Colony in Space (VHS)
Science Fiction Video
Written by Malcolm Hulke
Starring Jon Pertwee
ISBN: 0-7907-7417-8
Publisher: Warner Home Video / BBC Video, $19.98
Colony in Space is one of the last few Doctor Who shows to be produced on tape, as the BBC has almost all of them on the market. As they get near the end, the less popular shows are being produced, and this is one of them. That’s not saying it a bad show, it’s just not one of the better ones.
The show starts out with the Timelords sending the Doctor and Jo (Katy Manning) unknowingly to the planet Uxarieus to stop the Master from locating the dreaded Doomsday Weapon. This is the Doctor’s first trip off of the Earth in some time. When they arrive on this planet, they find a group of Earth colonists who are suffering from failing crops and other problems. Also on the planet is the Interplanetary Mining Corporation, which is secretly trying to scare off the colonists so they can mine the planet for themselves.
Well, suffice it to say, the colonists and miners don’t see eye-to-eye, and quite a few skirmishes occur between the two groups, along with minor encounters with local primitives that live on the planet. The Doctor and Jo do their best to help out, but as usual, get the bad end of the stick for the most part from both the colonists and the mining company. To make matters worse, the Master eventually shows up and puts his nose right into the middle of things, all in his quest for the ultimate weapon. Throw in the somewhat silly cliffhangers from the Pertwee era, along with the usual corny background music from that same time period, and you end up with a more than usual campy Doctor Who show.
It’s not all bad; it’s just not really good. For one thing, this is a six-part Doctor Who show that could have easily been crunched into four episodes. This alone would have cut down on some of the boredom, as the episodes start to drag after awhile. Most, but not all, of Pertwee’s six-part shows seems to follow the pattern of the Doctor and his companion going back and forth between two factions. In this case, they go back and forth between the colonists and the miners, with some side treks to the Primitive City. Suffice it to say, after 2 hours and 25 minutes, the Doctor saves the day, with the help of a rather silly looking alien that you can’t mistake for a puppet. It’s the one special effect, as they call it, that I really don’t like in this show. The small alien, which I describe as a puppet, is one of the worst modeling jobs I’ve seen in Doctor Who, and that’s saying a lot. I don’t mind campy, but sometimes the budget for this show just hits rock bottom.
Even after the gripes I have against this show, as a whole it’s not too bad. You get some decent if not excellent acting, a fairly good plot, and end up with one of the more average Doctor Who shows. Nothing to write home about, but it’s still decent science fiction, even though it’s a bit dated.
If you are not a Doctor Who fan, I would not recommend this, unless maybe as a rental. Even then, you probably won’t enjoy this one. However, Doctor Who fans may want to take a look. As for myself, being an avid fan, I added it to my collection when it came out last year. I like this show, I’m just not enthralled by it!
(review (c) July 2003 / David Flemming)