Classic Doctor Who - Season 21 - Frontios (1984) - Review

Starring: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson & Jeff Rawle

Written By: Christopher H. Bidmead

Directed By: Ron Jones

 

Christopher H. Bidmead's time as script editor on Doctor Who during Tom Baker's final season, has become synonymous with a more serious and scientific kind of storytelling. While Bidmead only served as script editor for one season, the removal of more fantastical elements with cold, hard science is definitely felt, most notably in his own self-penned finale Logopolis. After leaving the role of script editor, Bidmead continued to contribute off and on for the show, writing Peter Davison's first outing, Castrovalva, as well as this story, Frontios. Yet for someone who wasn't keen on including alien monsters, Frontios is not what you'd expect...

 

In the far future, the TARDIS is caught and pulled down in a meteorite storm to the future human colony, Frontios. The colony are struggling for their own survival on a world where meteorite attacks take place on an almost daily basis. The attacks are being orchestrated by an unknown enemy who are also responsible for the disappearance of multiple important colonists. And when the TARDIS is seemingly destroyed in a meteorite bombardment, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough have no choice but to put an end to it.

 

Peter Davison's tenure as the Doctor is generally regarded as playing it quite safe, with not a huge amount of dark subject matter or risk-taking involved. I've even seen fans who aren't too fond of the Davison era regard it as the “beige blur”. However, while I personally have a few mixed feelings towards the 5th Doctor's tenure, once you get past the 20th Anniversary celebrations, you can't really keep calling it safe anymore. The mid-80s saw a noticeably darker tone introduced to Doctor Who, and it begins with Season 21. Just look at the start of this season, where in Warriors Of The Deep, the Doctor returns to the TARDIS at the end surrounded by a base full of corpses. Frontios continues with this bleak tone, and is best realized through the post-apocalyptic planet itself. Frontios is a fantastic creation that showcases some excellent world-building. The sense of desperation and struggle for survival on a world where food is rationed and dead bodies vanish into the earth is really felt. And later in the absence of leadership, we see the people on Frontios resort to looting, which develops into anarchy and savagery. There are quite a few colony worlds in classic Doctor Who, and while not all of them are that well-realized, Frontios is very well-realized and certainly an exception. And this grim tone would be kept up throughout the rest of the season, with the exceptionally nasty Resurrection Of The Daleks, as well as one of the most brutal stories the show has ever produced in The Caves Of Androzani.

 

Not all is good with Frontios however, and when re-watching this story, I found the second half of it felt distinctly weaker than the first. This is almost entirely down to the reveal and introduction of the Tractators. The Tractators were added into the story at the request of script editor Eric Saward, something Christopher H. Bidmead was unhappy with, feeling Doctor Who monsters looked cheap. There are some things I like about the Tractators, such as the idea of them being an infestation and the inspiration in having them resemble giant woodlice. But the design itself just feels too bulky and cumbersome, and following the Myrka, its the second disappointing monster design this season. The worst part of it is those short, flappy arms; especially whenever one of them gets injured and they dance across the screen with their arms flapping about uselessly. The limitations of the Tractators' design could've been made less obvious if they had more forgiving lighting available, and were kept out of shot as much as possible, but sadly this isn't the case.

 

It's a real shame that the Tractators don't have as much impact as they could've had, because they certainly have potential. (Spoiler Warning!) Manipulating gravity to bring down asteroids, thus killing the population at a sustainable rate for food, is an interesting way of going about unnoticed. The same applies to their bigger plan of using the near-dead to power their mining machines, and transforming Frontios into a giant spaceship to spread across the galaxy. It seems to take inspiration from The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, but it still feels like a rather unique plan.

 

With the exception of the Tractators, the rest of the production design on Frontios is pretty impressive, especially the planet's variety of locations. The gloomy shelters that double as sick bays, the explosions seen out in the open, as well as the constant sound of bombardments happening in the background all combine to create this brilliantly dystopian world. The grungy landscapes and the underground cave tunnels, complete with their smooth, shiny glass walls add a fitting and gritty quality. And with the exception of any scenes with the Tractators, the direction from Ron Jones is pretty good and brings Frontios to life.

 

All of the cast are committed too, with memorable performances from both the main and supporting characters. You can always tell through his performance whether Peter Davison is invested in a script or not, and with Frontios, there's life and enthusiasm coursing through him. I'm not entirely sure why the Doctor is suddenly so concerned about not interfering in the affairs of Frontios, because he apparently fears being found out by the Time Lords. He does know that he's already been interfering in the affairs of others for years now, doesn't he? The supporting characters are all pretty strong, and there's some great standout performances. A young Jeff Rawle does a great job as Plantagenet, the boy leader out of his depth. Early on in the story, his authoritative persona and performance put me in mind of the type of characters played by Peter Miles in several stories from the early 70s (although, sorry Jeff, but no-one tops Peter Miles at playing authoritative characters). We also have Peter Gilmore playing Frontios' gruff, military leader. He seems to be having fun hamming it up in a serious role, and he does a good job, even though it comes across as a little funny, mainly because I associate him mainly with his comedic roles in the Carry On films. Lastly, there's also William Lucas as Range, and Range is a rather essential character. Without him, we lack a friendly face, and with the initial hostilities the TARDIS crew encounter, a friendly face is definitely needed. Range also has one of the best lines from the entire story: “'Systems that could rebuild a civilization for us. Failure proof technology.' 'What happened?' 'It failed'”. In fact, there's a lot of witty moments and dialogue in Frontios, such as Turlough threatening the colonists using just the TARDIS hat stand, or the Doctor trying to convince Gravis of Tegan being an android.

 

Frontios is another solid and enjoyable entry to Peter Davison's final (and best) season, and a lot better than I remembered it being. It has a terrifically bleak sense of dread and menace throughout, interesting ideas and plenty of memorable characters. My only complaint is the Tractators, and I'll admit that once they arrive on the scene, my investment in the story does kind of diminish. But even they have potential, and if hypothetically they were attempted again in the modern series, they would probably turn out a lot better. Frontios is still entertaining though, and my appreciation of it has gone up since revisiting it.

 

 

Frontios

7/10