May 28: Colony in Space Episodes Two & Three

So what was the point of the Time Lord sequence at the beginning of episode one?  Was it to assure viewers that the Master would drop in at some point, just be patient?  Because by the end of episode three there's still no sign of the Master or any sort of doomsday weapon.

Instead what we do get is two episodes of politicking as the Interplanetary Mining Corporation "arrives" and tries to convince the colonists to leave.  Even though their colony is failing, they're all on the brink of starvation, and they were discussing leaving last episode, now they don't want to leave.  And it's not like IMC are exactly above board with their dealings: it becomes clear they've been around for a while and are behind the lizard attacks in an effort to drive the colonists out.  But really, none of their villainy is particularly imaginative; the lizards are a nice touch, but then they try to kill the Doctor and do things like literally chain Jo Grant and a man named Winton to a bomb in order to dissuade the Doctor from testifying against IMC when the Adjudicator arrives to decide which group gets the planet.  Oh, and they've got a man on the inside (Norton is IMC, it turns out) who doesn't actually do a very good job of blending in -- even Jo Grant looks at him suspiciously.  And his whole "destroy the generator and blame it on the Primitives suddenly going crazy" plan doesn't seem very well thought out either, even if the colonists seem to swallow the story.  Mind, it only seems to take the Doctor a few moments before he's convinced that Norton is working for IMC, but when he warns Winton ("Unless you want IMC warned, I'd keep a very close watch on our friend Norton"), do they immediately grab him and lock him up somewhere?  Not obviously -- let's hope that doesn't come to bite them in the ass.

Jo is captured by the Primitives. (Colony in Space Episode
Three) ©BBC

The main problem is that the colonists are so thick sometimes that it's hard to root for them, and the IMC people are so evil that they might as well be wearing signs.  This might be acceptable if something interesting happened, but instead we get a lot of people talking and not a lot of doing -- to the point where the Doctor has to hop out of a car and fight some Primitives just to inject some action into the proceedings.  The Primitives are just about the most interesting thing on display so far, and all they've done is wander around silently.

Actually, that might be the main problem so far with Colony in Space -- we're finally, after a season and a half, away from Earth and on an alien world (even if it's just about the dullest alien world ever), and they take up the time by having two groups of humans squabbling with each other, rather than by exploring this world and the native inhabitants.  And since the squabbling isn't even particularly interesting to begin with, the result is that these first few episodes just plod along.  The one bright spot in all this (other than the Primitives) is Caldwell, the IMC miner with a conscience.  By giving us one person who's not willing to act villainously, we get some glimpse of hope that maybe things will turn out unexpectedly.  And it doesn't hurt that Bernard Kay is doing a good job of portraying a man conflicted between greed and Doing the Right Thing.  But he can't carry the whole story (nor should he have to), and so what we're left with is still awfully tedious.

Things can only get better, right?  Right?