Frontios (TV story)

He said the earth was hungry...Norna

Frontios
Doctor:	[[doctor::Fifth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Tegan Turlough
Main enemy:	Gravis Tractators
Main setting:	Frontios, The Far Future
Key crew
Writer:	Christopher H. Bidmead
Director:	Ron Jones
Producer:	John Nathan-Turner
Release details
Story number:	133
Release number:	Season 21
Premiere broadcast:	26th January - 3rd February 1984
Format:	4 25-minute episodes
Production code:	6N

Synopsis

...Frontios buries its own dead...

In the far reaches of the future, the Doctor's TARDIS crash-lands on the planet Frontios in the Veruna system, where the last remnants of humanity have fled the collision of Earth with the sun. Gruesome tales of a hungry earth stalk the struggling settlement, and a bombardment of meteors from an unseen enemy hold the future of humanity in a precarious balance. At a crucial point in history, with the future still unknown, the Doctor is unable to intervene for fear of violating the laws of Time itself. But when the TARDIS is destroyed in an attack on the colony, he may have no choice.

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Peter Davison
• Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
• Vislor Turlough - Mark Strickson
• Brazen - Peter Gilmore
• Norna - Lesley Dunlop
• Range - William Lucas
• Plantagenet - Jeff Rawle
• Cockerill - Maurice O'Connell
• Orderly - Richard Ashley
• Gravis - John Gillett
• Deputy - Alison Skilbeck
• Retrograde - Raymond Murtagh
• Captain Revere - John Beardmore

Crew

• Script Editor - Eric Saward
• Designer - David Buckingham
• Assistant Floor Manager - Joanna Guritz, Ed Stevenson
• Production Associate - June Collins
• Costumes - Anushia Nieradzik
• Make-Up - Jill Hagger
• Visual Effects - Dave Havard
• Production Assistant - Valerie Letley
• Special Sounds - Dick Mills
• Studio Sound - Martin Ridout
• Studio Lighting - John Summers
• Incidental Music - Paddy Kingsland
• Producer - John Nathan-Turner
• Theme Arrangement - Peter Howell
• Title Music - Ron Grainer

References

• Turlough makes reference to the Arar Jecks of Heiradi, who had hollowed a huge subterranean city beneath the surface of their planet during the Twenty Aeon War.

• Turlough's home planet was attacked millenia ago by Tractators - an event that was locked into their ancestral memory. The sight of the Tractators triggers a memory resurgence which causes Turlough to go into catatonic shock. Gradually he recalls more and more of these memories, which allow him to 'remember' who the Tractators were, what their goals were - and more importantly, how to defeat them.

• Gravis is aware of the capabilities of a TARDIS, presumably by reputation.
• The Doctor asks Turlough to get a portable mu-field activator and some argon discharge globes.

Story Notes

• This story had a working title of The Wanderers.
• For the first time, we see a solid reference to Turlough's home planet, which was attacked millennia ago by the Tractators.
• The helmets of the Frontios security forces would be familiar to viewers of Blake's 7 as the helmets of Federation troops.
• The role of Range was originally supposed to be played by Peter Arne, a character actor perhaps best known for his roles in the films Victor/Victoria and Return of the Pink Panther, as well as several guest roles on The Avengers. Following a wardrobe test for the part, Arne returned to his flat where he was bludgeoned to death by an unknown assailant. William Lucas filled in for Arne. While a student Arne was in a relationship with, and who was later found floating dead in the Thames, remains a prime suspect, the identity and motive of Arne's killer is a mystery to this day.

Ratings

• Part 1 - 8.0 million viewers
• Part 2 - 5.8 million viewers
• Part 3 - 7.8 millon viewers
• Part 4 - 5.6 millon viewers

Myths

• This story was originally intended to feature Richard Hurndall in a black and white flashback remembered by Peter Davison's Doctor after hitting his head on the TARDIS control console. (False)

Filming Locations

• BBC Television Centre (TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

• In the opening scene, as Captain Revere sees the earth moving beneath him, the fingers of one of the technical crew are visible giving it a helping hand.
• When Tegan traps Brazen in the medical unit, she puts a bar across the middle of a door handle. By the next scene it has moved to the top of the handle.
• Could a simple direct meteorite strike be capable of destroying the TARDIS when so many other more destructive forces have failed to do it any damage at all (e.g. the molten lava flow on Dulkis in The Dominators to name one)? (Perhaps the Gravis' gravitational influence weakened the TARDIS' structure.)
• Would the Gravis really have the power to reassmble all the pieces of the TARDIS together and back into full working order, simply by using his powers of crude gravitaional attraction - i.e. it is hard to see how gravitaional attraction alone could re-wire all of the damaged complex circuitry of a machine as sophisticated as the TARDIS. It doesn't. All the Gravis does is bring the pieces back together. The TARDIS auto-repair systems do the rest.
• The Tractators maintain an entire human colony just to use two humans; Captain Revere and Plantagenet for their machines? Surely their must be a simpler way. There are lots of other machines besides the one we see. They do need the use of lots of humans.

Continuity

• BFA: Excelis Dawns occurs between the wrap of of this story and the scene which continues into DW: Resurrection of the Daleks.

DVD and Video Releases

• Released on video along side The Awakening. Not yet released on DVD.

Novelisation

Main article: Frontios (novelisation)

• Novelised by Christopher H. Bidmead in 1984.

External Links

• Frontios at the BBC's official site
• Frontios at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Frontios at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)