Frontier in Space Episode Five

The one where the Doctor gains the Draconians as allies...

As this initially promising space opera slowly tries to get back on track, we travel to the planet Draconia and meet the Emperor, who does like to remind everybody that he is the Emperor as much as he can! He has an outspoken son whose ideas about intergalactic diplomacy are at odds with his father's, but the arrival of the Doctor puts a new spin on things. Because the Doctor's been there before...

It's always fun when the Doctor mentions adventures we've never seen, such as his earlier visits to Karfel, Dido or Dulkis, and here he says he helped the Draconians overcome a plague 500 years previously. He manages to convince the Draconian Emperor he is the same man by stating that his name is the Doctor and that he travelled in a ship known as the TARDIS. This is hardly convincing testimony, seeing as anybody could say they were the Doctor, and said TARDIS isn't present as proof. It's interesting the Doctor doesn't use his own description as evidence (a white-haired man in fancy dress, for example!), which could quite easily describe either his third or first incarnations, so perhaps that earlier visit to Draconia was by the Second Doctor?

It's a good job Jo is present as she, despite not being permitted to speak, gives a handy summary of the story so far - well, the story as it was left a couple of episodes ago before everything ground to a halt. All this diplomatic posturing is interrupted by the arrival of the Master's Ogron lackeys, who somehow manage to get past Draconian security and all the way into the Emperor's throne room, armed and dangerous.

After managing to convince the Draconian Emperor that the Earthmen he thought he saw attacking the throne room were actually Ogrons, a ship is dispatched to Earth so that the Doctor can try and convince the President that it is the Master to blame, not the Draconians. What the Doctor hadn't gambled on is the Master attacking their ship in transit. The Ogrons force their way aboard, steal away the Doctor's Ogron "evidence" and kidnap Jo into the bargain. During the struggle, I notice the Doctor picks up a gun and fires on an Ogron again, just as he did in Day of the Daleks. Are Ogrons the only form of life the Doctor dislikes enough to murder?

Collecting a new ship from Earth (following a scene in which General Williams' dislike of the Draconians is revealed as based upon one huge misunderstanding), the Doctor and friends travel to the planet of the Ogrons, which looks just like Omega's anti-matter world, and just like Solos, and just like Uxarieus. Just like a quarry, in fact.

Ahead of them, the Master tries to hypnotise Jo into setting a trap for the Doctor, but she rather amusingly resists his influence by filling her mind with nonsense, reciting nursery rhymes out loud. It's great to see the Master's usually effective tool made redundant by Humpty Dumpty!

In anger, he activates his perception-altering gadget, which targets the fear centres of the mind, and should, in effect, conjure up a Drashig, because previous evidence gives that they are her greatest fear. As it stands, we see nothing before the end titles crash in, and we're left with merely a frightened expression on Katy Manning's face. The cliffhangers for Frontier in Space are particularly weak.

Despite a bit of planet-hopping and a couple of shoot-outs, this fifth episode is just the latest in a line of underwhelming, pointless episodes in this serial. It's by far the weakest Malcolm Hulke has produced to date.

First broadcast: March 24th, 1973

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: I like Cynthia Kljuco's set design for the Draconian throne room.
The Bad: It's just more of the same nothingness, isn't it? It's a story frantic with emptiness.
Overall score for episode: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 23
Neck-rub tally: 13

NEXT TIME: Episode Six...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Three; Episode Four; Episode Six

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/05/frontier-in-space.html

Frontier in Space is available on BBC DVD as part of the Dalek War box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Frontier-Planet-Daleks/dp/B002KSA3T8