The 5th Doctor finally finds his sense of humour...

Humour. Where would we be without it? Blackadder, The Goodies and Miranda have this in abundance. Mork from Ork swears by it. Frankie Boyle hasn't found its meaning yet.

And humour is one of the cornerstones of all good Doctor Who. Think of some of the most popular Doctors - Tom Baker, Patrick Troughton, David Tennant - their Doctors are known for quirky humour. A good chunk of the show's stories contain several killer funny lines that could slot comfortably in any comedy show.

Mind you, when we think of humour in Doctor Who, the 5th Doctor and Christopher HAMILTON Bidmead are not the first names to leap off the tongue. Peter Davison himself is the king of the DVD commentary, always chipping in with a sly wisecrack about any aspect of the story, but sadly he was never really allowed to display his wry humour in his tales. As for Bidmead, judging from the commentaries and interviews, he was none too impressed with the humour of the late 70s stories and made season 18 a bit of a bleak place to be.

So, interestingly, Frontios breaks the mould in that both the script and the Fifth Doctor are highly witty and quirky in tone. The story contains many amusing lines and concepts, while Doctor Number Five is unusually chipper with a nice line in funny one-liners. "As an invasion weapon, it's about as offensive as a chicken vol-au-vent," says The Doctor of the TARDIS when talking to Frontios' sceptical leaders. When about to be killed, The Doctor sarcastically says: "Oh, marvellous, you're going to kill me! What a finely-tuned response to the situation!" And then there's the amusing bit in which he tries to pass Teabag off as an android to the Gravis ("I got this one cheap because the walk's not right. And then there's the accent!")

"Peter Davison gets his teeth right into the script, making the most of the funny lines and crabby temper to deliver one of his very best performances"

Not only this, but the 5th Doctor is far more commanding than in recent stories. Despite his reluctance to intervene (since when has he become so obsessed with what the Time Lords think, though?), he still takes control of the situation, helping out with the wounded and also standing up to Plantagenet's accusations ("I think - and you did ask me what I think - I think your colony of Earth people is in grave danger of extinction"). For once, every facet of the 5th Doctor's personality - the crabbiness, the youthful heroics and the wry wisecracks - come together perfectly to create a three-dimensional character. Previous scripts hadn't really used Davison's Doctor so well, but Frontios caters for him very well indeed. And the actor gets his teeth right into the script, making the most of the funny lines and crabby temper to deliver one of his very best performances.

It's not only the Fifth Doctor who gets all the good lines. They're sprinkled liberally throughout the story, and show that Bidmead can do humour just as well as writers such as Robert Holmes or Douglas Adams. "Failure-proof technology!" beams Range, when asked about the colonists' spaceship. And when asked what went wrong, he simply shrugs: "It failed!" Besides this, Frontios is interestingly more of a straight-ahead action horror story, rather than a catalogue of abstract scientific concepts. Bidmead proves to be strikingly adept at writing this kind of story, and he hits the nail on the head when it comes to providing memorable shocks. The giant wood-lice type creatures. People being sucked into the ground. Dead corpses driving machines. Even Turlough gets to go nuts and foam at the mouth in cross-eyed terror.

And all of these concepts generally work very well. Let's take the Tractators first - they're generally memorable creatures, even if they are a bit slow to walk around. And also the Gravis' voice is deeply silly. But they're still well designed and have some cool weaponry at their disposal. The video-synthesised effects of their gravity beams are both unusual and skilfully achieved, especially for the cliffhanger to part two. Then there're their bizarre digging/excavation machines that are driven by dead corpses. In this case, one of their machines is first driven by the dead Captain Revere - it's the classic hook of drawing out the mystery of the whereabouts of Revere's corpse, after his body has vanished in the first few moments of part one. The reveal at the end of part three is both memorably grotesque and well thought-out. There's also the opportunity for another grisly end in part four when shouty Brazen becomes trapped in one of the machines and faces a whopping great blade that's going to chop him in two (or enmesh him at the very least). We never see this happen, but Davison's horrified expression at Brazen's offscreen agony does the job.

