Frontios
Story 132, Episodes 609-612, Season 21 Episodes 7-10
Doctor: The Fifth Doctor
Companions: Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough
On a refugee colony millions of years in the future, a mystery is afoot…
The Review
I’d never really heard Frontios discussed one way or another over the years, and I can see why. It’s a pretty generic story, though not a bad one. The TARDIS is pulled to the planet Frontios and seemingly is destroyed. There we find a barely surviving human colony fighting a war against someone raining missiles down overhead. The ruler is a young man named Plantagenet, who is serving as leader after his father died a few years ago. All the sets are well-constructed, as well as the sense that this is truly a doomed colony. Despite some occasional disagreements, everyone on Frontios is essentially a good person, no secret hidden spies or anything. It’s a good cast of characters.
The enemy is a group of large cockroach type creatures called Tractators, which is a sort of silly name. I do appreciate the extremely alien design, it’s always boring when aliens look exactly like humans. Controlled by the Gravis, their leader, their goal is…I don’t know, make a bunch of tunnels I think? They’re gravity engineers, and drew people to Frontios to mess with them. Their goal is pretty ill-defined, but the menace is clear so it works out alright. The Doctor tricks the Gravis into re-assembling the TARDIS, laying him dormant. For some reason the Doctor is really concerned about the Time Lords figuring out this specific story because of how far in the future it is. Ah well. Not much to say, your standard successful story.
When watching Frontios, it’s a fine experience, but there is absolutely nothing memorable about it. Just giant cockroaches for me I think. Maybe some of Turlough’s weird ancestral memory, can we learn his origin already?
7.75/10 How much plot have I already forgotten?
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