Colony In Space

I'm offering you a half-share of the universe.

Colony in Space is the fourth installment of the Master centric Eighth season. It is an obvious take off of the Western genre where a town is threatened by a large corporation, such as a railroad (or in this case, mining), which is something that would have easily been up Malcolm Hulke's alley. I know very little about the story outside of that, except that it is one of the lower rated Hulke stories and is frequently overshadowed by Frontier in Space as the other main off-world adventure that he wrote.

Plot Summary

The Doctor is attempting to create a new dematerialization circuit for the TARDIS. He finishes his latest attempt and shows Jo the inside of the TARDIS. He starts to install it when the TARDIS door close and the TARDIS takes off without his operating the controls. The Doctor figures the Time Lords have hijacked him for a mission.

The Doctor and Jo land on an alien planet that has been settled by a small group of colonists from Earth. The Doctor and Jo leave the TARDIS and the Doctor begins to examine a set of rocks nearby. Jo looks around and finds one of the colonists pointing a gun at them.

They are taken to the central building where they are originally thought to be mineralogists sent by a large mining corporation. The settlers had been looking to settle down on a quiet area and just farm but were wary of a large corporation coming in and seizing their land. The settlers are also worried as recently a large lizard had been spotted nearby that had never been seen before in any of the previous surveys.

The Doctor does manage to convince the people that he is not from a mining company and he further ingratiates himself with the leader, Ashe, by observing that their crop yields are below sustainable levels. He offers to help find a solution and Ashe warms to him. Jo meanwhile is taken by Ashe's daughter Mary into the canteen where she observes how little food their actually is.

As night falls, the settlers return to their individual dwellings. Martin, the colonist who discovered the Doctor returns to his place but heads back out when he hears a noise. He sees a giant lizard and runs back to get his gun while his wife radios for help. Martin shoots but is killed. His wife observes someone entering the home and then she too is killed.

The radio message summons Ashe and the Doctor goes with. He finds scratches that suggest a large lizard creature but also observes that the doorway is undamaged, meaning that no 20 foot creature could have entered. They return to the central dome where Ashe is trying to allay the fears of the colonists. The Doctor also steps in to offer his help in salvaging their crops. This seems to allay the people when a stranger is brought in by a passing patrol.

The stranger is nearly dead on his feet and collapses against a wall. He claims to have come from another colony elsewhere on the planet. He also claims that his colony was destroyed and the people killed by an attack of giant lizards. His story unsettles the colonists and they again mutter among themselves about abandoning the planet.

The Doctor and Ashe head back to the attacked hut to look for evidence. They find two natives poring through the wreckage, looking for things to take. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, they have already taken his TARDIS. Ashe asks the natives to leave and they comply. He tells the Doctor that although they don't speak they seem to understand him. They also have developed a coexistence with the colonists where each more or less leaves the others alone. Ashe is called away and the Doctor examines the hut some more when a large robot enters and attacks the Doctor.

The robot is called off by it's controller, a man named Caldwell. Caldwell is an engineer on an expedition from the mining company and is shocked when the Doctor tells him that two colonists were killed. He takes the Doctor back to his ship to speak with his captain. The Doctor declines at first but Caldwell insists. During the journey to the ship, the Doctor notices that the TARDIS has gone missing as well.

Back at colony headquarters, Jo is engaging herself in the camp and getting along better with them, especially Mary. The lone survivor, Norton, is also recovering although he is now adding that the natives slaughtered those that survived the lizard attack and gets hostile when Ashe brings a native in to give his people food. Norton is disarmed and ordered to avoid the natives when they come into camp.

The Doctor and Caldwell arrive at the ship and the Doctor is put in a waiting area. Caldwell informs Captain Dent about the colonists who were killed and is appalled but it, as their robots and tricks were only to scare the colonists into leaving. Dent is annoyed with Morgan, who was in charge of the scare, but Morgan states that he was seen and had to protect himself. Dent goes to see the Doctor and becomes convinced that the Doctor is a government agent from Earth who will side with the colonists and force the mining corporation off. He assigns Morgan to take the Doctor back and to arrange an accident as well.

Norton discovers during a tour that the colony has only one source of electrical power and that it is being run by an aging engineer and a native who assists him. Norton claims fatigue and leaves to rest but sneaks into the electrical room. He knocks out the native with a blow to the head and then kills the engineer with the native's spear. He then destroys the electrical system. When the other colonists come to see what the problem is, Norton claims he saw the native kill the engineer and then sabotage the system. He claims to have defended himself by knocking out the native.

