Full Circle (TV story)

Full Circle was the third story of Season 18 of Doctor Who and the first story of the E-Space trilogy. It introduced Matthew Waterhouse as companion Adric.

Full Circle

Novelised as:

Full Circle

Doctor:

Fourth Doctor

Companion(s):

Romana, Adric, K9

Main enemy:

The Marshmen

Main setting:

Alzarius

Key crew

Writer:

Andrew Smith

Director:

Peter Grimwade

Producer:

John Nathan-Turner

Release details

Story number:

111

Premiere broadcast:

25 October - 15 November 1980

Premiere network:

BBC1

Format:

4x25-minute episodes

Production code:

5R

*Doctor Who* television stories
← Previous	Next →
Meglos	State of Decay

Production order
← Previous	Next →
Meglos	Warriors' Gate

Synopsis

The TARDIS falls through a CVE into E-Space and arrives on the planet Alzarius. There the inhabitants of a crashed starliner and a group of young rebels called the Outlers, led by a boy named Varsh and including his brother Adric, are terrorised by a race of Marshmen who emerge from the marshes at a time known as Mistfall.

The Doctor discovers that the starliner's inhabitants are not the descendants of its original crew, as claimed by their leaders, the Deciders, but evolved Marshmen. With the Time Lord's help and encouragement, the starliner is repaired and able to leave the planet.

Plot

En route to Gallifrey to return Romana to the High Council of Time Lords, the Doctor's TARDIS passes through a strange phenomenon and ends up in an alternative universe called E-Space. Neither the Fourth Doctor nor Romana herself (who is a little relieved to have avoided returning home) understand why the TARDIS scanner shows images of their planet when they have arrived in a verdant forest. It emerges they have journeyed to this pocket universe through a rare space/time phenomenon known as a Charged Vacuum Emboitment.

The cells of an Alzarian, exactly the same as that of the Marshmen and Alzarian spider.

Nearby is a small but sustainable civilisation of humanoids who live between a river and a grounded but not irreparable spaceship called the Starliner. They came to the planet Alzarius from Terradon. Much of the focus of society is on repairing their craft. It is an oligarchy ruled by three self-selecting senior colonists knows as Deciders. They ensure the smooth running and order of their adopted world and lay particular store on technical ability. One of the brightest of the younger generation of colonists is Adric, who bears a Badge of Mathematical Excellence in recognition of his computational skills.

Adric's brother, Varsh, has rejected the regimented society of the Starliner. He leads a band of rebels called Outlers, who steal harvested riverfruit and other foods to survive.

Not all is well in the colony. Strange eggs have started to appear in the riverfruit. This is interpreted by First Decider Draith using the precious System Files of the Starliner as an omen of Mistfall, a strange periodic change to the planet during which the natural balance of society is threatened. Soon Mistfall begins, and the colonists move into the Starliner to protect themselves, apparently in a well prepared manner. Adric chooses the moment of confusion to try and steal some riverfruit to prove himself to his brother. Draith gives chase to his young protégé but falls in the river – only to be dragged beneath the waves by a strange force. His last words are aimed at the chief scientists of the colony: “Tell Dexeter we've come full circle!" Adric muses on this as he heads into the forest in panic, finding the TARDIS. The Doctor and Romana take him in and tend to his leg wound, which recovers remarkably quickly. The Doctor heads off to investigate the planet, while Adric attracts Varsh and the other Outlers to the protection of the TARDIS.

The two other Deciders, Garif and Nefred, have meanwhile ordered the Starliner doors closed as per procedure, knowing that both Draith and Keara, an Outler and the daughter of a prominent citizen called Login, have not entered the ship safely. Despite his worries, Login soon accepts a position as Third Decider when it is determined that Draith has died. It is as well the doors have been closed – humanoid, aggressive Marshmen begin to appear from underwater, looking threatening (as shown in the picture above); and soon scuttling Marshspiders hatch from the eggs of the Riverfruit. The Marshmen beat on the walls of the Starliner to gain entry but the fearsome primitive creatures are not admitted. The Doctor, however, gains entry to the Starliner using his sonic screwdriver, followed by a young and inquisitive Marshchild. Both of them are soon found and taken before the Three Deciders. The Doctor is appaled when chief scientist Dexeter starts to perform vivisection experiments on the Marshchild.

A group of Marshmen carried the TARDIS to a settlement cave, intending to use it as a battering ram to force their way into the Starliner. Romana decided to venture outside. K9 came to rescue Romana, Adric, Varsh, Tylos and Keara from the Marshmen but he had his head knocked off. She is bitten by one of the Marshspiders and starts to change, seeming possessed. Adric panics and materialises the TARDIS inside the Starliner.

When the Outlers emerge Login is reunited with his daughter, but the Doctor is not impressed not to be reunited with Romana. Thus he pilots the TARDIS back to the cave, and finds an alert but amnesiac Romana. The Doctor scoops up the remains of a Marshspider and then reverses his journey once more with Adric and an unconscious Romana in tow. By the time he is back in the Starliner, however, Dexeter has tried to examine the brain of the Marshchild, provoking it to attack and kill him and itself. The Doctor is so incensed he turns on the Deciders and denounces their society – revealing secret ship controls that show the Starliner has been ready to pilot from Alzarius for centuries but, for some reason, the farce of constant repair has been continued. The problem it seems is that though the Deciders understand the technical construction of the ship, no one knows how to pilot it.

Romana awakes from the hypnosis of the spider.

