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 | Reviews for Colony in Space |
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There are 2 reviews so far. To add a review of your own for this item, visit the voting page.
| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 18 November 2011 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
From a strong season of Doctor Who, with Terror of The Autons and The Daemons and The brilliant Mind of Evil, it might be very hard for the other tales to come close to those excellent stories. But Colony In Space is highly entertaining and brilliantly done.
My own quibble with this story is why the Primitive ruler didnt just destroy the doomsday weapon himself if it had brought so much trouble and death to his world. But maybe he wouldnt kill all his people who were still inside the weapon and worshipping it and sacrificing to it, I dont know, but it is a little bit of a plot hole, but doesnt have nowhere near as many as many new series episodes thats for sure.
But in all other respects, this story is engaging. And the theme of battling between the colonists and the ugly pig headed and psychotic miners is done almost to perfection, in Ashe we have a highly sympathetic leader figure for the colonists, and its marvellously offset by the thug Dent, Captain of the IMC spaceship. And then we have the henchman Morgan, whose a right little piece of rubbish. And Bernard Kay again impresses with a likeable role as a miner who isnt one of Dents killers.
But my favourite character has to be Helen Worth as Mary Ashe. Shes very young here, but she's really flipping good. Shes one of those apparently feeble looking Girl characters, but actually has quite a heart in her when needs be.
Roger Delgado as well puts in his usual brilliant performance as the Master, and steals all the scenes hes in. His act of trying to persuade the Doctor to join him in his scheme is an excellent scene, full of tension and revelation all at the same time. And the two actors just work so brilliantly together.
Katy Manning gets her first trip into space, to a grubby looking quarry again but whats wrong with that when those kinds of places resemble an alien clime at any rate? And this one is particularly barren and awash with mud, as two of the cast in particular find out in their rather wet and disgusting scrap!
I like Doctor Who in the Jon Pertwee time, it has a lot to say on many different subjects, it had a high moral fibre that was greatly riddled throughout many of the stories, Barry Letts said he never wanted the stories to be about nothing, and they never were. (Although a few were less tinged by the notion than others) This story tackles human rights to land and food, a very sore subject on this planet in many areas indeed, and the script addresses these elements very well indeed.
In all, this is yet another fine script from Malcolm Hulke, full of his trademark good and interesting characters, with the one single niggle that keeps it from being a ten out of ten effort. But as this was also Michael Briant's first directors outting, its rather splendidly done all in all. A great slice of Doctor Who.
| By: | Trevor Smith, Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 24 May 2013 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
I bow to no one in my love of the third doctor, he was the Doctor I grew up with, but boy this is a struggle to get through. At least 2 episodes two long, this story feels uninspiring and with out much punch and then the Master turns up. Yet again. Pertwee & Delgado are as excellent as always and this story has a strong cast including a pre-Coronation Street Helen Worth. Like the Time Monster not a bad story just far to long.
The DVD extras are a bit thin. A making of documentary and a very entertaining commentary moderated by the always excellent Toby Haydoke.
For Pertwee fans & collectors only
