Frontier in Space Episode One

The one where the Doctor and Jo are mistaken for 'dragons'...

It's feels like too long since Doctor Who did a space opera, the last one being the largely missing The Space Pirates four years previously. Frontier in Space opens with a scene-setting info-dump which is as intriguing as it is clunky (and the incessant ticking on the soundtrack makes it quite difficult to discern), but it's great that Doctor Who is finally spreading its creative wings again after too long cooped up on Earth. Doctor Who is about infinite possibilities, and those possibilities were severely restricted by the Doctor's exile on Earth. It's time for the show to regain its imagination (and Carnival of Monsters was an admirable start to that!).

The modelwork of the spaceships is excellent, with not a wire or wobble in sight, and the whole conceit about people seeing things differently to what's actually there is very intriguing. Stewart see the Doctor and Jo as "dragons" (aka Draconians), while Jo sees Stewart as a Drashig (apparently it's the creature she fears the most - that last adventure really had an impact on her!). Everybody except the Doctor seems to be affected by the strange noise that fills the air.

The Draconians themselves are wonderfully well designed, with masks that allow the actors to emote fully but still present a totally alien appearance. Barbara Kidd's costumes for them are great too, reminiscent of Samurai warriors, and I can't help thinking that the Luxans from the sci-fi series Farscape owe a lot to the Draconians.

There's a lot of world (or empire) building in this episode from writer Malcolm Hulke, as we explore the state of the Earth and its expanding influence in the 26th century. The Earth is run by a world president, and it's great that the President of Earth is a woman. Not just any woman though, a mature woman, a sexy woman, and a woman of Eastern European descent. It's refreshing that Hulke puts a woman in charge of the world instead of a brusque male taskmaster (such as General Williams). It's also great to see a prominent actor of colour playing the newscaster, pre-empting Trevor McDonald as a news anchor by several years (McDonald started as an ITN reporter in 1973).

Mention is made once again of Earth being overcrowded, and it is hoped the creation of New Glasgow and New Montreal will alleviate the problem. Also, the rules on having children have been eased, allowing a couple (a beautifully non-gender specific word!) to have two children instead of just the one. There's also mention of riots in Tokyo and Belgrade, and trouble on the streets of Los Angeles and Helsinki. All this information fed into the script gives a more colourful, rounded picture of the setting all of this is taking place in. Hulke was always great at that.

The President (sadly, unnamed) is struggling with intergalactic relations with the Draconian empire, and a feeling of distrust is forming between the two. Earth claims its ships are being attacked by Draconian ships, and Draconia claims its ships are being attacked by Earth ships. The evidence seems irrefutable. But it's clear that somebody somewhere is messing with people's perceptions, making them see something different to the truth. And that is causing friction between two powerful and volatile empires.

The Draconians that Stewart and Hardy see boarding their ship are actually Ogrons, the simian mercenaries last seen serving the Daleks in Day of the Daleks. Director Paul Bernard makes a bit of a hash of their reveal by first showing them from behind where you can't see what or who they are, and when they are shown, it's very gloomy and unclear (Jo does name them out loud though).

The presence of the Ogrons instantly means the Daleks are probably behind all this, seeing as that's who they were working for last time. But the Doctor is rather too ready to discount that idea, as he says the Ogrons will work for anybody. True, but let's not lose sight of the fact this could very well be the Daleks, Doctor! I like how the production team seeded the return of the Ogrons by having one pictured in the miniscope in Carnival of Monsters (so does that mean we'll see the Cybermen soon too?).

This first episode does enough to intrigue the viewer and establish the basic facts of what's going on. It's a story about intergalactic diplomacy, politics and tensions, and somebody is fiddling with perception to presumably make things worse. On the face of it, it appears to involve the Ogrons, who may well be in the pay of their Dalek masters.

The cliffhanger is rubbish, with the Doctor and Jo held at gunpoint and branded traitors for allegedly helping the Draconians to board the Earth ship (and steal all the flour!). But nobody's in any real danger, we know that. It's another one of those awful 'false jeopardy' cop-outs. So far, I don't feel I've got a proper handle on this story. I've found out a lot, but it doesn't feel like it's settled down just yet.

First broadcast: February 24th, 1973

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The model spaceships are great, and credit also to Ralph Walton for some realistic lighting, which is often low and shadowy rather than the usual over-lit glare.
The Bad: The Ogron reveal should have been handled with a little more impact.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 22
Neck-rub tally: 13

NEXT TIME: Episode Two...

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