June 21: Frontier in Space Episodes Five & Six

Earth Police Spaceship 2390 (aka the Doctor's ship) encounters
Earth Battlecruiser X29. (Frontier in Space Episode Five) ©BBC

Episode five begins with the Doctor, the Master, and Jo all being taken in front of the Draconian Emperor.  It seems the Doctor is an honorary Draconian noble, but other than that it's just more arguing -- that is, until the Master is rescued by ultrasonic-disguised Ogrons, one of whom is accidentally left behind.  This allows the Emperor and the prince to see that the Doctor has been speaking the truth.  Armed with this knowledge, the Emperor sends the Doctor and his son on an urgent mission to Earth, to warn them of this third party, and with the evidence of the Ogron to support their claims.  Alas, the Master manages to board their vessel and recapture the Ogron prisoner -- and take Jo Grant along too.  With the evidence gone, the Doctor and the Draconian prince head to Earth to try and tell their story to the President and General Williams.  Again.

In what might be one of the least motivated changes of heart ever on Doctor Who, General Williams learns that the first Earth-Draconian War started because of a misunderstanding; when Williams saw a Draconian battlecruiser approaching, one that wasn't responding to communication attempts, he opened fire, starting the war.  But apparently that's how Draconian nobles travel -- in battlecruisers; this one just wasn't armed.  And the lack of communication?  Neutron storm.  General Williams feels terrible about the whole thing (it was 20 years ago -- how is he only now just learning about this?) and agrees to take a ship to the Ogrons' planet to investigate.

And so Jo's been captured, right?  So the Master plans on using her as bait by hypnotizing her, but she recites nursery rhymes to foil his plans, making him unable to get a hold on her mind.  "You'll just have to give up all hope of hypnotising me, won't you?" she tells him.  "Once was quite enough, thank you," she adds, referring back to Terror of the Autons.  So Jo can hold out against the Master's hypnosis attempt.  But, the cliffhanger has us ask, can she hold out against his fear-generating machine?

The answer is yes, yes she can.  It appears to take an enormous amount of willpower, but she's able to overcome the Master's device.  "It doesn't work on me any more!" she cries.  Frustrated, the Master sends her to be locked up.  Meanwhile General Williams' ship encounters trouble from a Draconian ship -- mainly as an excuse to have Jon Pertwee do another spacewalk sequence.  And, sadly, the Kirby wires are as visible as ever.  But then it's off to the Ogrons' planet, where the Master lures them into a trap (apparently -- this part's a bit confusing, since the Master seems to be trying to lure the Doctor to his base, except isn't that what the Doctor would do anyway?).  The trap doesn't work though, because the Ogrons are scared off by their god, which is (and sorry about this, but there's really no other way to describe it) a large, orange, hairy scrotum.  (No wonder director Paul Bernard cut every shot of it bar that one from the finished show.)  But the Master has another trap laid, as it turns out he's been working for...the Daleks!  And in an appearance that the Radio Times didn't spoil!

The final shot⁷³ of Roger Delgado as the Master. (Frontier
in Space Episode Six) ©BBC

Yes, it turns out that the Daleks are behind the plot to set Earth and Draconia at each other's throats.  Once those two empires are gone, they'll swoop in and conquer the survivors.  The Master has the Doctor under lock and key, but fortunately the Doctor and company escape.  General Williams and the Draconian prince are sent to their respective homeworlds to warn them about the Dalek threat, and the Doctor manages to escape in the TARDIS -- although he appears to be grazed by the Master's gun before he escapes.  Yes, this part is rather famously garbled; the original intent was for the Doctor to use the Master's fear machine to make the Ogrons see their god, but as Bernard was deeply unhappy with those shots (because scrotum), they were all removed and what's left is the Ogrons fleeing in fear, taking the Master with them.

And what's this?  Another cliffhanger?  Yes, it seems that, even though this is the final installment of Frontier in Space, things have been left unresolved in favor of a full-blooded Dalek serial as the follow-up.  So we'll have to wait until the next story to find out what happens next.

When you stop to think about it, Frontier in Space doesn't seem to be the most exciting story.  There's a lot going on, but we experience most of it from inside various prison cells.  And yet this doesn't seem to matter.  The sense of scope that Frontier in Space has -- that "space opera" feel, to coin a phrase -- goes a long way in making sure this is entertaining.  And make no mistake: this is definitely entertaining.  What's more, we get to see both Pertwee and Delgado at their best -- and Jo Grant, who can often be one of the more annoying assistants, also gets a chance to shine -- particularly in her cliffhanger confrontation with the Master.  The script isn't heavy-handed, and it's good to have such a wide variety of locations.  Perfunctory ending aside (and besides, it's relying on Planet of the Daleks to wrap up the major plot points), Frontier in Space is a joy from start to finish.

However, we sadly have to bid farewell at this point to Roger Delgado as the Master.  A planned final appearance next season (which would also have seen the end of Pertwee's Doctor) had to be dropped, due to Delgado's tragic death in June 1973 in an automobile accident in Turkey.  This makes that final scene in episode six even more frustrating than it would otherwise be, as you can't help but feel that he should have gotten a better farewell than that.  So goodbye to the original Master, Roger Delgado -- probably the best actor to play the role (as well as one of the best actors on the show period).  He will indeed be missed.







⁷³ Well, there is one additional shot of the Master fleeing, but a) it's only a fraction of a second, and b) it's both blurred and in shadow, so it's not obvious that it's the Master at all, given that there are also fleeing Ogrons in the shot.  In fact, the only way to tell it's the Master is that you can just make out his white cuffs sticking out, and even then only in slow motion.