Full Circle (Doctor Who)

Last updated

111 [1] –Full Circle
Doctor Who serial
Cast
Others
  • Leonard Maguire – Draith
  • James Bree – Nefred
  • Alan Rowe – Garif
  • George Baker – Login
  • Tony Calvin – Dexeter
  • Richard Willis – Varsh
  • June Page – Keara
  • Bernard Padden – Tylos
  • Andrew Forbes – Omril
  • Adrian Gibbs – Rysik
  • Barney Lawrence – Marshman
  • Norman Bacon – Marshchild
Production
Directed by Peter Grimwade
Written by Andrew Smith
Script editor Christopher H. Bidmead
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s) Barry Letts
Music by Paddy Kingsland
Production code5R
Series Season 18
Running time4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast25 October 1980 (1980-10-25)
Last broadcast15 November 1980 (1980-11-15)
Chronology
← Preceded by
Meglos 		Followed by →
State of Decay
List of episodes (1963–1989)

Full Circle is the third serial of the 18th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 25 October to 15 November 1980.

Contents

The serial involves the alien time traveller the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) discovering the life cycle of three closely related species on the planet Alzarius—the humanoid Alzarians, the Marshmen, and the Marshspiders—coming "full circle". Full Circle is the first of three loosely connected serials set in another universe to the Doctor's own known as E-Space and introduces Matthew Waterhouse as the companion Adric.

Plot

En route to Gallifrey, the TARDIS passes through a strange phenomenon and ends up in an alternative universe called E-Space. The TARDIS lands on the lush forest planet of Alzarius, home to a small civilisation of humanoids who live in a grounded spaceship, the Starliner. Originally from the planet Terradon, the ship crashed on Alzarius generations ago. Their society is an oligarchy ruled by three senior colonists known as Deciders. A sudden series of irregular events culminating in the mysterious "mistfall" are interpreted by Decider Draith as a bad omen, which occurs every fifty years. One of the younger colonists, Adric, then watches Draith get pulled into the river by a sinister underwater force. His last words before he drowns are "Tell Dexeter we've come full circle!" Adric heads into the forest in panic, finding the TARDIS, where the Doctor and Romana take him in.

As strange mists begin to cover the forest, frightening amphibious creatures known as Marshmen rise from the river, and scuttling Marshspiders begin to appear everywhere. The other Deciders order the Starliner sealed and select a new Decider. The Doctor gains entry to the Starliner, followed by a Marshchild. Both are found and taken to the Deciders. The Doctor is appalled when chief scientist Dexeter starts to perform vivisection experiments on the Marshchild.

After Adric inadvertently leads a small band of outcasts to the TARDIS, they commandeer the ship leaving Romana stranded in a cave filled with Marshspiders. Romana is bitten by a spider and begins to undergo a transformation, appearing to be possessed and under the influence of the Marshmen. The Doctor administers a protein serum to cure her, and they discover that the Starliner has been maintained for 40,000 generations - but nobody knows how to pilot the ship. They also deduce that the people living in the ship are not the descendants of the original crew and passengers who crashed there, but are actually descended from the Marshmen, who killed off the original Terradonians millennia earlier and evolved to take their place.

It is also deduced that oxygen in its pure form is toxic to the Marshmen, and this non-lethal defence is used to force the Marshmen out of the Starliner. The Doctor helps the colonists aboard the ship finally leave the planet by programming the ship to take off, but Adric opts not to go with his people and instead stows away in the TARDIS.

Production

Conception and writing

Teenage fan Andrew Smith had previously submitted a number of storylines to Doctor Who script editors, who received them with interest. Smith initially submitted Full Circle under the title The Planet That Slept. Recently hired story editor Christopher H. Bidmead was impressed by the idea, and commissioned the script for Part One on February 25, 1980, followed by the next three episodes on March 31. Producer John Nathan-Turner and Bidmead were planning to introduce a new companion for the Doctor named Adric, whom they asked Smith to introduce in the serial. The two had developed a character document on January 30, which outlined that Adric was "fifteen, small for his age, wirey [sic] and strong, with short straight black hair." To reflect his origin in a parallel universe, Adric's name was chosen as an anagram of quantum physicist Paul Dirac's surname, as Dirac had predicted the existence of antimatter. Part of the original concept for Adric would have been to present a repetition of the Doctor's own backstory, with Adric's home planet initially named as Yerfillag, or Gallifrey (the Doctor's home planet) backwards. [2] Bidmead had also previously suggested "a trilogy of stories with a linking theme" to Nathan-Turner, outlining the concept of a parallel universe called E-Space in a document on June 12. [3]

Working titles for this story included The Planet That Slept. [4] At the time of writing this story, Andrew Smith was a seventeen-year-old who achieved his lifelong ambition to write for the show. [5]

The exterior locations for Alzarius were filmed at Black Park in Buckinghamshire. [6]

Reception

EpisodeTitleRun timeOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions)  [7]
1"Part One"24:2325 October 1980 (1980-10-25)5.9
2"Part Two"22:111 November 1980 (1980-11-01)3.7
3"Part Three"22:008 November 1980 (1980-11-08)5.9
4"Part Four"24:1615 November 1980 (1980-11-15)5.5

The second episode of the serial achieved 3.7 million viewers, which was one of the lowest viewing figures in the programme's history up to that time. This was due to the BBC's competitor, the ITV Network, screening Buck Rogers in the 25th Century in the same timeslot, which had severely impacted on the ratings for this season of Doctor Who. The serial was repeated on BBC1 (except BBC1 Wales) across four consecutive evenings from Monday to Thursday, 3–6 August 1981, achieving viewing figures of 4.9, 4.2, 4.6 and 6.4 million viewers respectively. [8]

Commercial releases

In print

Full Circle
Doctor Who Full Circle.jpg
AuthorAndrew Smith
Cover artist Andrew Skilleter
Series Doctor Who book:
Target novelisations
Release number
26
Publisher Target Books
Publication date
16 September 1982
ISBN 0-426-20150-7

A novelisation of this serial, written by Andrew Smith, was published by Target Books in September 1982. The novelisation opens with the Starliner crashing on Alzarius. An audiobook of the Target novelisation was released on 29 January 2015 read by Matthew Waterhouse and John Leeson.

