Doctor Who: Frontier in Space

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Frontier in Space is the third serial of Doctor Who Season 10, originally broadcast in six episodes from 24 February to 31 March 1973. It was written by Malcolm Hulke and directed by Paul Bernard. It stars Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, Katy Manning as Jo Grant, and Roger Delgado as the Master.

The Doctor and Jo are caught in a rising conflict between Earth and the Draconian Empire, as mysterious pirate attacks stir fear and push both sides toward war. The Master works in the shadows, using Ogrons and tricks of perception to frame each side for the raids, while the Doctor moves from prison to palace trying to prove the truth.

With tense diplomacy, daring escapes, and a last-minute reveal of the Daleks, the story builds a space-political thriller that leads directly into the next adventure.

Episode 1

The TARDIS lurches out of the vortex into the hold of an Earth cargo ship bound for home through a tense frontier. Crewmen jump at shadows and swear they’ve seen a Draconian raider drifting alongside. The Doctor hears a thin, needling whine under the engines just before “Draconians” smash aboard: really hulking Ogrons masked by a hypnotic trick.

They steal the cargo and vanish, leaving the crew convinced war has begun. Security arrives, finds Jo and the Doctor in the wrong place at the worst time, and arrests them as enemy agents. On Earth, a weary President tries to cool tempers while General Williams urges decisive retaliation. Across the table, the Draconian Crown Prince demands justice and cites identical “human” raids on their shipping. The Doctor argues there’s a third hand at work using a sonic mesmer to make each side see their worst fear.

Another attack hits mid-hearing; the survivors swear blind the enemy wore the other empire’s colours. Politics harden. The Prince departs furious, Williams lines up fleets, and the President orders the “spies” detained while she seeks proof. As Jo squeezes the Doctor’s hand, a smooth voice watches from a private link, amused at the chaos he’s breeding. Somewhere, Ogrons load for the next raid.

Episode 2

Interrogations rotate like clockwork: Earth Security insists the Doctor is a saboteur, the Draconian embassy insists he’s their saboteur. The President, cautious, keeps both militaries leashed: for now. The Doctor demonstrates the faint carrier tone he keeps hearing before each “sighting” and posits a portable hypnosound projector that overlays illusions on frightened minds.

Williams snorts. Jo pleads their case with the President, who sees sincerity but lacks leverage. Another frontier freighter panics, broadcasts a false “Draconian attack,” and vanishes. Parliament howls. The President compromises by sending the Doctor and Jo to the lunar penal colony “pending clarification.” On the Moon, the Governor runs a tidy prison of long sentences and longer silences; a gaunt political prisoner whispers that frontier “accidents” started the week a new “trader” began visiting the docks.

Back on Earth, the Draconian Prince confronts Williams over a years-old incident when an Earth cruiser fired on a Draconian ship during a drill: old wounds re-opened by new raids. In a shadowed dock, Ogrons unload human goods into Draconian crates and vice versa under the eye of their employer: the Master, dapper as ever, filing fake manifests and polishing a pocket hypnosound. He smiles at the newsfeeds. Fear is wearing two uniforms, and both fit.

Episode 3

Life on the lunar colony scrapes the nerves. The Doctor befriends an academic who’s cobbled a receiver from scrap and hears that same eerie subsonic “itch” before every pirate report. He sketches an escape with stolen parts and good timing. Jo lines up sympathetic guards. Just as they move, a new “Earth official” lands with sweeping extradition orders and immaculate manners: the Master.

He has the Doctor and Jo “transferred,” escorts them to a waiting ship, and drops the mask with a pleased purr. He’s orchestrating the Ogron raids to push Earth and Draconia into war: then arrive as broker on behalf of his undisclosed partners. The Doctor goads him mid-flight and wrenches a panel free; Jo pulls a circuit; alarms yelp; the ship buckles. They tumble across a docking bay into armed Ogrons and a brutal choice.

The Master redirects, steering not to Earth but toward Draconia’s imperial space, where a public handover will inflame honour and lock the ladder to conflict. On Earth, the President balances on a knife edge while Williams quietly readies fleets. In Draconian space, a patrol intercepts the Master’s ship. He steps out smiling with “evidence,” the Doctor under guard, and Jo whispering that they must reach someone who still listens.

Episode 4

In the pearl-lit court of Draconia, the Emperor listens from behind a screen while the Crown Prince seethes. The Master bows, presents forged proofs, and paints the Doctor as an Earth provocateur. The Doctor asks for parley and names the real raiders: Ogrons masked by hypnosound. The Prince, honour-bound, believes him; counsellors sniff human deceit.

