesting. Tell me more about it.

Of course the people who know the most about it are The Doctor and Jo, who've just returned from there:

DOCTOR: Wait, wait! We must talk!
JO: He's probably gone to get the other one.
DOCTOR: What other one?
JO: There's some sort of creature that seems to be in charge of them.
DOCTOR: Is it humanoid?
JO: No, not really.
DOCTOR: That's interesting. There must be two races on this planet.

JO: Well, never mind that. How are we going to get out of here?
DOCTOR: Don't you worry about that, my dear. I'm going to buy you back.
JO: Buy me back?
DOCTOR: That's right, just a simple business transaction. You know, judging by the room and this machinery, it could have been a highly advanced civilisation.
JO: Then what happened to it?
DOCTOR: It went into a decline. These Primitives could be descendants of a tremendously advanced race.
JO: That's just what I was thinking. Come take a look at this.
DOCTOR: That's extraordinary. A sort of chronicle, history. Buildings, cities, machines. They even invented flight.

JO: What happened here?
DOCTOR: Hmm? Oh. Buildings in ruins, people lying dead. Some great catastrophe, I should think. After that everything changes. Yes, look at this, Jo. A completely different style and design. Much cruder, more primitive.
JO: More recent too. A man being forced through a hatch.
DOCTOR: It looks like some sort of sacrifice. Jo, there. Would you say that was some sort of time mechanism?
DOCTOR: How do you do?
DOCTOR: Don't move, Jo. I think he's almost blind. I've come to take this young lady back. If you go to Ashe's dome, he will give you food.
JO: That picture he pointed to. It was the sacrifice!

They are then taken to the city's leader who is able to communicate with them:

JO: What is that thing?
DOCTOR: It's like a reactor.
JO: It's like that picture! I think they're going to sacrifice us!

GUARDIAN: My city is forbidden. Why have you come here?
JO: I was brought here.
GUARDIAN: And you?
DOCTOR: I came to take her back.
GUARDIAN: All intruders in the city must die. That is the law.
DOCTOR: We have no wish to offend your laws. The race that built this city were intelligent, civilised. They wouldn't condemn the innocent.
GUARDIAN: The law must obeyed.
DOCTOR: Surely the basis of all true law is justice. Look, we're both strangers to your planet. The girl was brought here by your warriors as a captive. All we ask is to be allowed to leave in peace.
GUARDIAN: I sense that you are a being of superior intelligence, and although the creature with you is of no value, I will let you both go. But remember this. If you ever return, you will be destroyed.
DOCTOR: Thank you, sir. And may I say that I'm overjoyed to find that justice prevails in your city.
JO: Doctor, what was that thing that saved us?
DOCTOR: Well, it was a being of tremendous intelligence, probably one of the rulers of this city. Three different races or three mutations of the same race?
JO: Come on, Doctor. This is no time for philosophising.

In the Primitives city we have the prop that was first seen in Doctor Who in The Invasion where it's a Cyberman spaceship.

It's turned up again in Spearhead from Space but since then it's blue boxes have become have grey as they were when last seen in Mind of Evil:

Morris Perry's chillingly cold performance as Dent is increasingly making me think he's channelling Kevin Stoney of Dalek Masterplan & The Invasion fame! I've got some of his other roles on DVD, see episode 2. so I'll have to dig them out and see if he's the same there.

John Tordoff plays Alec Leeson in this episode only and underlines one of the problems I have with the colonists in the story. We meet 7 colonists in episode 1 and only 3 of them are in the other episodes! Admittedly two of them are killed but they're Alec Leeson's brother and sister-in-law. Where was the grieving brother then? Why wait till episode four to introduce him and then bump him off straight away when he catches Norton in the act of giving them away? Still at least Norton gets it himself a few moments later!

Roy Heymann is the diminutive Alien Priest and will return as Gotal in Death to the Daleks.

Norman Atkyns is the Guardian and he's back in the next season as the Rear Admiral in The Sea Devils

Both those stories are directed by Michael Briant who is making his Doctor Who directing debut with this story and is obviously subscribing to the Douglas Camfield method of casting! He had previously worked under Camfield as a production assistant on the Crusade and then on Power of the Daleks & The Fury from the Deep. He'll return as a director for the Sea Devils, where he's good value on the commentary for that story, The Green Death, Death to the Daleks, Revenge of the Cybermen and one of the all time classics The Robots of Death.

You can hear Michael Briant interviewed by Toby Hadoke on Who's Round 140.

But if you look down the batting order on the production crew for this story you'll see another important name: the Assistant Floor Manager is future director Graeme Harper. He'll serve as AFM on Planet of the Daleks & Planet of the Spiders, make a brief on screen appearance in the Brain of Morbius, be Production Assistant on Seeds of Doom & Warriors' Gate, where he also directed some material before becoming a director for The Caves of Androzani & Revelation of the Daleks, where he's generally credited as being the best director Doctor Who had in the 80s. He then enjoyed an extensive career directing everything on British Television before being recalled to Doctor Who in 2006 to head up Rise of the Cybermen & The Age of Steel, Army of Ghosts & Doomsday, 42, Utopia, Time Crash, Planet of the Ood, The Unicorn and the Wasp, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth & Journey's End and The Waters of Mars. He's the only man to direct both classic and Nu Who.

You can hear Graeme Harper interviewed by Toby Hadoke on Who's Round 213 & Who's Round 214.

Both Briant & Harper are on the commentary team for the DVD of this story.