Frontios by Christopher H. Bidmead
26 January - 3 February 1984
I came into this marathon
with a considerable wealth of facts and figures, plot synopses, crumbs
of fan lore, and assorted trivia all stuffed in my head. I supercharged
myself by reading and watching reviews and best-of compilations as a way
of winding myself up for what I suspected would be a lengthy and
difficult marathon. (Only the former ended up being true, and more than I
could have guessed).
In the process I inevitably spoiled myself on dozens of twists, hidden
villains, funny moments, and sundry other things, big and small. I knew
full well what I was doing, but I couldn't really help myself! This has
affected a couple of my reviews -
The Rescue and
The Invasion of Time come to mind as particularly noticeable cases - and it has tinged every story so far with expectations going in.
Terror of the Autons is a story about the Master and killer daffodils.
The Power of the Daleks is the story
Victory of the Daleks would lovingly rip off years later.
The Two Doctors is about cannibals and Sontarans, and having Troughton and Frazer back.
Frontios is...
Frontios is...?
Wait, hold on, what
is this one about?
I've seriously never heard or read
anything about it? I'm going in blind?!
Well. This is a special occasion now, isn't it? I couldn't pass up the
chance to do something memorable with it. I took the opportunity to
bring along my partner, Quinn, whom I've been showing the new series,
but who's never seen Classic Who despite being interested. We both, for
once, went in equally oblivious about the story.
They were probably pretty confused when the first thing I did upon
starting the episode was moan about the poor hat rack, the
longest-serving companion! I was properly attached to that thing! Just
another example of the "out with the old, in with the new" trend in
JNT's Doctor Who. It's only occurring to me just now that we haven't
seen 5's hat in a hot minute; all part of JNT's dastardly plan, no
doubt...
The hat rack still, funny enough, gets a fairly dedicated send-off as
it's used by the Doctor and Turlough to intimidate the Frontios
colonists, who think it's a weapon at first, before it's finally given
to them as a parting gift at the end of the serial. Very funny stuff.
Although the colony itself isn't perhaps the most lovingly realized
setting in the show's whole history, it is at least fine, and it's
elevated somewhat by the guest characters, all of whom I thought were
pretty memorable. Cockerill less so than the others perhaps, as it
appears a lot of his more important scenes were cut for time, and
Brazen's actor doesn't bring a whole lot of breadth to the role, but the
fact I remembered their names offhand should still tell you enough. For
my money, my favorite was Lesley Dunlop as Norna, who gets a great
moment breaking out of her restraints with her own ingenuity, and is
just kind of cool in general.
The Doctor shines in this, given some stellar dialogue by returning
writer Christopher H. Bidmead. His acerbic wit is balanced well with his
kindness and eagerness to help, and he seems to channel Troughton when
tricking the Gravis later in the story. I've just read that Peter
Davison thought this script was much better than most of the ones he was
handed, and I can tell just from watching that he took much more of a
shine to this one.
DOCTOR: Marvelous, you're going to kill me! What a finely tuned response to the situation.
My favorite Tegan moment from this serial is when she's suspended in a
gravity beam by the Tractators and the Doctor has to try and talk their
way out of it. The death glare she sends at him when he starts talking
about the various faults of his "service machine" absolutely sent me
into a giggle fit.
Meanwhile in our redheaded friend's corner, Turlough gets a hell of a
lot to do, including continuing to struggle with his inherent cowardice
(here I'm thinking of the moment where he has Norna pick the hand with
the chip in it and he rigs the game against himself) and his moments of
literally mouth-frothing terror as his ancestral memories take over. It
is interesting to finally get a bit of detail about his past, but I
think it would have perhaps been more affecting if the Tractators were a
personal trauma of his and not a "race memory".
Wasn't there a fourth member of the TARDIS team? Uh... Well, I can't
feel too bad about forgetting. The other three don't so much as utter
the name of any hypothetical fourth members out of worry when the TARDIS
seemingly gets disintegrated in this episode. If they can't be bothered
to care, why should I?
Rounding out my quick journey through the characters of this serial, we
finally arrive at the Tractators, whose name is crap but whose concept
is still pretty cool. Creepy psychic isopods sucking people underground?
Very cool stuff. Their costumes bring them up a little short of
actually scary, but overall I do like their look.
The plot about hollowing out a planet to drive it around through space
is... familiar. It makes slightly more sense here than it did back in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and while still rather silly on the whole, it can mostly be forgiven.
The story's deeper purpose seems to be to interrogate Brazen's assertion that, "You can't broadcast socially sensitive information unless you're in control of the facts."
Revere keeps what he learns about the Tractators secret, only for it to
come back and bite him, and then his people too after he's gone (or
rather, takes up a new line of work). Range gathers information about
the disappearances but keeps it secret because he fears a conspiracy,
only for this to cause issues as well. The leaders of the colonists try
and try to either bury the problem or work secretly to uncover it
without telling anyone, and it uniformly turns out to be a bad idea.
It's only when the truth is really unearthed that it has a hope of being
resolved.
Quinn enjoyed the experience and was charmed by the dated effects, the
soundtrack, and the story. I must say that there is nothing quite as
gratifying as successfully getting one of the not-we into Who. "Good,
good," I cackled, rubbing my hands together, and they rolled their eyes.
I must agree with their assessment, as this was quite the hidden gem for
me. Though imperfect, its use of the regulars, the guest cast, and the
way that the plot unfolds all make for a solidly enjoyable watching
experience.
Resurrection of the Daleks is next.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 3 May 2024.)
