Doctor Who Colony in Space
Available 1st of December 2011
Five words guaranteed to get my girlfriend out of the
room; “Six part doctor who story.” Don’t get me wrong, she’s not adverse
to a bit of David Tennant or even Tom Baker but she has real trouble
with the older longer stories . And whilst my love and affection for a
program that’s been part of my life for my whole life has never waned, I
can see her point. Some six partners don’t seem like a slog at all.
Inferno keeps us interested by having two stories going at once.
Planet of the Spiders has so much going on that the extended chase
scene to pad it out feels like it’s dragging it down. But a lot of them
feel two episodes two long…some by even more. Colony in Space has
a lot going for it and a lot going on…but given its location (a quarry
again…who’d have guessed?) it’s not as visually stimulating as it could
be especially if you’re going to watch it for over two and a half hours.
Speaking of which I know that I’m suppose to save this for the bit where
I talk about video, but the video quality for this episode is appalling.
I’m not convinced that it’s been Vidfired or toasted or whatever they do
to it these days to make the rest of the range look so good.
So there’s this colony, it’s in space right? But the
evil mining corporation IMC wants to turn the planet into a hollowed out
cinder so they can get all the Unobtainium the planet posses. The simple
natives on the planet protect an amazing secret but it’s only when the
Doctor spends some time with them that he begins to appreciate their
ways and then the Master arrives and my allusion to Avatar falls to
pieces.
There is a surprise as to what resides on the planet
and unless you’ve read the novelization which handily gives it away in
the title, I’m not telling you what it is.
This isn’t a bad story by any means, it involves the
Time Lords, The Master (who was a fixture of this season- every story
features the Master) investigates human greed and the drive to develop
and excel at any cost that we see with IMC is mirrored in the Primitives
and their plight. So it’s even got subtext! Jon Pertwee using his
Venusian Aikido, Jo’s first trip in the Tardis, indeed The Third
Doctor’s first trip to another planet. In many ways this is a
significant episode. In many ways it’s a shame that his first trip was
to a muddy quarry with whining colonist in it.
Special Features:
Pretty thin on the ground here, unlike recent 2IEntertain releases which
have been packed with hours of extras we only get a thin making of,
deleted scenes that quarry enthusiasts will drool over and some PDF
materials, don’t get me wrong it’s nice to finally have that Radio Times
cover that will complete my set but it’s a bit of a disappointment given
how much could have been said about this episode.
Video Quality: As I
said above, genuinely disappointing. Given how amazing even the
colorized episodes can look after restoration it seems a shame that this
has had no such treatment. There is lots of blur in the picture parts
where the oversaturation of studio lights is very apparent as well as
the picture being generally “soft”.
Audio Quality: Not
great actually, some inconsistent volumes make this too disappointing.
Feature: 6/10
Girlfriend Rating: 3/10
