June 3: Day of the Daleks Episodes Three & Four

The Doctor narrowly escapes that Dalek (and we get another reprise of the "sting" as well), only to be plunged into a nightmarish future where the Daleks rule the Earth (again; see The Dalek Invasion of Earth for the previous time).  The Daleks rule with an iron fist (plunger?) and humanity has been reduced to a race of slaves, with only a handful still able to fight back.  But the Doctor is determined to find Jo Grant in this, and sets off to do so.  These scenes have a nice touch to them; even if they're not necessarily as apocalyptic as the script implies, they're at least atmospheric.  Although the scene of the slaves emptying giant trash cans with just a little bit of gravel in them leaves something to be desired.

But all too soon, the Doctor is captured and interrogated before being released by the Controller and fawned over.  Jo and the Doctor are reunited, but the Doctor spends his time criticizing everything he's seen, calling the Controller out on the conditions of the slaves.  And this is actually a bit of a problem; the audience hasn't really seen much evidence that things are as dire as the Doctor says.  We've seen some empty fields, a handful of slaves, and some interrogating, and that's about it.  But that's where putting the Daleks in this story pays off.  Because we know what the Daleks are like, and we can imagine a world under their reign.  So even though we're told often about how bad things are without seeing much evidence for it, the Daleks' presence make it easier for us to accept that what we're being told is the truth.

But it's time for the philosophical discussions to end.  The Doctor and Jo attempt to escape on a three-wheeled Honda trike in what might be the least exciting chase ever (the trike appears to have underinflated tires and doesn't move very fast, which leads to lots of slow-motion jogging from the pursuing Ogrons), but they're recaptured and the Doctor is hooked up to the mind analysis machine by the Daleks in order to be properly interrogated.  And here we see that the title sequence not only represents time travel, but also the Doctor's mind.

The Doctor is interrogated by the Daleks. (Day of the
Daleks Episode Four) ©BBC

Episode four doesn't have a reprise of the "sting", but that's probably because the cliffhanger reprise has been edited slightly.  Since this episode is concerned with wrapping things up, it's a game of two halves.  Thus, the rebels conveniently storm the Daleks' base in order to rescue the Doctor and Jo so that he can go back and kill Styles for them -- Styles, you see, lured all the world leaders to his country house and blew them up, leading to a hundred years of war and a ravaged planet that was easy picking for the Daleks.  The guerrillas want to go back and change history by killing Styles so that he can't kill all the other delegates, thus ensuring that the Daleks never invade.  It's never clear why history regards Styles as the architect of this explosion, given that he also died in it, and in any case the Doctor quickly works out the real cause: Shura is the one who blows up the house with everyone inside.  "Styles didn't cause that explosion and start the wars.  You did it yourselves."  So now the plan is to send the Doctor back and save everyone from being blown up inside.

The Daleks aren't going to stand for this, so they decide to also go back and exterminate Styles and the other delegates (since, curiously, they seem aware that they're in an alternate future that wasn't supposed to be: "The Daleks have discovered the secret of time travel.  We have invaded Earth again.  We have changed the pattern of history," the gold Dalek tells the Doctor).  So while the first half is set in the 22nd century, the second half is set in the present day (well, near enough).  And so while the Doctor gets everyone to evacuate Auderly House (even if Styles is very reluctant to evacuate -- although, weirdly, the implication is that the Doctor has explained that time travellers from the future are there to assassinate everyone rather than the more sensible "Everyone get out, there's a bomb in the cellar"), a huge Dalek task force of, er, three Daleks and a handful of Ogrons arrives to kill everyone.  Never have the limitations of the series' budget been clearer.⁶⁴  But this time Shura blows up the Daleks and the Ogrons, rather than Styles and his delegates: history is therefore saved.

