Frontier in Space Episode Six

The one where the Master reveals who he's been working for all along...

As predicted, Jo's fear centres throw up an image of a terrifying Drashig from Carnival of Monsters, as well as a rather benign Mutt from The Mutants and a somewhat sinister Sea Devil from, er... The Sea Devils. What, no Gell Guards, Jo? Still, it's lovely to have a menagerie of monsters!

Back on Earth, the people are restless and calling for war to be waged on Draconia. We see this communicated via telecast by a particularly irate Congressman Brook, leader of the Opposition, who was mentioned by the futuristic Trevor McDonald back in episode 1. The President of Earth and her pastel chiffon dresses are in trouble, and there's only one man who can forge peace before it's too late - Doctor Who (dressed as Miss Marple).

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?

Frontier in Space Episode Four

The one where the Master gets the Doctor out of prison...

It's such a nice twist that it's the Master who saves the Doctor from suffocation by pumping oxygen back into the airlock. For the Master wants the Doctor alive and well for his own purposes, yet to be revealed. It is mentioned that the Master has "employers", which is very Season 8. Who's employing him to stir up trouble between Earth and Draconia? And why? And what do his employers want with the Doctor?

The Master struggles at first to get the Doctor out of the penal colony, as the Governor places him into solitary confinement for an entire year as punishment for trying to escape. But the Master manages to bribe the Governor into letting him have the Doctor (I'm surprised he doesn't just hypnotise him), reeling off a string of trumped up felonies, including fraud, tax evasion, assault and battery, stealing a spaceship, failing to tax or insure said spaceship, and finally trespass! What's forgotten amid all this tongue-in-cheekery though is the fact the elderly Professor Dale is left in solitary confinement, presumably for the 12 months he's been sentenced to. And nobody - not least the Doctor - seems to care.

Frontier in Space Episode Three

The one where the Doctor is sent to a prison on the moon...

Malcolm Hulke really is taking the piss now, isn't he? After being locked up endless times throughout episodes 1 and 2, what's the first thing that happens to the Doctor and Jo in episode 3? They escape their Ogron kidnappers, only to be immediately apprehended by their former human captors - and locked up again! "The time has come for extreme measures," says General Williams. Yes, I agree - perhaps sack Malcolm Hulke?

I've barely mentioned General Williams so far, but he is played with glowering intensity by Michael Hawkins so well. On the surface he's your typical brusque military boor, but there's a beautifully written conversation between Williams and the President which casts light on their relationship and softens the office politics somewhat. It seems the two were "friends once", and despite their opposing ideologies, she still trusts him, and he still respects her. It's a touching moment amid the political posturing, carried by two sensitive and talented actors.

Frontier in Space Episode Two

The one where the Doctor and Jo are locked up again and again and again...

It's frankly ridiculous how much of this episode the Doctor and Jo spend locked in a cell. They've already been incarcerated more than once in episode 1, but in this second episode they are banged up no fewer than four times! In fact, much of the episode is pointless as it merely recycles the same ideas for 25 minutes: the Doctor and Jo are accused of being spies, they insist they're not, and they're locked up. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam.

The one good thing about the episode is that it's a great showcase for the chemistry between Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning, whose scenes together are warm and endearing. Having the Doctor and Jo locked up so much slows the story right down to a crawl, but the time they spend together in jail is nice to watch because the two actors are so good together (I love Jo's "no need to push!" when the guard shoves the Doctor into her back).

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.