342 Frontier in Space Episode Five

EPISODE: Frontier in Space: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 342
STORY NUMBER: 067
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 24 March 1973
WRITER: Malcolm Hulke
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.7 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Dalek War: Frontier in Space & Planet of the Daleks
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Fear breeds hatred, your Majesty. Fear is the greatest enemy of them all, for fear leads us to war."

The Master's ship lands on Draconia: The Master, Doctor & Jo are taken to the Emperor. The Doctor addresses the Emperor as a noble of Draconia as is his right due to the honour being conferred by the fifteenth Emperor due to his aid to the planet and accuses the Master of provoking war between the two worlds. A spaceship from Earth arrives with a delegation come to see the Emperor, but it's the Ogrons disguised by the hypnotic effect. They rescue the Master, but one of the "Earthmen" is killed and reverts to it's true Ogron form. The Emperor sends the Prince, Doctor & Jo with the Ogron captive to Earth in the Master's ship. The ship is attacked by the Ogrons rescuing their missing comrade and capturing Jo, before they are interrupted by the arrival of an Earth cruiser. The Doctor & Prince are taken to the Earth President who grants them help. General Williams overrides her, and ends up arguing with the Prince. It emerges that the General accidentally started the first Earth/Draconia war by opening fire on an unarmed ship that he thought was attacking him. A penitent General Williams agrees to help and lead the expedition to the Ogron planet. The Master has taken Jo to the Ogrons' planet where she and the Tardis form the bait for a trap for him. Jo resists the Master's hypnotic control so the Master subjects her to his fear device....

A pretty good episode this, with the Draconian court, an Ogron attack and finally people starting to listen to the Doctor.

The Doctor's "In" to the Draconian Emperor here is all based on a previous, unseen, visit to Draconia:

CAPTAIN: Majesty, I bring you the prisoners.
DOCTOR: May I have permission to address the Emperor?
EMPEROR: Wait!
PRINCE: This is an insult!
DOCTOR: My life at your command, sire.
PRINCE: How dare you address the Emperor in a manner reserved for a noble of Draconia?
DOCTOR: Ah, but I am a noble of Draconia. The honour was conferred on me by the fifteenth Emperor.
PRINCE: The fifteenth Emperor reigned five hundred years ago.
MASTER: Your Majesty, do not be taken in by this ridiculous story.
EMPEROR: Be silent! There is a legend among our people of a man who assisted the fifteenth Emperor at a time of great trouble when we were almost overwhelmed by a great plague from outer space. But you could not be that man. No Earthman lives so long.
DOCTOR: Your Majesty, this man that you speak of, was he not known as the Doctor? And did he not come to this planet in a spaceship called the Tardis?
EMPEROR: He did.
DOCTOR: Well, I am that man, sire. And I come from a race of people that live far longer than any Earthman.

All well and good, and the Doctor does similar things all the time, but in this instance a previous visit, and one we've actually seen, provides the foundation of the Doctor's relationship with an alien race in the next story too!

Of course the real breakthrough here comes when the Draconian court is raided by what they see as Earthmen and one of the raiders is left behind, revealed as an Ogron when the effects of the Master's fear device wear off.

PRINCE: Now will you believe in the treachery of the Earthmen?
DOCTOR: Your Majesty, look down here and tell me. What do you see?
EMPEROR: I see one of your Earth soldiers who attacked my palace and killed my people.
DOCTOR: Jo? Jo, can you still hear that sound?
JO: Yes, it's fading. It's almost gone.
DOCTOR: Your Majesty, I beg of you. Please look again.
PRINCE: Why do we delay? Destroy him!
EMPEROR: Wait! He has spoken the truth.

The Master's rage at the Ogrons for having one of their number left behind is fabulous

MASTER: Great lumbering idiots! Now you tell me that you've left one of your fellows in the palace. Do you realise what this means? As soon as the effect of the hypnosound wears off, the Draconians will know who it really was who attacked them. You've ruined everything!
OGRON: What shall we do now?
MASTER: Do? There's only one thing we can do. Make sure that the Doctor and his evidence is never allowed to reach Earth.

But in the novelisation it works even better with a longer run up

MASTER: Not a bad operation. But unfortunately you bungled the most important part. You allowed The Doctor to escape.
OGRON: We rescued you. That important.
MASTER: To me and to you! Without me you wouldn't have enough brains between you to make a wheelbarrow! Anyhow, there is one consolation: The Draconian Emperor is now convinced of the wickedness of Earthmen. With any luck he'll have the Doctor executed!
OGRON 2: I count us.
MASTER: Marvellous, soon you'll learn to read!
OGRON 2: I count us. One of us is missing.
MASTER: Missing where?
OGRON 2: He left behind. Doctor got him.
MASTER: And you let it happen? You great dolts! Once the the hypnosound has faded the Draconians will know who really attacked them!
OGRON: What shall we do?
MASTER: There's only one thing we can do. The Doctor and his captured Ogron must never reach Earth!