Even with the occasional glitches, there's a sense of self-assuredness about Day of the Daleks, as if everyone involved knows the best way to do things and is comfortable in doing them.  There aren't any uncertainties in the presentation, and there are a number of moments where you can tell they're trying to see what they can do to stretch themselves even further (such as the curved door in the Dalek base and the CSO-ed video screen that pulls back at the same rate as the main camera shot, to make it look like there really is a video screen set into the wall).  The script is clever (even if it's not quite as original as it sometimes thinks it is) and the acting is generally superb, with Katy Manning in particular having worked out the best way to play Jo Grant.  Day of the Daleks sees the show back on top.







⁶⁴ The special edition on the DVD attempts to rectify this well-known issue by adding in a bunch of CGI Daleks and additional scenes to beef up the numbers.  It also changes all the Dalek voices (which are somewhat different from how they'd been in the past, but they're not that bad) to more "proper" voices done by BBC Wales Dalek voice Nicholas Briggs.

June 2: Day of the Daleks Episodes One & Two

"The Daleks are back!" proclaimed the Radio Times cover for this, the opening story in season 9.  And it had been five years since The Evil of the Daleks had them definitively meet their "final end".  But Terry Nation had failed to sell his Dalek spinoff show in the United States, and so the production team has decided (at the prompting of BBC Managing Director and Dalek superfan Huw Wheldon, who had previously successfully lobbied for a 12-part Dalek epic in the 60s) that it's time for the Daleks to make their return to Doctor Who.  Thus Day of the Daleks (the earliest story to still exist completely on its original 2" videotape) arrives to reintroduce the Daleks, and in color too!

And it's a pretty confident production that they've put together.  It may start with a rehash of the TARDIS shenanigans from the beginning of The Ambassadors of Death, but it quickly moves on to a tale of guerrilla fighters from the future who, for some as yet unknown reason, are attempting to kill Sir Reginald Styles, a man who's involved in an effort to hold a peace conference and who holds considerable sway in the negotiations.  The "time tunnel" effect is a good one, particularly as it evokes the look of the Pertwee title sequence and thus makes that also, pleasingly, look like a form of time travel.  And we're introduced to the Ogrons, large ape-like mercenaries sent from the future to stop those guerrilla fighters.  This also leads to the most entertaining part of this episode, as the Ogrons, back in their own time, report on the success of their mission: "We... found... and... destroyed... the... enemy," one Ogron says slowly, implying that this race isn't terribly bright.  "Any complications?" their Controller asks.  "No complications," the other Ogron replies offhandedly, with none of the struggle to speak that his colleague experienced.  So maybe it's just that one Ogron who's unusually thick.  The Ogrons themselves are a masterpiece of design, looking alien and strong, with really impressive headpieces.  And, breaking with tradition (a bit), the Daleks aren't held back until the cliffhanger but are given a brief moment at the halfway point, as it becomes clear that the Ogrons and the Controller are all servants of the Daleks.

Meanwhile, back in the 20th century, UNIT investigates the attempted assassination of Sir Reginald by a seeming ghost, which leads to the Doctor and Jo spending the night in the building waiting for another attack.  The most remarkable thing about these scenes is how much an establishment figure the Doctor is -- talking about conversations with Napoleon and enjoying the cheese and wine ("Yes, that's a most good-humored wine.  A touch sardonic perhaps, but not cynical") with the air of an experienced gourmand.  But other than that, and Jo attempting to feed Sergeant Benton, until Mike Yates swoops in and takes the food from him, nothing happens during the night.  No, it's in the morning when the guerrillas make another attempt to kill Sir Reginald, which leads to the sight of the Doctor fighting off soldiers literally single-handedly (as his other hand is holding a glass of something or other), thanks to his Venusian karate skills. It's a very entertaining sight, showing the third Doctor at the top of his game.  Only he's also been fiddling with the primitive time machine found earlier, which is sending a signal that the Daleks can trace -- leading to their full reveal, in all their colored glory.  Except they've been repainted in dark grey and black, with one gold and black Dalek, so they don't actually look much different from how they did in black-and-white.

