Frontier in Space

Somewhere in the 26th century, Earth is at the height of it's Empire. Colonies are formed one after another as the Human influence expands across the galaxy. The rival Draconian Empire is also expanding and a truce made in the wake of a war keeps the two states apart, even if suspicion remains. The Doctor and Jo arrive as an Earth cargo ship is attacked by a force of Ogrons, but the Human pilots believe it was a Draconian raiding party. Caught between the politics of both races the Doctor and Jo try to discover who is using the Ogrons to sow the seeds of chaos and propel the galaxy towards war again. And when the Master appears on the scene they think they have the answer, but his presence is only one piece of a far reaching plot.

The Draconians were only ever seen once in the entire series and it's a tremendous shame; they are a fascinating race of reptilian humanoids with an aesthetic appearance somewhere between a Samauri and an actual dragon, thus earning then the unflattering - nay, racist - nickname of Dragons by people with a grudge against them. The species is far from perfect and has some tremendous sexist views where women are not permitted to speak, although how they manage to deal with an Earth Empire with a female head of state is a puzzle. The realization of the Draconians is particularly effective, with their dominant reptilian features including a high crested head and a pointy beard and all created with very effective half-masks instead of complete rubber suits.

Oh yes the Earth Empire. But not in a classical sense; there is no one person sitting on a throne being called Emperor. The Draconians have an Emperor as head of state but Earth's leader is an elected President, this time a woman whose name we never know, she is just "the President". She is on the edge of losing it, though; the constant accusations by the Draconians along with her own peoples' claims of Draconian attacks leave her with very few options outside of failing diplomacy, and her pushy military adviser is chomping at the bit to get back to war, as he was the man who started the first one. The people have had enough - they want open war on the Dragons and there are Draconians who want open war on the Humans but both leaders know that such a war would ruin both Empires and leave the galaxy in ruins.

There's no way that the Master is around by coincidence with all this going on. Having escaped the wrath of Kronos he is free once more to create havoc across the galaxy without compunction, but in a characteristically polite move he makes sure to rescue the Doctor and Jo from their respective prisons (the Doctor is sent to a penal colony on the moon, so weather control from there is no longer a thing it seems) and keep them as his own prisoners. He knows that the Doctor has a way of ruining things for him so getting him where he can see him is the best plan, even if he is going to kill him anyway. Unfortunately this is the last time we ever see this version of the Master as actor Roger Delgado was killed in a car accident after he had completed this story, and it's a tremendous shame as he brought such dignity to a role that would eventually just be reduced to some manic nonsense fluff and be skewered on the Sword of Stupid when recast as a female. But Frontier at best serves up a consistent Master, one who never ceased to plan and scheme and work towards killing the Doctor in their universal game of cat and mouse.

Continuity wise there is a reference to the other moments in Earth's Empire, to Solos in The Mutants where the Empire was contracting and colonies were leaving in droves. When the Doctor and Jo emerge from the TARDIS in episode one, both are still wearing the same clothes from Carnival of Monsters which implies that there is no gap between stories and Suns of Caresh and the first volume of third Doctor audio should really take place after The Three Doctors. Small details there and in the end there are no real gaffes in continuity either way.  The first time I ever got into this one, though, was back when Target novels would rename the story for print if it wasn't as exciting as they wanted: Frontier in Space became The Space War and was graced with a really striking cover displaying an Orgon in all its simian nastiness. I still wonder to this day how they got away with cramming all six episodes of story into such a short format, but again these were really just kids books in the end so who would notice if it wasn't the most descriptive narrative.

Frontier in Space has the distinction of being one of those episodes which lead right into the next one, creating a larger picture than just its six episodes. Here's where it's hard to avoid a spoiler given that the next episode will be revealed in just a few lines, but when the big threat to galactic peace is finally revealed, it's up to the Doctor to take the fight to it, chasing across the galaxy to stop a coming massacre...

NEXT EPISODE: PLANET OF THE DALEKS