The Doctor and Morgan are accosted by three natives during their drive back but the Doctor knocks them all out. They return to the scene of the attack where Morgan sets a mining robot with clawed hands on the Doctor, intending to make it look like he was attacked by the same creature as before. The Doctor however disarms Morgan and smashes the robot controls. He then walks back to the colony meeting house.

While the Doctor is walking, Captain Dent flies in his spaceship, pretending to have just arrived. He meets with Ashe, claiming to be unaware that a colony had been established. Both me agree to send for an adjudicator from Earth to settle the law as Dent claims that the IMC has mineral rights to the planet. As Dent prepares to head back to his ship, the Doctor arrives and exposes Dent's scheme to scare the colonists away. Dent denies it and Norton protests, claiming the lizards to be real.

Ashe notes all this but begs the Doctor help repair the power grid to which he readily agrees. Meanwhile, Jo and a colonist named Winton attempt to sneak aboard the mining ship to find evidence but are captured. Dent has then taken to the primitive ruins and tied to a bomb. When the Doctor comes to see Dent after fixing the power grid, Dent informs him of the hostage situation and threatens to kill Jo unless he recants his testimony to the adjudicator when he arrives.

In the hut, Winton finds a spot of grease on the bomb and uses it to lubricate Jo's wrists, allowing her to slip out of her cuffs. She uses a rock to break the chain holding Winton and they make a run for it. The noise attracts a guard and Jo is recaptured. He shoots at Winton, hitting him, but he still is able to get away. The guard radios the situation to Dent who dispatches men to corral Winton. Winton finds refuge with Caldwell, who has established a mineralogy shed nearby and pretends he killed Leeson when the guards approach. He takes Winton inside and patches his wounds.

Winton returns to the meeting house, telling the Doctor about his escape and Jo's recapture. Winton then organizes the colonists into a force to take over the mining ship. The Doctor goes to Caldwell for help. Caldwell refuses to take an active part but does assist with inside details. The Doctor also manages to talk Winton out of a direct frontal assault and instead to take the ship by subterfuge.

As the Doctor and Winton prepare their attack, Jo and her guard are preparing to move to a different location. They are set upon by natives. The guard shoots one and they respond by killing him and taking Jo captive. She is lead out of the ruins and into an underground passage hidden in the rocks.

The Doctor and Winton knock out two guards and take their uniforms. They sneak aboard the ship and take Morgan hostage while the colonists sweep aboard the open door. The Doctor and Winton go to Dent and order his immediate surrender. Dent complies but claims the adjudicator, who is on his way, will side with him. Winton searches through the ship and finds the projector of the giant lizard and the claw hands for the robot to make it look like the lizards were real.

The Doctor and Ashe learn from a guard that the IMC guard for Jo has been killed by the natives and Jo is gone. The Doctor is determined to go after her. Ashe tries to get the Doctor to stay and wait for the adjudicator but he refuses. Ashe then tells the Doctor that he will offer food in exchange for Jo as it is a bargain they have made with the primitives in the past. The Doctor thanks him and leaves.

The Doctor follows the trail from the captive hut to the entrance of the underground city. There he is set upon by the natives who take him below and place him with Jo. The Doctor tells the creatures that he will offer food in exchange for Jo but they do not respond. In the locked room, the Doctor and Jo observe a pictorial chronicle of the natives who once had a great civilization. It collapses after a disaster and they have reverted to a more primitive form.

One of the native elders, who appears to be of a different species, sentences them to be sacrificed. The Doctor and Jo try to escape but are recaptured. They are then taken to a room where a third creature emerges. He tells them that entrance to the city is punishable by death. The Doctor protests, noting that he and Jo were brought unwillingly. He appeals to the creature's logic and morality. Intrigued by the Doctor's intelligence, the leader orders them released, but warns them that they will be killed if they return.

As the adjudicator's ship arrives, Morgan is able to pull a hidden gun and get the drop on Winton. They expel the colonists from the ship and destroy the projector and the claw arms. The adjudicator emerges from his ship and assembles both sides to present their case. Unknown to either group, the adjudicator is actually the Master. Without the evidence from the ship, both sides simply advocate their claims from Earth.

At the end of the hearing, the Doctor and Jo return. The Master is surprised and annoyed to see the Doctor here as well but glosses over it. He rules in favor of IMC but calls Ashe into his office where he asks if he knows of any historical artifacts that may allow the planet to be registered for preservation and allow them to stay as colonists. Ashe tells him of the native ruins and the two work together, despite the Doctor's warnings about the Master.

