Full Circle(Doctor Who)
| 111[1]–Full Circle | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor Whoserial | |||
| Cast | |||
Guest
| |||
| Production | |||
| Directed by | Peter Grimwade | ||
| Written by | Andrew Smith | ||
| Script editor | Christopher H. Bidmead | ||
| Produced by | John Nathan-Turner | ||
| Executive producer(s) | Barry Letts | ||
| Music by | Paddy Kingsland | ||
| Production code | 5R | ||
| Series | Season 18 | ||
| Running time | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
| First broadcast | 25 October 1980 | ||
| Last broadcast | 15 November 1980 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
Full Circleis the third serial of the18th seasonof the Britishscience fiction televisionseriesDoctor Who,which was first broadcast in four weekly parts onBBC1from 25 October to 15 November 1980.
The serial involves the alien time traveller theFourth Doctor(Tom Baker) discovering the life cycle of three closely related species on the planet Alzarius—the humanoid Alzarians, the Marshmen, and the Marshspiders—coming "full circle".Full Circleis the first of three loosely connected serials set in another universe to the Doctor's own known as E-Space and introducesMatthew Waterhouseas thecompanionAdric.
Plot
[edit]En route toGallifrey,theTARDISpasses through a strange phenomenon and ends up in an alternative universe called E-Space, where a small but sustainable civilisation of humanoids called Alzarians live between a river and a grounded spaceship,Starliner.It is anoligarchyruled by three senior colonists known as Deciders. A sudden series of irregular events are interpreted by Decider Draith as a bad omen and the colonists move into the Starliner to protect themselves. One of the younger colonists,Adric,watches Draith drown in the river. His last words are "Tell Dexeter we've come full circle!" Adric heads into the forest in panic, finding the TARDIS, where the Doctor and Romana take him in.
The other Deciders order the Starliner sealed and select a new Decider. Humanoid Marshmen and scuttling Marshspiders begin to appear. The Doctor gains entry to the Starliner, followed by a Marshchild. Both are found and taken to the Three Deciders. The Doctor is appalled when chief scientist Dexeter starts to performvivisectionexperiments on the Marshchild.
Romana is bitten by a Marshspider and begins to undergo a transformation, appearing to be possessed. The Doctor administers a protein serum to cure her, and they discover that the ship has been maintained for 40,000 generations by a species that encompasses three aspects: spiders, Marshmen, and Alzarians. These are all forms of the same species, which means they have come "full circle."
It is accidentally deduced thatoxygenin its pure form is toxic to the Marshmen and this non-lethal defence is used to force the Marshmen out of the Starliner. During their retreat, Adric stows away in the TARDIS as his fellow colonists pilot the craft away from Alzarius.
Production
[edit]Conception and writing
[edit]Teenage fanAndrew Smithhad previously submitted a number of storylines toDoctor Whoscript editors, who received them with interest. Smith initially submittedFull Circleunder the titleThe Planet That Slept.Recently hired story editorChristopher H. Bidmeadwas impressed by the idea, and commissioned the script for Part One on February 25, 1980, followed by the next three episodes on March 31. ProducerJohn Nathan-Turnerand Bidmead were planning to introduce a newcompanionfor the Doctor named Adric, whom they asked Smith to introduce in the serial. The two had developed a character document on January 30, which outlined that Adric was "fifteen, small for his age, wirey [sic] and strong, with short straight black hair." To reflect his origin in a parallel universe, Adric's name was chosen as an anagram of quantum physicistPaul Dirac's surname, as Dirac had predicted the existence ofantimatter.Part of the original concept for Adric would have been to present a repetition of the Doctor's own backstory, with Adric's home planet initially named as Yerfillag, orGallifrey(the Doctor's home planet) backwards.[2]Bidmead had also previously suggested "a trilogy of stories with a linking theme" to Nathan-Turner, outlining the concept of a parallel universe called E-Space in a document on June 12.[3]
| Episode | Title | Run time | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Part One" | 24:23 | 25 October 1980 | 5.9 |
| 2 | "Part Two" | 22:11 | 1 November 1980 | 3.7 |
| 3 | "Part Three" | 22:00 | 8 November 1980 | 5.9 |
| 4 | "Part Four" | 24:16 | 15 November 1980 | 5.5 |
The story was repeated on BBC1 (except BBC1 Wales) across four consecutive evenings from Monday to Thursday, 3–6 August 1981, achieving viewing figures of 4.9, 4.2, 4.6 and 6.4 million viewers respectively.[5]
Working titles for this story includedThe Planet That Slept.[6]At the time of writing this story, Andrew Smith was a seventeen-year-old who achieved his lifelong ambition to write for the show.[7]
The exterior locations for Alzarius were filmed atBlack Parkin Buckinghamshire.[8]
Commercial releases
[edit]In print
[edit] | |
| Author | Andrew Smith |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Andrew Skilleter |
| Series | Doctor Whobook: Target novelisations |
Release number | 26 |
| Publisher | Target Books |
Publication date | 16 September 1982 |
| ISBN | 0-426-20150-7 |
A novelisation of this serial, written by Andrew Smith, was published byTarget Booksin September 1982. The novelisation opens with the Starliner crashing on Alzarius. An audiobook of the Target novelisation was released on 29 January 2015 read by Matthew Waterhouse and John Leeson.
Home media
[edit]Full Circlewas released onVHSin October 1997. TheDVDwas released in January 2009 as part of a boxed set calledThe E-Space Trilogy.This serial was also released as part of theDoctor Who DVD Files(issue 85) in April 2012.Paddy Kingsland'sincidental music for the serial was released as part of the compilation albumDoctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume 4: Meglos & Full Circlein 2002. In 2019, the story was released on Blu-ray as part of the Doctor Who Collection Season 18 box set.
Academic Studies
[edit]A book on the serial, written by New Zealand academicJohn Toon,was released byObverse Booksin January 2018 as part of itsBlack Archiveseries.[9]It won theSir Julius Vogel Awardin the category of Best Professional Production/Publication in 2019.[10]
References
[edit]- ^From theDoctor Who Magazineseries overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29).The Discontinuity Guide,which counts the unbroadcast serialShada,lists this as story number 112.Region 1DVDreleasesfollowThe Discontinuity Guidenumbering system.
- ^Barnes, Alan (March 2019). "Full Circle".Doctor Who Magazine.Panini Magazines. p. 55.
- ^Toon, John (2018).The Black Archive #15: Full Circle.Obverse Books. p. 7.
- ^"Ratings Guide".Doctor Who News.Retrieved28 May2017.
- ^doctorwhonews.net."Doctor Who Guide: broadcasting for Full Circle".
- ^Howe, David J.;Stammers, Mark;Walker, Stephen James(1992).Doctor Who The Handbook – The Fourth Doctor.London:Doctor Who Books.p. 133.ISBN0-426-20369-0.
- ^Smith, Kenny (18 October 2014)."Meet the Scot who wrote hit episodes of Doctor Who".Archived fromthe originalon 21 June 2015.Retrieved21 June2015.
- ^Howe, Stammers & Walker 1992,p. 228
- ^"15. Full Circle | Obverse Books".
- ^"SJV Award Finalists 2019".Sffanz.org.nz. 26 January 2018.Retrieved19 August2019.
External links
[edit]
Target novelisation
[edit]- Full Circletitle listing at theInternet Speculative Fiction Database