Doctor Who has a long, proud history of political analogy, going back well before this era. It also has a long, proud history of these analogies being shockingly unsubtle, and while Colony in Space isn't the best example of this, it's still a pretty damn good one. It is of course penned by everyone's favourite literal communist Doctor Who writer, Malcolm Hulke, and is a pretty obvious anti-corporatism message wrapped in a bit of anti-colonialism to boot. Now this works to both the advantage and the detriment of the story. On the one hand, it gives it a lot of depth and detail when it would otherwise be pretty lame and boring - on the other, the IMC workers are really shocking unsympathetic villains and really lacks the subtlety that was needed for this to work. It's less Doctor Who and the Silurians (a story also penned by Hulke, which we'll see in a bit is a much better political analogy than this story) and more Oxygen, although not quite as bad as Oxygen, as that's a bit less on the nose and more like smacking you on the nose repeatedly with a sledgehammer and throwing in a flamethrower for good measure.
 |
| The Doctor was utterly shocked to see The A-Z of Classic Who attacking NuWho! This was something that had never happened before! |
Still, Oxygen was at least watchable because what surrounded the unsubtle political analogy was actually half decent, and I'd say Colony in Space also falls into that category, although I should add that it never gets much better than decent. The characters within the colony are engaging, the motivations of most of the characters believable, the sets of the colony itself are surprisingly decent, Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado are top notch as always, and Jo actually gets a decent bit of character development her character was desperately needing at this point. This is all stuff that adds up to make this a decent and enjoyable watch.
 |
| The Master was determined to find the Doctor's drug stash by whatever means possible |
The story falls down a bit when the story with the native species is entered in. It's great to see the Master as always, but this was the season where he was shoehorned into every story, and this is probably the worst example. All his presence does is add on an extra couple of episodes to tell the story of the superweapon that regressed the native species to savagery (apparently) and how the Master wants it badly, and the Doctor isn't going to let him have it. It's far from awful, and it leads to a decent moment between the Doctor and the Master, where the latter offers the former a place by his side to rule the universe,but the Doctor refuses - no doubt some Doctors would have been tempted, but it's a good piece of character for the Third Doctor that he doesn't even think about it before refusing. The issue is that the actual centrepiece is staggeringly dull and is only really there to pad out the run time and it distracts from the more interesting story with the colonists.
 |
| Don't do drugs kids |
Did I mention the natives look really bad? Like really, REALLY bad? If you're watching Classic Who for its production values I'm not sure what to tell you, but considering how other parts of the story don't look half bad, this is pretty lame. The regular green natives just look like guys in suits, and the charming gentleman you see above really speaks for himself.
 |
| "I'd rather die than let the IMC have our drugs stash!" "They're here for minerals" "Oh" |
As for the political analogy itself, well, it leads to some interesting storytelling at least, and even if the villains are kind of cartoony they're at least entertaining and it gives us an interesting character in Caldwell. Does the unsubtlety hurt it? I'd say so yes, because when you're watching the IMC guys you're never not thinking 'these are obvious cartoons of crony capitalists' and if you're someone of a right-leaning persuasion you might find it a bit insufferable. But in the end what surrounds it is enough to make this an entertaining, if only really average, story.
Political analogy is a great tool for Doctor Who writers, and while subtle is generally better, it's good to note that subtlety can't save a story when everything that surrounds the analogy is crap. Aliens of London/World War III is a subtle analogy for the Iraq War, but what surrounds it is terrible monsters with awful fart jokes, with a healthy dollop of Rose being insufferable. So if you are watching Colony in Space and are thinking about the political message being a bit on the nose, think about how much worse it could be.
I really need to give the NuWho bashing a rest, don't I. I'm not going to though lmao.
Final Score: 5/10. Typical of the quality you'd expect from Classic Who, with a decent story, some good characters and a great Pertwee-Delgado double act as always which cancels out the unsubtle political message, slow pace and in the end pretty pointless Master sub plot.
Next Episode: Day of the Daleks
Comments
Post a Comment