What’s it about: Sometimes the TARDIS takes the Doctor to where he needs to go... Answering a distress call from the out-world of Triketha, the Doctor and Constance Clarke discover human colonists battling against an onslaught of giant, malevolent insects. The insects’ sting induces a coma, and it is only a matter of time before all the colonists succumb. The Doctor is curious as to the origins of the insects, which appeared from nowhere, and offers his assistance to the colony’s governor. But is this the Doctor’s first visit to Triketha, or has he been here before? The Doctor must confront a past that he has no memory of and take responsibility for the consequences of his actions.
Softer Six: And so, quite bizarrely, we return to the sixth Doctor and Constance before Flip joined them. Big Finish is always plugging gaps in continuity in the TV period of the show but it doesn’t (often) take the time to head back to time in its own personal continuity, especially when the characters in question are still enjoying stories with a third regular. Was Lisa Greenwood not available to record? Or was there a creative reason for this to take place during the sixth Doctor and Constance’s initial run. I don’t object, they have glorious chemistry. It just feels odd to be looking backwards as Big Finish ditches the main range. Colin sounds refreshed, younger, unburdened. It’s rather lovely. It is absolutely worth noting that when Colin recorded his first Big Finish story he was considered the weakest of all the Doctor’s and probably someone that the new audience wasn’t looking forward to being reacquainted with and here, in the advent of his final Big Finish adventure, he is probably the most popular, certainly the most reliable, and absolutely a Doctor that I still get incredibly excited to see in the schedules. That’s some turnaround.
He’s rarely pleased to see someone with a gun but when facing down giant bugs that are looking to take him out he is willing to make an exception. The Doctor has been to so many places that on average if somebody asks if he has been there before it is easier if he just says yes. He finds that if people assume he is somebody it is easier to just go along with it because he can then avoid being asked a lot of irritating questions. This isn’t the first time he has been mistaken for people that are due in ‘a few days.’ You just have to make sure that you have left before they arrive. Has a part of the Doctor’s past been locked away from him? Is he being protected from his own past? He doesn’t remember coming to this colony before beyond a few snatches of vague memory. He’s worried about what he might have done in his second incarnation, once he identifies him from Mrs Clarke’s description (impish, with clothes that are too large for him). Sometimes he gets so carried away that he doesn’t think about the consequences of those who get left behind when he asks people to come with him on his adventures. It would appear that whichever Doctor you travelled with, however it worked out, his companions have absolute loyalty to him. The Doctor cheats at the climax, going back in time ten minutes to save his friends when he knew he wouldn’t have the time to do everything. There’s some pen pusher at the CIA writing a furious report right now. He owed it Tarlos to put things right. One day he might find a way to unlock his memories of Tarlos. Or maybe Big Finish will bring out a boxset or two.
Constant Companion: Constance is loving her adventures with the Doctor, and wants to enjoy the atmosphere of the planet they have visited rather than discuss some dull old technobabble. That’s my girl. She’s not an expert but she did encounter some giant cockroaches a while back. She’s more than adept at dealing with dangerous situations when the Doctor isn’t around. She doesn’t seem fazed when the ship hits the fan at the colony, picks up a gun without flinching and tries to deal with things in a logical, orderly way. She could be a dry character but Miranda Raison is too good at adding lots of moments of charm and humour. The Doctor doesn’t keep secrets from Mrs Clarke but this is a secret from himself. Fascinating to see Constance learning at the potentially fatal consequences of travelling with the Doctor before the events of Static. She is willing to mourn for the people who have died in this story but not the weapons of war.
Sparkling Dialogue: I like it when ambiguous details are slipped into a character that say an awful lot about their backstory but you never get the full story to find out. Like when Ed Gold says to Adelaide in The Waters of Mars: ‘You never could forgive me.’ Or when The Beast says to Mr Jefferson in The Satan Pit: ‘Did your wife ever forgive you. Mr Jefferson?’ Here, in a moment of grotesque metamorphosis, the Governor calls his wife ‘My darling!’ and she responds with ‘It’s been a long time since you’ve called me that and it will be the last.’ There is a whole story not being told there.
‘There’s always a body count when the Doctor is involved. Or haven’t you realised that by now?’ Has he been watching a lot of ERIC Saward stories?
