Frontier in Space
Somewhere in the future, Earth's empire is expanding, and it has rubbed up against the empire of Draconia; noble reptillian bipeds who hold honour in high regard. After a war, a treaty is signed and both empires agree to stay out of each other's way in future. Suddenly out of nowhere each government begins to accuse the other of acts of piracy,a nd tensions begin to mount. The Doctor and Jo happen upon an Earth freighter as it comes under attack, but they see a raiding party of Ogrons, the ape-like minions previously employed by the Daleks. The Earth crew, however, see them as Draconians, and the Doctor and Jo are accused of collaborating to aid these raids. The Doctor realizes that there is a third party at work attempting to stir up a war for their own reasons; the Ogrons do not have the intelligence or resources to do this alone. And as the Doctor investigates, the Master appears on the scene, proving that there is evil at work. But as the Ogrons are working for the Master, the Master himself is in league with someone else who would see the two empires destroy each other and then move in to conquer what was left...
As the future history of Earth goes, this adventure would predate the colonial decline seen in The Mutants by several hundred years, yet be somewhere around the same time as the expansion days described in Colony in Space. The Pertwee years of Doctor Who seem to be set either on Earth in present day where the UNIT continuity is maintained or in the future, painting a picture of the future in bits and pieces. The future history stories are not necessarily linked by plots but are set far enough apart that one can allow for changes in the Earth's status as a galactic power due to the passage of time in between the portrayed events. To actually try and draw some kind of link between everything is sheer folly, but that doesn't stop it from being fun at all.
Jon Pertwee once said that the Draconians were his favourite monster to work with because their costumes were a half mask, allowing the actor's real eyes and mouth to be seen moving when speaking, as opposed to other monsters where the masks covered everything. I like the Draconians myself because some time was spent developing their culture in the story, and alluding to the Doctor's previous (and unseen) encounters with them when he was granted the title of a Noble of Draconia. The Draconians are what the Silurians would probably have become if they had evolved further and developed space travel, if that is any kind of indicator as to the complexity of their society, although the Draconians answer to an Emperor, a position that is granted through a bloodline, and the Silurians refer everything to their council.
Did I like Frontier in Space? Yes. Mind you I did feel a few sequences were getting a bit long, like the Doctor and Jo being hauled in and out of prison cells for interrogations, and the Doctor's sentencing to the penal colony on the moon (maybe the same base used for the Gravitron now that weather was no longer controlled from there - see The Moonbase) could have been easily done somewhere else on Earth. Introducing the Master back into the season in episode 3 made the whole problem of a 6 part story seem less obvious, and there is a proper movement of story from episode to episode rather than a whole new script at the end of episode 4. But this story isn't necessarily all on it's own as the revelation of the Master's allies leads directly into the next adventure, Planet of the Daleks. Ooops I blew that surprise. Yes, the same tired threesome of Daleks that we running Earth from a closet in Day of the Daleks make their appearance halfway through episode 6, and then take off for their base to rally the troops to sweep into the warring galaxy and exterminate Humans and Draconians alike.
And speaking of Day of the Daleks. Yes, Dan, I know you liked it. BUT. The conclusion of that story closes the time loop that was its premise, the whole reason why the adventure was, if you will, a conclusion which would negate the future where the Daleks were in control of Earth, and thus get rid of the reasons why the guerillas came back in time to change the future, and pretty much ensure that the whole thing never happened anyways. So if that's true, how did the Doctor and Jo recognize the Ogrons and make specific mention of their past association with the Daleks? If I ever meet Terrance Dicks, the script editor for those years, I am going to ask him.
NEXT EPISODE : PLANET OF THE DALEKS
As the future history of Earth goes, this adventure would predate the colonial decline seen in The Mutants by several hundred years, yet be somewhere around the same time as the expansion days described in Colony in Space. The Pertwee years of Doctor Who seem to be set either on Earth in present day where the UNIT continuity is maintained or in the future, painting a picture of the future in bits and pieces. The future history stories are not necessarily linked by plots but are set far enough apart that one can allow for changes in the Earth's status as a galactic power due to the passage of time in between the portrayed events. To actually try and draw some kind of link between everything is sheer folly, but that doesn't stop it from being fun at all.
Jon Pertwee once said that the Draconians were his favourite monster to work with because their costumes were a half mask, allowing the actor's real eyes and mouth to be seen moving when speaking, as opposed to other monsters where the masks covered everything. I like the Draconians myself because some time was spent developing their culture in the story, and alluding to the Doctor's previous (and unseen) encounters with them when he was granted the title of a Noble of Draconia. The Draconians are what the Silurians would probably have become if they had evolved further and developed space travel, if that is any kind of indicator as to the complexity of their society, although the Draconians answer to an Emperor, a position that is granted through a bloodline, and the Silurians refer everything to their council.
Did I like Frontier in Space? Yes. Mind you I did feel a few sequences were getting a bit long, like the Doctor and Jo being hauled in and out of prison cells for interrogations, and the Doctor's sentencing to the penal colony on the moon (maybe the same base used for the Gravitron now that weather was no longer controlled from there - see The Moonbase) could have been easily done somewhere else on Earth. Introducing the Master back into the season in episode 3 made the whole problem of a 6 part story seem less obvious, and there is a proper movement of story from episode to episode rather than a whole new script at the end of episode 4. But this story isn't necessarily all on it's own as the revelation of the Master's allies leads directly into the next adventure, Planet of the Daleks. Ooops I blew that surprise. Yes, the same tired threesome of Daleks that we running Earth from a closet in Day of the Daleks make their appearance halfway through episode 6, and then take off for their base to rally the troops to sweep into the warring galaxy and exterminate Humans and Draconians alike.
And speaking of Day of the Daleks. Yes, Dan, I know you liked it. BUT. The conclusion of that story closes the time loop that was its premise, the whole reason why the adventure was, if you will, a conclusion which would negate the future where the Daleks were in control of Earth, and thus get rid of the reasons why the guerillas came back in time to change the future, and pretty much ensure that the whole thing never happened anyways. So if that's true, how did the Doctor and Jo recognize the Ogrons and make specific mention of their past association with the Daleks? If I ever meet Terrance Dicks, the script editor for those years, I am going to ask him.
NEXT EPISODE : PLANET OF THE DALEKS
Labels: Daleks, Jo Grant, The 3rd Doctor, The Master
posted by Sean Hoover @ 10:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home