An Earth cruiser commanded by Williams jumps in hot on their wake; guns flicker; a fragile standoff holds by inches. The Emperor forces an uneasy conference. The Doctor drags old scars into the light: years ago Williams misread a Draconian drill and fired: an accident that pride and propaganda hardened into gospel on both worlds. The Prince swallows anger; Williams, chastened, admits doubt. As if on cue, “Draconians” attack the Earth ship and “humans” strike a Draconian freighter (Ogrons on both jobs) before vanishing.

The Master’s grin says checkmate. Yet the Emperor gambles: he authorises a small joint expedition (Williams, the Prince, the Doctor, and Jo) to hunt the pirate base and settle the matter with facts. The Master, forced to adapt, summons a larger Ogron force and pivots to his endgame: lead everyone to the nest, deliver proof too late, and trigger the spark that fleets are waiting to catch.

Episode 5

The trail runs to a bleak world of rocks, burrows, and a distant transmitter beating like a heart. The joint party lands, arguing in whispers, and moves through gullies toward a ramshackle depot stacked with mixed plunder: Earth crates, Draconian cases, both stencilled with lies. Ogrons lumber between shuttles; a whining projector sits at the centre, sniffing fears and painting enemies.

Jo peels away, slips through a service tunnel, and finds a polished inner chamber that doesn’t fit the junkyard aesthetic. Voices drift: one velvet, one metallic. She hides as the Master reports to unseen “associates” and promises war within the hour. Outside, Ogrons swarm; Williams and the Prince fight back to back; the Doctor pulls the hypnosound’s crystal and snaps the spell, forcing both escorts to see Ogrons, not phantoms.

They seize proof and sprint: straight into the Master’s ambush. He claps them in chains with theatrical courtesy and invites Jo to enjoy dinner and hypnosis. She smiles, shatters a light, and bolts. In the inner chamber, a black doorway yawns; cold air smells of oil and hate. Jo edges closer and sees the truth behind the Master’s bravado: he is not the top of this pyramid. He is the herald.

Episode 6

The pyramid’s masters arrive. Daleks roll from the dark, voices like knives, and approve the Master’s sabotage with grudging menace. They will use the war he’s lit to crack the frontier wide. Chaos erupts. The Doctor stamps the hypnosound to pieces and hurls a flare; Ogrons flinch; Williams and the Prince rally their teams and claw a path out.

The Master fires, winging the Doctor, and ducks behind his allies as Daleks sweep the hall. Jo half-drags, half-carries the Doctor toward their ship while he gasps instructions. They blast clear with a shuttle and broadcast the depot’s images wideband. On Earth and Draconia, the President and the Emperor watch Ogrons unload mixed plunder under Dalek orders and finally believe the third hand. Orders flash: stand down fleets; open channels.

The Master slinks away in the confusion, promising a rematch. The Doctor, fading, tells Jo he must follow the Daleks before they vanish. He slumps in the TARDIS and, with shaking hands, sends a telepathic plea to the Time Lords to trace the enemy through the vortex. Jo grips the console and nods. Somewhere on the frontier, ships power down and lives are spared. Somewhere deeper, the Daleks turn toward their next battlefield: and the TARDIS follows.

Themes

As the first half of a two-serial epic, Frontier in Space is the Third Doctor era’s grand political space opera. It is less sprightly than Carnival of Monsters, but more sweeping than Day of the Daleks and more intricate than The Mutants.

Its courtrooms, prisons, and brinkmanship place it shoulder to shoulder with The Ambassadors of Death and The Curse of Peladon for adult bite. If the plot occasionally loops, Roger Delgado’s Master, the Ogrons’ menace, and the superbly realised Draconians lift it to upper-tier Pertwee: ambitious, atmospheric, and pointed.

Threaded through the era, it draws on the Ogrons and Dalek shadow from Day of the Daleks, extends the Master rivalry from Terror of the Autons, The Sea Devils, and The Time Monster, and hands off directly (mid-stride) into Planet of the Daleks.

Its diplomacy and alien statecraft echo back to The Curse of Peladon and forward to The Monster of Peladon, while its Earth-Empire unease rhymes with Colony in Space. By ending on a cliff edge with war averted but conspirators unmasked, Frontier in Space clears the stage for jungle warfare in Planet of the Daleks and sets the emotional runway toward the ecological reckoning of The Green Death.

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This is a chapter from Craig Hill’s book “Doctor Who – The Third Doctor”, chronicling every episode featuring the Third Doctor. It is available on Amazon.

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