This story in a nutshell: 'Eaten by the earth...'
Mouth of Legs: At the risk of sounding like a broken
record...where on Earth did this Tegan spring from? Once again her worst
characteristics are toned down (her unceasing attitude, her negative slant on
every situation) and she is far more engaging as a result. On the strength of
Frontios, this era would have been very different indeed had Bidmead been in
the script editors chair. He and Saward had vastly different approaches to
Doctor Who and I have to say I much prefer the mutual co-operation and fun
bantering of the latter's approach to the regulars than the bitching and
griping (which creates false drama of the formers). This a Tegan that I would
like to hang around with...and she's turned up just as she is about to leave.
Go figure. Unbelievably Tegan says 'Can we land? Can we visit them?'
When have you ever known this woman to want to go anywhere (but Heathrow) or
when they do land do anything but want to get back to the TARDIS? She's showing
an appropriate response the situation, she's the only human being travelling in
the TARDIS (I guess that makes Tegan our identification figure - eep!) and she
wants to know what fate her people are going to suffer. I love Tegan nosing
about in the records and getting to heart of the mysterious deaths and then
receiving the sharp end of Brazen's tongue when she reveals what she has found
out. In a shouting contest between the two of them I know who I would put my
money on, even if Brazen has had a military background. She's smart enough to
make her escape by blinding Brazen and locking them in the medical centre. In a
scuffle, I would want her on my side (remember how she beat that Tereleptil to
death with a shotgun?). Amazing how likeable Tegan is when she is treated as a
fun character, teased for her dodgy accent and walk (that's probably the
leather mini skirt).
Over the Shoulder: Completing an excellent set of regulars
for this story, finally we have a writer who is prepared to acknowledge that
Turlough exists and not only give him something to do but some development too.
He has spent the last four stories wandering around like spare part and barely
connecting with the plot and along comes this shock chiller that probes the
character and his races past in a very disturbing way. It's a great reminder
that Turlough isn't human and proves his people have a back story that is worth
exploiting. He has great fun winding Tegan up about the future history of the
human race, in particular emphasising the word 'doomed' when referring
to the Earth. You could almost say he asked for the nightmare he is about to
face. He has a nice, relaxed chemistry with Norna, it's a shame there wasn't
any time for that to go somewhere. What Turlough experiences on Frontios is
perhaps more disturbing than anything any other companion has been through in a
Doctor Who story. As his race memory of the Tractators bubbles to the surface, he
practically suffers a nervous breakdown. Paralysed by fear, foaming at the
moment, near hysterical with the nightmare of what these creatures did to his
people, it is terrifying to see the usually confident and suspicious Turlough
laid open so bare. When I complain about Clara being too self assured, this is
the sort of terror she is going to have to experience in order to break down
that little Miss Perfect image. Whilst I do wonder if there should be lasting
psychological consequences for going through such a destabilising experience, I
still appreciate the effort of sketching in some of his mysterious back story
and revealing something of the mythology of his people. What I like even more
is Turlough's acknowledgement that he is a coward and that he doesn't want to
face up to his fear by heading into the tunnels and confronting the race that
spread through his people like an infection. He knows how people look at him
and what they expect of him. And despite all that he is determined to go down
anyway, even when he is terrified. It is one of the bravest companion moments
ever. Turlough straightening his tie (job done) as they head back to the TARDIS
is way cool.
Sparkling Dialogue: 'Systems that could rebuild a
civilisation for us. Failure proof technology!' 'What happened?' 'It failed...'
'Your unknown invaders are certainly taking their time...'
'Now come and see the TARDIS. As an invasion weapon it's
about as offensive as a chicken vol-au-vent!'
'The TARDIS has been destroyed' - one of the best ever
cliff-hangers for its implications. I think Davison could sell the moment with
a little more drama (he looks like he is going to shrug his shoulders) but the
thought that they are trapped on this planet for good, that this is potentially
where the series might be set from this point on, is extraordinary. And in true
Doctor Who style (i.e. cheap), the method of getting this across to the
audience is a hat stand at a jaunty angle in the smoking ruins. Wonderful.
'You can't broadcast socially sensitive information unless
you're in control of the facts!'
'I got it cheap because the walk's not quite right. And then
there's the accent of course...'
'I know what they are' 'And I know what they're trying to
do...' 'Well that sounds promising. Put the two things together and we might be
able to stop them...' - Bidmead's logical approach to writing scripts sometimes
results in a clinical storytelling but he has structured this one perfectly so
the plot comes together to form a rock solid shape in Frontios.