Home media

Full Circle was released on VHS in October 1997. The DVD was released in January 2009 as part of a boxed set called The E-Space Trilogy. This serial was also released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files (issue 85) in April 2012. Paddy Kingsland's incidental music for the serial was released as part of the compilation album Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume 4: Meglos & Full Circle in 2002. In 2019, the story was released on Blu-ray as part of the Doctor Who Collection Season 18 box set.

Academic Studies

A book on the serial, written by New Zealand academic John Toon, was released by Obverse Books in January 2018 as part of its Black Archive series. [9] It won the Sir Julius Vogel Award in the category of Best Professional Production/Publication in 2019. [10]

Related Research Articles

The Pirate Planet is the second serial of the 16th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 30 September to 21 October 1978. It forms the second serial of the Key to Time story arc. It was written by Douglas Adams and features some of his humour.

Romana (<i>Doctor Who</i>) Fictional character in the TV series Doctor Who

Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, she is a companion to the Fourth Doctor.

State of Decay is the fourth serial of the 18th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 22 November to 13 December 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adric</span> Fictional character from Doctor Who

Adric is a fictional character played by Matthew Waterhouse in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He was a young native of the planet Alzarius, which exists in the parallel universe of E-Space. A companion of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors, he was a regular in the programme from 1980 to 1982 and appeared in 11 stories. The name Adric is an anagram derived from the physicist Paul Dirac.

Logopolis is the seventh and final serial of the 18th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 28 February to 21 March 1981. It was Tom Baker's last story as the Fourth Doctor and marks the first appearance of Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Janet Fielding as new companion Tegan Jovanka.

Ghost Light is the second serial of the 26th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in three weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 to 18 October 1989.

Castrovalva is the first serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 to 12 January 1982. It was the first full serial to feature Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. The title is a reference to the lithograph Castrovalva by M. C. Escher, which depicts the town Castrovalva in the Abruzzo region, Italy.

The Stones of Blood is the third serial of the 16th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 28 October to 18 November 1978. Part 4 was broadcast during the week of the show's fifteenth anniversary.

The Visitation is the fourth serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 15 to 23 February 1982.

Earthshock is the sixth serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 to 16 March 1982. This serial marks the final regular appearance of Matthew Waterhouse as Adric and his death, with the final episode featuring unique silent credits in loving memory of the character. It is also the first to feature the Cybermen since Revenge of the Cybermen in 1975.

Warriors' Gate is the fifth serial of the 18th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by Stephen Gallagher and was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 3 to 24 January 1981.

Planet of Evil is the second serial of the 13th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 27 September to 18 October 1975.

The Keeper of Traken is the sixth serial of the 18th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 31 January to 21 February 1981.

Meglos is the second serial of the 18th season of the science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 27 September to 18 October 1980.

Destiny of the Daleks is the first serial of the 17th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 1 September to 22 September 1979. The story introduces Lalla Ward as the newly regenerated Romana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourth Doctor</span> Fictional character from Doctor Who

The Fourth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Tom Baker.

Kinda is the third serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 1 to 9 February 1982.

Time-Flight is the seventh and final serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 22 to 30 March 1982.

Frontios is the third serial of the 21st season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 26 January to 3 February 1984.

<i>Doctor Who</i> season 18 Season of television series

The eighteenth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who consisted of seven four-episode serials broadcast from 30 August 1980 with the serial The Leisure Hive, to 21 March 1981 with the serial Logopolis. The season is Tom Baker's final as the Fourth Doctor before his regeneration into the Fifth Doctor, as well as Lalla Ward's as companion Romana II and John Leeson's as the voice of K9. For the second time, the entire main cast changed over the course of a single season. The season also sees the debut of Matthew Waterhouse as Adric, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa, and Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka, the three of whom would remain regular companions into the Fifth Doctor's era, as well as the return of the Master, portrayed both by Geoffrey Beevers and Anthony Ainley.

References

  1. ↑ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide , which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada , lists this as story number 112. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.
  2. ↑ Barnes, Alan (March 2019). "Full Circle". Doctor Who Magazine . Panini Magazines. p. 55.
  3. ↑ Toon, John (2018). The Black Archive #15: Full Circle. Obverse Books. p. 7.
  4. ↑ Howe, David J.; Stammers, Mark; Walker, Stephen James (1992). Doctor Who The Handbook – The Fourth Doctor. London: Doctor Who Books. p. 133. ISBN   0-426-20369-0.
  5. ↑ Smith, Kenny (18 October 2014). "Meet the Scot who wrote hit episodes of Doctor Who". Archived from the original on 21 June 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Howe, Stammers & Walker 1992 , p. 228
  7. ↑ "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
  8. ↑ doctorwhonews.net. "Doctor Who Guide: broadcasting for Full Circle".
  9. ↑ "15. Full Circle | Obverse Books".
  10. ↑ "SJV Award Finalists 2019". Sffanz.org.nz. 26 January 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2019.

Target novelisation

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.