Friday, 16 January 2015

(611) Frontios - Part 3

The good form that this story seems to be going through continues with this episode. I haven’t been this surprised with a story since Kinda. The thing I didn’t mention was that the pink effect used in the cliffhanger and in this reprise does look rather dated. It’s one of the few (maybe only) dud effect that the show has had. It’s good that Tegan gets to save the day when freeing the Doctor and Norna. The supporting characters continue to impress with Brazen being the standout performance. Norna is also a good character that could easily have become a companion after this story, that is how good Lesley Dunlop has been during this story. I also quite liked William Lucas as Range, his character has been consistently good.

The tractators don’t really shine in the early stages of this episode but once they start speaking then they seem to improve greatly. I like the voice used as it seems to mix well with the design. It would have been nice for them to be involved in the story before now because there is clearly a story behind them and it could have worked out quite well into the story. It makes the threat that they pose over the humans even greater and something to look forward to in the final episode.
We learn a bit more about Turlough’s madness. He has experienced them before on his home planet. At first I was quite unsure with how the tractators managed to cause any problems. Despite this its fair to say that this is definitely Turlough’s episode as he gives another superb performance. Even though she’s not on the same level as Turlough, Tegan has one of her better episodes but I don’t think that she is given a great deal to do so it shows how hard Janet Fielding is working to make something out of nothing.

The appearance of Captain Revere is the cliffhanger which is lacking on drama but I like the visual and that is the main thing about this episode is that it lacks something dramatic there is still something great to watch. I do think that there is a lot for the final episode to achieve and I hope that it doesn’t disappoint because so far the work that has been done has been really impressive and I am perhaps more impressed that it’s a Christopher H Bidmead script more than anything.

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