Doctor Who:
Full Circle
By Andrew Smith
“Romana! This isn't
Gallifrey.”
While responding to the
call from The Time Lords The Doctor is in route to Gallifrey to return Romana
home. Romana doesn’t want to return home
and spend the rest of her life on Gallifrey after experiencing all the
adventures she has had while travelling with The Doctor. Unknowing to the pair of time travelers the
TARDIS enters a CVE and enters E – Space and lands on the planet Alzarius. The Doctor is confused as the scanner shows
Gallifrey but his eyes show him something completely different.
They appear to have landed
on Alzarius at time of chaos. It is the
time of Mist Fall and there are creatures coming out of the water. The
Marshmen have taken over the surface while the Alzarians have taken shelter in
the Starliner. The Doctor and Romana
have run into Adric who seems to have hurt his knee and is in need of aid. He tells them that his brother and the rest
Outlers are in a cave outside in the mist.
The Doctor goes out and
investigates with K – 9 and find out that the mist is harmless but the Marshmen
are not. Adric goes back to the cave to
get his brother and the rest of the Outlers and bring them back to the TARDIS
with the homing signal. They arrive at the TARDIS and try and take it over
when the Marshmen carry the TARDSI back to the Outlers cave. There spiders are hatching from the fruit and
make everyone panic and Adric and Outlers take off in the TARDIS and leave
Romana there to get bitten by one of the spiders and got infected. So it’s up to The Doctor to solve the problem
of the Marshmen and find a way out of E – Space.
Full Circle is the first
part of the fabled E – Space Trilogy and it get its started in a good way. Full Circle is about just that a civilization
that for all reason is needs to go full circle and get out of the rut they are
in. We find out that the Marshmen are
actually the descendants of those who arrived on Alzarius on the Starliner. What they need to do is leave the planet and
let The Marshmen evolve and inhabit the planet for themselves. It is quite an easy story to follow and it is
quite good seeing The Doctor giving them a kick in the butt to get moving and
stop being so complacent and doing the same repetitive thing over and over in
doing senseless maintenance on a ship that doesn’t need it.
Full Circle is also the
story that has the dubious honor of being the first appearance of Adric. Adric is one of the most annoying companions
of all time and is not held in high regard in Doctor Who fandom. I personally do not like the character at all
as the made him a really whiny brat. Mathew
Waterhouse was a difficult person to work with and you can sort of see contempt
and hatred in Tom Baker and Lalla Wards eyes towards him. Mainly in Lalla Ward’s eyes as she must have
really detested him. He isn’t the best companion but he does have
some good moments but those are few and far apart.
I liked Full Circle as it
was a simple story and it was basically a monster of the week and base under
siege. It dealt with evolution and the
trials of a civilization that needs to suck it up and claim an identity and
find a planet to call their own. It also
gives us E – Space and starts something different and which Doctor Who needed
at the time as it was in a rut of stories that seemed very much carbon copies
of each other. More adult stories and
less silliness is in full effect and the season flourishes for it. Plus the
stories are a tad darker as we would see later on. Full Circle is the last of the normal Doctor
Who stories that fans would recognized as the season would get darker and deal
more with a science feel to it.
Grade B -
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