Colony in Space

The Master is at it again; this time he has raided the secret files of the High Council of the Time Lords and found the location to a long forgotten doomsday weapon. Realizing he must be stopped, the Time Lords temporarily grant the Doctor a reprieve from his exile and send him to the planet Exarius. The Doctor and Jo discover a fledgling colony of humans in the far future, but the colony is failing, unable to grow crops to sustain themselves. The humans exist peacefully with the local primitives, but lately there have been rumours of giant lizards attacking the settlement. Behind the attacks are none other than the Interplanetary Mining Corporation, who have also been granted rights to Exarius and want to exploit its mineral wealth. Mediation is sought and an adjudicator arrives to hear the case, but it is really the Master in disguise, hoping to locate the doomsday weapon on Exarius and hold the universe to ransom.

Why anyone would think settling on Exarius would be a good idea is beyond me. It's a ball of gravel and mud. Okay if you want to mudwrestle with an IMC guard as is seen in episode 6, you're laughing, but to establish a colony and a new life? The primitives inhabit an underground city which houses the remnants of an advanced society and the doomsday weapon itself, although for the most part it is made up of a lot of corridors carved from rock. The colony run by Ashe is a bit more spread out, with domes scattered across the area to serve as family living units, but no sign of the crops they were supposedly trying to grow.

This is an interesting story of big business and money trampling all over the rights of the individual; the colonists have been working for a year to get themselves established but the slightest whiff of mineral wealth and it is all shoved aside by IMC's mandate. Make it about oil and voila it'd be comparable to anything the Americans would do to get their hands on it. IMC Captain Dent is a cold cold man surrounded by thugs out to make themselves rich, with the exception of Caldwell, who feels his loyalties start to waver when the first colonists are killed. Colonial leader Ashe, with his daughter Mary (a very very young Helen Worth a long time before she arrived on Coronation Street) is the embattled man trying to hold his colony together against internal problems, the arrival of IMC, and their shaky truce with the primitives. But for a spunky young woman Mary is seen serving dinner a few too many times to be credible, and as soon as Jo arrives and is left behind while the Doctor goes exploring, she is also drafted into kitchen ptarol duty, and makeshift nurse after one of the many gunfights between the IMC people and the colonists. The Master doesn't really show up until halfway through the story, his TARDIS disguised as a spaceship, and he is accompanied by the "Master theme" which has been in every story to herald his arrival. I'm getting tired of it though. I'm getting tired of him, honestly. So is the Doctor; in the early moments of episode 6 he karate kicks the gun from the Master's hand and almost beats him to a pulp. At last!

Now this I have to mention in Jay's absence; the materialization of the TARDIS is not done with the usual slow mix of shots, but as the sound of the engines reaches its crescendo, there is a wobbly cut and "whump" the TARDIS is there like it was dropped from the sky. Not the same magic we've come to expect from the ship at all. Thankfully this is the only time we see that happen.

Speaking of Jay, he'll be on hand for the next adventure when we reconvene on Saturday. I just need to take my own VCR with me. Oh well, hopefully the plight-ridden McDonald's is still where we left it...

NEXT EPISODE : THE DAEMONS