An Ogron who's obviously going places there. We already knew the Draconians blamed General Williams for having started the first Earth/Draconia war from their interrogation of The Doctor in episode two:

AIDE: You're part of a plot against the Draconian empire.
DOCTOR: My dear chap, I've already been through all this with the President of Earth. She thinks I'm working for you.
PRINCE: You are working for General Williams.
DOCTOR: I'm what?
PRINCE: General Williams hates out people. Once before, he caused war between us and the Earthmen. Now he plans to do so again.
AIDE: Such a war would be madness since both empires would be destroyed.

This should have been followed up in episode three with Earth's view on those events being presented by a character who had her lines cut. So here the entire story comes rather out of left field instead of us having been presented the general's version of it first:

PRESIDENT: Your Highness, we've heard the Doctor's theory before, and, with respect, there is still no concrete evidence. I myself would like to believe you but, as you can see, I need proof to convince my people.
DOCTOR: Then we must mount an expedition to the planet of the Ogrons. The proof we need is there, Madam.
WILLIAMS: With Earth on the brink of war, how can we divert our forces into such a pointless expedition? Suppose this is yet another Draconian trick to divide our strength?
DOCTOR: My dear chap, I'm not asking for a battlefleet. All I require is one small spaceship.
PRESIDENT: Your request is granted.
WILLIAMS: On the contrary, your request is denied.
PRESIDENT: My authority
WILLIAMS: In a purely military matter of this kind, Madam, your authority is limited.
PRESIDENT: I can overrule you.
WILLIAMS: Only with the backing of the full Earth Senate. Do you think they will give it?
PRINCE: How can we expect help from a man such as this? This is the man who deliberately caused war between our people!
WILLIAMS: That is untrue!
PRINCE: Twenty years ago, you destroyed a Draconian ship that had come in a mission of peace.
WILLIAMS: A ship that was about to open fire on us when we were damaged and helpless.
PRINCE: They came in peace as had been arranged.
WILLIAMS: Then why didn't they answer my signals?
PRINCE: Their communications equipment had been destroyed in a neutron storm. The same neutron storm that damaged your ship!
PRESIDENT: Is this true?
PRINCE: I have read the records of my father's court. It is the truth.
WILLIAMS: But why a battlecruiser? The agreement was that both ships were to be unarmed.
PRINCE: Naturally we sent a cruiser. How else should a nobleman of Draconia travel? But its missile banks were empty. The ship was unarmed.

WILLIAMS: Your Highness, please accept my deepest regrets for the wrong I have done your people.
DOCTOR: Then can I take it, sir, that you will now authorise the expedition?
WILLIAMS: I intend to lead it. If the planet of the Ogrons exists, we shall find it.

Hmmm, we already thing Star Trek: The Next Generation's writers had seen this story I wonder if Babylon 5's J. Michael Straczynski had either as the plot element of accidentally opening fire on a defenceless ship is familiar there as the spark for the Earth Minbari war.....

This is the only Doctor Who story featuring the Draconians and this episode is their real opportunity to shine showing us the Royal Court that so enrages Jo Grant's feminist leanings, an increasingly common theme in mid 70s Doctor Who. The Masks, a very early make up prosthetic, were created by John Friedlander, allegedly from a cast of the comedian Dave Allen. Jon Pertwee was frequently on record as saying the Draconians were his favourite monster due to the masks allowing the actor underneath to actually act and wanted an episode of Frontier in Space on the Pertwee years tape. I suspect it was this one he was thinking of, with lots of Draconians in, rather than the one that we got, the next which has just one, the Prince!

The Draconian Emperor is a second Doctor who role for John Woodnutt who was previously George Hibbert in Spearhead from Space. He goes on to play both His Grace, The Duke of Forgill, & the Zygon Leader Broton in Terror of the Zygons and Counsellor Seron in Keeper of Traken. He had been in Paul of Tarsus, alongside Second Doctor Patrick Troughton's Paul, as a Traveller in The Road to Damascus & The Feast of Pentecost. He appeared in the third season Out of the Unknown episode The Little Black Bag as Kelland: a large portion of this episode was found as a low grade print on a BBC video tape and was restored for the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. Children of my generation may remember him from the Look and Read story The Boy From Space where he played the Thin Space-Man: This too is available on DVD. He appeared in one of ITV's Doctor Who competitors The Tomorrow People as Spidron in The Vanishing Earth, The Sweeney as Dr. Clare in Stay Lucky Eh? and Children of the Stones as Link. Towards the end of his career he had a recurring roll in Jeeves and Wooster as Sir Watkyn Bassett.

The Draconian messenger is played by Ian Frost who was Baccu in The Ark. He's also in Out of the Unknown: The Little Black Bag, as Johnny, the third member of this story's cast after Lunar Prison Governor Dennis Bowen and Draconian Emperor John Woodnutt to appear in it.

