Frontios

132[1] – Frontios
Doctor Who serial
Cast
Doctor Peter Davison – Fifth Doctor
Companions Janet Fielding – Tegan Jovanka Mark Strickson – Vislor Turlough
Guest Jeff Rawle – Plantagenet Peter Gilmore – Brazen Lesley Dunlop – Norna William Lucas – Range Maurice O'Connell – Cockerill Raymond Murtagh – Retrograde Richard Ashley – Orderly Alison Skilbeck – Deputy John Gillett – The Gravis William Bowen, George Campbell, Hedi Khursandi, Michael Malcolm, Stephen Speed – Tractators
Production
Directed by	Season 21
Running time	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast	26 January 1984 (1984-01-26)
Last broadcast	3 February 1984 (1984-02-03)
Chronology
← Preceded by The Awakening Followed by → Resurrection of the Daleks
List of episodes (1963–1989)

Frontios is the third serial of the

from 26 January to 3 February 1984.

Set in the far future, the serial involves the alien Gravis (John Gillett) enslaving the last surviving humans to mine the planet for use as a spaceship for the Gravis.

Plot

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The TARDIS lands in the far future, on the planet Frontios, where some of the last vestiges of humanity are struggling for survival. The planet is being attacked by meteor showers orchestrated by an unknown enemy responsible for the disappearance of several prominent colonists, including the colony's leader, Captain Revere. After witnessing Revere being "eaten by the ground," Security Chief Brazen claims Revere died of natural causes. Revere's son, Plantagenet, assumes the leadership of the colony.

The

.

Plantagenet orders the execution of the Doctor, but Turlough intercedes. Plantagenet tries to attack the Doctor with a crowbar but suffers a heart attack. The Time Lord saves his life using the battery, yet Plantagenet is dragged into the ground.

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough discover that the culprits are the Gravis and his Tractators, giant insects with incredible powers over gravity. The disappeared colonists are being used to power the Gravis' machines. Turlough briefly undergoes a nervous breakdown because the Tractators once attempted to invade his home world long ago; his mind contains a deep, horrific "

" of the event. Plantagenet was kidnapped to replace Captain Revere, the current driver who is now brain dead. The Gravis intends to transform Frontios into an enormous spaceship and further spread the Tractators. The Doctor, Turlough, Brazen and his guards rescue Plantagenet by knocking out the Gravis, but Brazen is killed in the process.

Tegan wanders around in the tunnels and comes across bits of the TARDIS's inner walls. She is chased by the Gravis, who has now regained consciousness, and two Tractators. She comes upon one of the TARDIS's inner doors and opens it, finding herself in the TARDIS console room, where the Doctor, Turlough and Plantagenet are congregated around the console. The Doctor ushers the Gravis in and then tricks him into reassembling the TARDIS by using his power over gravity. The Gravis pulls the TARDIS back into its normal dimension. Once fully assembled, the Gravis is effectively cut off from his fellow Tractators, which revert to a harmless state.

After depositing the now-dormant Gravis on the uninhabited planet of Kolkokron and returning to Frontios, the Doctor gives Plantagenet the hat stand as a farewell token and asks that his own involvement in the affair not be mentioned to anyone, especially the Time Lords. Once the TARDIS has left Frontios, its engines start making a worrisome noise. The Doctor appears to be helpless as the ship is being pulled towards the centre of the universe.

Production

Episode	Title	Run time	Original air date	UK viewers (millions) [2]
1	"Part One"	24:39	26 January 1984 (1984-01-26)	8.0
2	"Part Two"	24:35	27 January 1984 (1984-01-27)	5.8
3	"Part Three"	24:30	2 February 1984 (1984-02-02)	7.8
4	"Part Four"	24:26	3 February 1984 (1984-02-03)	5.6

Script editor Eric Saward contacted writer Christopher H. Bidmead in July 1982 with a view to writing a script. Its original title was The Wanderer[s]. The scripts were formally commissioned on 26 November 1982 under the title Frontious. The scripts were delivered on 16 February 1983 and accepted three weeks later subject to some rewrites.^[3] The director was Ron Jones, who had directed three earlier Fifth Doctor stories. The designer assigned to the serial, Barrie Dobbins died before production (later revealed as suicide) and was replaced by David Buckingham.^[4] He started on production on 8 July 1983, just six weeks before recording. Soon after this, another shock came to the production when actor Peter Arne, who had been hired to play Mr Range, was murdered on 1 August 1983. This was just hours after he had attended a costume fitting for his character at the BBC. His murder was reported widely in the British media the following day, with many reports making mention of his upcoming part in Doctor Who.^[4] He was replaced by William Lucas.^[5] Other actors of note featured in Frontios included Peter Gilmore (as Brazen), who had found fame during the 1970s in the lead role of The Onedin Line. Lesley Dunlop, playing Norna, was widely experienced, despite her being just 27 and went on to appear in Doctor Who again, in 1988's The Happiness Patrol. Jeff Rawle had also found fame in the 1970s as the lead in Billy Liar and later starred in The Sarah Jane Adventures story Mona Lisa's Revenge. It was during rehearsals for this story that Colin Baker was announced as the new actor, as Peter Davison had by this time decided to leave the show. Frontios was filmed in two three-day recording blocks in the BBC Television Centre's Studio 6 from 24 August to 9 September 1983.

Bidmead was instructed to include a monster in the script, something he was unhappy with since he felt that the Doctor Who monsters looked "cheap" and had limited dialogue. His two earlier stories,

Soon after the story was broadcast, Saward commissioned Bidmead to write a story for Season 23 featuring the Tractators and the Master. This was ultimately abandoned as the series itself was soon put on hiatus. Frontios proved to be his last televised story for Doctor Who. [3]

Commercial releases

In print

Frontios

ISBN		0-426-19780-1

The story was novelised by Bidmead and published by Target Books in December 1984. Bidmead includes many gruesome images of the Tractators technology including a hovering translation device. The cliffhanger that led into Resurrection of the Daleks is removed.

An unabridged reading of the novelisation by its author was released as a 4CD audiobook in April 2015.

Home media

Frontios was released on a double

Doctor Who DVD Files

in Issue 100 on 31 October 2012.

References

1. releases
   follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.
2. ^ "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
3. ^ ^{a b} Doctor Who Frontios BBC DVD. Production subtitles
4. ^ ^{a b} Doctor Who Frontios - "Driven to Distraction". BBC DVD documentary
5. ^ "Frontios ★★★".
6. ISBN 0-426-20442-5
   . Retrieved 20 April 2009.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Fifth Doctor.

• Frontios at BBC Online
• Extended Edit: Frontios in Time Space Visualiser
• Frontios at Doctor Who World

Reviews

• Frontios in Time Space Visualiser

Target novelisation

• Frontios title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database