Winton, angry with the ruling and knowing their ship won't survive another trip, bands the colonists together to rebel and take the IMC weapons. Norton, the IMC plant, tries to warn Dent but he is discovered by another colonist. Norton kills the colonist but his communicator is destroyed in the process. They take positions in the main building and trick Dent into coming with his men by pretending to be the adjudicator.

As Dent and his men enter, Norton calls out that it's a trap. Winton shoots Norton but the warning gives Dent and his men time to grab cover. A shootout ensues and the Master prepares to use it to shoot the Doctor and Jo under the cover of crossfire. Ashe however enters and the Master is forced to refrain to avoid blowing his cover. Winton sneaks out and takes Dent from behind, forcing him to surrender. They remove all the weapons and explosives from the ship and force Dent to take off.

Dent complies but holds in a parking orbit above the planet. He checks records and determines that the Doctor's claims about the adjudicator were correct and that he is an imposter. Dent then orders the ship to land 50km away from the settlement, behind a ridge of hills and retake the colony in a raid.

While the Master has resumed his talks with Ashe, the Doctor and Jo sneak aboard the Master's TARDIS, which is disguised as the adjudicator's ship. While there Jo accidently sets off an alarm and the Master floods the control room with knock out gas. Ashe informs the Master that the Doctor and Jo have been to the native city and the Master tells Ashe that he will consult with the Doctor. The Master returns to the TARDIS where he revives the Doctor and Jo. He locks Jo in a containment tube and then forces the Doctor to take him to the entrance of the native city.

Winton appeals to Ashe to distribute the confiscated guns to the colonists but Ashe thinks it better to keep them locked away. Dent and his forces sneak in to the main building and take back the store of guns and take Ashe hostage. When the colonists realize they are back, they begin fighting but surrender when they realize Ashe is being held hostage.

Using the adjudicator's ruling as cover, Dent proclaims himself governor of the planet and sets a quick show trial. He finds Norton and Ashe guilty of treason and orders their execution. He then stays that execution if they abandon the planet. The two men protest but in the face of execution, they have no choice but to try their luck in their old spacecraft.

Caldwell examines the colonists ship and warns Dent that it might explode on takeoff but Dent merely orders that his men stay clear of the ship when it does launch. He is however concerned about the Doctor and the adjudicator and orders Caldwell and Morgan to check the adjudicator's ship. The two men try to force the doors but can't. Morgan however finds the copy of the key the Doctor had made prior and deliberately dropped outside. Upon entering, they find Jo locked in her isolation tube and try to free her.

The Doctor and the Master approach the entrance and are forced to head on foot when their car is damaged by a native attack. Upon reaching the entrance, the Master is alerted by his alarm system of they IMC men entering. He then prepares to release a toxic chemical to kill Jo but the Doctor kicks the trigger out of his hands. Both men are suddenly swarmed by natives who take them below.

Caldwell and Morgan free Jo and she tells them that the Master and the Doctor went to the native city. She is taken to Dent who orders her put on the colonist's rocket. She pleads with Caldwell for help and he hides her briefly before the two of them take a car and drive to the native city entrance.

While the rest of the colonists board the rocket, Winton hides himself, having Mary cover for him when Morgan asks where he is. Once the colonists are fully loaded, fearing the rocket exploding on launch, the guards pull back. This allows Winton to get the drop on one. With the rocket launch delayed, Dent calls over and Ashe responds that they are fixing an electrical fault and are nearly ready. A few minutes later, the rocket takes off and explodes a few seconds after takeoff.

In their cell, the Master tells the Doctor that the natives once had a powerful civilization that built a doomsday weapon able to destroy stars. He is there to take control of it. He sets off a gas grenade when the natives come to collect them and the Master and the Doctor run out into the corridor and further into the city. They find the control room of the weapon and the Master offers the Doctor control of half the universe if he stands with him. The Doctor refuses.

Interrupting their discussion, the ruling creature that freed the Doctor before emerges. He discovers the Master's plan and steals his weapon, freeing the Doctor. Fearing more people coming for the weapon, the creature orders the Doctor to pull the self destruct lever. He does so and the whole city begins to shake and disintegrate. The Doctor and the Master run out and run into Jo and Caldwell, who had managed to sneak into the city by knocking out a guard. Using the Master's map, the four of them run for the exit. They emerge from the city as it explodes.

