Frontier In Space
daveyboy7472
Posts: 16,404 Forum Member
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Frontier is one of the few 6-Parters I feel works quite well and that I quite enjoy. It's the sort of space fare adventure the show had been crying out for since Pertwee took over.
The only problem I have with it is that The Doctor seems to spend every episode being captured and locked up, it must be a record of sorts and Jo isn't far behind!
The Draconians are quite impressively designed and are a rare breed of Alien in that they are not actually evil, though they share the human quality of being devious if they need to!
The Ogrons are used more effectively here and I love the scenes between them and The Master. Also like the little throwaway line in the first episode distancing them from involvement with the Daleks....
Plus, may year before The Five Doctors, wasn't it great to see a Mind Probe actually in action? So love that scene....:D
Off course, no discussion on this story would be complete with mentioning Roger Delgado. I think as what turned out to be his last story, his performance was a good one. As with The Time Monster, the episode where it's just him battling wits with The Doctor is the best one, but I also think he was more charming and devious than ever in this. I am also glad Jo got her opportunity to stand up to his hypnosis, which showed how far she had come since her debut. It was almost as if was meant to be that this would be the last time she came across him.
The only disappointment is that he disappeared quite rapidly from the action at the story's conclusion due to some necessary editing and didn't quite get the last scene he deserved. However, those last two episodes he was in are some of my favourites to feature him.
Overall though, a good story, which led nicely into the next adventure.
The only problem I have with it is that The Doctor seems to spend every episode being captured and locked up, it must be a record of sorts and Jo isn't far behind!
The Draconians are quite impressively designed and are a rare breed of Alien in that they are not actually evil, though they share the human quality of being devious if they need to!
The Ogrons are used more effectively here and I love the scenes between them and The Master. Also like the little throwaway line in the first episode distancing them from involvement with the Daleks....
Plus, may year before The Five Doctors, wasn't it great to see a Mind Probe actually in action? So love that scene....:D
Off course, no discussion on this story would be complete with mentioning Roger Delgado. I think as what turned out to be his last story, his performance was a good one. As with The Time Monster, the episode where it's just him battling wits with The Doctor is the best one, but I also think he was more charming and devious than ever in this. I am also glad Jo got her opportunity to stand up to his hypnosis, which showed how far she had come since her debut. It was almost as if was meant to be that this would be the last time she came across him.
The only disappointment is that he disappeared quite rapidly from the action at the story's conclusion due to some necessary editing and didn't quite get the last scene he deserved. However, those last two episodes he was in are some of my favourites to feature him.
Overall though, a good story, which led nicely into the next adventure.
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It's actually a bit of a mad rush, going from ship to ship and planet to planet. Which can get exhausting, but it helps keep my interest and allows the story to change as it goes along, particularly towards the last two episodes. Also the plot is quite clever, and the aliens are used to full effect.
Such a shame this was Delgado's final story
I agree but if it hadn't it would have been one of his last as he'd decided to quit by this time. I think there should have been one more story for him at the end of the Season, which ironically may have meant no Green Death which you said you loved if he had not been killed.
Was the Master supposed to have died in that last story? That might have meant The Deadly Assassin would never have happened either. Or any of the Ainley stuff...
Ah no, I've read into this, he was gonna appear at the end of the next season for Pertwee's final story, just to sort of bring an end to the whole of the Pertwee era. I think the plan was for the Master to be revealed to be a sort of Dark Doctor, his Id, kinda like the Valeyard. There'd be an epic battle which would end with Pertwee's departure. Sounds rubbish especially after all the other stuff woth the Master since, but when you think about it, it is a perfect conclusion for the realtionship between Pertwee's Doctor and Delgado's Master, as they were always portrayed as equals, like 2 sides of the same coin. And it's a much better idea than that of the them being brothers which we almost had in the 80's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unmade_Doctor_Who_serials_and_films#The_Final_Game
Well I think Sovietusername has pretty much explained it below but it seems it would have been left unclear what happened to him, so I think there may have been an opportunity to bring him back. However, if Delgado had lived then I don't think there would have been any other Master for sometime, unless he wanted to come back and do it. Maybe after his eventual passing they may have regenerated the character, but who knows?
Oh right, I always thought it was going to be the end of Season 10. I wonder if they would have done it for Pertwee's last story considering it was his swansong, but there again I suppose he would have been the ideal villain for that last story.
A much better villain for his swansong (considering most of Pertwee's era involved Delgado) than giant spiders. Mind you, I havent actually seen Planet of the Spiders, I really should
Om mani padme hum!
Death to the eight-legs!
I recommend it.
I could probably agree with, it would have made a good last story but i love POTS.....
I think you should watch it before the thread next week and see what you think. I personally love it but will refrain from further comment until then!
I'll try though I've also got to keep up with the series 6 repeats for my own threads on them and, well, just interest. It's funny Series 6.2, I didnt really like it on first viewing but couldnt find anything I didnt like about it, if you see what I mean, rewatch should be interesting. Back to POTS, do you have the DVD, if not where did you wacth it? Dailymotion?
Yep, it's on Dailymotion, as is a few other stories and yes, I do have the DVD.
Sadly it was to go no-where, after I first watched this episode on UK Gold I was confused as to A)Why the Daleks appeared in the first place as UK Gold couldn't afford Dalek eps, and
Obviously I never got to see the answer due to the same reasons as part A), but after a googling I found out the ep I missed was about a load of Daleks on a planet and didn't really follow on from the epic conclusion of this ep at all!
