Unofficial Fandom 50: Frontios [4/50]
Mar. 1st, 2026 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespirit[I wrote this with about 0 brain something like 2 months ago. But I was feeling like posting one of my drafts and I just realised belatedly that Chris Bidmead had died in August. Or possibly just found out and was shocked for a second time, who knows, it's terrible how much I forget. But I do love his DW era very much and while he lived to a good age, I am still sorry to hear it - he brought so much to the show & was a rare DW script editor who was genuinely interested in SFF* as a genre, which showed in a whole bunch of scripts commissioned by him, which are like any of the other eras - even if a whole set of them then had the misfortunate to be made by the next script editor who Did Not Get Them at all. This serial is actually one he wrote later for his successor's rather more action/dark orientated era (and said successor, Eric Saward, Did Not Get this one either), but - I had prepared it earlier! And also: I love Frontios!]
I haven't much brain so I thought for this edition of the Unofficial Fandom 50 I would once again burble about a favourite classic Who serial, this time...
Frontios
tumblr gifset for pictures
What is it?
It is a four part Fifth Doctor serial (4x 25 mins; c. 1hr 25 minutes in total) from Season 21 (1984). Yes, it has Giant Woodlice.
The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) accidentally stray into the far future - so far that the Time Lords are forbidden to go there. They arrive at a tiny, struggling colony of survivors from Earth, who are under bombardment from an unknown enemy from space - except there's also something beneath them: the earth on Frontios is hungry...
Sometimes, as a DW fan, you love the unloved serial; sometimes you adore the fan favourite - and sometimes you just love a decent one more than you can properly justify or exactly explain, but we've all been there. I have a few of these, and Frontios is one, although honestly I think it belongs in the circle just outside of the all time greats personally, which is why I'm going to babble about it. (I mean, I realise, like everything, it does depend on a) taste and b) how people feel about lumbering giant woodlice).
(It's also the only DW serial where a member of the main guest cast had to be replaced at the last minute because the original actor, Peter Arne, had been murdered. This has no bearing on anything, other than the replacement being the excellent William Lucas, but I felt the need to mention it anyway). (All my DW classic faves do not involve someone dying or nearly dying irl, I promise).
What do I love about it?
It's about confronting buried/unspoken terrors & what you can do with gravity in SFF if you have some giant woodlice to hand, plus it's one of those forsaken, almost Shakespearean colonies classic Who loves to do (the youthful leader with his fragile hold on it is even called Plantagenet) and I am a sucker for such things. The guest cast is great - William Lucas, Lesley Dunlop, Peter Gilmore & Jeff Rawle, pre-Drop the Dead Donkey.
Penned by Five's original script editor, Chris Bidmead, Peter Davison shines here, and gets to pull out his brainy specs for the first time since Bidmead left; Tegan and Turlough are both really well used, with Turlough's buried race trauma demonstrating that having alien companions as well as earthlings on the TARDIS can lead to interesting options for storytelling.
It's dark and weird, fascinating and quotable, with excellent team!TARDIS banter. The hatstand gets a moment of glory. The TARDIS is disintegrated. The Doctor saves Tegan's life by being really insulting to her. "Frontios buries its own dead."
Basically, I love weird colonies, I love strange ideas, I love this TARDIS team, I love the hatstand, I'm not at all put off by giant woodlice and: "Just tell them I came and went like a summer cloud." (Oh, Five. <3)
* Classic Who script editors (and producers) were assigned to the show by the BBC and did not always have a huge amount of choice about being offered the post and then being removed from it - it was just how the BBC worked at the time.
I haven't much brain so I thought for this edition of the Unofficial Fandom 50 I would once again burble about a favourite classic Who serial, this time...
Frontios
tumblr gifset for pictures
What is it?
It is a four part Fifth Doctor serial (4x 25 mins; c. 1hr 25 minutes in total) from Season 21 (1984). Yes, it has Giant Woodlice.
The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) accidentally stray into the far future - so far that the Time Lords are forbidden to go there. They arrive at a tiny, struggling colony of survivors from Earth, who are under bombardment from an unknown enemy from space - except there's also something beneath them: the earth on Frontios is hungry...
Sometimes, as a DW fan, you love the unloved serial; sometimes you adore the fan favourite - and sometimes you just love a decent one more than you can properly justify or exactly explain, but we've all been there. I have a few of these, and Frontios is one, although honestly I think it belongs in the circle just outside of the all time greats personally, which is why I'm going to babble about it. (I mean, I realise, like everything, it does depend on a) taste and b) how people feel about lumbering giant woodlice).