The Doctor persuades the Deciders to give him equipment to examine the cells of the marshspider and marshchild and also deduces that they are from identical DNA sources. This situation is complicated, however, when a transformed Romana releases the emergency exits and allows the Marshmen to invade the Starliner. The colonists retreat before the creatures, many of whom are more inquisitive than dangerous, but anarchy reigns. Nefred is mortally wounded while fleeing one room, but his last admission is that the colonists cannot return to Terradon, because they've never been there. It is realised that the present-day Alzarians are actually a subspecies of the Marshmen, who wiped out the Starliner's original Terradonian crew and then gradually evolved into human form to take their place.

The Doctor uses a protein serum to cure Romana, and they determine from research in the ship's science unit that the ship has been maintained for 40,000 generations by a species that has three aspects; spiders, marshmen, and the current humanoids. They are all from the same DNA and thus have come "full circle". This is the real secret of the System Files.

It is accidentally deduced that oxygen in pure form is problematic to the Marshmen, who have not the capability to cope with the gas in that concentration, and soon this non-lethal defence is used to force the Marshmen out of the Starliner. During their retreat Varsh is killed, leaving Adric in emotional turmoil. With the Marshmen returning to the swamps, the boy stows away on board the TARDIS. His fellow colonists meanwhile follow their dreams and pilot the craft away from Alzarius. The Doctor and Romana are unaware of Adric's presence as they pilot their own craft to another destination.

Cast

Crew

References

Astronomical objects

Alzarius occupies the same coordinates as Gallifrey in E-Space.
Terradon is the planet the Alzarians believe, erroneously, to come from.

Cultural references to real world

The Doctor jokes about his TARDIS being the Noah's Ark after the crew of Adric sticks out.

Food

The Alzarians eat a riverfruit, similar to Earth watermelon. It can host spider eggs.

Gallifrey

The Doctor and Romana are summoned to Gallifrey. Romana is reluctant to go.

Individuals

As they're travelling to Gallifrey the Doctor comments to Romana, "Yes, well, you only came to help with the Key to Time."
The Doctor says that he's looking forward to seeing Leela and Andred again and that K9 Mark II can meet its twin (K9 Mark I).
Adric bears a tissue star for his mathematical excellence and as a member of the Elite.
Romana has a chess set in her room.

Medicine

Anaesthetic is used to sedate the Marshman once known as Draith.
The Doctor uses an Alzarian microscope able to see chromosomical details (such as karyotypes) to analise the tissues of the Marshmen and the spider.
An excess of oxygen is able to affect the Marshmen.
Romana suggests using gel electrophoresis to analyse the specimen from the Marshmen.

Spacecraft

The Starliner was originally from Terradon.

Space-time anomalies

The TARDIS enters E-Space (Exo-Space-time continuum) via a Charged Vacuum Emboitment (CVE).

Species

Alzarians were divided in three ranks: Deciders (leaders, in number of three), Citizens (common people) and Outlers (rebels). Elite was a cross rank for intellectual excellence. Romana classifies this society as a "a type D oligarchy".
Human Alzarians share the same genetic pattern of the Alzarian spiders and the Marshmen, because they represent a different evolutionary stadium, thanks to a rapid cellular adaptation.

TARDIS

Adric is given a spherical homing device to let him track down the TARDIS.
Romana estimates that the TARDIS weighs "5 times 10 to the 6 kilos" in the gravity of the planet.

Technology

The technology of Gallifrey and Alzarius/Terradon is interchangeable. The Doctor uses the image translator from the starliner in the TARDIS.
The Starliner is provided with an electrolythic power system able to produce oxygen.
The Doctor wonders why, among their tasks, the crew of the Starliner removes optrionics circuits.

Story notes

This is the first story in the "E-Space Trilogy".
The story has a working title of The Planet that Slept.
Adric's name was suggested by script editor Christopher H. Bidmead as an anagram of the last name of eminent physicist P A M Dirac (who in 1930 was the first to predict the existence of antimatter).

Ratings

Part one - 5.9 million viewers
Part two - 3.7 million viewers
Part three - 5.9 million viewers
Part four - 5.5 million viewers

Filming locations

Black Park, Black Park Road, Fulmer, Buckinghamshire
BBC Television Centre (TC3 & TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

When the TARDIS is seen drifting through E-Space, the background stars appear in front of the TARDIS.
The Marshmen have cuffs.
As is often the case in the show, CSO backdrops are used to add depth to some of the corridors in the Starliner. Sometimes, however, the background is not superimposed, and only a blank screen is visible.

Continuity

The Doctor is looking forward to reuniting with Leela, K9 Mark I and Andred on Gallifrey. (TV: The Invasion of Time)
Romana is summoned to Gallifrey because she was supposed to help the Doctor only with the quest for the Key to Time. (TV: The Ribos Operation)
The Doctor mentions having dropped off "their Earthling friend" whom they had picked up on Tigella. (TV: Meglos)

DVD and Video releases

DVD releases

Full Circle has been released on DVD in a box set with State of Decay and Warriors Gate. The box set is titled The E-Space Trilogy.

Special features include:

Audio Commentary by actor Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), writer Andrew Smith and script editor Christopher H. Bidmead
All Aboard the Starliner - "Making of" featuring Lalla Ward (Romana), George Baker (Login), John Leeson (K9), Bernard Padden (Tylos), director Peter Grimwade and film cameraman Max Samett
K-9 in E-Space
E-Space - Fact or Fiction? - Exploring the science behind the concept of Exo-Space with visual effects designer Mat Irvine, authors Stephen Baxter and Paul Parsons, planetary scientist Dr Andrew Ball and astronomer Sir Patrick Moore.
Swap Shop - Noel Edmonds chats with Matthew Waterhouse
Isolated Music Score
Trails and Continuity
Photo Gallery
DVD-ROM PC/Mac feature Radio Times billings