Frontios DVD Review - starring Peter Davison (Season 21)
The Tardis is drawn to Frontios, a planet in the far future ravaged by meteorite bombardments where the last survivors of the human race fight for survival. However the colonists little realise that the real danger lies not above them from the skies but beneath them under the earth.
The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough must convince these paranoid survivors that they are not the enemy and that there is a more sinister threat at work, the Tractators.
Frontios is a funny old story in some ways. It sits in the middle of Season 21, a season best known for its hard edge and unrelenting violence where in at least three of the stories nearly all the main protagonists are destroyed. Yes this is the era of Eric Saward as Script Editor and that means unless you are one of the Tardis crew your number is probably up...............and even being one of the Doctor’s companions is no guarantee of survival! Ask Adric. However although this story maybe a little more placid than some of its season counterparts there are still some unsettling moments that I will mention later.
Frontios is a good story for the character of the Fifth Doctor. Written by Christopher H Bidmead it re-introduces some of the “stuffy professor stuck in a young man body” aspects that we saw first introduced in Castrovalva, even to the point of the needless glasses making a return! He is also a Doctor who is very mindful that his role in the events of Frontios should not be mentioned stating “you can tell them I came and went like a summer cloud”. A nice nod to the sometimes forgotton non-interference policy of the Timelords.
We also see Turlough now really settled into the Tardis crew and used prominently again as his rather over the top race memory scene brings the Tractators fully into the story. Tegan is the same as in every story, moaning about pretty much everything although she is not as irritating in this one as usual.
We also see Turlough now really settled into the Tardis crew and used prominently again as his rather over the top race memory scene brings the Tractators fully into the story. Tegan is the same as in every story, moaning about pretty much everything although she is not as irritating in this one as usual.
The human survivors are a mixed bag. The young leader Plantagenet is played with nice layers of paranoia and helplessness by Jeff Rawle. Lesley Dunlop, at the beginning of her TV career, is fairly endearing as Lorna and William Lucas is lovable as Range, the only character talking any real common sense and embracing the Doctor’s desire to help. Peter Gilmore is somewhat wooden as Brazen which even Mark Strickson remarks about on the accompanying documentary.
And then there are the Tractators, based on woodlice like creatures that Bidmead noticed in his house at the time. I personally think aesthetically they look ok albeit the costumes restrict movement so much that all they can really do is waddle and turn. A far cry from what was originally envisioned as they were supposed to curl around their victims. Only their leader, the Gravis, is given any character and the rest just shuffle around in the background. However they don’t deserve the lambasting they have received in some quarters and the idea of having monsters suck people through the earth is a good one. So good in fact that Steven Moffat allowed it to be used again!
As I mentioned before there is still some violence in this story. The scene of the retrogrades (the social outcasts of the society) beating up one of their own leaves a bit of a bad taste and the site of Captain Revere’s (the original leader of the colony) cadaver strapped to a mining machine the Tractators are using is particularly gruesome. A more horrific image of further cadavers being used was cut from final transmission as JNT felt it might have gone a little too far.
There are some memorable scenes too such as the humans being sucked into the ground by the Tractators and the Tardis being broken up; these remain images from my childhood. The denouement of the story is also interesting in that the Doctor tricks the Gravis into willing the Tardis back together again. A clever solution in a season all too willing to blow something up or invoke a massacre to create an ending. The soundtrack is also worth a special mention with a haunting quality throughout.
Overall Frontios is a bit of a curiosity. Decent story, quite good characters and a decent monster. And yet is all still falls just a little flat for reasons hard to explain. There just does not seem to be any pacing and therefore the urgency of the threat is not given enough gravitas...or should that be Gravis.
Overall Story Score 6/10
DVD Extras
As usual Peter Davison is always good value on a commentary track, Eric Saward is his usual sardonic self taking veiled pot shots at John Nathan Turner (get over it Eric). Also present are Jeff Rawle, John Gillett who played the Gravis and Dick Mills (Sound Designer). Davison does his usual role of holding it all together with general irreverent humour while never being disrespectful to the programme.
The other features are those present across all the Doctor Who range such as Photo Gallery, Deleted and Extended Scenes and an Isolated Score track.
DVD Extra’s Score 4.5/10
Frontios Overall Rating 5.5/10 – By no means a classic but if you are a massive fan of the Fifth Doctor you will want to see this as it features a quite different portrayal from Peter Davison than the usual energetic hero with boundless enthusiasm.
