Frontier in Space

We have a prime example in "Frontier in Space" of a story that is superbly enjoyable if sampled in a certain way, but which becomes something far less palatable if mistreated. Let's be honest here - "Frontier" is six episodes of excitingly directed chase, capture and monsters done the way Doctor Who did these things best. Poured into this delicious concoction we have Ogrons, the Master, Draconians, Daleks and even the orange bag monster. Yet how many of us have actually watched "Frontier in Space" as it was intended, one episode a week, on consecutive Saturday teatimes?

They ought to repeat Doctor Who more. As I recounted recently, watching "The Sea Devils" for the first time was one of my most enjoyable first-time Who viewing experiences, because it didn't matter that the story didn't largely advance much each week, or that whole episodes are used up on a contrived jaunt to showcase some borrowed military hardware. I even missed the first five minutes of one episode when they decided to show it earlier, thus completing my authentic viewing ritual. I'd imagine "Frontier" works the same way, only more so. As six discrete episodes of Doctor Who, it's flawless. There are space ships, raids on cargo vessels, doubting Earth presidents, monsters in disguise and some vintage Pertwee ham. On top of this, it's Roger Delgado's best, most lovable performance. The problem with "Frontier" is that it doesn't only exist on six Saturday evenings in the early seventies any more, it's become part of a larger chronology, and one with which it sits ill at ease with.

The problem is largely with Part 6, which doesn't so much finish as stop. The characters we have acquired on our quest just disappear, the Doctor forgets about the Daleks and next week we're off on another jolly Terry Nation-a-thon to discover a new and completely different plot. Even the Master's final appearance is buggered up as he appears to disappear mid-scene. It's like watching Jason and the Argonauts to discover they've forgotten to film the bit where he finds the Golden Fleece. Or going to see "The Fellowship of the Ring".

The question is, does "Frontier" lose all it's acclaim because it was scuppered by Terry Nation's insistence on re-writing "The Daleks" instead of finishing it off properly? Do you have to discount the pleasure gained from reading a Lewis Carroll if you get to the end to discover the final page has been torn out? I remember the days when we were told that "Frontier" and "Planet" were made as a twelve-parter to rival "The Daleks Masterplan". If this is true, and not just another Doctor Who "fact" invented by "J" Jeremy Bentham for Peter Haining's "A Celebration" (and to be fair it seems the sort of thing Barry Letts might have ordered, in the Tenth Anniversary Year and drunk on the success of "The Three Doctors") then it's something else to blame good old Terry for. But once more some blame must lay with our modern viewing methods; if Doctor Who was just something that was on every week, and not an experience you bought boxed up in WHSmiths, then only one of these six episodes is spoiled. And how much the worse are we for the disappearance of the plot after having sat through three hours of a very repetitive journey there?

"Frontier" remains one of the finest examples of Pertwee-era Who. It's exciting, colourful, well designed and it tosses in John Woodnutt in a masked cameo role. But for maximum enjoyment, watch it one episode at a time, preferably with a week in between. And don't expect the arrival of Terry Nation at the end of Part 6 to herald fantastic plot revelations, justice against the major protagonists, or a well-rounded end to the story. Because it won't.