The explosion catches the attention of Morgan who had come with a detachment of guards to find Caldwell and Jo. They take Caldwell and prepare to shoot the rest. However, the colonists emerge from a ridge and start firing on them. The Master grabs the car and runs off from the firefight while Morgan and most of his men are cut down. They eventually surrender to Winton, who informs the Doctor and Jo that Ashe took up the rocket alone to continue the deception.

The Master returns to his TARDIS and takes off. The colonists return to base and place all the IMC people except Caldwell under guard. With his career over, Caldwell elects to stay as the colonist's engineer while Winton takes over as head of the colony. They signal Earth for a new adjudicator and present the Doctor with the TARDIS, which was discovered in an abandoned native hut. The Doctor and Jo return to Earth in the TARDIS just a few seconds after they had left, leaving the Brigadier non the wiser about their adventure.

Analysis

I think this story is an unfortunate example of potential mucked up by outside requirements. I have no way of knowing, but I would imagine that Malcolm Hulke had an idea for a Old West showdown in space very much in the vein of the later movie Pale Rider. This was accepted by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks but he was told to introduce the Master. Introducing the Master as the adjudicator works well, especially with the somewhat surprising reveal in Episode Four. Unfortunately, the Master needs a reason as to why he is there and so the concept of the doomsday weapon is introduced. This is like trying to inject Beneath the Planet of the Apes into the story and it has the effect of essentially ruining both stories, despite Hulke's best efforts.

If you break things down by characters, this works very well. If anything, this may be one of my favorite portrayals of the Roger Delgado Master. At it's basic level, the Master's plan is very simple and straightforward. You can almost imagine him working things behind the scenes to get IMC to lay a claim to the planet while also getting the colonists to go there just so he can step in as the adjudicator. Once there, he rules in favor of IMC but gets the colonists to help him find the city by teasing them with thoughts of historic preservation status. Even the Doctor's presence doesn't really play much into it. His only real miscalculation was in how vicious Dent and his crew would be and how much anger this fostered in the colonists.

On the subject of Dent, he is a right bastard. In the Western genre, it's not unusual to have such a vicious character like Dent leading the attack, but Dent gets extra marks for being so cold and detached about it. He brushes off the murder of the colonists as though it's a minor thing and then has the gall to stand before the Master and plead innocent. He knows the colonists rocket will likely explode, killing them all, but he is indifferent about it, knowing that it will mean less paperwork for him. All this makes for a proper villain but where the story stumbles is that there is no closure. Morgan is seemingly killed in the firefight with the colonists but Dent had been on the ship and we never see him after he dispatches the guards. One might assume that he is under arrest like all the other IMC personnel, but after all that has happened, there needed to be a proper bit of closure with him either shown as arrested or simply being shot. In fact, a real good scene would have been him dispatching more guards to assist and then be shot by Mary in the back. It would have been a fitting end for him.

I did like the Doctor for the most part as he was engaged with the story and didn't spend much time being locked in a prison cell out of the action. However, he did have a few points where he was playing dumb because it was a six-part story. The sub-story with Norton is a prime example. Any idiot could have seen that Norton was a plant and the Doctor should have directly warned Ashe and Winton about him being a plant. Instead he only give a vague warning about watching him. This results in at least two colonist deaths. But aside from that, the Doctor does fairly well. I was a bit disappointed in two of the cliffhangers as it held long on shots where I knew the resolution was going to be an action of the Doctor to disarm the person holding him. I think we all know the Third Doctor well enough for that.

Jo is also a bit of a mixed bag in this story. She is finally treated well by the Doctor who actually seems to show compassion for her (which seems to be a quality of Malcolm Hulke and almost no one else). But at the same time, she is given very little to do and spends much of her time being a prisoner and an object of rescue. She actually instigates hostilities as it is her idea to try and sneak aboard the IMC ship, which delivers a major card into Dent's hand. Had she and Winton stayed off the ship, Dent would have been forced to slow play a bit longer and nothing would have actually happened until the Master arrived. She also gets her and the Doctor captured when they break into the Master's TARDIS. So while she is sympathetic and somewhat entertaining in her dialog, she is a major liability as far as the story goes.