Boaz, Anat, and Shura discuss killing the Doctor. (Day of
the Daleks Episode Two) ©BBC

Weirdly, the cliffhanger reprise at the start of episode two includes the "sting" that normally signals the end credits.  It's said this is because director Paul Bernard assumed that's how these things were done, but it's not at all clear why he would think this.  But in any case, it's there and is as jarring as you'd think.  However, the bulk of this episode involves establishing that the Doctor is not, in fact, Sir Reginald Styles, which leads to the guerrillas tying him and Jo Grant up in the wine cellar.  And that's about it.  The Doctor speculates on how the guerrillas must have traveled back in time to kill Styles in order to change history, and we get our first mention of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect (the reason the guerrillas can't go back to yesterday and try to assassinate him again, although no explanation is actually given), and that's largely it.

Well, until the last few minutes, when Jo is accidentally sent into the future, which allows the Controller to know when and where to send Ogron troops to deal with these rebel fighters.  The Ogrons evidently don't care about being sneaky, as they march right up to Auderly House to kill the guerrillas -- leading Boaz and Anat to retreat while the Doctor ends up holding them off before following the rebels.  This leads to the rather surprising sight of the Doctor gunning down an Ogron in cold blood, which is treated as nothing special at all but just a minor incident along the way.  Certainly the Doctor doesn't show any sort of remorse or reluctance to kill the Ogron.  It's a strange moment, and it's rather odd that both Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts were happy to let this bit through without complaint.

And then the episode ends when the Doctor, who's entered a disused railway tunnel in search of Anat and Boaz, is confronted by a Dalek!  It's actually not a bad cliffhanger, even if it's the sort that normally tend to occur in Dalek stories -- it helps that it's shot very effectively, with a good use of lighting and framing.

June 1: The Dæmons Episodes Four & Five

Episode four exists in its original 2" video format (the other four episodes are color-restored from NTSC off-air copies), and the difference in picture quality is palpable.

The Doctor on a motorbike. (The Dæmons Episode Four) ©BBC

So Jo's off to the cavern for some unclear reason (mind, she is suffering from a concussion at this point), while the Master manages to convince Azal not to step on him.  Then we finally get to see Azal for ourselves and learn some backstory about him, such that he's the last of the Dæmons and that Earth (or possibly humanity) is an experiment being run by the Dæmons, and that they destroy their experiments ("Remember Atlantis," Azal cautions, which nevertheless just about allows for the possibility of life continuing afterwards, as seen in The Underwater Menace -- even if it does weaken Azal's argument slightly).  So it's more that the Doctor's explanation last episode is confirmed here.  Azal agrees to consider giving the Master his power, and that he will appear once more and decide then, thus setting the stage for the final confrontation.  Then later, Jo enters the cavern and finds Yates there looking for her -- but when someone else comes in they duck down behind the world's worst hiding spot: a thin wagon wheel that couldn't hide a mouse.  Yet, incredibly, this appears to shield them from the view of all the coven members (and the Master!) standing ten feet away.

There's also some stuff with the Doctor trying to explain to Sergeant Osgood how to break through the heat barrier, and an attempt to shoot the Doctor by Bert the landlord as he's returning to Devil's End, but the really memorable part of this episode is the Maypole/Morris Dance sequence -- which starts idyllically, even if, amusingly, people keep shutting their windows and pulling their young children inside as if this was some great horror, but then actually does turn sinister when they trap the Doctor and then threaten to burn him as a witch.  It's only Miss Hawthorne's quick thinking (along with Benton's help -- who's really a crack shot, it must be said) that saves the Doctor, by declaring him to be the wizard Quiquaequod (geddit?) who's there to help them all.  But then they're all distracted by the Master's summoning of Azal for the third and final time (by using, as is well-documented, the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb", only backwards).

