Episode #132 : Frontios

"Frontios buries its own dead."

Episode 132:    Frontios.
Companions:   5th Doctor, Tegan and Turlough.
Air Date:          26th January to 3rd February 1984.

The TARDIS is dragged down to the surface of the planet Frontios and apparently destroyed during a meteorite bombardment. The Doctor is forced to help the planet's human colonists - refugees from a doomed future Earth - and eventually discovers that their problems stem from an infestation of Tractators, burrowing insect-like creatures led by the intelligent Gravis.

Frontios is a story that I remember fondly from my childhood. Unfortunately it is not one that stands up to those childhood memories very well. I think I must have just been enamoured by the giant underground monsters. But it isn't a bad story and in fact is very watchable if you can ignore the appearance of the Tractators.

Turlough gets some limelight and does a nice mental breakdown when confronted with the Tractators. It appears that these creatures have been on his world and were a major problem. About time we got some backstory from this character.

Frontios is a story that again plays into my Time Lords continuity concern from Arc of Infinity. TARDIS units are not supposed to be able to pass beyond Gallifrey current time and yet by the concern of the Doctor this story is set in the future beyond that barrier. We all know that the classic era of the show has limited continuity but by this time I expect the scriptwriters to have some guidelines to go by.

Again we are not looking at a bad story but unusually this one suffers from not having enough going on to fill out a four part story. Some of it simply drags especially in the middle. It is still entertaining but it needed fleshing out a little more. There is also an issue of what happened to Kamelion during this story but I we will never know.