Doctor Who: Frontios (Story No. 133/BBC DVD)
Picture: B- Sound: B- Extras: A Episodes: B
Stop me if you’ve heard this one
before. Doctor Who and his companions arrive on a strange planet sometime
in the distant future, and the place faces certain doom. The human colonists are stricken with
division in their ranks, and they’re stalked by a mysterious force that’s
responsible for hundreds of unexplained disappearances. Sound familiar? Frontios follows this all
too familiar pattern well, right down to the appearance of some pretty bizarre
“rubber-suited” aliens, the real menace behind all of the troubles on
Frontios.
Just because a Who story sticks closely to
its standard tropes does not make it poor, and Frontios does
have its fine moments. Peter Davison’s
Doctor is ever resourceful, dashing, and contemplative. Janet Fielding’s Tegan provides invaluable
assistance to her Doctor, and Mark Strickson’s Turlough explores new depths of
his character when met with the alien horror of the Tractators. This group of worm-like burrowing aliens
victimized his own people eons ago, and coming face to face with them awakens a
terrible racial memory in him. The
scenes following this really allow Mr. Strickson to stretch his acting wings,
and he does so admirably.
Like many other Who episodes where
inhuman aliens appear, Frontios suffers a bit from their
lackluster presentation. Whether it’s
their stubby arms, stiff movements, or strange baby faces, the Tractators and
their leader, Gravis, come off as a bit silly at times, and not terribly
threatening. Fortunately, they possess
weird gravity powers that make them plenty dangerous, and Gravis is truly evil
in his desire to use humans as engines to run his foul machines. Perhaps a bit too easily tricked at the end,
Gravis still makes for an interesting villain in the Doctor’s rogues gallery of
“one-hit” wonders.
BBC loads this disk with usual excellent
extras, including a mini-documentary on the making of the four-episode serial,
commentaries, deleted and extended scenes, photo galleries, and a production
note option that one can run while the episodes are playing to provide
interesting tidbits of information.
While not the best of the Davison run, Frontios provides
worthy tidbits to make it worth having in the collection.
-
Scott Pyle
