Frontios

Wow! That wasn't what I was expecting.

The only scene I can remember from Frontios' original transmission was the cliffhanger to part 1 when the TARDIS is destroyed. So I was pleasantly surprised when I watched this DVD to discover how good it was.

First things that struck me was the production values. Some scenes looked like something out of the current series. The only thing that really lets it down is the music (not one of Paddy Kingsland's better scores) and the realisation of the Tractators (basing them on wood lice was a good idea, but the costume lets it down badly). All the cast are good, but Peter Davison is really good in this story. It seems like there were maybe only three writers who really got a handle on the fifth Doctor's character and Christopher H. Bidmead was one of them (the other two were Robert Holmes and possibly Christopher Bailey).

I think I'd vote this as being second only to The Caves of Androzani and being one of the best stories of the fifth Doctor's era.