'Frontios' (4 Parts) Story Code '6N' by Christopher H. Bidmead

The TARDIS is dragged down to the surface of the planet Frontios in the very far future. Here, the last survivors from the dying planet Earth have found refuge, and are led by the young Plantagenet. The colonists are under attack by mysterious meteor storms, while an unseen force is kidnapping people from under the ground. The TARDIS is destroyed in one of the meteor bombardments, and the Doctor and his friends are forced to help the colonists to investigate the disappearances. The Doctor discovers that the planet is hollow, and is inhabited by Tractators, large insect-like creatures with gravity-wielding powers, which have devastated many planets in the universe. The Tractators have been kidnapping the colonists by drawing the meteors to the planet with their gravity beams, and then pulling the incapacitated humans through the soft earth, in order to use them as living power batteries for their digging machines. The leader of the Tractators, the Gravis, plans to turn Frontios into a giant hollow spaceship that they can pilot around the universe. Turlough knows of the creatures due to a deep racial memory from his own planet, and recalls that they can be rendered harmless by separating them from the controlling influence of the Gravis. When the Doctor and his companions find the remains of the TARDIS scattered around the caves, the Doctor is able to trick the Gravis into restoring the ship with the use of its gravity powers. Once reformed, the TARDIS effectively cuts off the Tractators from the Gravis, which is rendered unconscious from its efforts. The Doctor leaves the colonists to build their new life on Frontios, while he and his friends leave the Gravis on an uninhabited planet. This completed, the TARDIS is suddenly caught in a time corridor...

Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Peter Gilmore (Brazen), Lesley Dunlop (Norna), William Lucas (Range), Jeff Rawle (Plantagenet), Maurice O'Connell (Cockerill), Richard Ashley (Orderly), John Gillett (Gravis); William Bowen, George Campbell, Hedi Khursandi, Michael Malcolm, Stephen Speed (Tractators); Alison Skilbeck (Deputy), Raymond Murtagh (Retrograde), John Beardmore (Captain Revere)

Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Ron Jones

TX:
Part 1 - 26th January, 1984 @ 6.40pm - 7.05pm
Part 2 - 27th January, 1984 @ 6.40pm - 7.05pm
Part 3 - 2nd February, 1984 @ 6.40pm - 7.05pm
Part 4 - 3rd February, 1984 @ 6.40pm - 7.05pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough

*Working titles: 'The Wanderers' and 'Frotious'