Initially, this story feels like something from the late Pertwee or the Tom Baker era; a human colony in trouble on a distant planet in the distant future. A hostile planet appears in Planet of Evil (1975) but Frontios feels like most earlier similar stories. There's an antagonistic colony leader, his nasty handyman, a helpful scientist and a group of rebels. The beginning of the plot proceeds as expected. I am surprised how generic and formulaic this story feels. There's a couple of minor twists but they don't do much to improve the story.
Peter Gilmore, William Lucas and Jeff Rawle are all quite fine in roles that are just variations of many similar roles over the years. None of them stands out particularly, but they get the job done. Lesley Dunlop also plays a pretty familiar role, but I like her simple and effective performance.
The Doctor tries to side with the Tractators and save the planet from destruction, which seems to be a more prominent character trait for the FIfth Doctor than for any of his predecessors.
Frontios puts Tegan and Turlough to fairly good use, allowing them to both support the Doctor and do some investigating on their own. Turlough also finally gets some proper character development.
Once the Tractators appear Frontios turns into some kind of The Web Planet (1965) ripoff, but with better-looking and less annoying bugs.
The Frontios set design is not the most impressive one I've seen on the show, but it looks realistically grey and worn-out. This serial also has some pretty fine incidental music, supporting the atmosphere of the story quite well.
This is not faster or slower than other similar stories, it just doesn't flow very well due there not being many interesting things going on in the narrative.
The atmosphere is quite average at first, even though the story slowly throws in hints as to there being a strange invasion force involved. It never reaches a breaking point as the Tractators turn out to be a pretty bland invasion force.
As adventures go, this is so average and forgettable, that it's no wonder it's so little talked about.
Another adventure I most likely won revisit.
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:
I wonder how many planets in the far future with the last remaining batch of humanity residing there are. They seem to pop up every year on this show.
This is Jeff Rawle's only appearance on the TV show, but he's also appeared in the spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, in a couple of Big Finish audios, as well as the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time (2013), playing early Doctor Who producer Mervyn Pinfield.
There is something inherently funny about Turlough running around threatening people with a hat stand.
I find it difficult to believe that any woman would opt for an 80s haircut far in the future, but how would I know?
Part Four has an "It's tearing me apart!" moment that is almost as terrible as the iconic one from The Room (2001).
Review by Theo KallströmVIP 6BlockedParentSpoilers2020-07-09T05:35:56Z
Initially, this story feels like something from the late Pertwee or the Tom Baker era; a human colony in trouble on a distant planet in the distant future. A hostile planet appears in Planet of Evil (1975) but Frontios feels like most earlier similar stories. There's an antagonistic colony leader, his nasty handyman, a helpful scientist and a group of rebels. The beginning of the plot proceeds as expected. I am surprised how generic and formulaic this story feels. There's a couple of minor twists but they don't do much to improve the story.
Peter Gilmore, William Lucas and Jeff Rawle are all quite fine in roles that are just variations of many similar roles over the years. None of them stands out particularly, but they get the job done. Lesley Dunlop also plays a pretty familiar role, but I like her simple and effective performance.
The Doctor tries to side with the Tractators and save the planet from destruction, which seems to be a more prominent character trait for the FIfth Doctor than for any of his predecessors.
Frontios puts Tegan and Turlough to fairly good use, allowing them to both support the Doctor and do some investigating on their own. Turlough also finally gets some proper character development.
Once the Tractators appear Frontios turns into some kind of The Web Planet (1965) ripoff, but with better-looking and less annoying bugs.
The Frontios set design is not the most impressive one I've seen on the show, but it looks realistically grey and worn-out. This serial also has some pretty fine incidental music, supporting the atmosphere of the story quite well.
This is not faster or slower than other similar stories, it just doesn't flow very well due there not being many interesting things going on in the narrative.
The atmosphere is quite average at first, even though the story slowly throws in hints as to there being a strange invasion force involved. It never reaches a breaking point as the Tractators turn out to be a pretty bland invasion force.
As adventures go, this is so average and forgettable, that it's no wonder it's so little talked about.
Another adventure I most likely won revisit.
RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:
I wonder how many planets in the far future with the last remaining batch of humanity residing there are. They seem to pop up every year on this show.
This is Jeff Rawle's only appearance on the TV show, but he's also appeared in the spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures, in a couple of Big Finish audios, as well as the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time (2013), playing early Doctor Who producer Mervyn Pinfield.
There is something inherently funny about Turlough running around threatening people with a hat stand.
I find it difficult to believe that any woman would opt for an 80s haircut far in the future, but how would I know?
Part Four has an "It's tearing me apart!" moment that is almost as terrible as the iconic one from The Room (2001).
Score: 46/120