Colony...IN SPACE!

I'm very torn about this story. On the one hand, there are so many interesting elements of it to talk about. On the other hand, it's not actually a very gripping plot. Though there are a few absolutely brilliant reveals: who the hell would have guessed that the Master was going to turn out to be the adjudicator? And how about the Master's TARDIS? And the superweapon? And the TIME LORDS?????

And the Time Lords.

Yes, indeed, there are Time Lords in this episode, which makes it between 247% and 1234% better, depending on their level of involvement and awesomeness factor in the story.

Anyway....

The Master's TARDIS

Security System

We get to see the inside of the Master's TARDIS! In Part 4, the Doctor and Jo enter the Master's TARDIS and eventually get caught there and incapacitated by sleeping gas that's part of the Master's security system. 

The Doctor should have had something like that. That would have kept the Master from stealing his TARDIS in Utopia. Then again, knowing the Doctor's TARDIS, the security system would have malfunctioned and created some large disaster for him and his companions rather than stop any intruder.

But seriously, the Master's TARDIS has many features that are improvements upon the Doctor's TARDIS. The security system is just one. 

After many attempted screenshots, this one provides the best view of everything in the Master's TARDIS. A few features:

• Filing cabinets! If we squint really hard, it almost makes sense that the Master would have filing cabinets. After all, many species he's dealing with (ie, humans), use mostly paper in the centuries he's dealing with them in (ie, the twentieth). So if he wants to steal their documents, he can't hack their computers and download their information - or for that matter, mentally invade their psychic wi-fi (or whatever that was that Dorium Maldovar has in the future) - he has to acquire their paper. So he keeps it well organized in filing cabinets. Obviously.
• A bookshelf? That's cool. The Doctor has a library (an awesome library with a big book on a pedestal about the Time War and Encyclopedia Gallifreya at that) but the Master keeps his books nearby in the console room.
• Cells. Well, he is the Master. He needs somewhere to keep his prisoners. And at least in the console room he can keep them in sight so that he isn't giving them a convenient amount of unsupervised time to escape. 
• The round things! Love the round things! What are the round things?
• A console unit. Which looks exactly like the Doctor's. Either that style was all the rage on Gallifrey at this time in their history, or the Master has decided to copy the Doctor's TARDIS because he thought it looked cool. Personally, if I were the Master, I would have gone for one that looked more like the one in Twelve's TARDIS. The one with the two screens that spin around. Yeah. That's a cool one. (Yes, yes, I know, they didn't build a new set for the Master's TARDIS. Shhh!)
• The laser intruder detector. C'mon, isn't it a brilliant idea? Though, frankly, how many times does a TARDIS ever get broken into or stolen? Once? Twice? Three times if you count this episode? (Others being Terror of the Autons and Utopia) I don't think the Doctor's TARDIS is ever stolen or broken into outside of Utopia. Still, it's a cool precaution.

Higher Beings

So this is cool. 

Once upon a time there was a very advanced alien race. They became so advanced as to be considered higher beings, of a more civilized level, with better justice, than other species. But then they built a superweapon which spread its radiation across their planet, and mutated them back into primitives. And then they died. The end.

Moral of the Story: Superweapons are bad.

But in all seriousness, it's interesting to see that the one remaining member of this highly intelligent and civilized race is also the most moral character in the story, dispensing wise justice and ultimately sacrificing himself to keep the superweapon from being used. 

It's a great contrast to the Master (and the Time Lords in general) who are higher beings but decidedly not more moral than most. They're disinterested, which is good for the species around them, because they're amoral and aren't particularly just (Deadly Assassin and Trial of a Time Lord, I'm looking at you). 

So what makes a higher species? Is it technology? Intelligence? Morality? Or is a higher species simply one that calls itself such?

I'd say it has to be a combination of all of those things. Technology and intelligence go hand in hand, and aren't really disputed. It's morality that needs to be argued for. 

Consider the Time Lords and the Daleks - the combatants in the Time War. The Gelf mentioned when the Time War raged it was unknown to lesser species but devastating to higher forms. What they of course mean is that it took place mainly in the time vortex so species that weren't time-aware didn't know it was happening. But this means that the Gelf classed the Daleks as higher forms. 

