Season 21- Frontios

 Studio bound, dialogue heavy with a bold concept and lashings of incidental music `Frontios` is very much like season eighteen in style, not surprising since it’s penned by that season’s script editor Christopher H Bidmead. It does make you wish he’d done a second season as whatever shortcomings the production has, its intent is steelier, more sci-fi and definitely serious. He writes the main trio so well and the actors each rise to the occasion while the story incorporates some interesting ideas. He did later admit some of these were poached from Nigel Kneale but that you should “steal from the best”. If the results are like this, then why not? Doctor Who had some of its greatest successes with stories filched from outside sources and remade in the series’ style.

The attention to detail gives `Frontios` it’s own look- the green lamps proffer an eerie glow to proceedings, the way the Tractators may not be as supple as intended yet they do turn in slight slow motion make them eerie, the way the explosion debris flies in from the side of the screen make them seem wilder than they are. The sets here are detailed, the studio lights are –unusually for the Eighties - turned down to highlight the shadows while once underground the dominant light is provided by the green lamps people carry. As a depiction of a beleaguered future world it’s one of the series’ better attempts. The tone of `Frontios` is bleak, reflected in the muted, rusting greys, browns and blacks of the compact set. Though it never quite conveys the vastness it is supposed to, it’s one of the better all studio tales with a lot of thought having gone into the look of the production, utilising multi level sets and an effective labyrinthine cave system. It never quite manages to look outdoors though the special edition version on the Collection rectifies some of these shortcomings with a decent red sky to replace the blank white screen when characters are on top of the crashed spaceship.

This version also adds to the Tractators whose antennae now glow the same colour as their tractor beams. The best addition is the sequence where the TARDIS re-assembles which, though unlikely to have been this good in 1984 however much time and money they had, still makes the climax slightly more visually interesting. There’s not much they can do with the Tractators’ costumes. Intended to be giant  woodlice who could unfold themselves but in realisation are static fibreglass shells, they are not a Myrka style disaster- provided you avoid looking at their feet. They are actually well designed especially the Gravis.

I like the Gravis though; the chatty, excitable way it talks, waving it’s hands as if it’s just finished washing the dishes. It’s dialogue with the Doctor is fun, the causal reference to the Gravis knowing him by reputation, the mention of the Time Lords. All this seeks to emphasise the scope of the Doctor’s experience but is continuity handled with some subtlety unlike many stories that were to come in the next few years. The Gravis is given something of an intellect but greed is it’s undoing. In very odd sequences in the half formed TARDIS it seems giddy with the idea of getting it’s antennae on time travel, underlining the marvel it is. So many stories- then and now- use the TARDIS as a taxi that when you come to something that weaves it’s wonder into the narrative it takes the series up a notch. Back in the Eighties we were used to monster’s faces not moving, but there just enough twitching of the Gravis’s mouth to combine with actor John Gillett’s treated voice to work. I imagine younger viewers were quite spooked.

As script editor Christopher Bidmead was prone to take a lot of the fun out of Doctor Who, making it a dry conceptual drama rather than the fairground thrill it is supposed to be.  Coming back as a guest writer for the more televisually inclined Eric Saward however something different emerges. Bidmead finally reconciles his love of science with the requirement to keep us excited peppering his script with lively characters and banter. More recent converts to this era of the series will be agog to witness the Doctor and his companions in the TARDIS talking rather than arguing; Turlough sarcastically winding up Tegan while the Doctor witters on about hats. It is delightful to see the lead trio used throughout in a way that makes them more interesting than the manufactured rows we’ve got used to.

Peter Davison’s portrayal of the Doctor is never better than in this story; had he played the role like this all the time (and done another year) the destiny of the show might have been somewhat different. His bustling arrival in episode 1 and the way he takes over, sprinkling the surprisingly lyrical lines as he goes, is a formidable opening innings. He continues to exude a benign eccentricity throughout, aided by a pair of half moon spectacles, and emphasises the Doctor’s `otherness`, his need to help discretely as opposed to announcing his arrival.  I like the “don’t mention it” moment at the end.

Janet Fielding benefits from a cooling of Tegan’s default stroppiness to show a more practical side though perhaps a little too much early on as she directs people around a hospital she’s never been in! As for Mark Strickson, he gets an opportunity for some more dramatic stuff, as Turlough’s `race memory` fear of the Tractators is fully demonstrated. Boggle eyed and foaming at the mouth, the actor finally gets the chance to show off. It’s a shame that it isn’t Turlough who gets to make the final blow against the creatures as some way of overcoming his fear but this plot does show how much could have been done with an alien companion. He puts his furtiveness to good use here; even in the way he manages to fool the colonists that a hat stand is a weapon.

The idea of a young leader, unsuited in temperament or experience yet stepping up is a promising strand and well played by Jeff Rawle. Peter Gilmore does come across as a land locked James Onedin utilising the harsh, sharp-tongued template of his best known role. I actually think it works even if as a performance it doesn’t really give other actors much to play off. Several times Brazen offers no softening of rules and laws despite their parlous situation. However it is interesting that as the story progresses, we realise he is not the antagonist though the actor does not quite make the tonal shift needed. Brazen is simply trying to do the best he can and there’s some good material when he tries to bolster Plantagenet’s confidence. Lesley Dunlop’ Norna forms a good partnership with Turlough and I was thinking that perhaps this would have been a better story for him to have exited in, staying here to help. William Lucas plays Dr Range, a delightful character twinkling with life.

`Frontios` is quite a bleak story; as someone says “every death increases the risk of extinction” and maybe the narrative could have leaned a little more into this. From what we see of these colonist’s set up, it would appear totalitarian with Plantagenet succeeding his father by right while posters of Revere loom over him looking distinctly Orwellian. Later in the story a somewhat clumsily staged mini rebellion takes place as some of the colonists go on a looting spree to emphasise the desperation. It needed the character of Cockerill who could be some sort of Messianic figure to have been more prominent early on for this to fully work though.

Though not looking as what the writer intended, the drilling machine is quite effective I think, just horrific enough to sneak in under the bar for the timeslot with actor John Beardmore holds such a deathly stare that it sells the horror of Revere’s situation really well. The original idea that it was made of bones seems impractical for its purpose of cutting through rocks.

 `Frontios` has the tone of a story written with more care and attention than many at the time. It weaves it’s mystery across four episodes, its focus on the bombardments distracting the characters- and the viewer- from an enemy much closer to home. Bidmead’s conceptual boldness means he sells the idea that the Tractators could actually physically move the planet because the means by which they might do so is well put over. I do wonder though about the time period. The ship crashed forty years before these events but the Tractators were already on the planet. So does the drilling machine require a new operator every few weeks? And why go to the trouble of arranging the bombardments? It is also somewhat obvious given the casting in the very next story that all of these final survivors of Earth are white.

While the story can sometimes allocate a bit too much screen time to uninteresting pursuits- all the palaver over the battery for example- in other ways it builds successfully to a climax. `Frontios` works really well I think; it’s a mystery for the first two episodes and then an underground horror for the rest of the story. While not all the visuals look great from a modern perspective they are some of the best of that period and I would certainly place this as one of the best fifth Doctor stories.

I reviewed The Awakening on here back in 2017, check out the review in the Featured Post box - over there if you’re looking on a laptop >>>>