So Tiggs are you onto Colony in Space tomorrow or do you need to get a copy?

Straight onto colony in space tomorrow.

Tiggs: your review of the end of Claws of Axos was lovely. really thoughtful and insightful.

What you'll make of Colons in Space is anyone's guess though. (Am trying to remain positive...)



I met Dan at a convention at the end of last year, and bent his ear a bit about some of the DVDs. Specifically, "comedy features" that aren't funny, and relentless negative moaning from L Ward, P Davison, J Fielding and E Sladen on commentaries.

He most certainly does have the best interests of the DVDs at heart. The quality of the documentaries is remarkable (recently watched the Delgado documentary on Frontier in Space, and it's a beautiful piece of work), and the determination to do "new things" with the DVDs is admirable.

Interesting to read that Galaxy Four had a new recon, which has been sidelined. Was it the full 4x25mins of photos and soundtrack? This is the first I have heard of it: howcome no-one has ever mentioned it before?!

Aww shucks, thank you.

'Colons' in Space sounds ominous.

Like a precursor of the Slitheen.

Oh God help us.

There's a black hole out there.


"Sorry, I'm so sorry"

I'm out Friday night and Saturday so I may have to catch up on any Colony comments on Sunday. Hopefully they'll be plenty to discuss. If nothing else I can throw some trivia in again.

Ahh, sorry you are going to miss this Brig, but I look forward to your return.

Well I'm not sure if this is against the general consensus, as the response seems pretty dismal in here, but I am enjoying Colony in Space so far. So ner!

Episode one


Devious, sly Timelords. Mmmm

Is that another new scanner I spy inside the Tardis? I know Brig mentioned that it changed, and I wondered if that happened already or if I'm jumping the gun. It did look different.

Anyway, really loving Jo's first trip in the Tardis. Isn't she just lovely. We even get the 'it's bigger on the inside' comment, which just now makes me all fuzzy and warm. I find Jo really believable and her ending up in space and wanting to go home and being scared. Yeah that's how I'd be and her state of mind came across really well.

Not sure what the metallic robot thingy was meant to be and had a 'what the heck was that' moment on first seeing the Primative, but otherwise not a bad start. the lizard that wasn't a lizard was a good end to the episode.

Not sure why, but this is the first story off earth for Pertwee, and yet it felt the most dated. Very 70s...and beware the giant lizard!


Episode 2

Love the cute buggy that the mineralists have. Spot the soap star time. There's Gail Tilsley, and ooh I spotted Roy Evans from Eastenders too. This episode really brings home the greed of the human race. We can be really not nice sometimes, can't we.

The Doctor is a bit brusque at times, sometimes he really reminds me of the First Doctor. And then there was that fight. Well done Doctor, he's quite handy in a combat. (Not as good as Ten though)

These Primatives intrigue me, and I wonder if there is more to them than we know. Norton is also an enigma. Definitely more to him than meets the eye, and not good either. Don't believe a word he says.

Oh liked the 'Jim'll fix it' reference.

And we leave a pretty good cliffhanger, with the claws explained and the Doc yet again in danger.

Here's a titbit: Stenders Roy was second choice for the role. They originally cast Susan Jameson (now Mrs Wibbsey in the Tom Baker CDs), but the character is so nasty they decided they couldn't have a woman do it. She was already under contract, so got paid, but never recorded a single moment!

My issue with Colons In Space is that everything happens in a small room next to a filing cabinet. I also think it;s very weird that, later in the story,

Six episodes is most definitely too long. I think Colons might be the start of my campain against six parters!

Caldwell is a really nasty character, so I can understand them wanting to change their minds.

...and it all doesn't happen next to a filing cabinet. I'm stilll enjoying it. Here's why:

Episode 3

Well cliffhanger was a bit of a letdown. Those claws wouldn't harm anyone and once I'd stopped laughing I wondered why the Doctor was making such a big thing of his escape.

Still liking some of the dialogue..."I've not lost the Tardis, it's temporarily mislaid."

I got Norton's number pretty straight away in this episode and was not suprised when he was revealed as part of the mining company.

Jo is still just adorable. 'I took a course in escapology once'. Well that was lucky, and I could even forgive her that line. I'm just loving her character at the moment.

Still love that little buggy, they should have made a toy of it, I'd have had one.

Oh and where were the quarry scenes filmed? It was odd to hear seagulls and not something I expected on a strange planet.

Growing fond of Winton (I think it is), who's helping the Doctor now. But can't make out the primatives. Would still like to think they are good and merely misunderstood.

Episode 4

The adjudicator's ship landing, haha. Brilliant set, what a masterpiece. And then just as the story is starting to drift, and I'm getting twitchy...

OMG it's the Master. I was shocked, and delighted at this reveal. I think I'm in love. haha. This is such a great character.