(It's also the only DW serial where a member of the main guest cast had to be replaced at the last minute because the original actor, Peter Arne, had been murdered. This has no bearing on anything, other than the replacement being the excellent William Lucas, but I felt the need to mention it anyway). (All my DW classic faves do not involve someone dying or nearly dying irl, I promise).
What do I love about it?
It's about confronting buried/unspoken terrors & what you can do with gravity in SFF if you have some giant woodlice to hand, plus it's one of those forsaken, almost Shakespearean colonies classic Who loves to do (the youthful leader with his fragile hold on it is even called Plantagenet) and I am a sucker for such things. The guest cast is great - William Lucas, Lesley Dunlop, Peter Gilmore & Jeff Rawle, pre-Drop the Dead Donkey.
Penned by Five's original script editor, Chris Bidmead, Peter Davison shines here, and gets to pull out his brainy specs for the first time since Bidmead left; Tegan and Turlough are both really well used, with Turlough's buried race trauma demonstrating that having alien companions as well as earthlings on the TARDIS can lead to interesting options for storytelling.
It's dark and weird, fascinating and quotable, with excellent team!TARDIS banter. The hatstand gets a moment of glory. The TARDIS is disintegrated. The Doctor saves Tegan's life by being really insulting to her. "Frontios buries its own dead."
Basically, I love weird colonies, I love strange ideas, I love this TARDIS team, I love the hatstand, I'm not at all put off by giant woodlice and: "Just tell them I came and went like a summer cloud." (Oh, Five. <3)
* Classic Who script editors (and producers) were assigned to the show by the BBC and did not always have a huge amount of choice about being offered the post and then being removed from it - it was just how the BBC worked at the time.
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Date: 2026-03-01 09:28 pm (UTC)Oh, we so do. For me it's "Battlefield." <3 <3
(All my DW classic faves do not involve someone dying or nearly dying irl, I promise).
Which "Battlefield" also does, IIRC. Very glad Sophie did not in fact drown to death!
Anyway, it's been aaaaaages since I've seen "Frontios," but I remember liking it well enough, woodlice and all. I also seem to remember it inspiring me to buy a hatstand, back in the day. :)
Possibly I'm due for a rewatch of some 5th Doctor episodes sometime soonish.
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Date: 2026-03-02 02:37 pm (UTC)True! Perhaps all great Classic DW came at the cost of death or near-death? 0_o (Let's hope that's not true...) Battlefield is a good one, too! <3
also seem to remember it inspiring me to buy a hatstand, back in the day.
Aww, that's wonderful. I feel like this post was worthwhile just to know that. Did you use it, or perhaps you weren't a hat person, either? XD If so, I hope you found some unsuspecting future colonists to threaten with it, and then gift it to.
Possibly I'm due for a rewatch of some 5th Doctor episodes sometime soonish.
*nods* Always a good time for some DW rewatching.
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Date: 2026-03-02 03:42 pm (UTC)(Which is currently standing by the door and bedecked with two hats, two jackets, a pullover and a collection of shopping bags.)
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Date: 2026-03-03 09:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-02 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-01 09:39 pm (UTC)That does sound neat. I am sorry you lost its writer.
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Date: 2026-03-02 02:51 pm (UTC)Thank you! He only wrote 3 himself (this one, Logopolis, about entropy, & Castrovalva, based on an M C Esher drawing & recursion), but he oversaw one of the most imaginative and SF-nal eras of the show, and that was absolutely down to him - the classic SF idea of Full Circle, the amazing dreamlike weirdness of Warrior's Gate, the SF fable/fairy tale that is Keeper of Traken, Kinda & Snakedance (always present on people's top lists of serials), and while the next script editor did not appreciate this kind of thing, Bidmead nevertheless appreciated Saward's own abilities, bringing him into the series with The Visitation and Earthshock. He was rather entertainingly critical of New Who later (it does have very little time for sitting around thinking about high-concept SF, lol), but he inspired many of its future writers, including Steven Moffat, whose favourite era is this one. He also brought the character of Tegan to life & so I owe him (along with Janet) for that too, as I love her a lot. I probably should, when I'm a little better, look into what else he did sometime now that I've finally seen s18 myself.
