(610) Frontios - Part 2

I like the idea that the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are basically forced to live on an alien world. The idea also that they cant just get up a leave is also something that works well for me. The episode starts off well enough but seems to take an unexpected shift in tone (for about a minute). Turlough threatens the people with the coat stand because they believe that the coat stand is the thing that’s causing the trouble. Who says that Christopher H Bidmead can’t do comedy and is obsessed with being 100% scientific? Clearly the years have mellowed him.

The whole business of Plantagenet about to die is something that works quite well. It ends with the Doctor saving his life and Plantagenet starting to believe that the Doctor is there for good. I like how Plantagenet starts to act a bit strange just moments later when he involuntary rolls onto the ground. His falling into the ground which is similar to what was seen at the beginning of the previous episode is a bit of surprising thing. Plantagenet’s change in attitude would normally happen in a later episode so it’s a bit of a relief that it happened when it did I have also grown to like Brazen in this story. Peter Gilmore has a bit of a odd position in this story because he is clearly the strongest character in the serial but has to try and not outshine Plantagenet.

Norna and Turlough spend the episode together and go on a bit of an adventure where we are introduced to some slug looking creatures which Turlough names Tractators. For some reason this causes Turlough to have a bit of a nervous breakdown. This is perhaps the first time since the Guardian Trilogy ended that Turlough has shown any character development and its great to see Strickson get to do something other than just be in the background.  Even Janet Fielding seems to be a bit more active in this story. She is actually trying to piece things together.

The tractators don’t have the greatest start to a story. All they seem to do is wander around and then put some pick ray over the Doctor and forcing him to move next to Lorna. It’s not a particularly good cliffhanger by any means but I still enjoyed the episode and think that after two episodes there is still plenty to like. Christopher H Bidmead has managed to see that the show has moved in the short time that he has been away from the show and has developed his story telling skills. Two episodes in and I think that this is still a strong story and easily the best story of the season (so far).