The Hatstand Of Fatal Death

Every now and then, Doctor Who can make you proud to be a fan.

Frontios is really quite fine, a rare episode without a cringeworthy moment. The plot unfolds nicely between the regulars, and is set against a convincing and well-developed backdrop. Good script, good enough performances, and a pleasantly nasty and realistic scenario. The Tractators are simple but excellent monsters, and I wonder if the writer had a bad case of woodworm while writing. I've read complaints that they don't move very fast, but with gravity powers, why should they? They can wait for things to come to them!

I love the Doctor's worries that he can't interfere, and it's a shame they couldn't have explored this a bit more deeply. He's also noticably tougher on his companions, in a trend already observed on this blog. His mistep gamble in telling Plantagenet to gamble is excellent, as is his successful bluff of the Gravis. It's Turlough's finest hour, and there's really not much more I can say about it than solid, well rounded, fine from start to finish.

Oh, and there's an unfair death near the end. In fact, things are so marvellous that I noticed how lazy the dirction was. It always is. But it was glaringly obvious in Frontios because everything else was good. It showed up paticularly in the tenser, action scenes.

It also confirmed my conviction that the "overlit" Warriors of the Deep set is actually a nice contrast - Frontios is another dark, grungy industrial future, just like Androzani, Resurrection, Terminus and Earthshock.