Doctor Who has always had a bit of a mixed time with space opera. "The Daleks' Master Plan" goes for epic in the sense of 'really rather long' and gets bits right, while "The Space Pirates" is rarely mentioned in polite company. Aside from those, it's a sub-genre the show rarely troubled. As such, "Frontier in Space" is a bit of a change from invasions and the like, though it dips into the cosmic diplomacy seen in "Curse of Peladon".

Malcolm Hulke's script succeeds in conveying the scale of a galactic cold war, with space travel shown to be viable, but still time consuming and dangerous. Both the future Earth and Draconia are given some detail, though not seeing much beyond the higher echelons of government on either side is unfortunate. That said, when the opportunity comes along (most notably with the two cargo ship crewmembers in the first episode), Hulke shows himself to be a master of creating believable characters. The brief sketching of the activists imprisoned on the Moon (rather clumsily, members of the 'Peace Party') contrasts nicely with the charming President, hinting that all is not well on the planet. The Draconians have also had some thought put into them, with hints at a broader culture and great effort to contrast human xenophobia about 'The Dragons' with the less sensationalist reality.

However, the actual storyline is riddled with problems. It feels like The Doctor and Jo spend pretty much all of the running time either being captured or in the custody of one of the three factions. It's textbook padding. Then there's that they spend so much time pleading with the authorities that all's not well, and then it seems all they need to do is explain a third party is using a sonic device to engineer the situation, and everyone believes them. The Hell?

The biggest problem is that this story needs to lead on to "Planet of the Daleks". Not exactly Hulke's fault, but it doesn't make "Frontier" any less frustrating. The diplomatic plot is junked very suddenly and there's a muddled final ten minutes contrived to set up the following story, which seems a little unnecessary, leaving loose ends left, right and centre.

It's a shame, really, as "Frontier" starts off very well, and has a lot going for it. Roger Delgado is on absolute top form, once again providing the antidote to Pertwee's overblown Doctor. The dry wit is superb, though, especially when he's transporting The Doctor back to his base, turning down the volume on the monitors so he doesn't have to listen to Jo's babble, kicking back and reading 'War of the Worlds'. When did Pertwee ever do anything that Doctorish? He's too busy banging on about Day-Glo spotted horses and other embarrassing garbage. But this is the problem... The Master is too much later-era Spike to The Doctor's Xander, more of an anti-hero than a villain. At least, this is what his characterisation and general presentation is telling us; the storyline is that he's trying to trigger a massive intergalactic war (this week, anyway - substitute whatever his nominal plan is in any other Baz 'n' Tel production) which would cost millions of lives. This clashes badly. Once again Delgado is at his charming best when 'in-character' as the commissioner, trying to prise the Doctor away from the Earth authorities. Less commendable are any scene the two characters share, where they seem to be showing off to Jo rather than sort the other one out ("Frontier" has a bumper crop of sub-Bondian let-offs for the hero when he's at the villain's mercy). There's no tangible danger, however many times the storyline calls for it.

All that said, Pertwee puts a bit of effort in (the move outside of the stale UNIT stories often did this in his last couple of years - witness the improvement shown in "Carnival of Monsters" or "The Time Warrior", for instance), though he's still undeniably smug, and let down by some preposterous dialogue. At least the character is shown to be resourceful and incisive for the most part - the only person he gets preachy to is General Williams, who deserves it. It's most worrying, however, that once away from the prison colony, The Doctor seems to lose all interest in the totalitarian Earth government's policies, preferring to butter up the President. Jo's not bad either, especially early on as she checks out the cargo ship (which is reminiscent of Ace's 'practical' in "Ghost Light"). She overcooks the scenes in the Master's ship, but quite what else Manning could do with such a sequence is beyond me. Jo sadly becomes a bit lost in the mix in the last two episodes, largely functioning as bait.

The thing's pretty well made as well. While the modelwork is nothing to write home about, the costumes are pretty good, with the Draconians looking appropriately regal. The big surprise is Paul Bernard's direction. In "Day of the Daleks" it's pretty difficult to tell whether he's alive or not, but here his work is canny, especially the imaginative shooting on MOMI's concrete walkways.

Overall, "Frontier in Space" is an example of wasted potential, as the muddled ending undoes two-plus hours of solid work, sacrificing the chance to realise its' possible quality by the production team's insistence at creating a 12-part storyline from two largely-unconnected 6-part stories. It doesn't help that "Planet of the Daleks" was utter rubbish either.

Review written: 18/10/06
"Frontier in Space" VHS @ Amazon.co.uk