The Colony of Lies

I didn't like this one either. I liked it better than The Final Sanction but not by much.

The story opens with the future seventh Doctor and his companion, Ace, discussing events of the past. Questions from Ace lead the Doctor to remember his visit to the planet Axista Four, back when he was travelling with Jamie and Zoe...

Axista Four is home to a colony of settlers who left earth with a "back to basics" approach to life which was supposed to liberate them from the technology-dependent lives they once lived, but has instead marooned them up a cliche cul de sac where the colony is run like a town out of the wild west, and no technology is used at all. Interstellar luddites, in the end. The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe arrive as a conflict between the settlers clinging to the original vision, and a breakaway group are coming to a head, but also coming is a massive battle cruiser with its own plans for the planet in its efforts to relocate refugees from the Dalek wars. And if that's not enough, there's a mysterious race of dog-like creatures running about the planet; creatures who aren't impressed with the presence of humans on their world.

Colin Brake pretentiously says in his notes that he was intending to do Doctor Who - The Western, and apparantly this was something we have been waiting for. I seem to remember something called The Gunfighters, which was ill-received in its time, but nonetheless despite it's hokey accents and silly costumes, it was the original western. Now this. For starters, if the cover of the book did not have a small western town painted on it, one could almost get away with saying it was just a colony without technology, rather than have to cling to the wild west notions. Brake isn't very good at setting a scene; I never got a proper sense of where anything was happening outside of it being in some part of a ship, a cave, a control room, whatever; not enough work put into maintaining that wild west idea. And I get the feeling that he doesn't like Zoe, seeing as he has her rendered unconscious a few times and out of the way for quite a lot of the book.

Dipping into the future (or the past, depending on your point of view) and using the seventh Doctor as a catalyst to some of the events is an interesting gamble, though. In the years to come the show would have the odd adventure where the Doctor would cross paths with his past selves, and they would never get along. Here we get to see the second Doctor's outrage at his future selve's tendancy to tinker with the past and set things "right"; he sees it as not only wrong but something that will incur the wrath of his own people, still being referred to as "Them". As for the seventh Doctor, they meet very briefly and he is deliberately coy and vague with his past self; one is also reminded of a seventh Doctor novel where he ruins a crossword game for his third incarnation out of sheer mischief.

Nice try, Colin Brake, but I didn't enjoy this. Writing for the second Doctor is something that only a few have managed to pull off, due to the lack of material available to reference and get a feel for the character. Throwing him into a heap of cliche's and having him say "Oh, my word," a lot just doesn't cut it.

NEXT EPISODE : THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN