Production
Conception
The first outline of Full Circle was devised by Andrew Smith, a 17 year-old law student and fan of the show. Smith had learned script formatting from the book The Making of Doctor Who, which featured paperwork from the production of Robot (1974-75). He submitted his first spec script to the show in 1978. The script, entitled The Secret of Cassius and centering on a spaceship discovering an atmosphere on Pluto, was rejected that August by Anthony Read, then the show's script editor. Read, however, encouraged Smith to continue submitting scripts. [2] The following April, Read's successor, Douglas Adams, invited Smith to a day of studio recording for The Creature from the Pit (1979), which inspired him to outline a story under the working title The Planet That Slept, which he submitted to the show that year. [2] [3]
The Planet That Slept centered around a non-aggressive, ostracized Marshchild (nicknamed "Fem") who would become attached to the Doctor and Romana. [2] At the end of the story, the female Marshchild sacrifices itself to save the Doctor. [4] The outline saw the Marshmen, whom Smith characterized as "disfigured savages and psychopaths," [2] worshipping K9 as a god and attempting to sacrifice Romana to him. The role of the Starliner also differed from the final serial. In Smith's outline, the ship is a freighter that crashes on Alzarius, leaving its crew to scavenge for minerals for repairs, leaving the ship to be boarded by giant spiders. [4]
In December 1979, [2] Christopher H. Bidmead became Doctor Who's script editor, aiming to recenter the show around a policy of "education, education, education." [5] and discovered that Adams had left almost no material that could be used for the show's eighteenth season. Bidmead noticed Smith's outline for The Planet That Slept and met with him in February, whereupon he found out Smith's age. [2] Smith assumed that Bidmead would simply offer him guidance and was shocked when Bidmead began discussing a script, [4] which he officially commissioned from Smith on 25 February 1980, to be due on 1 April. [6]
Writing
Bidmead and producer John Nathan-Turner each hoped to use the serial to introduce new elements to the season. In January, Nathan-Turner, wishing to change the line-up of regulars and replace K9, had devised a younger, male companion for the Doctor modeled on the Artful Dodger. Bidmead named the character Adric, from an anagram of Paul Dirac, [4] the physicist who originated the theory of antimatter. [8] In Nathan-Turner's outline, Adric would be from a planet called Yerfillag, from the name of the Doctor's home planet "Gallifrey" spelled backwards, and would begin traveling with the Doctor after the death of his troublemaker older brother Afrus. With Adric to be written into the next story, eventually titled State of Decay (1980), Bidmead had Smith incorporate Adric and Afrus into The Planet that Slept, [4] and had him given the new writer's guide for the series. [6] The Marschild's role in the original outline was mostly replaced by that of Adric, [8] while Afrus was renamed "Varsh." [4] Bidmead was also interested in connecting a number of serials under a common story arc. Nathan-Turner was initially hesitant, due to production issues on season 16, which also made use of an overarching story. Eventually, he approved a trilogy of serials in which the Doctor and Romana would be trapped in E-Space (for 'exo-space"), [9] a universe with negative coordinates. [6] A 12 June memo by Bidmead titled The Doctor's Adventures in E-Space provided a detailed scientific explanation of how E-Space and the Charged Vacuum Emboidment would function, as well as their effects on the Doctor's travels. [9]
Smith submitted his script for the serial's first episode on March 22. Happy with the script, Bidmead commissioned the script for the next three episodes three days later, which Smith turned in on his deadline of April 25. [10] The first draft of the serial differed in many ways from Smith's original outline. Besides the character of Adric and the E-Space arc, Bidmead and Smith developed the serial's focus on evolution, devising the origin of the Alzarians as Marshmen who had evolved to resemble the long-dead "Teradonians." Smith came up with the name "Starliner" for the ship during a script conference. His first draft also added the elements of the Deciders and the hierarchy of Alzarian society. [6] Smith imagined Adric as a runaway whose family had been killed in an accident engineered by Decider Draith, solidifying his anti-authority attitude. He also devised the character's badge for mathematical excellence. [6] The team removed the giant spiders from the script, prompted by the failure of an effect on an episode of Blake's 7 . [6] Smith replaced them with smaller crab spiders. [10]
