In some ways, Peter Davidson represented Doctor Who as a British public schoolboy- youthful, eager and idealistic, if somewhat inexperienced, and (like most public schoolboys) mad on cricket. I liked his interpretation of the role, although I must admit that was not always so keen on his companions; of the two who appear here Turlough was not very memorable, and although Janet Fielding's Tegan was often courageous and resourceful, if hot-headed, her rather shrill voice did tend to grate a bit. During this season the Doctor had a third companion, the robot Kamelion, but he does not appear in this serial, with no explanation being given.
The TARDIS lands on the planet Frontios at some date far in the future. We learn that the Earth has been destroyed by some unspecified catastrophe and that the planet is home to a colony of humans, some of the last humans surviving anywhere in the galaxy. (The name "Frontios" may have been chosen for its similarity to "frontier", the planet being mankind's "last frontier"). The colonists are suffering from a series of meteorite showers which they believe are being orchestrated by an unknown enemy who resent their presence on the planet. To make matters worse, several prominent colonists, including their leader Captain Revere, have mysteriously disappeared.
The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough decide not only to investigate but also to provide medical assistance to the colonists injured by the meteorite storm. In so doing, however, the Doctor is conscious that he is violating a cardinal rule of the Time Lords against intervening in the affairs of other planets. (It must be said that this so-called rule was not always prominently featured in earlier episodes of the programme; Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor, for example, seemed to spend most of his time intervening in the affairs of Earth, with the full blessing of the Time Lords, by preventing it from being conquered or destroyed by some threat or other).
The serial also introduced a new race of enemies for the Doctor in the form of the Tractators, underground creatures who resemble giant bipedal woodlice and an advanced technology which involves immense powers to control gravity. This is to date the only serial in which the Tractators have appeared; there was to have been a sequel in season 23 involving Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor, but this was cancelled. We do, however, learn that the Tractators were once responsible for invading Turlough's home planet. (Despite his Irish-sounding name, he actually comes from an alien world).
"Doctor Who" serials, despite the science fiction format, often had relevance to earthly politics. "The Sun Makers", for example, has been taken as a satire on the taxation policies of the 1974-79 Labour Government, while "The Mark of the Rani" appears to comment on the 1984- 85 miners' strike, which was in progress when it was first broadcast. "Frontios" perhaps has a wider political significance. It can be seen as a portrait of a society under extreme stress, under attack but with no means of knowing who is attacking it and no means of striking back against its attackers. It is perhaps not surprising that the planet has evolved an authoritarian system of government; Revere's son, Plantagenet, has assumed leadership from his father without any popular election. (His name is significantly derived from the longest-ruling dynasty in British history). The government is not only authoritarian but also paranoid; the Doctor and his companions are initially taken for enemy agents and are lucky to avoid execution.
This, however, does not mean that leaders of Frontios are the villains of the piece. This serial does not really deal in moral absolutes; even the Tractators, except perhaps for their leader, the Gravis, are not "evil" in the sense that, for example, the Daleks are evil. Plantagenet and his second-in-command, Security Chief Brazen, have not imposed a dictatorship because they are selfishly power-hungry but because they can see no other way to preserve order in a society under threat. The "retrogrades", those humans on Frontios who reject the authority of their leaders, do so out of fear or self-interest, not because they have a vision of some better form of government. When confronted with danger, Plantagenet and Brazen prove themselves to be men of courage, and once the danger from the Tractators has been removed, Plantagenet emerges as an enlightened ruler. This political theme, with its subtext that fear- even justified fear- can be a corrosive enemy of freedom, makes this one of the more interesting "Doctor Who" serials.
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