Should irl ever allow such things again one day (*hugs*) I feel sure you would appreciate a lot of his era's Who very much too. <3
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Date: 2026-03-01 10:00 pm (UTC)I thought the name Peter Arne sounded familiar, and the fact of his murder. I think I’m remembering him from The Avengers.
What is Unofficial Fandom 50, btw?
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Date: 2026-03-02 07:10 pm (UTC)He's in "Colony Three" (1964), an episode of Danger Man which memorably plays like a dry run for The Prisoner. When younger he also scammed Mary Renault, so he lived an incredibly weird life.
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Date: 2026-03-02 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-03 09:57 am (UTC)Ha, yes, that is a good one! Lots going on, as you say, and also a delight in many places. If you can't look past an unconvincing dinosaur/woodlouse to appreciate the good stuff, what are you doing here? XD
What is Unofficial Fandom 50, btw?
Well, there's a challenge called Fannish 50 and another identical one called Fandom 50 and one is a comm and one is hosted from someone's journal & they both exist and run yearly, and the Unofficial Fandom 50 is where I gave up worrying about which one was which, whether or not I wanted the fuss of signing up or trying to do it in a year, and just said, I will do an Unofficial Fandom 50. Which will be me making posts where I explain the things I like, plus one misguided DW manifesto. This will be fun for me and hopefully make things less baffling for people who friend me here, but I can't really guarantee that. XD
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Date: 2026-03-04 04:09 pm (UTC)Well, QUITE. Personally I admire the resourcefulness of low budget special effects and everyone should be able to suspend disbelief for the sake of good storytelling. (I find unconvincing worldbuilding much more of a dealbreaker than a plastic monster or a painted backdrop.) It’s theatre!
there's a challenge called Fannish 50 and another identical one called Fandom 50 and one is a comm and one is hosted from someone's journal & they both exist and run yearly
Gosh, how exhausting. I simply can’t imagine that kind of dedication, either in terms of schedule or in terms of being able to keep both challenges distinct. Your approach sounds much more manageable and enjoyable.
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Date: 2026-03-04 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-01 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-02 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-02 09:34 am (UTC)Even with all the wonderful incarnations we got thanks to New Who, Fivey is still my all time favourite Doctor, and Frontios one of my favourite Fifth Doctor adventures, rivaled only by Kinda and Caves of Androzani, for exactly the reasons you mentioned:
Penned by Five's original script editor, Chris Bidmead, Peter Davison shines here, and gets to pull out his brainy specs for the first time since Bidmead left; Tegan and Turlough are both really well used, with Turlough's buried race trauma demonstrating that having alien companions as well as earthlings on the TARDIS can lead to interesting options for storytelling.
It's dark and weird, fascinating and quotable, with excellent team!TARDIS banter. The hatstand gets a moment of glory. The TARDIS is disintegrated. The Doctor saves Tegan's life by being really insulting to her. "Frontios buries its own dead."
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Date: 2026-03-03 10:20 am (UTC)Aww, well, he is a good choice! Seven was my first, and remains my favourite, but it is soooo hard to choose between a lot of the rest, and Five is right up there. Peter is, I think, a really underrated, understated, brilliant actor, too. Also, excellent top picks! I'm not sure what would be my top 3, because there is also Enlightenment and Earthshock and Snakedance, but, yeah, those would all be contenders for my top Five era trio, too. So good and so different, all of them!
<3<3<3
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Date: 2026-03-04 09:20 am (UTC)Peter is, I think, a really underrated, understated, brilliant actor, too.
Absolutely!
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Date: 2026-03-02 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-02 02:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-02 02:53 pm (UTC)Isn't there B7 prop recycling too?
I haven't watched 'Frontios' in ages. I remember it had good ideas but the woodlice looked a bit rubbish, not an unusual occurrence with DW monsters!
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Date: 2026-03-03 10:24 am (UTC)<3 Oh, I'm sorry for the accidental 40 year old murder shock, though! They used to mention it in DWM every time they talked about Frontios so I think of it as a thing everyone knows, even if people don't necessarily remember who got murdered.
Isn't there B7 prop recycling too?
Oh, yes! The Federation soldier helmets. Very disturbing and quite plausible implications for the future of earth...
I haven't watched 'Frontios' in ages. I remember it had good ideas but the woodlice looked a bit rubbish, not an unusual occurrence with DW monsters!
If we were going to be put off by unconvincing giant insects, we really should just choose a different fandom. XD (Not B7, either, obviously.)
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Date: 2026-03-03 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-02 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-03 10:24 am (UTC)