Doctor Who Reactions: "Frontios" (REACTIONS)

Part One:

1)I wonder if Chris Chibnall watched this before he wrote "The Hungry Earth"?

2)"Not hat people, are you?"

3)"Knowledge has its limits - ours reaches this far, and no further." Really? What an un-Doctorish thing to say.

4)"Failure-proof technology." "What happened to it?" "It failed."

5)"As an invasion weapon, it's about as offensive as a chicken vol-au-vent."

6)Cliffhanger: "The TARDIS has been destroyed."

Part Two:

7)The deadly hatstand!

8)"The earth was hungry." Hmmm...

9)"Not a word to the Time Lords."

10)And the Tractators make a valiant bid to unseat the Monoids and Myrka on the "Goofiest Monster" list.

11)"The looting's started already." "It wasn't supposed to start until three!"

12)Strickson does "wigged-out" acting well. Turlough would've been a good Dark Shadows character.

13)Cliffhanger #2: The Tractators capture the Doctor!

Part Three:

14)"They are the appetite beneath the ground."

15)"Frontios buries its own dead."

16)"They need minds as well as bodies." Don't we all?

17)Cliffhanger #3: "It's Captain Revere."

Part Four:

18)"I am...the Gravis." I thought the Gravis was Paul?

19)"Frontios is completely outside of our sphere of influence." Really? Whose sphere of influence is it in, then?

20)"I got it cheap because the walk's not quite right. Then there's the accent, of course."

21)"The power of travel is beautiful, Doctor." It's got nothing on the power of cheese, though.

22)Cliffhanger #4: The TARDIS is being pulled towards the middle of the universe!

Overall: This was one that I hadn't remembered as a favorite - to be fair, it was better than I remembered it being. It suffers mostly from overambition - it might've come across as a much better story with a little more money behind it, and somewhat less woeful monsters.

Since I had a little time, I started watching again with the commentary track on. I made it to halfway through Part Three before saying "**** you, Saward!" out loud.

Turns out I was the first person to comment on this at the TARDIS Eruditorium blog last month, and made quite a few comments after that. So now, a month later, I actually caught up to it and watched it again. And, just for fun, and to be perverse, I decided to watch it in the sequence I thought it would have made more sense... immediately after THE FIVE DOCTORS. From the home of the Time Lords, to a place and a a planet Time Lords are supposedly not supposed to go...

New comments at the blog:

Alan:
"Wait, do you mean to say that WKRP, one of most brilliant sitcoms of its day, was driven into bad ratings by design?!? Whose idiotic scheme was that?!?"

I don't have a who, but I somewhat have a why. When Reagen got in office, there was suddenly the feeling that "topical" or "political" shows were no longer wanted, as they made people think too much. "THREE'S COMPANY" became the #1 rated show several years running. "LOU GRANT" stepped on too many people's toes. The fact is, "WKRP" was made by the same studio, "MTM", and also liked to sprinkle "important" topics in with its character humor. Like the episode about the radio preacher who used to be a pro wrestler, where CBS got so worried people might be offended they held it back until the middle of the rerun season (even though, if you look at the characters-- Bailey in particular-- you can see it was supposed to be run 3rd out of 24).

They kept moving WKRP around the schedule. But during the 4th season, it was in 4 different time-slots!! The last time they moved it, they confused and left behind just enough viewers who couldn't find it, that the ratings finally fell far enough to give them the excuse to can it. Whereupon, it went into the TOP 10 and stayed there the rest of the season. But too late-- they cancelled it, and they weren't gonna change their minds.

Just watched "FRONTIOS" again tonight. As always, the 2nd half just keeps getting better. There's a point where Mr. Range suddenly becomes likable (though no less cranky, and some of his dialogue even then seems contradictory from sentence to sentence). The moment the Tractators appear, suddenly, it's as if this is no longer a JNT imitation of DOCTOR WHO, but a "real" DOCTOR WHO story. And I just noticed after all this time-- Peter Davison spends the entire 2nd half DOING Patrick Troughton!!! How did I not see that before?

Re-assembling the TARDIS is crazy-- but mezmerizing. And The Gravis defeated himself. He could never have taken the TARDIS, because the moment he stepped into it, he would have gone comatose, as he did when he (somehow??) managed to reassemble it. I love how The Doctor pats him on the head like a beloved pet.

What's shocking is, all 3 of the leads are better and more watchable than usual in this. (Yes, even Tegan!) If they'd gotten writing this good in Season 20, maybe all 3 of them wouldn't have announced to JNT they were gonna quit at the same time!

Lesley Dunlop, who someone must have gone to incredible lengths to make look unattractive in this, would return in "THE HAPPINESS PATROL".