The Good:
* I often mention the music in passing but never really give
it the attention it deserves in these reviews. Music is such an important part
of Doctor Who because it performs the function of adding lashings of atmosphere
and effect where perhaps the budget lets the story down. I have seen it paper
over cracks in storytelling, take us on a much more emotional ride than the
writing and sliver down the spine when the monsters emerge. It is an entity in
its own right and has been thrilling fans of this show for over 50 years. From
the musique concrete, dramatic stock tracks and ambient sound effects of the
Hartnell era, through the pure 60s imaginative and spasmodic soundtracks of
Troughton's time, the experimental madness of Pertwee, the Dudley Simpson owned
classical music of the Tom's tenure...now the music is the baby of the
radiophonic workshop with a host of talented musicians providing wall to wall
sound to accompany the flashy stories. The music in Frontios is a bit different
from the norm of this period, far more Dudley-esque instrumental than
Limb-inspired electronic wallpaper. There's a mock flute in there which sounds
unlike anything heard in any other Doctor Who story and it gives Frontios a
fresh musical identity of its own. Some of the musical cues are a little
repetitive in the later episodes but the motifs are memorable and quirky.
* Bidmead reminds me so much of Steven Moffat. A little
shaky on plotting but full of great ideas, favouring big notions over
subtleties of characterisation. Certainly the scenario that Bidmead whips up in
Frontios could have come from the Moffat's endlessly creative brain. Fleeing
from a solar catastrophe in the Milky Way, a group of human refugees have
settled on the planet of Frontios. It's the last of humanity, trapped on this
inhospitable planet, bombarded with meteors, people being dragged beneath the
soil, lacking food and resources. What a thrilling scenario for a Doctor Who
story.
* One thing that Bidmead remembers in Frontios that he
forgot all about in his first two contributions to the series was to add the
fright factor (unless you find Tegan scaring herself to death whilst wandering
around the TARDIS enough to clench your buttocks). Logopolis and Castrovalva
were unique in that respect, stories that took their drama from their weighty
scientific ideas but it appears that Bidmead is more than capable of providing
a story with a good scary hook. The idea of people being eaten by the earth is
a terrifying one, imagine the ground swallowing your feet and slowly taking
gulps to consume the rest of you. Struggling to grab at anything that might
keep you above ground, choking as your wind pipes fill with dirt, the sheer
claustrophobia of being trapped in cold clammy earth as you are dragged towards
an even worse fate at the hands of the Tractators and their filthy excavating
machine. It's such a good idea Chris Chibnall felt compelled to steal it for
his letter to the Pertwee era in Matt Smith's first season. It works much more
effectively in Frontios though because humanity has so much more to lose. With
each person claimed by the Earth the human race edges ever closer to
extinction. The words DEATHS UNACCOUNTABLE have a chilling ring to them. The
scenes of people literally being sucked down into the earth are genuinely
chilling - for a family show Doctor Who really doesn't hold back when showing
the realities of the horror this week. Plantagenet has a look of rictus horror
on his face and is begging for help as he consumed by the filth and Cockerill,
his face mangled from his attack by the retrogrades is spitting blood as he
tries to resist. Seeing adults in fear and pain like this is seriously
destabilising for kids. You can almost see why the hand of censorship was
waiting to come down on the show. That was then, this is now and in 2014 it is
wonderfully uncomfortable viewing. The idea that you cannot escape the
Tractators no matter what you try and do, that they will always be able to drag
you back to your doom, is another freaky idea.
* It isn't always realised in a way that makes you believe
this is a functioning colony (although attempts are made) but the script
certainly paints a vivid picture of a working outpost that is improvising
desperately to avoid extinction. A puppet leader being controlled by an
unstable military mind. Useless technology making ramshackle habitations. A
planet without fossil fuels to burn for energy. Food rationed and guarded like
the most precious jewels.
* I harp on about this all the time in the New Series
(especially the stuff fronted by Steven Moffat) but you can write the most
gripping state of affairs Doctor Who has ever seen but without characters you
can believe in and support (or hiss at) you are fighting a losing battle.
