The Doctor and Jo land on a planet on which the natives are ruthlessly exploited and enslaved by various alien factions, especially a pharmaceutical company. The Doctor's basic decency gets them immediately into trouble, and he is instantly ceased upon as the symbol of a revolution. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2180988.html

Catastrophea is a fascinating engagement with colonialism. Sure, the plot is fairly obvious - the eponymous planet is at the cutting edge of a spheres-of-influence power struggle between humans and Draconians, with the drugged and oppressed natives showing worrying signs of being uppity. Under Dicks' script editorship, Old Who tried similar stories a couple of times with mixed, which is to say poor, results - Colony in Space and The Mutants being the most obvious such stories. Catastrophea, a Third Doctor/Jo novel,which is feels a bit like reparation: the human colonial adminsitrators, though well-intentioned by their own merits, are clearly Wrong; the Draconians have their own complex internal politics to deal with and are equally clearly Wrong; the native People are ready to retake power once the colonially imposed barriers have been removed, with the Doctor's assistance. There's a certain amount of cliché - and Dicks acknowledges this with an amusing riff on Casablanca in chapter five - but the book's heart is in the right pace, and at the end the invaders all leave, the planet having been restored to its rightful inhabitants, thanks to their own efforts, the Doctor's help, and a Gollum-like intervention by one of the nastier humans. A very interesting Who novel for all kinds of reasons. ( )

A cry of pain leads the Doctor to Kastopheria, a planet more commonly known as Catastrophea. Located within the spheres of influence of both the future Earth and the Draconians, the planet has been colonised several times over and its native People turned into cheap, docile labour force.

The Doctor is mistaken for a revolutionist leader, but he's soon sure a revolution to free the People wouldn't solve anything - the People are unnaturally passive, and a revolution wouldn't change that. But there is something he might be able to do. ( )