Smith's scripts went through four drafts in all. Nathan-Turner asked Smith to revise his first draft of the final episode, which he felt did not sufficiently involve the Doctor as an active character. [10] The treatment of the Marshchild was also changed from the first draft, in which Omril tortures it. [10] Smith also inserted a continuity reference to Meglos upon reading its script. [10] Bidmead and Nathan-Turner encouraged other continuity references to season 15's The Invasion of Time and the season 16's TheKey To Time arc to develop the Doctor and Romana's approach to their situation. The production team issued rehearsal scripts on 30 May. [11] Nathan-Turner did not like Smith's title for the serial, leading Bidmead to reissue the scripts with the new title Full Circle on June 19, displeasing Smith. The new title was worked into Decider Draith's last words in Part One to clue the audience in on Alzarius' process of evolution. The revised rehearsal script also changed Dexeter's name, which was originally Lexeter, and revised the spelling of Terradon. Parts Three and Four were shorter than needed. The former was lengthened with a scene of Dexeter giving the Doctor a tour around the Starliner and expanded dialogue sequences with the Deciders, while the latter was expanded with longer scenes featuring Adric. The serial's ending gained a new scene in which the Doctor shows the Deciders how to activate the Starliner, replacing an ending in which Adric is explicitly shown stowing on board the TARDIS as its scanner shows the Marshmen returning to the swamp. [9] On 2 June, Peter Grimwade was chosen to direct the serial. Grimwade was a friend of Nathan-Turner's, and had worked as a production assistant and, more recently, a writer for the show on a planned serial called Xeraphin. [11]
Design and effects
Amy Roberts, who had previously worked on the serial Image of the Fendahl (1977), was brought on as costume designer, Francis Needham and Janet Budden, both new to the show, were chosen for make-up and set design respectively. Visual effects were assigned to John Brace, who had worked as effects assistant on various serials for the show. [11] Roberts and Brace each produced a design for the Marshman costumes, which were tested on location by Marshman actor Barney Lawrence on 21 July. Grimwade ultimately selected Roberts' design, eight of which were created for the serial. Although initially imagined as cavemen-like by Smith, Roberts' Marshmen costumes were aquatic in appearance, with latex decorations suggesting seaweed and shells and also functioning as wetsuits. The costume incorporated masks with a fibreglass underskull over a rubber skull cap, surgical gloves, and rubber slippers. Two actors passed out from the heat of the Marshmen costumes both in studio and on location. [12] The costumes for two swimming Alzarians were changed from thongs to more substantial clothing at Nathan-Turner's request. [13]
The visual effects department, under Brace, developed multiple variants of Marshspider props, including a twelve-inch one with glowing eyes which could pop out of a fruit on a rod, one string puppet for a close-up, and twenty five-inch spiders made of latex, which would move by being pulled across the floor. Three battery-powered spiders that could "walk" through the use of an internal pulley system were also designed; they also featured moving fangs and glowing eyes. [14] The effect of Romana's blue and green veins after being bitten by the spiders would be accomplished by Scotchlite make-up which would reflect the colored lights. [15]
Grimwade, inspired by the use of CSO on the 1977 serial The Robots of Death , opted to screen model corridors into the background of Starliner interior scenes to increase the illusion of depth. [14] The corridor set was able to be redressed as an entrance hatch and a lower section of the ship through which the Marshmen would enter. The production team obtained permission to use overhead lighting arrays to raise and lower doors and hatches on the Starliner set. [15]
Casting
The character of Adric was first announced in the Evening News on 26 February. [10] The outline for the character had described him as "about 15" and "wiry" with "short, straight black hair." [17] The next month, Nathan-Turner cast Matthew Waterhouse in the role. Waterhouse was a former news clerk at the BBC and, like Smith, a longtime Doctor Who fan. [10] [18] Waterhouse was formerly the first correspondent for the fan magazine Doctor Who Weekly, [18] and had once participated in a TV Action competition to design a monster for the show, debuting as an actor in the then-unreleased To Serve Them All My Days (1980). [19] Although Full Circle introduces Adric, the first serial Waterhouse filmed was State of Decay. [10] Waterhouse later stated that he was given the role without much preparation, claiming he had lunch with Nathan-Turner and sent "straight into rehearsals." [20] Waterhouse competed for the role with a friend and fellow fan, Bernard Padden. [18] After three auditions, Padden was disqualified for his strong Manchester accent, but was given the role of Outler Tylos, which Grimwade initially wanted to cast Billy McColl in. [9]
Nathan-Turner approached film and television actor George Baker in the BBC's Rehearsal Rooms in Acton, asking him to play Login, an Alzarian citizen and later Decider whose daughter Keara is among the Outlers. Baker agreed, relating to the part due to his five daughters. Grimwade was responsible for much of the casting. Child performer June Page and The Feathered Serpent actor Richard Willis were cast as Keara and Varsh respectively; the two later married. [9]
A number of actors had made previous appearances on the show. James Bree, cast as Decider Nefred, had appeared in The War Games (1969), whereas Alan Rowe, cast as Decider Garif, had appeared in The Moonbase (1967), The Time Warrior (1973-74), and Horror of Fang Rock (1977), on which he had worked with Grimwade, who initially wanted John Franklyn-Robbins in the role. Despite hoping to cast Steve Kelly, Grimwade gave performer Barney Lawrence, who had been an extra on State of Decay, the role of the Marshman Leader. He also cast Norman Bacon, also a former extra on the show in The Sun Makers (1977), as the other main Marshman role, the Marshchild. [9]
