Colony in Space

The serial, written by Malcolm Hulke, is set on the mineral-rich human colony world of Uxarieus in 2472. In the serial, the alien time traveller the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and his travelling companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning) are sent by the Time Lords to Uxarieus, where they discover a mining corporation has been faking monster attacks on the colonists. Later, the Master (Roger Delgado), who featured as the Doctor's enemy throughout that season, arrives in search of an ancient doomsday weapon created by the natives of the planet.

Plot[edit]

Three Time Lords discuss the theft of confidential files relating to "the Doomsday Weapon." They realise that only the Third Doctor can help them, so he is sent to the desert planet of Uxarieus in the year 2472. There he finds an outpost of human colonists struggling to make a living as farmers. The colony's governor, Robert Ashe, welcomes them.


Two colonists die in a reptile attack that night. The Doctor investigates and discovers the deaths are in fact the work of operatives from the Interplanetary Mining Corporation, attempting to scare off the colonists so it can mine the planet for rare minerals. An Adjudicator from Earth is sent for to deal with the complex claims over the planet. The Adjudicator, actually the Master with stolen credentials, rules that the mining company's claim to the planet is stronger. IMC takes over the colony and demands all the colonists leave the planet.


The Master tells the Doctor that the native people of Uxarieus, known as the "primitives," were once an advanced civilisation. Before declining, they built a super-weapon that was never used and the Master wants this weapon for himself. The Doctor rejects the Master's overture to help him rule the galaxy using the weapon. One of the elder primitives instructs the Doctor to activate the self-destruct, which he does, and the city begins to crumble.


The colonists now emerge from hiding and kill or overpower the IMC men. Amid the confusion, the Master escapes. With the battle over, the Doctor explains that the radiation from the weapon was what was killing their crops. Earth has agreed to send a real Adjudicator to Uxarieus. The Doctor and Jo return to the TARDIS, returning to UNIT Headquarters mere seconds after it left.

Themes and analysis[edit]

The story functions as social commentary – in this instance, the dangers of colonialism.^[2] The story, by former Communist Party of Great Britain member Malcolm Hulke, has been described as "unashamedly left wing", with the pioneering colonists and the greedy IMC.^[3] As with The Space Pirates (1969), the story can be seen as a Western in space, with the colonists using rifles like cowboys and the Primitives wielding spears in a similar role to Indians.^[4]