111 [1] –Full Circle | |||
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Doctor Who serial | |||
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Companions
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Others
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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 code | 5R | ||
Series | Season 18 | ||
Running time | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
First broadcast | 25 October 1980 | ||
Last broadcast | 15 November 1980 | ||
Chronology | |||
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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.
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.
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.
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]
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 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]
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." [13] 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] [14] Waterhouse was formerly the first correspondent for the fan magazine Doctor Who Weekly, [14] and had once participated in a TV Action competition to design a monster for the show. He debuted as an actor in To Serve Them All My Days (1980), which had yet to be released when he was cast as Adric. [15] 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." [16] Waterhouse competed for the role with a friend and fellow fan, Bernard Padden. [14] 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]
Episode | Title | Run time | Original release date | UK viewers (millions) [17] |
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1 | "Part One" | 24:23 | 25 October 1980 | 5.9 |
2 | "Part Two" | 22:11 | 1 November 1980 | 3.7 |
3 | "Part Three" | 22:00 | 8 November 1980 | 5.9 |
4 | "Part Four" | 24:16 | 15 November 1980 | 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. [18]
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Author | Andrew Smith |
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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.
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.
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. [19] It won the Sir Julius Vogel Award in the category of Best Professional Production/Publication in 2019. [20]