Frontios

"Death is a daily occurrence on this planet."

Writer: Christopher H. Bidmead
Format: TV
Broadcast: 26th January - 3rd February 1984
Season: 21.03

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough

Synopsis 

An irresistible fore draws the TARDIS to the barren surface of Fronts, where in the far future the last surviving humans cower amongst the ruins of their wrecked spacecraft. Under constant threat from lethal meteorite bombardments, few of the doomed colony members realise that the ground of Frontios itself opens up and devours the unwary. Not permitted to assist, the Doctor's attempt to leave is thwarted when the unimaginable occurs: the TARDIS is utterly destroyed.

All the while, burrowing undetected below the planet's crust, sickening alien parasites prepare a gruesome and final fate for all humanity...

Verdict

Frontios was a bit of an average television tale and it was sadly nowhere near as good as I remembered it being on my first and only previous viewing some seven years ago. It just seems to be confined to a setting that is too small when it really ought not to be and I think the reveal of the Tractators and their presence came a little too late. I was absolutely fine with them not meeting the characters until around halfway through the story but I think we should have seen just one scene with a little plan of them up to no good. I feel that would have been hugely beneficial. On a positive side however, and there were many to this story, I really enjoyed Peter Davison's performance as the Fifth Doctor and I particularly loved how he was secretly planning to isolate the Gravis and claimed Tegan to be a purchase of his in order to convince him of his intentions. I really liked the idea of the colonists being one of the very last remnants of mankind and the Doctor's unwillingness to land there due it being beyond the usual Time Lord scope was great. I thought that should have been played on more when they actually crash-landed there. The cliffhanger to part one was superb with the TARDIS becoming rubble and nothing other than a hat stand remaining. Just how would the Doctor and co get by at the end of the universe with no means of escape? The first two parts were particularly slow in my opinion and I don't think there would have been any issue at all with merging them into one. It would have added some much needed excitement. I wasn't a huge fan of Tegan in this story as she didn't really offer much at all and I'm not a fan of Turlough but I did like how he had an ancestral memory of the Tractators. I thought it was a little easy though that as the story went on, he could just gradually remember more about them that could bring about their downfall. I thought part four was easily the best of the story and I loved seeing bits of the TARDIS scattered and conjoined with the earth of Frontios. It was quite an image but again, the way the Gravis was isolated and defeated could have been a little more difficult which would have had more of an impact in my opinion. We did have some decent characters in the form of Range, Brazen and particularly Norna but I think the limits of the setting were a big hinderance to my enjoyment. Overall, there were still some very good elements but it was lacking in quite a few places.

Rating: 6/10