The six episode The Time Monster was the final story of the ninth season of Doctor Who, a strong run which also saw Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor facing The Day of the Daleks and The Sea Devils. The Master, Roger Delgado, is at the Newton Institute, experimenting with a fragment of crystal, which can summon Kronos, a time-eating entity from beyond space-time. The Doctor, Jo Grant (Katy Manning) and UNIT become involved in a sequence of strange temporal dislocations, eventually leading to ancient Atlantis itself. There Jo faces the Minotaur, played by Dave Prowse in a bull mask five years before he found fame as Darth Vader. The Time Monster is classic Doctor Who at its most surreal, the effects ranging from mediocre to functional, the Atlantis sets surprisingly lavish. The Doctor may escape from eternity by playing the scriptwriting equivalent of a get-out-of-jail-free card, but the sequence, in which his Tardis is inside the Master’s Tardis, while the Master’s Tardis is simultaneously inside the Doctor’s Tardis, is a mind-bending highlight.
Somewhat mistitled, the Colony in Space of this John Pertwee adventure is actually on the barren colony world Uxarieus. A group of settlers are struggling to make crops grow when an Interplanetary Mining Corporation team led by Morris Perry, effective as an official with the mind of a Nazi bureaucrat, arrive to claim the planet. Despite the sometimes-laughable production values and a few gaping holes in the plot Malcolm Hulke’s script contains enough intrigue and incident to keep the whole thing moving briskly for six episodes. Colony in Space was significant for being the Third Doctor’s first adventure away from earth, fitting into the eighth season after the Claws of Axos. Though less celebrated than The Demons, this is an entertaining adventure and a reminder of just how much of the radical politics of 1970’s British SF was reflected in Doctor Who. —Gary S Dalkin
A Masterly release – sorry! Personally I think these two stories are long overdue for DVD release. Whilst the earlier reviewer’s comments about the quality of the stories are mostly true, I think that they’re missing the point – as with much late sixties and early seventies ‘Who’ there IS a lot of padding, however, there is also a decent amount of dialogue, and interplay between the characters that is generally missing in today’s high-speed, action-oriented Doctor Who.The (mostly) Earthbound Doctor and his UNIT colleagues have formed a tight-knit group by this stage in the series, and there is some particularly amusing badinage between The Doctor and The Brigadier and the latter and Sergeant Benton in `The Time Monster’. In one memorable scene The Brig sneers at The Doctor’s yellow Edwardian Roadster – Bessie – telling him not to “lag too far behind”. The Doctor subsequently presses his `super speed’ button and Bessie tears past The Brigadier’s UNIT jeep leaving him red-faced and fuming!The Master plays his usual role of megalomaniacal super-criminal in both stories but is more involved in `The Time Monster’ where he uses human scientists as well as the High Priest of a mythical land to aid him in summoning the eponymous being to help him enslave the universe.`Colony in Space’ is the more pedestrian of the two stories but Producer Barry Letts leaves plenty of room for character exposition and The Third Doctor’s first adventure on an alien planet is a welcome departure from the UNIT-centred Earthbound tales that surround this story. It is worth listening to the BBC audio version of this story; released in 2007 it shows exactly how much padding could have gone into the story; we should be thankful!Overall, these are two robust stories from arguably the best era of Doctor Who: Sit down, pull-up a plate of cheese and a good red, and immerse yourself in some quality nostalgia.
The Master at his best At last the BBC have released their next brilliant box set. The stories contained in this box set(The Time Monster and The Colony in Space)show the Master (Roger Delgado) at his best. These stories are two of the last stories to feature Roger Delgado before his unfortunate death. Many actors have taken on the role of his character but none have played the ‘Master’ as successfully as Delgado. The two stories contained in this box set show that the credit he was given was well deserved. There are many brilliant actors in these stories who play their roles well and who helped to make the series as successful as it was and still is. Once again I have to congratulate the BBC on releasing another superb addition to the Doctor Who collection.
At last the story of the Master is complete. Thank you to the BBC for releasing the Master’s final stories in a lovely tin. Like the Daleks and the Cybermen boxes this is a two tape set but unlike those sets you get two classics of the series. Not many more releases now and then to get them all again on DVD, LOL.