Bidmead knows that and Frontios features his strongest guest cast yet, distinct
personalities that drive the story and clash with (and aid) the Doctor and his
companions in a very entertaining way. Range and Norna are my favourites, the
much needed sympathetic face of Frontios. A father and daughter combination
that have a believable chemistry, they are the ones you are rooting for
throughout. Beyond putting my weight behind humanity simply because I should,
it is because I care about these two characters that I was willing the human
race to overthrow their oppressors. Without them, it would be a far less
emotive experience (take note, Moffat). It helps too that William Lucas (warm,
professorial, a bit doddery) and Lesley Dunlop (playful, caring, vulnerable)
give superb performances. Jeff Rawle thinks he has stepped into an RSC
performance and plays Plantagenet to the hilt, a young man trying fill his
fathers considerable boots and hold this colony together (a task he - or nobody
- is really up to). It is the comparisons to his father that constantly
emasculate him though. It doesn't matter that Rawle favours a theatrical approach
because that is what Plantagenet is all about, putting on a brave performance
to show the people that everything is okay. It is in his quieter, subtler
moments with the Doctor where we see a desperate man who is barely holding onto
his sanity. I've heard criticism of Brazen or more specifically Peter Gilmore's
stiff performance. Whilst there is an argument that his delivery of the
dialogue is a little too regimented and hectoring, I have known quite a few men
like Brazen in my time and the have displayed exactly the same overly
disciplined and rule bound nature. Socially awkward (in peace time I bet Brazen
is the sort to avoid social situations and ponder in the shadows) but coming
alive in a crisis (where he feels needed), a rule bound bully that sees things
in black and white, Brazen is a fascinating character and has the potential to
be far more frightening than the Tractators if pushed into uncomfortable
situations. Gilmore could have toned it down a little but he grabs hold of that
military madness and attempts to take control of every scene he is in, just as
Brazen should. Showing how adept his characterisation can be, even the
secondary guest cast like Cockerill stand out. Once a communications officer,
almost swallowed whole by the Earth and untouchable because he survived that
grisly fate, he seizes the opportunity to take hold of the colony and put the
scavengers people in charge. Like 28 Days Later so adeptly realised, the
horrible things that human beings do to each other is far more frightening than
any conceptualised monster. Norna being seized upon by the scavengers for
goodness only knows what purpose made me heart skip a beat whereas the
Tractators bouncing around below ground only produced laughter. What makes the
characters so vivid in this story is that nobody is quite ready for what faces
them; the Doctor isn't quite the wise old man he needs to be to command the
situation, Turlough is terrified of confronting his past, Plantagenet can never
live up to the reputation of his father, Brazen can barely hold himself
together let alone provide security for a fraying colony...and yet they all
face these trials face on, regardless of the cost. It's one of the strongest
ever guest casts simply because they are so will conceived and played and the dialogue
they are given kicks some mighty ass too. Brazen's fate, sacrificing himself to
save everybody else and slaving himself to a machine that will give him the
sort of precision and order he seeks in the world, is very satisfying.
* No the realisation of the colony isn't perfect (it's one
of the few times when filming in a quarry would have been the ideal situation)
but I have to give Ron Jones a massive round of applause for trying with what
must have been a pathetic budget. I think he achieves a great deal given the
lack of resources and love from the BBC at the time, even if there are a few
times where his ambition tops his crews abilities. He has three money shots and
he uses both of them very wisely. One is the impressive visual of the crashed
colony ship stuck into the ground like a knife protruding from somebody's gut
with the ramshackle colony made up out of useless technology hiding in its
shadows. It's a powerful mix of video effects and set design and it gives you a
feel for the scale of the disaster. The second is the impressive long shot
inside the colony ship that shows how it literally caved in on itself when it
struck the planet, enormous girders crashing on top of each other in a
precarious lattice work. The third is below ground, a long shot which reveals
the extent of the Tractators impressive tunnel system and sees them surrounding
Plantagenet like a hamster in a ball, a strange system of mathematically
precise metal structures holding this under city together. This potent imagery
is about as cinematic as Doctor Who comes in the classic series. The sets go
some way to bridging the gap between Bidmead's big ideas and what eventually
ends up on screen; technology ripped from the ship and strewn everywhere, slate
walls creating some menacing tunnels, an access tunnel like a gaping maw
leading into the ship, a dirty, dark and dangerous medical bay, the hull of the
ship pockmarked with holes from meteor strikes and dangerous rock spitting from
the ground as meteors strike. Bizarrely my favourite set is the conduit between
the two levels of the show, the colony and the under city dug out by the
Tractators and the entrance to the tunnels that has light bleeding down from
the research room and is lit in a highly dramatic way which really makes it
stand out. A great deal of imagination has gone into these sets, they aren't
just stock SF dressing but an attempt by the designer to suggest the events
that have led up to the point where we visit the colony. To be fair to Ron
Jones, there is more than your average number of extras hanging about to prove
that there is a fair size to the population of the colony too. And what about
the most impressive set of all, left until the lat minute so the climax is a
visually striking experience? The TARDIS in pieces, shattered amongst the under
city of the Tractators, sections of its walls blending in seamlessly amongst
the black. A lot of imagination and skill has gone into making this work. How
menacing does the console room look with the slate invading the walls?
