HHH1 - Colony in Space 1

Having grown tired of having The Doctor eternally Earth-bound, the makers of Doctor Who finally let loose their main character onto an alien planet for the first time in the colour television era. To capitalize on the ability to show a truly alien planet for the first time in full colour, they chose to find the greyest looking quarry possible to represent the exotic locale of Uxarieus.

It almost seems odd and unnatural to see Jon Pertwee anywhere else but surrounded by his UNIT cronies or zipping around in Bessie back in the neo-present Earth. Jo, who makes her first foray into the TARDIS in this story, seems more eager to leave after an initial fascination with the interior dimensions of The Doctor's time ship.

A remark by Jo casts either a large shadow of doubt over the time period that she's apparently from, or the level of intelligence with which she speaks when she asks Mary Ashe if the colony space ship left Earth "back in 1971". Okay, let's just ignore the fact that Jo might be from a year or two later than 1971, but what version of 1971 does she know of that was launching intergalactic spaceships with the intent of colonizing other planets?

Once The Doctor does arrive, he immediately gets branded a spy, working for corrupt miners, by the hard luck colonists, although The Doctor manages to convince the colony's leader, Ashe, quite quickly that his credentials are bona fide (much quicker than usual, actually). By the end of the episode, Ashe is already giving The Doctor free reign of the establishment, content in letting him investigate the scene where two colonists were recently murdered. He's awfully trusting, that Ashe, and a nice guy to boot. In fact, that may have been his campaign slogan when he ran for leader of the colony.