298 Colony in Space Episode Six

EPISODE: Colony in Space: Episode Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 298
STORY NUMBER: 058
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 15 May 1971
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Michael Briant
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.7 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Colony In Space
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Doctor, why don't you come in with me? We're both Time Lords, we're both renegades. We could be masters of the galaxy! Think of it, Doctor, absolute power!"

Caldwell & Morgan free Jo. The Master & the Doctor are taken prisoner by the primitives. Caldwell helps Jo escape from the IMC guards who are forcing the colonists onto the ship. The Master and the Doctor are led into a cell by the priest:

MASTER: Are you the leader of these people? I've come to help you. Why doesn't he answer?
DOCTOR: They don't speak. They're telepathic.
MASTER: No, wait! What is this place?
DOCTOR: Well, it looks like some sort of lumber room. Take a look at this frieze here. I think it might interest you.
MASTER: Yes.
DOCTOR: It's a sort of chronicle of their history, showing that their science has deteriorated into a somewhat primitive religion. MASTER: That's absolutely fascinating. The whole story is here.
DOCTOR: Is it? Well, perhaps you'd be kind enough to explain it to me?
MASTER: Well, this city was once the center of a great civilisation.
DOCTOR: Yes, I had rather gathered that.
MASTER: By genetic engineering, they developed a super-race. That priest we saw must be a remnant of it.
DOCTOR: You deduced all that from these pictures?
MASTER: Well, not exactly. I knew it already. The files of the Time Lords are very comprehensive.
DOCTOR: Oh, so that's more like it. You mean that you stole the information?
MASTER: Well, it seemed an awful pity not to make use of it, you know? But of course that's typical of the High Council of the Time Lords. Know everything, do nothing.
DOCTOR: Tell me, why are you so interested in the history of this planet?
MASTER: Well, this super-race developed a Doomsday Weapon. it was never used.
DOCTOR: Why not? Super-weapons usually are eventually.
MASTER: Who knows? Maybe it was due to a degeneration of the life strain.
DOCTOR: I see. And so the super race became priests of a lunatic religion worshipping machines instead of gods.
MASTER: So it would seem.
DOCTOR: Well, may I remind you that their religion embraces sacrifice, and that we are the destined victims?

DOCTOR: You're going to use this weapon?
MASTER: Not unless it's absolutely necessary. Well, don't you see, Doctor? The very threat of its use could hold the galaxy to ransom.
DOCTOR: I think you've left it a trifle late.

They escape their cell and seek the controls for the weapon. The colonists prepare to leave. Winton sneaks away and knocks out the IMC lookout observing the spaceship launch. While seeking the Doctor, Jo & Caldwell see the colonists spaceship take off and suddenly explode. The Master explains how he will use the Doomsday Weapon:

DOCTOR: Well, where is this super weapon of yours?
MASTER: We're in the heart of it. It stretches for miles all round us. Look, let me try and explain how it works.
MASTER: Look! That, Doctor, is the sun that gives life to the planet Earth that you hold in such affection.
DOCTOR: I do know a little basic astronomy.
MASTER: Then you will know that one day that sun will burn through to its core and explode.
DOCTOR: In about ten thousand million years time, yes.
MASTER: Well, with this weapon, I could make that happen now.
DOCTOR: That's unbelievable!
MASTER: You know the Crab Nebula?
DOCTOR: The cloud of cosmic matter that was once a sun? Of course.
MASTER: That was the result of the super race testing this weapon.

Jo & Caldwell gain entrance to the city seeking the Doctor. The Doctor is appalled by the Master's plan

DOCTOR: So, you intend to hold the universe to ransom.
MASTER: Doctor, why don't you come in with me? We're both Time Lords, we're both renegades. We could be masters of the galaxy! Think of it, Doctor, absolute power! Power for good. Why, you could reign benevolently, you could end wars, suffering, disease. We could save the universe.
DOCTOR: No, absolute power is evil.
MASTER: Consider carefully, Doctor. I'm offering you a half-share in the universe.

MASTER: You must see reason, Doctor.
DOCTOR: No, I will not join you in your absurd dreams of a galactic conquest.
MASTER: Why? Why? Look at this. Look at all those planetary systems, Doctor. We could rule them all!
DOCTOR: What for? What is the point?
MASTER: The point is that one must rule or serve. That's a basic law of life. Why do you hesitate, Doctor? Surely it's not loyalty to the Time Lords, who exiled you on one insignificant planet?
DOCTOR: You'll never understand, will you? I want to see the universe, not rule it.
MASTER: Then I'm very sorry, Doctor.

The Guardian of the City & it's Doomsday Weapon reveals himself to the Doctor & the Master.