* I love the fact that there is a gap in the narrative in
what is usually the weakest episode of a four part Doctor Who story (episode
three) for a kangaroo court to assemble and point the finger at Range for
trying to stir up subversion on Frontios. Brazen doesn't really have a leg to
stand on but that doesn't stop him trying to make sense of this uncontrollable
situation by trying to blame one of them rather than accept it is the work of
alien creatures. It's a well written and played scene that contrasts nicely
with the spooky investigations of the Doctor and Tegan below ground and it
allows for Turlough to share his experiences in a public setting, to drive home
the danger they are in from the Tractators. Smartly it stops being trial when everybody opens up about their
experiences and becomes a pooling of resources and information. Suddenly the
colonists are working together and fighting back.
* The end of episode three is one of the best classic Who
ever managed to pull off, a genuinely ghoulish and surprising moment where
Captain Revere, long assumed dead and buried, turns up slaved to the Tractator
excavating machine. He's clearly been drained of anything that has made him
human and is just a brain slaved to the computer, his body wired into the
workings of the machine, a blank look on his waxy face. It's quite horrible and
yet well set up, Brazen admitting that his corpse vanished beneath the Earth
and the character being referred to throughout the tale. 'A waste...but we
had the best of him.'
* The situation on Frontios has been sufficiently set up
come episode that we can witness a retrograde attack on the colony ship and
then Cockerill and his people subduing that and staging their own coup. All
this is happening away from the Doctor and the villains of the piece showing
that this setting has legs regardless of the usual Doctor Who elements.
* 'They gave you ten years to establish yourselves...and
then they started making their collection' When you hear of the various
methods that the Tractators have employed to bring the colony on Frontios to
their heels, even allowing them a false sense of security when settling on the
planet and biding their time before sending in the meteors and dragging
colonists below the ground, it makes them one of the smartest and insidious of
nasties the Doctor has encountered. It's right up there with the duplicitous
and violent methods used by the Daleks before their invasion of the Earth. In a
bizarre co-incidence they are also nabbing the ambitious idea at the core of
the Hartnell epic too, hollowing out Frontios to build a gravity motor and
drive the planet through space. You have to give it to Bidmead, he sure thinks
big. As stalling as long as possible to reveal the full extent of the monsters
plan goes, this is one of the best because the answers are so impressive.
Infesting new planets, nowhere in the universe will be safe from them.
Thrilling ideas. Even the way of defeating them is well thought through. Like
the Borg that would come along in a decade, the Tractators are harmless drones
without an organising mind to control them. Isolate that mind and they are
easily defeated. Bidmead has established that the Gravis is desperate to travel
and secluded the TARDIS underground, trap him inside and he is cut off from the
rest of the Tractators. He wants the TARDIS so badly he puts it back together
and causes his own downfall. It is so neatly handled you could sing it.
The Bad:
* This is another one of those Doctor Who stories with a
dodgy opening scene that might convince you that what you about to watch is a
dud. The behind the scenes boys are clearly having trouble with making the
Earth gulp, the music is a little too intrusive and the stunt of the falling
girder fails to work on any level.
* It's odd that I should choose to review this story
directly after The Sun Makers because Ron Jones and Pennant Roberts have
something in common as directors of adventure serials. They are both very good
at casting and creating an atmosphere but neither of the excels when it comes
to bringing action to the screen. It is often ponderous and poorly executed, as
it is in these two stories. Fortunately it isn't such a problem with either The
Sun Makers or Frontios because one is a scathing attack on the tax system and
the other is an atmospheric SF horror for the most part and both rely on ideas,
performances and dialogue far more than dynamic action. But the few occasions
they have to rise to the occasion in their best stories, they still don't quite
get it right.
* Are the Tractators a complete write off? Do they spoil the
entire story? Of course not, no more than the Wirrn do in The Ark in Space.
Like the Wirrn there are parts of these costumes that work and parts that don't
and what was needed was a sympathetic director to turn the lights down and get
in close to the detailed parts and never, ever shoot them in long shot (which
unfortunately is how we get our first glimpse of them). When exposed in their
entirety they are rather comical creatures, hobbling along like Gell Guards
with their bright shiny leather backs, limp wrists and beige skirts hiding the
actors shuffling legs. However once you get up close you will find a highly
detailed mask. Despite the twitching antennae that don't often twitch, the
blank, waxy eyes, disgusting tendrils quivering in their mouths and fractured,
almost crystalline chests all combine to create something genuinely
nightmarish. If only that was all we saw of them... The moment when the
phosphor lamp is smashed and they dance about in pain pretty much any tension
they might have generated vanishes. The various Tractator attacks in episode
four are woeful because the actors cannot convincingly get tangled up with
these cumbersome creatures. Imagine if they could have been realised in full
CGI, curling around their victims like real giant woodlice and squeezing them
to death.
