Just finished it...thought it was VERY well done and well casted. Dent...what a character. The Master didn't use mind control because they were strong-willed people.
This is one of the weaker ones imo, but once again, The Master does it for me. The Doctor and Jo too of course, but I just love Delgado's Master so, so much. Every single second with him on screen is a delight.
Delgado and Pertwee were very close. When Delgado died prematurely Pertwee almost gave up the role, such was his heartbreak at losing his friend and co-star. Although I love John Sim’s Master, I wasn’t as keen on Anthony Ainley’s moustache twirling portrayal. Delgado really was the absolute, ahem, master in the role. His charisma dominated the scenes he was in, without the scenery chewing showmanship you usually get with arch-villains. Bravo roger.
When I first watched this, I thought it was incredibly boring. But on subsequent rewatches I’ve ended up enjoying it more I can’t deny. I think the cast are actually all really memorable and interesting. I think Pertwee and Jo’s scene in the TARDIS is really sweet and modern. I just don’t find it that much of a slog anymore and I can’t describe why. Thing I hate most, is the awful music for the primitives. It really is an ear ache.
This story is OK. I rate it Pertwee's 16th best of his 24. The basic flaw for me is that the premise is there is not enough room on an entire planet for a small colony to share with miners??
Nice review. It's true that 'Colony in Space' doesn't get much love, mostly seen as overlong and a bit boring, I have to confess when I wanted l watched it as part of my whole-series-in-sequence marathon a couple of months ago... I did enjoy it, more than I expected to. If I had watched it in my youth I would have probably found it dull, and certainly as a boy I had the Target novel and think it was one that just sat on the shelf, the plot just all sounded rather interesting to me. But I enjoyed it now, for the same reason I found myself loving 'The Ice Warriors' and a few others - because much of it is done very 'stage play'-like and very of a style of BBC production that is now long gone; and because of - like 'The Ice Warriors', the strong guest cast, most of them stage actors, who carry it. Undoubtedly the plot of "Colony' isn't overly interesting, but it is that style of staging and a couple of really good guest performances - in particular Bernard Kay - that made me warm to it, at least in a "nostalgic for a bygone style of TV" way if nothing else. The plot itself is a bit dreary, especially for a six-parter, and the machines with the giant "claws" look both ridiculous and hilarious, and yes although Roger Delgado is ever-great as The Master the character is becoming overused by this point, bit I still did enjoy it as a whole. Possibly it helps that I always just watch one episode per day; watching the whole story at once would be a bit of a slog. Also interesting how you had still yet to be won over by Jo at this stage - as I've mentioned in my comments on another one of your videos, she ended up unexpectedly becoming one of my all-time favourite companions, but yes she doesn't get much to do here and her character is almost by-the-by to the rest of the story. By no means a Third Doctor classic, by no means a story I would recommend to anyone over countless far better ones, and probably doesn't have all that much re-watchability interest... But taken on its own merits I found 'Colony' okay. (The fact that it's the Doctor's not-so-grand "first return into" space probably doesn't help it's status though!)
I really enjoyed the novelisation ("Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon"), but on TV it's one of the rare turkeys of the Pertwee era. The cast is pretty strong, but they're wasted in this dull story, which didn't have enough material for a five-parter, never mind six.
This is my least favourite story of the Third Doctor era. Quite disappointing especially since you made me realize it was the first off-Earth Third Doctor story.
