Colony in Space - Episode 6

The final episode of this story is the 298^th in Doctor Who. Sadly its quite early on when we see the priest but the next time we see it I chuckled when the Doctor and the Master managed to get one over on him and then the final time we see him was pretending to shake when the base starts going wibbly wobbly. That’s it now, we will never have to see it again or the guardian. Now doesn’t that feel better having read that? The episode follows the Doctor and the Master as they track down the doomsday weapon that the Timelords were worried about in episode one. Quite why its taken six episodes to get to this point is beyond me but hey ho it is what it is. Rule or serve is a great line that the Master gives when he is trying to convince the Doctor to join him in his scheme.

I didn’t realise until now that Ashe is played by John Ringham who was the bloodthirsty Tlotoxl in ‘The Aztecs’. Normally the character of Ashe would have come across as a rather bland and wet character but due to the writing and also due to Ringham’s performances, the character has been a strong presence in the story and its Ringham’s last involvement in Doctor Who. Ashe suffers an off screen death which after everything he’s done in the story would normally be a shame but on this instance it’s probably the best thing because he died being a hero.

I like the bit when Dent says “Goodbye Ashe”. It does seem genuine and perhaps the nicest thing that he’s said to Ashe in the entire story. Morris Perry has been good from the very beginning as Dent and the rest of the IMC crowd.

After destroying the doomsday weapon there is a nice little shootout after the colonists jump out and manage to get one over the IMC guys and at the end of the story they can now start a new life on the colony with the real adjudicator on their way to the planet.

The final scene with the Brigadier was apparently recorded during this episode instead of being recorded during episode one. It seems fair odd and wasteful really but it’s fun to see as the Doctor and Jo arrive just a few seconds after leaving in episode one.

I think that it’s a perfectly fine episode but I think that due to the rather pedestrian feel the story has had it didn’t have quite the kick that it should have done. I’m glad that the involvement of the priest and the guardian are kept to a minimum. The whole story isn’t terrible but I think that it’s the weakest story of the Pertwee era. The only good thing about this story apart from the fact that it takes place on earth is that they were quite disciplined in when they introduced Roger Delgado but I suspect that this was due to the fact they knew they needed to hold him back for a while because there isn’t much else.

With just one more story to go of the eighth season, I must admit that I don’t feel that this season has quite the impact that the first season had. I think that the decision to go with the Master in every story has backfired and whilst it feels that there has been some development in terms of moving the Doctor away from earth it is somewhat undermined by Delgado appearing in most episodes.