Review: Doctor Who Classic: Frontios

The evil Gravis rules over the Tractators under Frontios.

Doctor Who - Season 21, Story Three - Frontios
Written 5/5/12
"As a weapon, the TARDIS is about as dangerous as a chicken vol-au-vant"

This is it. After Frontios, I'll have seen all of the stories in the Saward Era. I don't know whether to be saddened or relieved. As you can tell by the mumbo-jumbo single-word title, this is a return to the series by former script-editor Chris Bidmead, whose last efforts had enough dodgy science to embarrass a classroom of schoolchildren. Frontios is not pretending to be something it's not, however, and with that in mind it balances a well-thought-through concept with clever characterisations to make what is, bar Androzani, the best story of the season.
     The behind-the-scenes in this story is rather creepy. Designer Barrie Dobbins committed suicide while working on the story, and well-known character actor was returning from work on this story when he was brutally murdered by an unknown figure. This hasn't, however, affected the quality of the serial. The set design is absolutely brilliant, with a mix of creepy corridors (with one of the first instances of the "all these corridors look the same" joke) and large expansive rooms. The story has an immediate atmosphere of mystery and suspense, which is only increased as the serial goes on.
     Set at the same time as the First Doctor serial The Ark, the story is set on Frontios, a human colony where the remnants of Humanity have escaped to after the Sun expanded and made Earth uninhabitable. The people of Frontios are all ruled by the secretive group around Captain Rivere and his son Plantagenete, who hide the fact that corpses too often sink into the earth, disappearing without trace. Ever since they've set up shop, they've been regularly attacked by aimed asteriod showers, and it's one such shower that brings down the TARDIS and buries it beneath the Earth, leaving the Doctor and crew to try and help without breaking the laws of time. Fighting off suspicions from the ruling class, the threesome must dig towards the truth, and save the Human race from the creatures that lie beneath them.

Hatstands are useful tools.

     Bidmead was told by JNT that this had to be a monster story, which is a particular change from his particular style of high-concept sci-fi like we saw at the beginning of the era. Luckily he's able to make it work, and even mixes in some high concepts anyway. Doctor Who has done this style of human-refugee story many times before, but Frontios is a particularly raw and bare example of the genre. Unlike, say, Outcasts, it doesn't faff about with the economics of how the settlement works and instead sets up immediate conflict between characters instead of the world around them. Yes, the inhabitants are stressed by the mysteries of Frontios - the disappearing bodies, the aimed asteriod strikes on their colony. But at the story's heart the problem lies within human paranoia and secrecy, without which the Tractators' plan never could have worked.
     As a monster, the termite-like Tractators are a little plastic, but the atmosphere gives them an earthy, gritty quality. Unlike Warriors of the Deep, where a single-colour fade-in looked very silly, the Tractators' gravity effect actually becomes quite good during the third episode or so. The machine carrying the semi-living body of Captain Rivere is really well-executed, and the third-episode cliffhanger in which it appears is one of the season's most chilling. Body horror like this wouldn't be used again until Season 28's Girl In The Fireplace, which takes a lot from this story's original intentions.
      Frontios' witty dialogue is ultimately the thing that saves it from boredom, as well as it's great character work. Bidmead really seems to understand all of these characters, and both Tegan and Turlough are significantly improved from the status quo. Turlough's ancestral memory of the Tractators was a great way of getting to know his character, especially in one of his last stories. Also, he wields a hat-stand as a weapon. Awesome. The Doctor is also a lot more clever than normal, and his final ruse is absolutely brilliant. The article quote is perhaps one of my favourite quotes from Five this season, and the story is a veritable cornucopia of witty lines.

The Doctor tricks the enemy.

      Bidmead's final contribution to the series, and my last new Saward-era story, is one of this season's best. I was wrong to ignore it as much as I have done, because it's a really distinctive story with great performances from everyone involved, well-made, atmospheric sets and, best of all, a script that gets the characters and does something interesting with them. Frontios is an absolute gem, and the first place you should go when looking for Five gold in Season 21.

Thanks.

NEXT MONDAY: Revelation of the Daleks finishes off Season 22
NEXT FRIDAY: Resurrection of the Daleks (Revisited) finishes off the Saward Era.