Azal prepares to kill the Doctor. (The Dæmons Episode Five) ©BBC

Episode five isn't all that exciting, to be honest.  Once Azal is back he spends his time standing around waiting for the Master to sacrifice Jo to him, for some reason (it's not like they need to sacrifice someone to summon Azal, and later events (seem to) make it clear that a sacrifice isn't necessary to transfer power, so it's not clear what the Master is playing at here), while Bok stops anyone from entering the church.  Still, at least the Brigadier manages to get through the heat barrier, even if the machine that the Doctor was going to use to defeat Azal blows itself up.  But at least UNIT is there to try and fight Bok -- which leads to possibly the Brigadier's most famous line, as he orders a soldier to shoot at Bok: "Chap with the wings there... five rounds rapid."  The Doctor meanwhile makes his way past Bok and into the cavern, where he tries to convince Azal to leave peacefully.  That fails, and then the Doctor refuses to accept Azal's powers -- so Azal decides to destroy the Doctor.  But when Jo offers to be killed instead of the Doctor, Azal suddenly goes into computer meltdown mode ("This action does not relate.  There is no data.") and blows himself up, along with the church (a famous model shot at the time, but a bit ropey-looking these days).  The Master is captured (for real this time!) and everyone lives happily ever after, as evidenced by all the dancing and the long pull-back from the maypole to the entire village green.

At one point in time The Dæmons was said to be the greatest Doctor Who story ever.  Then once people saw it again its reputation took a tumble, and many declared it to be the worst story ever.  The truth lies somewhere in the middle.  There's nothing really wrong with this story (other than the ending) beyond being self-indulgent -- it does look like the cast and crew enjoyed themselves while making this, and some of that happiness comes across on screen, making things a lot more entertaining to watch than, say, The Web Planet.  Really, the main issue, such as it is, is that Barry Letts (who cowrote this with Robert Sloman under the pseudonym "Guy Leopold") has decided that the third Doctor is first and foremost a man of science, but then he's tried to put him inside a story about magic -- with some gestures towards saying, "No, it's science, really" but not really following through on them.  The result is that there's an odd tension going on in The Dæmons between these two schools of thought, and although Letts and Sloman try to come down on the side of science, they don't do a very good job of it.  Still, there are some good performances and it's paced well, and while that aforementioned self-indulgence can grow a little tiresome at times, in general they keep things watchable.  And it's not like the audience knew ahead of time how abrupt and perfunctory the resolution of the serial would be⁶³.  So it's not the best thing ever, but it also hasn't aged quite as badly as is sometimes said.  Really, with hindsight it just looks like typical Pertwee fare.

So season 8 ends on a bit of a duff note, but for the most part they've done a reasonable (though not outstanding) job with this batch of stories.  You can tell that Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks are getting more comfortable with the show, even if they're starting to chafe at the "exile" format (a format, remember, which they inherited from outgoing producer Derrick Sherwin).  The introduction of the Master gives them a reason for alien invasions and such to keep affecting 1970s Earth without stretching credibility too far (you know what I mean), even if he's really overused by appearing in every story of the season.  But it's hard to gripe too much, since Roger Delgado is so magnificent in the role.  It's not a groundbreaking season and there's no major shift of emphasis -- unlike before, this season feels essentially the same as the last, only with extra bits added to change things around a little.  Even the trip to an alien planet has a feel of being more of the same, just in a different location.  But the ratings (which have been starting to go up again) suggest that that's what the audience wants, and there's enough here that's "new" to make it still worth doing.  Season 8 is a bit of a qualified success, but it's a success nevertheless.

So things are working out for the show again; now, can they keep it up?







⁶³ It's so abrupt, in fact, that one of fandom's more successful April Fool's jokes involved the "reveal" that there had been a sixth episode filmed but which hadn't aired because it was too controversial -- a story which more than a few fans swallowed.

