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Doctor Who: Colony in Space

Doctor Who: Colony in Space

  • Status: Released
  • 15-05-1971
  • Runtime: 150 min
  • Score: 6.667
  • Vote count: 6

When the Master steals the Time Lords' secret file on the Doomsday Weapon, they grant the Doctor a temporary reprieve from his exile on Earth to deal with the crisis. He and Jo arrive on the planet Uxarieus and become enmeshed in a struggle between an agrarian colony and a powerful mining corporation.

Jon Pertwee

The Doctor

Katy Manning

Jo Grant

Nicholas Courtney

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart

Roger Delgado

The Master

Nicholas Pennell

Winton

John Ringham

Ashe

David Webb

Leeson

Sheila Grant

Jane Leeson

Roy Skelton

Norton

Helen Worth

Mary Ashe

John Line

Martin

Mitzi McKenzie

Mrs. Martin

John Scott Martin

Robot

Pat Gorman

Primitive / Voice / Long / Colonist

Graham Leaman

Time Lord

Peter Forbes-Robertson

Time Lord

John Baker

Time Lord

Bernard Kay

Caldwell

Morris Perry

Captain Dent

Tony Caunter

Morgan

John Herrington

Holden

Stanley McGeagh

Alien

John Tordoff

Alec Leeson

Norman Atkyns

The Guardian

Roy Heymann

Alien Priest

CinemaSerf

The "Brigadier" (Nicholas Courtney) walks into the lab just as the TARDIS takes an unexpected trip that sees the "Doctor" (Jon Pertwee) and "Jo" (Katy Manning) travel forward in time to the remote planet "Uxarieus" that's only recently been colonised by "Ashe" (John Ringham) and his team. No sooner have they arrived, though, than a more militaristic bunch from a mining company land and decide that the place is much too rich in minerals to be left to these folks. An arbiter is sent for, but it's "The Master" (Roger Delgado) who assumes that role and it's soon fairly clear that he has an altogether different agenda on this planet with a technologically advanced past buried deep beneath it's rocks - and that his fellow Time Lords have sent the "Doctor" to thwart his latest megalomanic plans! There's a little bit of the "Forbidden Planet" (1956) to the philosophy of this six-parter coupled with some good old-fashioned human greed, ambition and betrayal. There's also some fun to be had with a robot with giant hands and the domesticated UNIT theme is left behind as we spend much of these episodes on an alien world with plenty going on. There's a decent enough dynamic going on between Pertwee and the hammy Delgado and the writing provides dialogue that keeps the story moving along entertainingly, but slowly, as story is strings out just a bit too thinly. Perhaps it could have better suited a four part, better condensed, format? Some effort has gone into creating a degree of menace and some half-decent visual effects and even if the sets do wobble a little more than I usually spot, it advances this season adequately, if unremarkably, and it bodes well for some future adventures with a "Doctor" no longer captive on Earth.