Onto the Draconians in the court: Andy Devine & Bill Matthews were the Draconian Guards in episode 4 and the start of this one while Leslie Bates was a Lunar Guard in episodes 3-4 and plays a Williams’ Guard in episode 6. The only new Draconian is Stuart Myers who had been a plague victim, UNIT soldier & technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a UNIT Soldier in Ambassadors of Death and an Axon Glob Claws of Axos. He returns as a Photographer Invasion of the Dinosaurs, a Titan base Crewman in Invisible Enemy, a Member of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive, a Foster in Keeper of Traken, a Cricketer in Black Orchid, a Buccaneer Officer in Enlightenment, a Citizen/Unbeliever in Planet of Fire, a Resistance Fighter/Alphan in Trial of a Timelord: Mindwarp and a Customer/Mercenary in Dragonfire. In Blake's 7 he was a crewman in Space Fall, in Moonbase 3 he was a Technician in Outsiders & Castor and Pollux and he's an extra in Star Wars.

Likewise many of Draconian Emperor's Guards have been in other episodes of the story: Ken Wade was a Draconian in episodes 2-3, Steve Tierney was a Lunar Guard in episode 3 and plays a Williams’ Guard in episode 6 as was Richard King, who's also a Lunar Guard in episode 4. The only new Draconian Emperor's Guard is Rodney Cardiff. He returns as a Gracht Guard in Androids of Tara, a Gendarme in The Louvre in City of Death and a Red Guard in Mysterious Planet. In Blake's he was a Federation Commando in Volcano, in Doomwatch he was a Man in The Islanders and in Porridge he plays a Prisoner in A Storm in a Teacup, Poetic Justice & Rough Justice.

Briefly seen on screen us Clifford Elkin as the Earth Cruiser Captain.

The DWAS Doctor Who production file sets a bi of a poser at this point by listing a number of Earth Guards against this episode, none of which I can spot! All were used earlier in the story:Dennis Plenty was also an Earth Guard in the first two episodes, a Prison Guard in episodes 2-3 and is down as a Presidential Guard here too. Terrance Denville was a Presidential Guard in episode 2 and an Earth/Prison Guard in episodes 2-3, Emmett Hennessy was a Presidential Guard & Prison Guard in episode 2, Wolfgang Von Jurgen was a Presidential Guard in episodes 2-3 and David Billa was an Earth/Prison Guard in episodes 2-3.

For the first time in the story the Ogrons are credited: Rick Lester returns from their previous appearance in Day of the Daleks and his cameo as one in Carnival of Monsters.He was previously a stunt driver in The Italian Job, a role he also fills in The Sweeney episodes Chalk and Cheese, Big Brother and Stay Lucky Eh?. In Space: 1999 he was he stunt double for Martin Landau in 6 episodes but that pales before his work on the James Bond films where he's a guard in Dr. No and then performs stunts in From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill and The Living Daylights meaning he worked on the first FIFTEEN films in the series!

The remaining two credited Ogrons are played by actors we've seen before in other roles: Stephen Thorne was Azal in The Dæmons and we've just seen him as Omega in The Three Doctors, a role recorded after this story. He'll be back as the final Eldrad in The Hand of Fear. He became a great friend of Nicholas Courtney and would sign Courtney's nomination for the Equity council every year. He'd also voiced Aslan in The Animated The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Treebeard in in the acclaimed Radio 4 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. You can hear him interviewed in Toby Hadoke's Who Round #191.

Michael Kilgarriff was the Cyber-Controller in The Tomb of the Cybermen, a role he returns to in Attack of the Cybermen as well as playing the title role in Robot.
UFO he plays Steiner in Conflict, he's the voice of Obelix in the English language version of The Twelve Tasks of Asterix and voices The General in The Dark Crystal.

The last time I watched this episode to write about it, I saw it with my son Jonathan, then nearly 5. After it finished he turned to me and said "I like Doctor Who". He was then about the same age I was when I started watching Doctor Who!

The "getting captured" tally for this story stands at 13: here's the one new entry for the episode:

14) Jo captured by the Ogrons

When the BBC's Film & Video Archive was first checked in 1978 they found that they had episodes 4 & 5 on video tape (Incidentally episodes 1, 2, 3, 6 & Planet off the Daleks 3 were the only episodes missing this season). Further investigations at BBC Enterprises showed that they had all 6 episodes as black & white film copies. In July 83 625 line videotape of episodes 1-3 & 6 of Frontier in Space were returned from ABC TV in Australia. These prints are thought to be 3rd or 4th generation copies and nobody is quite sure how the ABC came to have them. At some point after this the BBC Archive discovered that one of their copies of episode 5 is an earlier edit containing the abandoned new "delaware" version of the theme. This copy was used for the story's video release.