Result: One of my favourite Doctor Who stories from the
eighties and easily in my top three Davison's, Frontios gives us a tantalising
peek into what this era might have been like had the BBC acquiesced to
Christopher H. Bidmead's request for a pay increase. A potent end of the world
scenario, the terrifying prospect of being eaten by the earth, giant insects
burrowing away below the ground, the destruction of the TARDIS, a vivid Doctor,
resourceful companions who are afforded strong development, vivid guest
characters, powerful dialogue and a plot that has many layers a strong
scientific core whilst still remembering to emote. Colour me impressed. In fact
it almost feels as though Bidmead has deliberately upped his game as a one
finger salute at the BBC - this is what you could have every week instead of
The Kings' Demons and Warriors of the Deep. Ron Jones' last three stories on
Doctor Who are his finest (this, Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp) and see an in
house director that clearly isn't used to the rigours of adventure serials
finally realising how to make the show work and work very well by concentrating
on atmosphere, casting the parts carefully and telling the story in a very
claustrophobic, oppressive way. Frontios, Varos and Mindwarp all have excellent
lighting and music too, which gives Jones' direction a massive boost. Saying
that I would still liked to have seen what Peter Grimwade, Matthew Robinson or
Graeme Harper could have done with this material. Jones is in tune with
Bidmead's chilling ideas and together they create a unique story, one that
favours theatre over television and drama over action. There is plenty of
detail in the script that helps to sell the situation and that is translated
into the design of the piece. For once in 80s Who it feels like everybody is
working in the same direction. It's a story that manages to successfully evolve
from a creeping horror tale (the mystery of people being eaten by the earth in
episodes one and two) into a superb science fiction adventure, the last episode
playing about with some weighty concepts and presenting some impressive
imagery. I'm slightly in awe of this story because it gets so many things right
that the Davison era often got wrong (it is genuinely scary, it has characters
you can believe in, the regulars are appealing) that I can skip over its rough
edges (the overall design of the Tractators, the occasional embarrassing moment
of static action) and simply bask in the fact that occasionally every coalesced
beautifully to produce something that really stands out. Frontios isn't a
season opener or closer, it isn't a regeneration story and it does feature the
Daleks and the Cybermen. Technically it
should be the least important mid-season filler. Instead it almost gets my vote
for the best of the year, showing what can be done by ditching the kisses to
the past and simply getting on with telling a good story: 9/10
5 comments:
I think in "Flatline" will see a very scared Clara, however, "Kill the Moon" was his best episode ever.
Every time I see an embattled ship full of dour military men (ie Into the Dalek), I now think Eric Saward!
What ought to be Troughtonesque has almost become Sawardesque.
That being the case, I wonder if Saward threw in Turlough's parting line ("Not if you don't count the TARDIS"), or if that was Bidmead getting into the groove of eighties ambivalence.
It's stories like this (and Earthshock, and Enlightenment, and Mawdryn Undead, and Caves of Androzani) that make the case for how good the 5th Doctor Era could have been. It's a terrific story on its own, but in context it's even more of a stand-out.
I'm glad to see someone likes this story as much as I do. For some reason, a lot of other Doctor Who reviewers don't seem to like this one very much. I can't imagine why. As you mention, the script takes hold of three badly used and inconsistent regulars and wrings something really special out of them.
Watching all in order. There is a lovely deleted scene where the Doctor fiddles with a screwdriver at Tegans neck as though she is an android and explains the plot to her, also I love them both being dragged on the floor on their backsides in part 3, comical. Was looking forward to this, but the photo space ship was very Underworld, it is one of the most obvious outdoor studio sets from the director who brought us Time Flight. I find it a bit dull, not the classic you on here, the Tractators are men in suits, another bad realisation of monsters, the Gravis sounds like Styggron. The guest cast is excellent, Cockerill is a bit wooden though. Michael Attwell may have been better. The music is ok, not as good as Mawdryn. Davison is at his very best, maybe the shackles off because he is leaving. Better than Awakening but only just. Love the TARDIS scenes in part 4. To not even mention Kamelion is criminal, to have included him at all even worse though.
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