And we know that the Daleks aren't higher forms. They are too evil.

See, for a species to be a higher form, with an appropriate level of technology and such, they need to actually have a lot of power. Like, universe destroying level power. And the Daleks don't have that - can't have that - because they are not capable of any sort of morality. A higher form has to be self-policing or else the universe wouldn't exist.

The Time Lords are not that moral. We know that. The Doctor frequently comments on that. But what they are is uninterfering. Somewhere along the line they decided that the universe was better off without their interference (unless there are superweapons involved, apparently). And that shows a morality of sorts, knowing that they ought not conquer the universe, because they cannot properly rule it. 

So morality is a part of being a higher being, simply because the universe could not exist if those who had the power to remove it from existence were not moral. 

Superweapons of Who

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in my review of Claws of Axos, but it bears repeating: superweapons are cool. (Gosh, this is a really insightful post, huh?) They are. They've got this phenomenal cosmic power and often mysterious names too. What's not to like?

Well, I mean, they blow up lots of stuff and kill lots of people. But that's why you can base the stakes of a whole plot around them. Because either the Doctor is trying to stop the villain from using the superweapon, or he's using the superweapon on the villain (in which case no innocent civilians are harmed...unless its an RTD  era episode...). So they make for great tension.

Some include:

Everything is named after Rassilon.
What does Omega get? Weapons.
Lots and lots of weapons.

• The Hand of Omega. A stellar manipulator. Not necessarily a superweapon, unless you use it in the way the Doctor did to make a sun go supernova and blow up Skaro.
• Logopolis. No, Logopolis isn't a superweapon, but I figure it deserves at least a mention, considering that the Master did, by destroying it, destroy a large portion of the universe. 
• The Delta Wave. Symbolic of the Doctor's choice to destroy Gallifrey and him once more becoming worthy of the title of Doctor, the Doctor chooses not to use the Delta Wave to save humanity from the Daleks. 
• The Bad Wolf. "You are tiny. I can see every single atom of your existence - and I divide them." - "Everything must come to dust. All things." - "I bring life!" Yes, this counts. Not only can the Bad Wolf disintegrate every single Dalek around, she can also spread words throughout time, posses the Moment, and bring people back to life permanently. 
• The Moment. "The Galaxy Eater. The final work of the ancients of Gallifrey. A weapon so powerful its operating system became sentient. Its said that it developed a conscience." - "How do you use a weapon of ultimate mass destruction that can stand in judgement against you? There is only one person mad enough to try." The coolest superweapon ever, since it's basically all powerful and determined to convince you not to use it. Also, it saved Gallifrey.

As you can see, all the coolest superweapons are played by Billie Piper. This is an undeniable fact of the universe.

How does the superweapon in this one compare? It turned a highly intelligent race into a band of primitives. It poisoned the soil of its planet. It made for a very cool scene in which the Doctor considers taking control of the universe to do good.

Yeah, it compares pretty well, I'd say. All it needs is a name, and for the Time Lords to cart it off to the Omega Arsenal, and it joins the "Best of" list above.

Dated Sci-Fi

They say that Sci-Fi dates faster than any other genre. 

Some people disagree with "them" (whoever this mysterious "they" are). Star Trek invented the iPad! And Orson Scott Card foretold the internet!

Okay, so there are a few lucky guesses that hold up to the test of time. But most don't. And that includes Colony in Space.

Seriously, just one camera phone. Like
what they used to defeat the Silence.

Seriously, if everyone just had an iPhone however far in the future this is, the whole conflict could have been solved within three seconds of the Adjudicator arriving because everyone would have pictures of the "monsters" on their phones, revealing them to just be holograms and robots. 

Also, filing cabinets in the Master's TARDIS? And not a computer in sight?

The lack of information technology in this episode is so glaring it's almost painful. I know they can't be expected to predict the future, but man--this is really dated. 

And that's all for Colony in Space. I've tried not to be as longwinded as I usually am...shaking things up a bit, you know. 

Next up is The Daemons, which I admit was...not my favorite. Still, it's got some interesting ideas in it.