[daveyboy7472]

There is a weird thing that happens towards the end of Season 8. The following story, The Daemons, as an Earthbound story, is my favourite story of the Pertwee Era. Colony In Space, however, as the first adventure for Pertwee's Doctor to get away from Earth, is my least favourite story of not just this Season but also one my least favourite non-Earth stories!

When I watch Doctor Who through in order as I sometimes do, I always look forward to watching Colony In Space as it is a bit of a throwback to the Sixties Stories when The Doctor used to travel in the TARDIS. After all those Earth stories it is something of a welcome break.

However, what happens then is that all the excitement of The Doctor and Jo travelling in the TARDIS(and it's different console room from the previous story) to an alien planet quickly disappears by what happens afterwards. For six solid episodes there is this continual change in power from The Colonists to the IMC and back again(and back again and so on) and after a while it becomes boring.

Thankfully The Master is kept out of the story for three episodes which gives the Season a break from him for a few weeks. However, I think there is another spin on The Doctor/Master relationship with The Master seemingly unwilling to kill him and prepared to offer him a power share instead which really shows the difference in character between the two. On the downside though the on-screen admission by The Doctor stating that using Jo against him to do The Master's work was unimaginative was a true point by this time as it definitely started to get a bit boring.

I do like the other worldly feel of the city and it's inhabitants, despite the obvious puppet look of it's leader but aside from that there is very little to like about this story. It's one of those stories that really does suffer from being a 6-parter with all the repetitiveness. As The Doctor's first trip away from Earth during this period it is something of a let down for me but the best non-Earthy stories were yet to come.

[meglosmurmurs]

*tumbleweed*


lol that's what my brain does after watching this story. It's probably the best example of the arse-achingly boring overly-long adventures that tend to drag the 3rd Doctor's era down. For me this one competes with Time Monster for the worst 3rd Doctor story.

I've watched it three times and can only remember a couple of scenes, I think I'm that pleased I've got through it that I don't really remember much about it afterwards .

[CoalHillJanitor]

Captain Dent is like a poor man's Tobias Vaughn. (An extremely poor man's.)

It's almost interesting to see the Doctor and Jo snooping through the surprisingly boring filing cabinets in the Master's TARDIS. And then there's the ... erm ... the ... well, basically capture escape capture escape capture, innit?

[Larry1971]

Originally Posted by daveyboy7472

Thankfully The Master is kept out of the story for three episodes which gives the Season a break from him for a few weeks.

The big mistake of season 8 was having The Master, in every story as it all became a bit to predictable and tedious it certainly doesn't help here as Colony in Space is a painfully dull story to watch. I doubt it would of been any better with out The Master, in it but his part could easily of been taken by a completely different character.

[daveyboy7472]

Originally Posted by Larry1971

The big mistake of season 8 was having The Master, in every story as it all became a bit to predictable and tedious it certainly doesn't help here as Colony in Space is a painfully dull story to watch. I doubt it would of been any better with out The Master, in it but his part could easily of been taken by a completely different character.

Yeah, I think Letts and Dicks have acknowledged that mistake. Like the New Series these days, the Season could have done with a break from the main 'arc' which in this case was The Master. I felt he could have been left out of The Claws Of Axos as well and just brought back for The Daemons. That would have been better.