Missed opportunity or what!?
Thinking back on it now I also thought the stuff with the Draconians was very similar to what Babylon 5 later did with the Earth/Minbari war (multi layered alien race that Earth has a history of war with that are now trying to seek peace for mysterious reasons but other alien races manipulate that desire...)
I wonder if JMS had seen this ep before writing B5?
Still, I think there's potential there and I'd love to see them in the new series, particularly if more of the Earth/Draconia war could be revealed.
Daveyboy mentions the record for amount of times being locked up, almost for the entirety of the first few episodes the Doctor and Jo are held captive. Either by Earth officials, Draconians and eventually The Master!
Speaking of which, The Master gets a meatier role then a few other Pertwee'e I feel. Delgado's last performance in the role is as good as ever and again can only echo former comments when saying it's dumb luck that they had to feed this story into the next,hence a slightly rushed ending for his last appearance.
Just been watching the documentary on Roger Delgado that is within the DVD package for this story. It seems he was very well thought off by everyone on the show and couldn't be more different to The Master offscreen.
You can understand by all the personal accounts from Manning, Letts and Dicks why his death affected everyone so badly that it initiated all the changes that were forthcoming in the following year or so.
It always makes me sad watching this story knowing he never appeared in the show again. As I said above, the 4th episode where it's just The Doctor battling The Master is the best one as it was the case for his previous two stories. There's something about the personal battle between the two characters that elevates the story to a higher level and I always feel disappointed when it's over and the story moves back to it's central issue.
As for the story itself, not one of my faves of the era but it's still a good watch. I imagine the Dalek's surprise appearance at the end would horrify an audience as they worked with The Master, I'm really surprised it hadn't happened before this point.
I haven't watched the documentary, but I've read what Pertwee wrote about him in I Am the Doctor. Apparently he was afraid of his very shadow, terrified of heights, water, almost anything. But he was always a trouper and faced his fears for the sake of the show. And the gentlest chap you could have wanted to know.
The worst six parters (Colony, Armageddon, Invasion of Time) try to tell one story over six episodes, and end up wanging in a ton of padding in the middle. It ends up boring and long winded.
The best six parters are the ones that keep adding new stuff to the story, so that the story ends in a totally different place from where it started. Frontier does this really well,, and has plenty of colour and excitement along the way, with lots of twists and turns and lots of new scenarios.
On the whole, I reckon the seven parters are generally better than the sixes because that extra episode forces the writers to do something different. They can't just pad the thing out with capture/escape stuff in the middle, and the extra episode means extra imagination has to be used. A six parter feels like neither one thing nor t'other, and most writers struggle to have enough story to go round.
Ideally, four parts is the ideal length for DW.
You should watch the RD documentary if you can.
Terrance Dicks does actually cast doubt on Pertwee's often quoted tale of him being scared of the water in The Sea Devils. I won't say too much about it until you watch it, but it's an interesting take on that particular story.
It's amazing just how many roles Delgado did before he ever played The Master. He even starred alongside Patrick Troughton on a couple of films!
I never expected to love this story but watched it twice and really do!. It reminded me in the first episode so much of Blakes Seven and what I mean is it has planets, deep space, political wrangling and decent enemies and I love that . Its 'space opera' but I love the scope of it moving from one place to another.
You get a sense of a real universe, and a culture within each place and the President and her general and the Draconians are well fleshed out as characters. All the characters from the court of the Draconians, The prison on the moon and the Orgons have their quirks but they are well written.
I agree with so many of your comments Daveyboy. It is sad about it being Roger Delgado's last story. Its not my very favourite master story ( I think I like him in Sea Devils or the Daemons probably best ) but there are bits of the later episodes in his nteractions with the Doctor which are really interesting. They are two equals but the Doctor is smarter!
I love the fact that Jo Grant fools him with the longest conversation well monologue ever. Boy can she talk! and the failed attempt at hypnosis and their mental battle with the nursery rhymes is fantastic. Jo is growing up.
You are right about the ending which was a bit of an anti-climax for the Master as he just disappeared but I gather he ending was re-edited as Barry Letts as he wasn't happy with the directors cut. But I would definetely rewatch this story if I had a leisurely afternoon.
Have to agree that The Doctor/Master scenes are the best in this story. The Daemons is my fave story to feature Delgado's Master, but he was good in all of them.
As for Jo, I think her character development wouldn't go amiss in the New series. I like the way she matured during her last series in the show leading upto her departure. Though I liked the fact she also remained characteristically chatty from start to finish!
This story seems to some up perfectly when people think of overlong classic stories which just involved the Doctor and his companion being locked up for long periods of time. I kept count and during the course of the adventure the Doctor and Jo are captured and locked up in 6 different prisons!
I did really like the Draconians though. A great design and nice to see an alien race depicted in a different way with quite a rich culture and history to tap into. It's surprising that they were never re-used, especially as they were one of Pertwee's favourites. I'd really like to see them re-appear in NuWho though. I think the effects team could work wonders re-modelling them in the style of modern Silurian's, with make and prosthetics.
Also a special shout out to the Delgado documentary on the DVD. It's nice to see how well loved he was amongst the cast and crew.
I often wonder where you would go with the Draconians if they were brought back in the new series. They're not really evil so you couldn't have them as invading planets and being villains etc.
I'm sure if they did come back, they would think of some clever way of writing them into a story.
Maybe having another fallout between Earth and Draconia would be the obvious answer.