Friday 30 October 2020

Big Gay Longcat reviews Doctor Who: Colony in Space Episode Five


The recap of episode four shows us the entire gunfight again. Then Ashe saves the Doctor and Jo by arriving in the nick of time, and the Master is not prepared to blow his cover as the fake Adjudicator by shooting them in front of witnesses.


Dent gets captured and makes the rest of the IMC baddys surrender. The IMC baddys are forced to take off in their spaceship. In space, they get a fax (a space fax? Either way, this is advanced technology we're dealing with here) from Earth with a picture of the real Adjudicator, which means Dent now knows the Master is an impostor, and so he orders them back to the planet.


The Doctor tries to warn Ashe and Winton about the Master, but the Master throws suspicion back on the Doctor in much the way he threatened to do in the last episode. It's almost as if the Doctor has forgotten what happened last time - well, it would have been a whole week ago when first broadcast, so perhaps that's understandable?



The Doctor still has a key to the Master's TARDIS (which he obtained all the way back in Terror of the Autons, and is a surprising bit of continuity from three whole stories earlier) so he and Jo go to look for evidence against him there.


The Doctor and Jo find the real Adjudicator's credentials, with a similar picture to the one Dent received, which is the evidence they are looking for to expose the Master. The Doctor also wants to know why he came to this planet, since (for once) it wasn't anything to do with trying to kill the Doctor. Jo goes to leave, and in so doing triggers the master's burglar alarm that they were both very careful not to set off on the way in.



So warned, the Master sees them on a tiny device, which he then turns into a button that he presses to release gas into his TARDIS, which knocks the Doctor and Jo out.


An unnecessarily padded scene of the IMC baddys landing their spaceship reminds us that they are coming back, and then Dent orders Morgan and his other henchmannys to attack the colonists (again).


The Master wakes the Doctor up and says

"Well Doctor, still pursuing burglary, eh? You know, when you stole my dematerialisation circuit, I decided to build in a few precautions."

He wants the Doctor to take him on a date to the alien city, with Jo to stay behind as a hostage.


Morgan sneaks into the dome and captures Ashe. The henchmannys get their guns back, and this leads into another gunfight, very similar to the earlier one, only this time with IMC on the left and the colonists on the right. But because Ashe has been captured, Chess rules apply again and this time it is the colonists who have been checkmated.



The Master locks Jo inside a transparent cylindrical cubicle before he and the Doctor leave his TARDIS. The costumes and set design here remind me very strongly of Dead on Arrival, I suspect one of these stories was an inspiration for the other. 



The Doctor drops the stolen TARDIS key just outside, for somebody to conveniently find later on.


Dent and Morgan have gone crazy with power after winning the last gunfight, and they set up a show trial for Ashe and Winton:

"As legally appointed Governor of this planet, I declare this court in session. Morgan?"

"You are charged with destroying property and equipment belonging to the Interplanetary Mining Corporation, assault and murder of IMC personnel, trespass on a planet lawfully allocated to IMC, and armed rebellion against the lawful representatives of the Earth's government. How do you plead?"

As he has been repeatedly threatening for the whole story, Dent claims he can sentence them to death, but instead wants them to leave the planet:

"The sentence is execution. However, the sentence will be suspended on condition that you and your followers depart this planet immediately."



As the Doctor and the Master approach their city, the aliens do some pretty good impressions of Sand People (--or worse!), not bad for a story made six years before Star Wars.


Dent wants to capture the Master, and sends Morgan and Caldwell to his spaceship (i.e. his TARDIS) to look for him. They find the key the Doctor dropped and so can get  inside. Naturally they trigger the burglar alarm as soon as they do. Even though this clearly has nothing to do with the Doctor, who is still right there with him, the Master says

"I warned you, Doctor." 

and goes to press his button to release the gas upon Jo, Morgan and Caldwell. He seemingly does it in slow motion, and it cuts to the end credits before the button gets pushed.



This is quite an effective cliffhanger in theory, but I've heard the winner of a TV cookery competition announced in less time than the Master takes to reach the button. He reeeeeally milks it.

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