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 saw the introduction of Matthew Waterhouse as companion Adric.

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 being 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 has been 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 TARDIS passes through a strange phenomenon and ends up in an alternative universe called E-Space. Neither the Doctor nor Romana herself (who is a little relieved to have avoided home) can calculate why the TARDIS scanner shows images of their planet when in fact they have arrived in a verdant forest. It later 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 and much of the focus of society is on repairing their craft to make it navigable once more. It is an oligarchy ruled by three self-selecting senior colonists knows as Deciders, who 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.

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

However, all is not well in the colony. Strange eggs have started to appear in the riverfruit and 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 and lands 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. K-9 came to rescue Romana, Adric, Varsh, Tylos and Keera from the Marshmen but he had his head knocked off.

K-9's head about to be blown 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.

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 the K9 Mark II can meet its twin (K9 Mark I).

Spacecraft

The Starliner was originally from Terradon.

Space-time anomalies

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

Technology

The technology of Gallifrey and Alzarius/Terradon is very interchangable; the Doctor using the Image translator from the starliner in the TARDIS.

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 that of eminent physicist P A M Dirac (who in 1930 was the first to predict the existence of antimatter).
Alan Rowe makes his final Doctor Who appearance, as Garif. He had previously appeared as Doctor Evans and the voice of Space Control in The Moonbase, Edward of Wessex The Time Warrior and as Skinsale in Horror of Fang Rock.

Ratings

Part 1 - 5.9 million viewers
Part 2 - 3.7 million viewers
Part 3 - 5.9 million viewers
Part 4 - 5.5 million viewers

Myths

to be added

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 come of the corridors in the Starliner. Sometimes, however, the background is not superimposed, and only a blank screen is visible.

Continuity

to be added

Timeline

This story takes place after DW: Meglos
This story takes place before DW: State of Decay

DVD and Video releases

DVD releases

Full Circle has been released on DVD in a box set alongside State of Decay and Warriors Gate. The box set in titled The E-Space Trilogy.
Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.