From TARDIS Index File, the free Doctor Who reference.

Doctor Who - Frontios
Series:	Doctor Who- Target Novelisation
Release Number:	91
Doctor:	Fifth Doctor
Companions:	Vislor Turlough, Tegan Jovanka, Kamelion
Enemy:	Tractators, Gravis
Setting:	Frontios, Far Future
Author:	Christopher H. Bidmead
Publisher:	Target Books, W.H. Allen & Co
Publication:	September 1984 (hardcover) December 1984 (paperback)
Format:	Hardcover and paperback editions, 143 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-19780-1
Previous Story:	Doctor Who - The Awakening
Following Story:	Doctor Who – Planet of Fire (Resurrection of the Daleks was not novelised)

Novelisation

• This novelisation is based on the original television serial (DW): Frontios which was shown from 26th January 1984 and written by Christopher H. Bidmead
• The cover and information shown on the right is for the original Target novel and featured the artwork of Andrew Skilleter. (See below for information on other UK and international editions which published with a different cover).

Publisher's Cover Blurb

The TARDIS has drifted far into the future and comes to rest hovering over Frontios, refuge of one group of survivors from Earth who have escaped the disintegration of their home planet. The Doctor is reluctant to land on Frontios, as he does not wish to intervene in a moment of historical crisis – the colonists are still struggling to establish themselves and their continued existence hangs in the balance.
But the TARDIS is forced down by what appears to be a meteorite storm, and crash-lands, leaving the Doctor and his companions marooned on the hope-forsaken planet…

Illustrations

• None

Book Chapters

01 - Refugees of Mankind
02 - The Unknown Invaders
03 - The Deadly Hail
04 - The Power of the Hat-Stand
05 - Downwardness
06 - Beneath the Rocks
07 - The Force Takes Hold
08 - Eaten by the Earth
09 - The Excavating Machine
10 - Prisoners of the Gravis
11 - The Price of Rescue
12 - Greed sets the Trap

Deviations from the Televised Story

• Rather than having the excavating machine composed of metal (as in the televised version) with an enslaved human pilot, the Machine is instead a nightmarish vision composed of corpses of the colonists the Tractators had pulled down to their domain:

"It was a repellent sight - a huge and hideous assembly of parts of human bodies, shaped something in the form of a giant Tractator. White bones tipped with metal cutters scraped against the rock, while rotting hands polished the surface smooth. Through illuminated windows in the body Tegan glimpsed more mechanically gesticulating human arms and legs in an advanced state of decay. It was a machine built from the dead."

-- Frontios p107

A human pilot is still required to drive the machine. This scenario does lend a little more credence as to why Turlough had envisioned the Tractators as "Evil"

• Gravis is incapable of speaking directly, and instead utilises "A tall narrow trolley" on which is mounted "The head and one arm of a dead Colonist, connected by improvised metalwork to a swinging pendulum". This machine is used to translate his thoughts.

• Two of the colonists are called Kernighan and Ritchie. They are named for Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, well known in the computer world for writing the definitive guide to the C programming language.

Author, Writing and Publishing Notes

• Dedication: “To Alan and Marcus and the machine that made this possible. I’ll miss their company”

Associated Images

To be added

Publishing History (UK)

• To be added

First Publication:

• Hardback

W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. UK

• Paperback

Target

Re-issues:

International Editions

To be added

External Sources

• The Target Book by David J Howe (Telos Publishing 2007)
• On Target a comprehensive guide to the Target novelisations by Tim Neal