Review Of All Six episodes - Some SpoIlers
Frontier In Space along with the story that dovetails it is an attempt to make a space opera blockbuster . The fact that it fails is mainly down to the writing . The production values don't help , and this becomes much clearer in the following story , but it's mainly the writing that is to blame . One problem watching 1970s classic DOCTOR WHO today - it becomes more pronounced if very familiar to NuWho - is that there's a lack of brevity to the storytelling . Lots of things might happen but from the start of episode one to the middle of episode three the doctor and Jo seem to spend their entire time being rescued from a cell to being locked up again . In fact the whole story involves the doctor and Jo being locked up every few minutes . It's only the location of the cells and their jailers that change
That said as a child a shiver went up my spine in the first episode where it was revealed that the Ogrons that are attacking the cargo ship and this presage gives a clue as to who is trying to instigate the war between the Earth empire and Draconia . The Draconians themselves are amongst the most impressive creations to have appeared in the show and Jon Pertwee was very fond of the tale where during rehearsals he'd be talking to one of the actors in his Draconian garb about new age theories and for several unearthly minutes he genuinely felt he was in the presence of an alien visitor . When things like this happen on set it sometimes gets communicated towards the young viewer and the Draconians are like the Zygons classic one off monsters and you do fear that it'd be a mistake bringing them back to NuWho for the sake of it . Like the Silurians it sometimes better to let sleeping reptiles lie
Frontier also marks the final appearance of Roger Delgado as the Master . Again I felt a shiver go down my spine as a child when he suddenly appeared in episode three . Delgado plays the role with his customary mix of dry humour , charm and menace . The unfortunate thing is that his final scene is ruined by an editing blunder which leaves the viewer confused as to what is happening . It wouldn't have mattered so much but Delgado was killed in a car crash three months after the final episode was broadcast which meant this was sadly his swan song . It's also the only Pertwee adventure that dovetails in to the next story which is Planet Of The Daleks
All in all Frontier In Space was a remarkable and epic story when I saw it as a child . Watching it again years later it's somewhat laboured but it does contain an on form Jon Pertwee along with Roger Delgado's final appearance as the Master along with Draconians , Orgrons and Daleks in a flawed epic
Frontier In Space along with the story that dovetails it is an attempt to make a space opera blockbuster . The fact that it fails is mainly down to the writing . The production values don't help , and this becomes much clearer in the following story , but it's mainly the writing that is to blame . One problem watching 1970s classic DOCTOR WHO today - it becomes more pronounced if very familiar to NuWho - is that there's a lack of brevity to the storytelling . Lots of things might happen but from the start of episode one to the middle of episode three the doctor and Jo seem to spend their entire time being rescued from a cell to being locked up again . In fact the whole story involves the doctor and Jo being locked up every few minutes . It's only the location of the cells and their jailers that change
That said as a child a shiver went up my spine in the first episode where it was revealed that the Ogrons that are attacking the cargo ship and this presage gives a clue as to who is trying to instigate the war between the Earth empire and Draconia . The Draconians themselves are amongst the most impressive creations to have appeared in the show and Jon Pertwee was very fond of the tale where during rehearsals he'd be talking to one of the actors in his Draconian garb about new age theories and for several unearthly minutes he genuinely felt he was in the presence of an alien visitor . When things like this happen on set it sometimes gets communicated towards the young viewer and the Draconians are like the Zygons classic one off monsters and you do fear that it'd be a mistake bringing them back to NuWho for the sake of it . Like the Silurians it sometimes better to let sleeping reptiles lie
Frontier also marks the final appearance of Roger Delgado as the Master . Again I felt a shiver go down my spine as a child when he suddenly appeared in episode three . Delgado plays the role with his customary mix of dry humour , charm and menace . The unfortunate thing is that his final scene is ruined by an editing blunder which leaves the viewer confused as to what is happening . It wouldn't have mattered so much but Delgado was killed in a car crash three months after the final episode was broadcast which meant this was sadly his swan song . It's also the only Pertwee adventure that dovetails in to the next story which is Planet Of The Daleks
All in all Frontier In Space was a remarkable and epic story when I saw it as a child . Watching it again years later it's somewhat laboured but it does contain an on form Jon Pertwee along with Roger Delgado's final appearance as the Master along with Draconians , Orgrons and Daleks in a flawed epic