I'm now changing my tune about the primatives and getting seriously concerned about them. The little man from behind the screen is just weird.

The Doctor does some wonderful magic tricks and then 'wham' he's at it again. Bit violent this Doctor, isn't he.

Anyway the Master and the Doctor together again, is just bliss. Oh and I love the Master's costume too. Very Emporer Ming. haha.

But yeah, bit violent, and lots of gunfiire...and not a Unit soldier in sight.

Are there lots of shootouts in a very small, confined space?

And that line about there being no life on the planet, "just a few birds and insects" (which count as life in my book), and, of course, the natives ...

Maybe this is one I ought to have another go at. The thing is, I hate it utterly ...

Here's the location: http://www.doctorwholocations.net/lo...oldbaalclaypit

Hmmm, I've got some catching up to do...

Terror of the Autons: Pertwee meets the first of the actors who unintentionally steal the show from him - Delgado's Master is at his most evil and chilling in this story, probably because it's the only one written by Robert Holmes. Note also that the technician-who-falls-off-a-tall-thing in this story actually survives (someone is told to get an ambulance). It's also fortunate that Barry Letts realises quite quickly that the CSO process isn't quite good enough for some of the things he wants to do with it and it only gets used like this in the one story - it's very weird to see someone guarding a photograph of a museum and someone else pottering around a photograph of a kitchen.

The troll doll looks alarmingly like Naka Pakka from 'In the Night Garden' - a realm that is overseen by another Master (Derek Jacobi), includes a vehicle that is larger on the inside than on the outside (everyone can fit inside the Ninky Nonk, even though it only reaches Upsy Daisy's knees) and 'the sky is full of diamonds'... although it's quite possible I'm over analyzing things.

Well there was one shootout, but there's been guns, and karatke and knocking people out and stick fights, and all sorts really. How can you call a ruddy great big quarry a confined space?

Thanks for the link, that's why I could hear seagulls then.

And don't force yourself to watch again, if you hate it so. The world would be a boring place if we all liked the same stuff.

I love Delgado's Master, as you will gather, when you catch up. He was brilliant in the first story though.

Lol at your comparison to 'In the Night Garden'. It is rather worrying though as I am now comparing Ten to Igglepiggle.

[flexes fingers and gets ready to type]

Glad to see you're enjoying this one. That's why I try not to comment beforehand as it's great to get a fresh eye on these things. What may help it for you is that a lot of people just bought the VHS and it was just another 6 parter with Pertwee. Watching all the stories in order and having seen 7 stories or 39 UNIT episodes in a row, it's a very different experience.

They do seem to have forgotten how to do an alien planet and seem to be starting from first principles. To be fair though, the last proper alien world on screen that wasn't merely a mine tunnel or a War Game location was The Kroton's Gond planet 2 years earlier so it was a real change of scene.

So the Doctor's still trying to escape from Earth and the console room magically expands a little. The scanner has turned into a TV in the wall for this story so the Doctor's obviously not satisfied with the decor. There'll be more decorating in a few stories time.

Little parallel but the first ever alien planet (Skaro of course) had an alien flower picked by Susan and the first colour alien world has a flower picked by Jo.

Jo hasn't really got the time travelling side of this lark yet, "You left Earth in 1971?" "No, 2471!"

Episode 2 is when the Doctor drives the IMC buggy, Jon clearly couldn't resist having a go. Trivia story about the location - it's a china clay pit to make, logically enough china crockery. Well Pertwee's car had clay mud splattered over it's engine from underneath as the ground was so wet. The mud turned into solid hard china over the engine and had to be carefully chiselled off by mechanics at some expense afterwards.

Seasons 7 and 8 are the Pertwee Doctor at his most brusque and rude. He definitely mellows the more he gets back into space and time.

Roy Skelton who plays Norton is usually a Dalek voice (and the original Cyberman voice, and the computer voice in Ice Warriors and the Monoid voice...)

I must point out here that Jim'll Fix It didn't start until 1975 so the reference is 4 years before the programme!

Tony (Roy Evans) Caunter was previously Thatcher the thief in Hartnell's Crusade. Bernard Kay who's Caldwell was also in Crusade as Saladin plus Tyler in Dalek Invasion of Earth and Crossland in Faceless Ones.

Jim the engineer was in one episode of the Daleks' Master Plan.

One of the Time Lords in episode one is Graham Leaman who had been in Marca Terror and Fury From the Deep and will be back as (the same?) Time Lord in Three Doctors.

Ashe is the evil Tlotoxl from The Aztecs and was Blake in The Smugglers.

And to join the general old episodes reunions, the temperature reader from Seeds of Death is in the IMC ship and in this story resident extra Pat Gorman plays a Primative and an IMC guard and a colonist! Two of them are speaking parts as well.

Next bit - episode 3 etc

Tony Caunter's character is called Morgan.