May 31: The Dæmons Episodes Two & Three

The Doctor's in a coma again (the fourth one for this incarnation), and Jo is in hysterics.  The Brigadier can't be reached, so Benton and Yates decide to take matters into their own hands and fly a helicopter to Devil's End.  When they arrive they find some giant hoofprints (which, as everyone points out, change size when viewed from the air versus the ground), and then Benton gets beaten up by an invisible force after rescuing Miss Hawthorne, who's been tied up and placed in a trunk by the verger for no obvious reason whatsoever.  Then the verger is killed by something, which also sets up a giant heat barrier around Devil's End that no one can penetrate.  It all seems to be magical, but then the Doctor wakes up and is confident that it's not, even if he's not giving out explanations quite yet.  But his learning that the Master is involved ("Jo, did you fail Latin as well as science?  Magister is the Latin word for master!") seems to confirm some of his suspicions, and another visit to the dig site confirms the rest.  Only Jo and the Doctor are then set upon by a living gargoyle...

Episode two (which is also the 300th episode of Doctor Who) doesn't have much in the way of plot advancement, concentrating instead on ensuring that all the pieces are in their proper positions.  So Benton and Yates are in Devil's End with the Doctor and Jo, and the Brigadier and any UNIT backup is stuck on the outside of the heat barrier.  And Miss Hawthorne is stuck in a trunk so that Benton can hear her, rescue her, and then be assaulted by something that appears to be supernatural rather than scientific.  The whole episode, in fact, is ensuring that everything looks supernatural indeed -- so it's making sure that the audience's mindset is also in the proper position, ready to be debunked by the Doctor in episode three.

The Doctor explains the Dæmons to Miss Hawthorne, Benton, Jo,
and Yates. (The Dæmons Episode Three) ©BBC

And episode three does in fact give us some explanations that aren't rooted in magic.  Well, sort of.  The Doctor's explanation, that the Dæmons (here pronounced with an [e] sound, identical to the name "Damon") are an ancient race with incredibly advanced science that left their mark on humanity in the form of horned gods, devils, and all sorts of black magic -- and so when the Master is using invocations to summon the Dæmon that's been sleeping in the Devil's Hump, he's just tapping into their science -- sounds scientific but isn't actually that different from "it's magic".  And when the Doctor scares away Bok the gargoyle with a magical-sounding incantation and a trowel, he's tapping into Bok's fear of that same science.  You might notice this as essentially being Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"), but it does give them a fig-leaf to keep doing "magical" things with this scientific, ultra-Rational Doctor.

But if pseudo-explanations aren't up your alley, there are still some nice action sequences, such as Yates's fight with the unusually strong and resilient Girton (the implication being that's he tapping into some of that Dæmon science, thanks to the Master), and the subsequent car/helicopter chase between the Doctor and Jo in Bessie and Girton in the UNIT helicopter, which blows up in the heat barrier thanks to a last-minute swerve by the Doctor -- albeit one which throws Jo clear, injuring her in the process (entertainingly, the novelisation has the Doctor wondering why she didn't buckle her seatbelt).  And there's also the Master's effort to place the entire town under his sway, which at times looks like attempted mass hypnosis but ultimately seems to be an effort to persuade them that his position is right; and when that doesn't work, he summons Bok to kill Squire Winstanley in front of them.  If you can't make them see it your way, make them fear you, I guess.

And then the Master summons the Dæmon Azal into the cavern below the church, which causes an earthquake and leads to the Master being worried that Azal will crush him underfoot (underhoof?) -- a bit of an odd cliffhanger, as it requires the audience to be worried about the fate of the Master, the villain of the piece...

May 30: Colony in Space Episode Six / The Dæmons Episode One

The Doctor kicks the Master's remote control out of his hand, and before the Master can reclaim it they're both captured by the Primitives -- and thus Jo Grant's life is saved.  And now the Master is inside the Primitive city, which means he can finally gain access to the Doomsday Weapon we were told about at the very beginning of this story.