Kids also won't find much comfort in hapless characters being dragged through the earth - it's a simple effect, but it's classic horror movie stuff, and furthermore, there's something rather bleak in the way in which the scruffy Retrogrades just abandon the rather pointless Cockerill to his fate. It's only when the Tractators are distracted from pulling him under that he's able to walk free and be revered as a minor celebrity for two minutes.

"You can tell that after the ennui of his last couple of stories, Mark Strickson was itching to get some more meaty material"

As for Turlough's magnificently OTT panic attack, well, generally Mark Strickson does a fine job, and you can tell that after the ennui of his last couple of stories, he was itching to get some more meaty material. It's generally a convincing turn from Strickson, even though he does just go a little too far with the rolling eyes and foaming at the mouth. After all, the Tractators aren't that wet-your-pants scary. Overall, though, Frontios fits in perfectly with season 21's aim of providing more thrills, spills and chills for the under-10s.

It's also notable for having an extremely well-written script. Part of the problem with some of the 80s stories is that they lack believable societies and characters. Only two stories ago, Warriors Of The Deep failed to present a realistic scenario, and stories such as Arc Of Infinity or Time-Flight weren't much cop either. Frontios though presents a struggling society that's almost on the brink. With Captain Revere gone, command is passed on to the young, inexperienced Plantaganet, a fey youth who isn't taken seriously enough on account of his lack of authority. However, it's very much Make The Best Of What You Have, since without a leader, there will be anarchy. Plantaganet says as much himself, and even Brazen tries to affirm that the colonists look to him. Jeff Rawle may be better known for playing the ineffectual George in Drop The Dead Donkey (and Cedric Diggory's flop-haired, bawling father in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire), but his performance in Frontios is outstanding. It's a thoughtful, restrained turn that doesn't fall back on hammy parody, and is all the more effective for that.

"Altogether, it's easily Christopher Hamilton Bidmead's most accomplished script"

William Lucas and Lesley Dunlop are just as good as Range and his daughter Norna. Range makes for a good substitute companion, full of witty lines and comparitive restraint. When compared with the highly-strung Planatganet and Brazen, Range is very much the voice of reason, always attempting to diffuse the tension. Norna could have been the squealy damsel in distress, but she's very much her own woman, running to investigate the mystery and also standing up to the grizzly Retrogrades. In fact, the only weak link among the cast is Peter Gilmore as the snarly Brazen, a 70s hangover, complete with inability to smile and a great big pudding bowl/sideburns helmet combo. If grumpy ham is your thing, then you'll probably find much to admire in Gilmore's rather over-egged performance.

Even the annoying Brazen (Cockerill's so forgettable, he doesn't count) doesn't ruin the experience of Frontios. Characters aside, Bidmead's put a lot of thought into the script, while weaving together a good old-fashioned monster tale. The idea of creating propaganda and hiding the truth with the Deaths Unnacountable and the deception over Revere's missing corpse still rings true today in a society that relies on spin and telling tales in the media. The idea of the destroyed TARDIS is a good one, although it's obvious that the time travellers will be reunited with their ship by the conclusion (I love the running gag of the lethal hatstand). Altogether, it's easily Bidmead's most accomplished script, and generally it's well served by the direction of...

Gusp! Ron Jones! Jones' previous assignments had been tepid to say the least, but finally, he cracks the case with Frontios. The production looks superb, with the effective shot of the crashed spaceship, David Buckingham's well designed interiors and - get this - moody lighting all working in unison to do justice to Bidmead's script. The only downer is Paddy Kingsland's incidental music which repeats the same bloody cues throughout all four parts.

Even so, Frontios continues the upward trend in sheer quality for the 21st season, and stands as one of the best - if underrated (where's the DVD?) stories of the Davison years.

John Bensalhia limbered up for this mammoth task with a full four-series review of Blake's 7, and writes professionally and recreationally all over the web. Check out his portfolio of work at Wordprofectors.

Check out John's previous Doctor Who review, The Awakening

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