May 29: Colony in Space Episodes Four & Five

Thank goodness for the Master; his arrival improves things immensely.  Now everyone has someone they can react against, even if the Master is pretending to be an Adjudicator from Earth, ready to settle the dispute between the colonists and IMC.  That dispute suddenly comes into focus as both sides plead their case.  Roger Delgado is as watchable as ever, listening calmly to both sides, after which he declares an adjournment while he ponders the situation, threatens the Doctor in the back room, and then immediately comes back out and announces that he's reached a decision in favor of IMC.  Guess that didn't require much thought, did it?

The Guardian of the Primitive city. (Colony in Space
Episode Four) ©BBC

The other good thing about episode four is that the Doctor has gone into the Primitive city to rescue Jo Grant, and so we learn more about this civilization and how they were once an advanced race before some sort of tragedy happened that reduced them to their current savage state. There also appear to be three races: the Primitives, the smaller Priests ("Is it humanoid?" the Doctor asks Jo about, essentially, a small man with a weird head; "No, not really," replies Jo -- the speciesist), and their leader, a tiny figure called (in the credits, at least) the Guardian.  The Guardian seems to be the only one who can talk, and honestly he (she?) seems like a reasonable person, even if he/she threatens the Doctor and Jo with death if they ever return.  The whole city in general is an interesting design, with lots of rock-like textures and blacks and green on display, and a welcome contrast to the more muted tones of the colonists' domes.

But as I said, the Master has ruled in favor of IMC.  This displeases the colonists, so they stage a rebellion by luring the IMC officers to the main dome under the pretext of signing official paperwork.  And have the colonists been keeping close tabs on Norton?  Of course not, so he gets to warn the IMC personnel as they arrive, leading to a shootout.  And in the confusion, the Master is prepared to kill Jo and the Doctor -- victims of "stray bullets"; only Ashe's arrival saves them from this fate.

Episode five has the colonists winning this struggle and ordering IMC to leave Uxarieus.  The Master appears willing to help them declare independence -- it's not clear what his ultimate goal is, but he does want to explore the Primitive ruins.  The bits with the Master are reasonably entertaining -- as is the Doctor's investigation of the Master's TARDIS.  Even if Jo spoils it all by suddenly deciding she's impatient and walking all the way across the TARDIS to trip an alarm beam that she knew about on her way in (in even more flagrant a manner than Zoe in The Mind Robber), which leads to the Master gassing them both.  Meanwhile, IMC leaves, works out the Master is an imposter, and then comes back, capturing all the colonists and ordering them to either leave the planet or be killed.  It's not very exciting, to be honest, even if it does eat up a lot of screen time, and the stuff with the Master is far more interesting.  He's very interested in the Primitive city, and once he learns that only the Doctor has been inside and come back out, he forces the Doctor to help him -- lest Jo Grant be killed.  And when Caldwell and Morgan make their way inside the Master's TARDIS (via a dropped key) and discover Jo imprisoned, the Master is alerted.  "I warned you, Doctor!" the Master says, his finger poised to flood Jo's chamber with deadly gas.