Day 272 — September 29th 2021

Full Circle Parts One and Two

Full Circle — Part One

One of the things people tend to praise Season Eighteen for is having a better handle on the budget. I’ve seen people say that you can see the budget on screen more, and that it’s something of a revelation after the somewhat cheap looking Williams era. I’m not sure I particularly buy that, though. Certainly Season Fifteen looked like it was financed by ten quid and half a pack of Polos, but I think as that era went on it began to look better and better on the whole.

Season Seventeen looked really impressive in places. The Paris filming was done on the cheap, but it looks great, and the novelty of actually being abroad only adds to the effect. I complained about some of the sets in Nightmare of Eden, but I can’t deny that the jungle looked brilliant. Creature from the Pit was enhanced by lots of great film work in the opening episode, which automatically makes everything look that much more expensive.

I think that’s where Season Eighteen has fallen a bit short for me up to now. In the first eight episodes there’s very little film material, and hardly anything that’s not been shot in a TV studio. There’s the opening pan of The Leisure Hive (which, in fairness, is about nine hours long), but that’s it. I look at the jungle in Meglos and can’t help but think it’d look so much stronger had it been shot on film. This episode finally tips the balance the other way — there’s loads of location work, and the episode is all the stronger as a result.

We’re also in a rather nice location, and the fact that it’s been shot on such a lovely sunny day helps, too. The first shot we get of Doctor Who stood outside the TARDIS basking in the sunshine looks fantastic, although Tom Baker much have been absolutely roasting in that costume. It’s continuing to grow on me, though. It feels like a trial run for some of the locations we’ll be visiting over the next year, too. The forest reminds me a bit of the one we’ll have in the next story, while all the bracken puts me in mind of Castrovalva from next year. It feels like the show is becoming more and more the one I think of when I picture early-80s Who.

As for the story here… well, it’s not grabbed me yet. I think Full Circle is one I quite liked before, but I’ll reserve judgement for now.

7/10

Full Circle — Part Two

The Marshmen are the ultimate example of the ‘blokes in ill-fitting rubber costumes’ which I often complain about when it comes to the realisation of monsters in Doctor Who. Almost all of the costumes bunch ineffectually along the arms, and I’m fairly sure at least one of them has a torn crotch. They’ve also gone to extremes with the loose flap of ‘skin’ where the mask joins the body, which is an effect I felt let the Silurian costumes down a decade earlier.

And yet… God, I love them. They’re such a brilliant design, and I think that shines through the somewhat patchy final product. I don’t think the cliffhanger to Part One — in which they rise from the misty waters of the marsh — looks anywhere near as good as it could, but the early minutes of this episode are filled with fantastic shots of them prowling around the landscape, and I think it’s really effective. My very first professional cover for Big Finish, back in 2014, was for a sequel to this story and I couldn’t resist photoshopping my own eyes into the Marshman costume so that I could claim to have ‘played’ one.

The dodgy bit of design around the neck isn’t the only similarity this story bears with Doctor Who and the Silurians — there’s similarities in approach when it comes to the way that Doctor Who reacts to meeting a monster. In the earlier story he offers a lizard a handshake, and here he treats it like a lost pet, gently trying to coax it into communicating while everyone else is ready to attack it simply for being different. It’s a beautiful scene and I’d happily see him behaving like this every week. I think it’s such a great way for the character to behave.

Baker benefits from some nice direction in this story too — there’s some especially gorgeous shots of him walking through the mist which showcase just how good this story should look throughout. Sadly I don’t think the studio material looks half as good as the location stuff. When Doctor Who breaks into the Starliner, for instance, the pumped in smoke looks about as fake as possible and the effect is somewhat ruined. Despite my love of the Marshmen, the costumes look their worst in the studio, too.

I didn’t have a lot to say about Adric in the first episode, but I certainly do here. He’s fab! Hah! Oh I know it’s ‘cool’ to hate Adric, but I certainly don’t have an issue with him here. I think I recall in my last marathon deciding that his character only really becomes annoying once Peter Davison comes along. I’ve said in recent weeks that I always thought having two Time Lords in the TARDIS together could make the series a little smug and unbearable. I’ve not found that to be the case but it’s incredibly refreshing to have Adric here now to cut through some of the ‘higher thinking’ you get with Time Lords;

Romana: ‘If the Doctor’s theory’s right, we’ll need a local image translator to
see what’s out there.’
Adric: ‘Or… we could just look out through the door.’

I’ll admit that I can’t say Matthew Waterhouse is giving the best performance that we’ve ever seen in the series before, but I also don’t think it’s awful. He certainly shines the most in moments like the one quoted above, where he’s allowed to be funny and a bit cheeky. He struggles more with having to do the serious science stuff. And anyway, he’s certainly better than some of the other teenagers in the cast here.

I’ve debated the score for this one, but think I’m going with another 7/10.

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