Replies

Doctor Hmmm? June 15, 2011 at 9:28am

Since I had a little time, I started watching again with the commentary track on. I made it to halfway through Part Three before saying "**** you, Saward!" out loud.

I haven't bought this DVD yet, but (based on past experience) I'm sure that took the patience of a saint.
The Baron June 15, 2011 at 9:34am

That's number two on the list of "Things you are liable to hear me say out loud if you come over and watch DVDs with me", right after "Schiavone, you moron!"
Doctor Hmmm? June 15, 2011 at 10:45am

I'll remember that for the next time I come over to watch DVDs with you.
Jeff of Earth-J June 20, 2011 at 8:35am

"Knowledge has its limits - ours reaches this far, and no further." Really? What an un-Doctorish thing to say.

"Not a word to the Time Lords."

That’s what I found most interesting about this story: that the Time Lords themselves had apparently set a limit on how far into the future they were allowed to go. It’s interesting that soon after the Time War, First the Ninth Doctor then the Tenth began pushing that envelope further and further.

Strickson does "wigged-out" acting well. Turlough would've been a good Dark Shadows character.

This morning I started listening to the new Dark Shadows audio drama “The Creeping Fog” which features Matthew Waterhouse (uh, not as Adric, obviously).

“Frontios” not one of my favorite stories, not even one of my favorite Fifth Doctor stories. There seems to be a real push to complete the Fifth Doctor era lately. 19 down, one to go: (“The Awakening,” July 12).
Jeff of Earth-J June 20, 2011 at 10:47am

I finally get the bit about the glasses in the "You're my Doctor" scene between the Tenth and the Fifth. "When did the Fifth Doctor ever wear glasses?" I thought. Now I know.
The Baron June 20, 2011 at 10:52am

He wore them a couple of other times early on - supposedly Janet Fielding gave him a hard time about them, which is why he didn't wear them much.
Henry R. Kujawa May 17, 2012 at 11:06pm

Turns out I was the first person to comment on this at the TARDIS Eruditorium blog last month, and made quite a few comments after that. So now, a month later, I actually caught up to it and watched it again. And, just for fun, and to be perverse, I decided to watch it in the sequence I thought it would have made more sense... immediately after THE FIVE DOCTORS. From the home of the Time Lords, to a place and a a planet Time Lords are supposedly not supposed to go...

New comments at the blog:

Alan:
"Wait, do you mean to say that WKRP, one of most brilliant sitcoms of its day, was driven into bad ratings by design?!? Whose idiotic scheme was that?!?"

I don't have a who, but I somewhat have a why. When Reagen got in office, there was suddenly the feeling that "topical" or "political" shows were no longer wanted, as they made people think too much. "THREE'S COMPANY" became the #1 rated show several years running. "LOU GRANT" stepped on too many people's toes. The fact is, "WKRP" was made by the same studio, "MTM", and also liked to sprinkle "important" topics in with its character humor. Like the episode about the radio preacher who used to be a pro wrestler, where CBS got so worried people might be offended they held it back until the middle of the rerun season (even though, if you look at the characters-- Bailey in particular-- you can see it was supposed to be run 3rd out of 24).

They kept moving WKRP around the schedule. But during the 4th season, it was in 4 different time-slots!! The last time they moved it, they confused and left behind just enough viewers who couldn't find it, that the ratings finally fell far enough to give them the excuse to can it. Whereupon, it went into the TOP 10 and stayed there the rest of the season. But too late-- they cancelled it, and they weren't gonna change their minds.

Just watched "FRONTIOS" again tonight. As always, the 2nd half just keeps getting better. There's a point where Mr. Range suddenly becomes likable (though no less cranky, and some of his dialogue even then seems contradictory from sentence to sentence). The moment the Tractators appear, suddenly, it's as if this is no longer a JNT imitation of DOCTOR WHO, but a "real" DOCTOR WHO story. And I just noticed after all this time-- Peter Davison spends the entire 2nd half DOING Patrick Troughton!!! How did I not see that before?

Re-assembling the TARDIS is crazy-- but mezmerizing. And The Gravis defeated himself. He could never have taken the TARDIS, because the moment he stepped into it, he would have gone comatose, as he did when he (somehow??) managed to reassemble it. I love how The Doctor pats him on the head like a beloved pet.

What's shocking is, all 3 of the leads are better and more watchable than usual in this. (Yes, even Tegan!) If they'd gotten writing this good in Season 20, maybe all 3 of them wouldn't have announced to JNT they were gonna quit at the same time!

Lesley Dunlop, who someone must have gone to incredible lengths to make look unattractive in this, would return in "THE HAPPINESS PATROL".

This reply was deleted.