You’ve got a sacrifice in the climax that is genuinely poignant because of what it means for father and son. ‘The main thing is that I came home and that I saw you one last time’ ‘Hardly how I would have wanted it!’ ‘You don’t have much control over the times you have with people. It may not have been ideal but it is what it is. And at least we got a chance to say goodbye.’ The performances are fantastic here. (So is the cheat.)
Great Ideas: The giant bugs can let of chemical signals that can attract others when they die, like the common wasp, but with a sting that can put people into a coma. After three days the victims wake up with no ill effects and no eggs planted inside (trust the Doctor to ask the grisliest of questions). It’s all about mind control. They can take control of whoever has been stung and make them do whatever the hive mind wants. They can also use their venom to turn their victims into another insect just like them. It is their life cycle. The Marlosian segmented worm is nearly extinct and killing one breaks several environmental laws. Ferocious carnivores with very small brains (a bit like the Drashigs). The spaceship that brought the bugs to Triketha is a flying zoo full of the universe’s deadliest creatures. It’s not a zoo, but a collection. The Collector turns out to be Tarlos, a companion of the second Doctor who came to this colony in his period post-The War Games. He picked up Tarlos when he first visited the colony and now he has returned to see his father again but this time as an old man. He was promised adventure by the second Doctor, and that he would be home by teatime. Only one of those came true. He was returned to his planet 48 years before he left. He knew he couldn’t return to his old life until ‘after’ he had left and so he had to wait, and live a life. There’s a creative reason to bring back Tarlos beyond simple shock value. He uses his antipathy towards his former friend to lure the insects into a trap at the climax. They believe his ruse because he genuinely does have a grudge against the Doctor. He just loves him more than the grudge.
Audio Landscape: The sound of swarming insects buzzing around the colony creates an intense ‘base under siege’ atmosphere to the last episode. Suddenly everything feels urgent. There was an episode of The X-Files in series about swarming killer insects and some of the set pieces were oppressive in the climax. Imagine that for 25 minutes.
Isn’t it Odd: Why would you end episode one of the Doctor in a moment of false jeopardy when you have a far more exciting conceptual cliffhanger in the TARDIS already being on this world and the suggestion that the Doctor has been here before? The second some poor lass starts talking to the Doctor about heading off and doing some world saving I knew she was a gonner. Simply because Flip takes up that role in the future.
Standout Scene: The end of episode two is intoxicating for all of the enticing possibilities it presents. Just who is the mysterious collector who seems to recognise the Doctor? Why is the TARDIS already here? Has the Doctor been here before? And why can’t he remember any of this? It’s playing about with the same ideas as Fugitive of the Judoon but with potentially less inflammatory consequences. It has that frisson of opening up the history of the Doctor, that we think is fulsomely documented but reveals that there are still some secrets to tell.
Result: A fascinating tale that starts off as predictable and as plain as any main range adventure you care to name but adds layer after layer with each subsequent episode until it becomes something quite compelling. That’s a great approach because a lot of Doctor Who stories start with their strongest episode and most interesting ideas and transform into a runaround as the story progresses. You might not expect much from Colony of Fear after the first fifteen minutes, but by the end it is plugging the most intriguing of continuity gaps and opening out a series of adventures for a former Doctor. Fortunately, even when it is playing about with basic Doctor Who ideas (a colony under threat, insect creatures on the attack) it is in the hands of a great Doctor and companion and features a stunning soundscape by Steve Foxon. I was certainly not bored in the first episode and positively riveted by the end of the story. I love the fact that during the period that John Ainsworth has had care of the sixth Doctor that he hasn’t been afraid to play about with some big concepts. What if the Doctor had a murderer inside his brain? What if the Doctor went on an adventure with Harry Houdini? Is the Scarlet Pimpernel real? What would happen if the Doctor’s companions faced a moral dilemma that they could not agree on? Can you separate the art from the artist in Lovecraft’s case? The ideas aren’t always executed in the most skilful of ways but they are fresh ways at look at Doctor Who adventures and I always appreciate that. Here we are shining a light on the season 6B theory, and the idea that the second Doctor had a life beyond The War Games. What is interesting about this is the approach; not to chart out the events that occurred when the Doctor was working for the Time Lords but to deal with one of the character consequences of that time. We are seeing the unfortunate significance that comes with travelling with the Doctor and sometimes it is messy. A dash of Fugitive, a touch of Ark in Space and a claustrophobic and exciting last episode that the Second Doctor himself would be at home in; Colony of Fear writes the sixth Doctor out of the main range with some confidence: 8/10
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