MASTER: What is it?
DOCTOR: The ultimate development of life on this planet.
GUARDIAN: Why have you returned? What do you want here?
MASTER: I want to restore this city and this planet to their former glory.
DOCTOR: Don't listen to him, sir.
MASTER: You have here a wonderful weapon. Why, with it you could bring good and peace to every world in the galaxy.
DOCTOR: On the contrary. He'll bring only death and destruction.
MASTER: This planet of yours could be the centre of a mighty empire! The greatest that the cosmos has ever known.
DOCTOR: Tell me, sir, has this weapon of yours ever brought good to your planet?
GUARDIAN: Once the weapon was built, our race began to decay. The radiation from the weapon's power source poisoned the soil of our planet.
DOCTOR: Exactly. The weapon has only brought death, and yet he wants to spread that death throughout the galaxy! Unless you destroy this weapon, sir, he will use it for evil.
MASTER: No! You must be mad! Why, with this, we could control every galaxy in the cosmos! We could be gods!
GUARDIAN: You are not fit to be a god. I sense that if you have control of this weapon, you will bring only unhappiness and destruction to the entire universe.

GUARDIAN: There is a self-destructor mechanism. You will please operate it.
DOCTOR: Not only does justice prevail on your planet, sir, but also infinite compassion.
GUARDIAN: You must leave at once, or you will be destroyed with the city.
DOCTOR: Thank you, sir.

Fleeing the city the Doctor & Master are reunited with Jo & Caldwell allowing them to all escape together before an explosion destroys the weapon & city. They are captured by Morgan and the IMC troops but are freed by the colonists who attack IMC. In the battle the Master escapes to his Tardis leaving the planet. The Doctor tells Winton that now the Doomsday Weapon has been destroyed their crops should grow. Winton explains how only Ashe was on the rocket when it launched, convincing IMC that they had all been killed. Caldwell elects to stay with the colonists. The Tardis has been found allowing the Doctor & Jo to return to Earth mere seconds after they left....

BRIGADIER: Doctor, come back at once!

BRIGADIER: Come on out, Doctor..... Well, that was a short trip. You'll never get that thing working properly. Oh, you were right about that report, I'm afraid. It wasn't the Master after all.
JO: He's talking as if we'd never been away.
DOCTOR: As far as he's concerned, we haven't. The Tardis returned to Earth just a few seconds after it left.
BRIGADIER: What are you two talking about?
DOCTOR: Don't try and explain Jo. He'd never understand.

The last time I watched this story for the Episode a Day Blog my wife Liz watched it with me having not seen it before. She was surprised when their ship blew up exclaiming "they've killed the colonists!" ....

.... followed by just a few minutes later "hang on, they weren't on board were they?".

The fight between Winton and the guard is great though I'm not sure about The Guardian's rave video, with the image of him approaching and receding while overlaid with different colours and effects, that we see as the Doctor activates the self destruct mechanism.

He's not the only Guardian with a rave video that we'll see in Doctor Who - wait till Mawdryn Undead comes along!

We know what happens to Caldwell, as he throws in his lot with the Colonists at the end of the story.

CALDWELL: We've had a reply from Earth. They're sending an Adjudicator.
WINTON: A genuine one, I hope?
CALDWELL: This time, yes.
WINTON: What about you, Caldwell? You're finished with IMC. You can never go back to Earth.
CALDWELL: I don't think I want to.
MARY: You want to stay here?
CALDWELL: Well, if you've a place for an out of work miner, yes.
WINTON: All right, we'd be glad to have you.
CALDWELL: Well, for a start, I can help you with your power

Morgan is leading the group which captures The Doctor, Jo, The Master & Caldwell when they emerge from the city: you see him fall in the firefight, so I think we can assume he was killed in it.

So what happens to Captain Dent, not seen since he dispatches Morgan after Caldwell?

The location work for this story was filmed in Old Baal Claypit in Cornwall.

Wet weather conditions caused some problems on locations but livened up episode six's fight sequence:

Regular stuntman and Pertwee double Terry Walsh plays the guard Rogers who mud wrestles with Nicholas Pennell's Winton.

The robot prop was left outside overnight and unsurprisingly it's plywood & cardboard construction didn't prove to be water proof.

The IMC buggies used during filming were also damaged necessitating a payment to the hire firm they were rented from for their repair.

Jon Pertwee had driven his own car to the location, rather than ride on the coach with the rest of the cast & crew, and parked it in the quarry. The underside had been been caked in the china mud while it was there and driving the car home baked it turning it into china which then had to be carefully stripped away.

I've not seen Colony in Space that often, and when I have I've found it a bit of a slog to watch in one go. The state of the 525 line tapes never helped either: a portion of the sequence of the Doctor & the Master in the control room looked particularly washed out on VHS but looks so so much better on the DVD. Both times I've watched the story to blog about it it worked for me, possibly because I was watching it episodically. The Colonists story wears after the first three episodes and really drags for the last three but those are boosted by the story of the primitives city and the doomsday weapon coming to the fore.

It's interesting that when Colony in Space was novelised by it's original author Malcolm Hulke, the colony aspect is played down by releasing it under the more dramatic title The Doomsday Weapon. To this day it's generally acknowledged to be one of the best Target books and it's a big surprise to me that it's not one of the Target books to be re-issued by the BBC!

Colony in Space was released on video in 2001 as part of The Master Tin Set with The Time Monster. It was released on DVD on October 3rd 2011, just 3 weeks too late for the purposes of me watching it for the original An Episode a Day Blog.

Doctor Who Season 8, containing this story, was released on Blu Ray on March 8th 2021.