058 Colony in Space

Started 23-Jan

We watched the 2011 RSC'd DVD version.

It's good to get in the TARDIS and go somewhere else. Plus no Master (for 3 eps at least).

This one doesn't get much love from the "special" people.

I suspect this is because deeply middle class conservatives do not care for the 'hippies' win conclusion.

Luckily I am not in that group so I like Colony in Space.

Except...

The portrayal of the natives is drawn for nakedly racist colonialism and Edgar Rice Burroughs/Tarzan type tropes about 'jungle bunnies' and 'worthless savages'.

Sadly both the Master and the Doctor make casually rascist remarks about the 'primitives' in dialogue which are unfortunate. This is strange given the explicit anti-colonialist tropes just 4 stories later in The Mutants. I prefer to think of it as thoughtless rather than ideological.

The 'hippies' (Ashe, Winton, Leeson, Martin) are actually conservative - they value the 'old' ways of their own society. They want a return to simple agrarian values (significantly NOT technology free but full of values of the past like connection to soil and the nobility of manual work). These are pretty middle class 'hippies'....

The IMC corporates are the realpolitik provocateurs. They are the ones seeking change for "progress at all costs" reasons. These guys are more like pirates than pillars of society... but their aims are ultimately self defeating and corrupt.

The sacrificing choice makers are the Exarius Guardians class. They are prepared to make a change that or may not benefit their world but for reasons that speak of exhaustion and desperation. They seem to thinking long term at least....

There are some possibilities for political analysis and revisionism here. The results may be surprising.

Obviously there is a lot of political metaphor and representation (which leads to interpretation and re-interpretation some of which is based on selectivity). This gives a simulation of depth in the story.


The direction by newly qualified, wunderkind, BBC director Michael Briant (who WILL be back) is a little variable. There are good bits but the serial gunfights in ep 4,5 and 6 seem repetitive. A little more of the reveal of the Master's journey of discovery to the Doomsday Weapon would surely have been more interesting. So maybe this is a writing or script-editing problem?

The acting is generally competent.
Morris Dent is outstanding as Captain Dent, psycho chilling and a boo hiss baddie to the last. His comeuppance scene is missing from ep6.

Strong returns from John Ringham and Bernard Kay feature. Some female presence is made by Helen Worth as Mary Ashe.

There are cringey moments like when the Guardian speaks. ("My city is forbidden...")

The visual effects are not spectacular in this but I like to view them as functional, industrial and mechanistic rather than 'space-y'. The mining robot hands are made to look deliberately out of place. I think some people think this looks unconvincing. (They're meant to..) The little flatbed trucks are noisy but distinctive. The Exarius Guardian is bordering on laughable. Some low lighting would have helped. Some pinning of the little arms of the atrophied body would have made the doll seem less 'dolly'. After the effort put in to Claws... this is a particularly thoughtless attempt.

An unrecognised significant scene in this story is the Master's exchange with the Doctor in ep6. The Master offers the use of the Doomsday Weapon to the Doctor to use as he sees fit, urging him to rule in peace. Is he attempting to coerce the Doctor or recruit him or form a compromised allegiance?  The Doctor rejects the offer on principal. (He says 'absolute power is evil".) What is the Master's reaction to this rebuff, this slight? This is a story arc development in the Master's character. This stuff elevates the Master's character from pantomime villain to some importance. I only wish there was more made of it...

The politics drags this down (for both lefties and rightards). There's no way this would be made like this these days. The indigenous inhabitants of Exarius would need a credible reason to invite the colonists (or maybe the miners) to be on their planet for instance.

As DW it's standard fare. There's no speccy monsters and the drama is ordinary. It remains good to watch as TV but is in no way outstanding.


ABM Rating 3.03/4.00
LJM Rating 3.20/5.00
SPJ Rating 6.80/10   

No. 29 (out of 58)

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