The Master illustrates the uses for the Doomsday Weapon.
(Colony in Space Episode Six) ©BBC

Actually, this episode is probably the best of the six, because it moves at a decent clip on account of having to wrap up two separate storylines (the colonist/mining one and the Primitive city one) in the span of 25 minutes.  Some of this is a bit perfunctory, such as the scenes with sending all the colonists packing, but even with this we get some nice moments, such as Captain Dent surveying the empty dome after the colonists have left and tearing down their crops chart in a fit of pique, or Winton and an IMC guard having a knock-down-drag-out in a wet clay pit, resulting in one of Doctor Who's more realistic-looking fights.  And given how this storyline has been proceeding, having the colonists' spaceship actually taking off and exploding in the air is a surprising moment, and all the more welcome for it (in terms of plotting at least -- not (necessarily) in terms of wanting all the colonists dead).  With the colonist storyline wrapped up, the Primitive city stuff is finally fully explained by the Master, who's looking to use their ultimate weapon for himself.  Interestingly, he offers the Doctor a share in the power -- illustrating the respect he clearly has for the Doctor, even when he's been trying to kill him off earlier.  It's only when the Guardian intervenes, telling the Doctor to set the self-destruct mechanism, that the Master's plan is foiled.  Then when they emerge from the dying city (along with Jo and Caldwell, who went in after them), they're surrounded by IMC troops who are then themselves surrounded by the colonists, who snuck off the spaceship when IMC wasn't looking.  The Master escapes in the confusion, and soon the colonists win and everything ends happily...unless you're a Primitive.

The main problem with Colony in Space is that it's simply too long.  If they'd made this a four-parter and introduced the Master at the end of episode two this might have been all right.  But instead they've given Malcolm Hulke six episodes and he turns in a story in which the colonists and IMC trade the upper hand every episode (odd, this; usually Hulke is a lot better at filling his stories out).  With a colony totally devoid of interest and an IMC crew that's been neutered against the director's wishes (Morgan was originally going to be played by actress Susan Jameson until BBC Head of Drama Serials Ronnie Marsh overruled Michael Briant's decision), there's far too much time wasted with dull power struggles and not enough on the far more interesting Primitive city.  The point of the colonist story (corporations are evil and ruthless -- admittedly a more radical idea in 1971 than now) is made early in episode two and then reiterated ad nauseam, and the Primitive city is only given prominence in episodes four and six.  The result is a rather tedious runaround, and the first real clunker of Jon Pertwee's run.

But now it's time to turn our attention to the last story of season 8: The Dæmons⁶².  This first episode is a bit of an odd one: it starts with the Doctor dismissing Jo Grant's belief in anything magical or occult ("You know, really, Jo, I'm obviously wasting my time trying to turn you into a scientist") and then spends the rest of the time with the Doctor trying to stop an archaeological dig because a number of occult signs are lining up ("Aquarius?  The Devil's Hump?  Beltane?" the Doctor mutters to himself), with no scientific explanation (or even technobabble) given.  It's just off to Devil's End to stop Professor Horner because a white witch named Miss Hawthorne said so.  Well, all right, it's not quite that simplistic, but it sometimes feels like it.

And then there are strange goings-on in the village of Devil's End (the first "outsiders aren't welcome" village of the 70s, and only the second ever after The Smugglers -- and note Bert the Landlord's reaction to the Doctor if you need proof), with strong winds, unexplained deaths, and police constables temporarily turning homicidal.  It would also seem the vicar has disappeared -- but this one can be explained, as we see that his replacement, Mr. Magister, is in fact the Master.  Clearly evil things are afoot, and the ceremony the Master is carrying out is clearly designed for mischief, ending as it does with a gargoyle's head moving and the Master crying out "Azal!  Azal!"  Although, entertainingly, during this ceremony the Master throws up the horns during his invocation.  All right, clearly he's meant to be summoning the devil or some such and thus is using the sign correctly, but it's still fun to see.

So the Doctor tries to get to the dig to stop Horner from breaking into the Devil's Hump, but he's juuuust too late, and Horner and the Doctor are blasted by what appears to be snow as the ground begins shaking violently.  This could be an issue... but we'll have to wait until next time to learn more.







⁶² You can blame director Christopher Barry for the inclusion of the ash (that's the name for the symbol æ) in the title -- apparently he thought it gave the story extra atmosphere.

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.

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?