Day 273 — September 30th 2021
Full Circle Parts Three and Four
Full Circle — Part Three
I think I’m right in saying that Andrew Smith is still the youngest writer to have ever contributed a script for Doctor Who which actually got made and broadcast on the telly. This is his only TV credit on the series, although he’s gone on to write lots for Big Finish in recent years. It’s an impressive feat already to write a Doctor Who story at 17 and have it made, but it’s all the more incredible that the script is so good.
This third episode is an especially good showcase for Smith’s work, filled with some great dialogue, genuinely funny jokes, and some genuinely surprising twists in the narrative. I think I can remember another twist still to come, but I’d forgotten the main reason that the characters couldn’t leave Alzarius;
Garif: ‘One secret our ancestors kept for themselves…’
Doctor Who: ‘What’s that?’
Nefred: ‘Nobody knows how to pilot this ship.’
It’s made all the better because this twist comes on the back of one of the best scenes the programme has given us in ages, in which Doctor Who goes ballistic at the Deciders. My thoughts on Tom Baker have shifted over the course of his run. In his first few seasons it was absolutely a given that he’d turn in a brilliant performance in every single episode. You could never tell if he was enjoying a story or not, because he gave 110% every single week.
Around Season Fifteen that stopped being the case, and it was often the case that you could tell he wasn’t all that bothered. There’s more than a few episodes which make you wonder why he bothered showing up to work, such is the lack of enthusiasm to his performance. He starts taking the piss and seeing how far he can push things. By the end of the Williams era he’s clearly found his groove a bit more, and the series has shifted from playing to the strength of his intensity and instead giving him material specifically to prat about with. It can work beautifully, as the confrontation scene in City of Death Part Two attests.
This episode, though, has to contain the best performance Baker’s given us since at least Philip Hinchcliffe’s departure. When he rails at the Deciders there’s some real power behind his anger, and it’s all the more shocking because I’m simply not used to seeing him go for it like this any more. There’s shades of the anger he showed in The Pirate Planet, but it’s all the more impressive here. When the episode finished I wound back and watched the scene again simply because I’m so pleased to see Baker at the top of his game again as we approach the end of his time in the show.
Doctor Who: ‘You Deciders allowed this to happen!’
Garif: ‘The marsh creatures are mindless brutes. Animals!’
Doctor Who: ‘Yes. Easy enough to destroy. Have you ever tried creating one?’
Nefred: ‘We were within our rights.’
Garif: ‘One might argue that Dexeter was overzealous.’
Doctor Who: ‘Not an alibi, Deciders! You three are supposed to be leaders!’
Anger isn’t the only emotion which is threaded strongly through this one. A few scenes earlier the Marshman Baby wakes up seconds before it’s due to be operated on. It kills the surgeon in self defence and goes on a rampage before seeing the face of Doctor Who watching it from a screen. As it dies trying to get to the only person who’s ever shown it kindness I actually found myself oddly moved by it. I can’t remember the last time an episode of Doctor Who made me feel something like that.
We’ve also got a great cliffhanger as Romana opens the door to the Starliner and lets a barrage of Marshmen into the ship. Indeed, the cliffhangers have been strong across the board in this one, even if they’ve not always been realised to their full potential on screen.
I’m going for a 9/10 on this one, and I’m pleased to see that my memories of finding a lot to love in here don’t seem to be rose tinted.
Full Circle — Part Four
I’ve been a bit lax in mentioning that this season saw the debut of a brand new TARDIS prop, first seen in the opening shot of The Leisure Hive. It’s the first of several props used across the last decade of the show’s life, and the template for pretty much all of the others. And I love it pretty unequivocally. There’s something about the 80s TARDIS exterior which just feels right to me, even with its shallow panels and fibreglass appearance. I’ll tell you what, though, it’s in a hell of a state already! Full Circle was the fourth story recorded for this season, but it looks like this prop has already been through the wars. I’m assuming it was a deliberate attempt to make it look like the dangerous journey into E-Space put the ship under enormous pressures, but all the same it’s a bold decision to show it in such close up in this episode when it looks like this…!
This episode rounds out the story nicely, although it’s perhaps a little less showy than the last one, and I’ve dropped back down to a 7/10 again. The twist I could remember from the last time was that the colonists on the Starliner had evolved from Marshmen a long time ago, but watching it this time around I found the point a little muddled. The story seems to be that the Starliner crashed 40,000 generations ago, and at the first Mistfall afterwards the Marshmen evolved into the more human people we see aboard the ship.
They go on reproducing and constantly preparing to leave the planet while only a select few in power know the terrible truth of their origins. But then we’re also told that the Mistfall occurs — and the Marshmen attack — every 50 years. So what happened to the Marshmen from every Mistfall between the original one and this one? The implication here is that these Marshmen will evolve into people and might replace the ones on the ship if they don’t take off immediately. But that can’t be what happens every time, because one of the Deciders in this story remembers the Marshmen at the last Mistfall from his childhood. I’m perhaps being a bit uncharitable by picking holes in the story, but the more I thought about it the more confused I became, and that’s a pity because I’ve really enjoyed the twists in this one.
I wonder if they’d have been better off stealing the Pangol twist from The Leisure Hive? Have it said that the Colonists are unable to reproduce, but then you’ve got the incongruity of there being younger people on the Starliner too… who turn out to be the evolved Marshmen from 50 years ago. It’s not perfect, doesn’t solve everything, but I think you need something like that in there to plug the gap.
There’s one other element in this one that feels like a bizarre choice — you never realise that Adric has stowed away aboard the TARDIS. I think it might be played as a ‘reveal’ in the next episode, but from the point of view of this one it’s an odd narrative choice. Once the plot is over we cut to Adric inside the TARDIS, he leaves the bit of equipment that Doctor Who needs and then stares down the camera for what feels like an eternity… and then that’s it. Doctor Who and Romana note that he’s left it there for them to find, but they don’t make any mention of not getting to say goodbye to him.
Again, I think it just needs a little tweak to make the story hang together. Even a glimpse of Adric looking wistfully at the TARDIS before deciding to enter, or the interior door closing as Doctor Who and Romana enter the Control Room… it’s just needs something…