Ashe and Winton are also something I don't quite get. If this were a more conventional Western, or perhaps just an American production, Winton would have defied Ashe and shot at least Morgan if not Dent several times in this story. He had the opportunity in Episode Three when they captured the ship. He could easily and probably should have done it when they captured Dent's forces after declaring rebellion. Shooting Dent and Morgan there and sending back Caldwell to deliver the message would have been a very clear message of their intentions as well as doling out frontier justice. But the thing that I really can't get is why Winton surrendered because Ashe was taken hostage. Ashe may have been their leader but he had been proven as rather ineffective in Winton's mind by that point and even with Ashe as a hostage, Dent and his men were cornered in Ashe's office. Any attempt to break out should have been a duck shoot for the colonists. Winton could easily have cut losses and simply told Dent to go ahead and shoot him. They would simply shoot anyone who came out or wait until Dent and his men starved to death.

When you take a broad look at it, Winton was right at every turn. If he had killed Dent and Morgan in the initial raid on the IMC ship, their men would have been leaderless and justice would have easily been served for the murdered colonists. The same holds true for the second time Dent and his men were captured. Winton is proved right a third time when Ashe refuses to distribute the arms to the colonists. In every turn, Winton is shown to have the better option simply because Dent and his men are so cutthroat as to be unreasonable. Violent resistance is the only viable option. About the only instance where Winton and Dent disagree where Winton could be argued to be wrong is in giving the natives food. Supposedly this keeps the natives in friendly relations, but given that the natives are shown in several instances attacking the Doctor, Jo, the Master or the IMC personnel that are away from the main colony, it is somewhat dubious as to how effective that strategy is. It is a policy of appeasement that seems to have limited results. Far more effective is the direct relations as done between the engineer and the native who assists him. That is a demonstration of effective coexistence.

On the subject of the natives, they started as a bit of a let down and then became my biggest annoyance of the story. The natives start the story as an obvious nod to Native Americans and their interactions with settlers in the Old West. Given that Native Americans have vestiges of more powerful civilizations in their past, the allusion to the natives having once been a great civilization that destroyed itself is also not a problem. They were a bit of a let down in their design as their skin was a little too obviously a body suit that had been painted green and their heads were so overdone as to hide any and all trace of their eyes, which would have been useful in displaying emotion beyond the primitive spear throwing and demonstrations of anger you might expect from a Tarzan movie.

But the source of my annoyance came with the doomsday weapon. First, if the soil was being poisoned by slow leaking radiation, shouldn't the colonists have been able to detect that and not necessarily planted their crops in radioactive soil? Second, the destruction of the weapon does not mean that all that radiation just disappears. That radiation would have to go somewhere and the destruction of the device would actually release larger levels of radiation in a short period of time that would linger in the soil. The soil should have continued to be poisoned until the radiation levels had decreased. Third, why does the leader native opt to commit suicide just because the Master has discovered the weapon? The weapon had been in existence for a long period of time and the leaders had felt no need to destroy it in a safe way prior to that. What's more, he had disarmed the Master and could have easily killed him and the Doctor, causing their knowledge of the weapon to disappear. Or a third option could have been considered where the Master and Doctor could have been enslaved to help disable the weapon in a safe manner that would not have destroyed the city. Instead, the story takes the cheapest and laziest way out by having them destroy the weapon via self-destruct which destroys essentially all of the native population. I can't think of any civilization that would ever do that voluntarily.

It is such a shame that there are so many of these flaws because there is some good acting, some well written scenes and also some good action set pieces. The real problem just seems to be the smashing of two stories into one. If it had stayed the colonist's story, Dent would have been the principle villain and the colonists would have set on him in the final confrontation and problably killed him and Morgan in the third battle. Or had the Master's story been the main focus, the Doctor could have arrived on planet with the Master already there, working as the adjudicator. This would have put Dent or some equivalent of him in a side roll that would have been waved aside after an episode or so with the Master being the principle antagonist the whole time. But instead we have the Old West colonist story hijacked in Episode Four to become the Master's story and even then it doesn't take the full focus. Both stories crash and burn as a result. I find this the most frustrating result of all because both stories have the potential of being good. Or even if one had been bad and that had taken the main focus, it would have had a clear delineation and resolution. The mash up gives neither.

Despite my frustration with the hodgepodge, I can't give this story a terrible score as the acting and story elements that are clear are too good. But I'm not going to pretend that I have any desire to pull this story out to watch it again. I think more than anything, I'd like to pull all the Master bits out and just watch a good Roger Delgado highlight reel. That would highly entertaining. But as for the overall story, it's two decent ideas ruined by a bad smash. The end result is tedium at points and outright frustration at others. It might be the best Master portrayal of Season Eight but it's a lot to slog through for that.

Overall personal score: 2 out of 5