[Bought The Mutants DVD yesterday which is the 6 parter 4th story of the next season, as much as Colony is criticised, Mutants often gets it worse so I look forward to your view on that in a few weeks time]

Anyway, operating the mining robot is Dalek operator John Scott Martin who will be seen on screen eventually but not until the next story...

The spaceship landing is a bit duff but there's a lovely shot of the IMC ship in space in part 5 with some music that works lovely. Bringing the Master in was the right move as it was drifting into a generic miners against colonists that (as some have commented) looks like a cowboy prospectors against farmers tale,

I don't think we were meant to hear the sea gulls.

The little man from behind the screen in the city probably used to work for Sky Sports with lines like, "Although the female is of no importance".

By this point I do wonder how many colonists will be left with all this gunfire, hopefully a lot are 'just' wounded.

I do like the Master pointing out the Doctor has no ID and blatantly flashes his forged documents about, "but for our regimented age we live in, essential". Bit much of Winton to say he knows nothing about the Doctor but he has helped them for 4 episodes by this point.

So end of episode 4, I believe the Doctor and Jo are about to become the victims of stray bullets. [Cue cliffhanger scream]

Aha! I thought the scanner had changed.
Oh yes, I remember thinking that at the time. Nice comparison actually.
Lol, I love these little titbits of info.
Oh really? Oh well, it would have been a good reference.
Wow, they are well used these actors.

Damn, I thought I'd got it wrong when I typed it, but couldn't remember his name.
Yes I definitly felt it losing the reins a little until that point.
No. Quite.
Not a great screamer our Jo. Not a patch on Victoria. But she does try bless her.

Not for nothing was Deborah Watling's nickname 'Leatherlungs'...

Was it? Lol what a name to live up to.

yay, finished Colony in Space. It was a great story all the way through. Watched the last two episodes today.

Great to see the inside of the Master's Tarids. With all the mod cons and infra red alarm system. Couldn't help but laugh to see the Doctor and Jo wriggle their way in, to avoid setting off the alarms.

The last episode was a corker. I really thought the colonists had taken off, and I was shocked to see the spaceship actually blow up. I was expecting them either to sit tight or to get away safely. Dumbstruck that all those people were blew sky high.

And then I was even more dumbstruck to find out later they'd survived. I should have known, they would be okay. But very sad that Ashe gave his life for them all.

Didn't miss UNIT at all, but I was delighted to see The Brig at the end with his usual pompous comments.

So next is the Daemons. Anyone know if it's on DVD yet, as I can't find it.

Deamons isn't out yet. Most of the next season is except for "Day of the Daleks"

Ahh thanks for that.

Glad you enjoyed it, definitely helps being part of the ongoing saga. Just sat through Star Trek The Motion Picture which is often seen as rather dull but I watched it after finishing my run of the original series on blu-ray so got more out of it.

Anyway, I've got some trivia for you! The Master's TARDIS was clearly the Doctor's one with the walls moved around but there's a bit more to it than that. Behind the 2 prison tubes were some shiny walls - they had been the Time Lord conference room in episode 1. Meanwhile the Hartnell console room doors have had those red panels attached to the exteriors and the outside of the set turned into the spaceship exterior. Rather than removing these extra panels, they now remain on the doors for the next 4 years, painted blue to start with to match the police box and then white. They can be last seen in Pyramids of Mars in 1975...

I do love the idea that a working chameleon circuit means that the Master's TARDIS exterior can fly around as a spaceship or it can just dematerialise. Also note how both TARDIS don't fade away but pop out of existance. Thankfully normal service will be resumed next time you see the TARDIS which will be in...wait and see!

I think the colonists supposed death in the spaceship finally makes Caldwell realise that he has to do the decent thing. Even in episode 6 he is paying lip service to Morgan and Dent but once the colonists seem to die, he finds a bit of backbone. Curiously although Morgan is rather suddenly shot down in the final gun fight, you never see Dent at the end.

Really good fight in the quarry as well with Winton and usual stuntman (and double for Jon Pertwee) Terry Walsh getting utterly soaked.

Good to have a break from UNIT to show the third Doctor can manage without them.

[Mock affronted]. Oi! I know I always appear at the end with pompous comments but you don't have to point it out!

Mary Ashe doesn't seem very upset her father has died - maybe he was very strict. Oh well Ashe to Ashes.

I would highly recommend the novelisation of this story as you enjoyed it (originally renamed as Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon and written as Jo's first meeting with the Doctor as it came out before the other novels from this season) I love Chapter 17 - Captain Dent Makes a Decision.

Other trivia - one of the colonists is wearing a spacesuit from Ambassadors of Death.

Next up the only planned 5 part story The Daemons. (Dominators and Mind Robber were originally planned as a 6 parter and a 4 parter).