Full Circle (Doctor Who)

Full Circle is the third serial of the 18th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by seventeen year-old Andrew Smith and directed by Peter Grimwade, the serial was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 25 October to 15 November 1980. The serial sees the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companions Romana and K9 inadvertently enter the smaller universe of E-Space and land on the lush forest planet Alzarius, where an event called Mistfall causes amphibious Marshmen to rise from the water and threaten the humanoid Alzarians. The serial introduces the companion Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), a young orphan and mathematical prodigy among the Alzarians.

111[1] – Full Circle
Doctor Who serial
The Doctor and K9 observe the Marshmen emerging from the swamp in the cliffhanger to Part One. The scene was one of many shot at Black Park, Buckinghamshire.[2]
Cast
Doctor Tom Baker – Fourth Doctor
Companions Lalla Ward – Romana Matthew Waterhouse – Adric John Leeson – Voice of K-9
Others Leonard Maguire – Draith James Bree – Nefred Alan Rowe – Garif George Baker – Login Tony Calvin – Dexeter Richard Willis – Varsh June Page – Keara Bernard Padden – Tylos Andrew Forbes – Omril Adrian Gibbs – Rysik Barney Lawrence – Marshman Norman Bacon – Marshchild
Production
Directed by	Peter Grimwade
Written by	Andrew Smith
Script editor	Christopher H. Bidmead
Produced by	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer	Barry Letts
Music by	Paddy Kingsland
Production code	5R
Series	Season 18
Running time	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast	25 October 1980 (1980-10-25)
Last broadcast	15 November 1980 (1980-11-15)
Chronology
← Preceded by Meglos Followed by → State of Decay
List of episodes (1963–1989)

The outline for Full Circle was devised by Smith, a fan of the show who had previously submitted spec scripts to it. Upon becoming the show's script editor and discovering virtually no material for the upcoming season, Christopher H. Bidmead met with Smith and commissioned a script based on his outline. Peter Grimwade, who had experience with the show as a writer and production assistant, was chosen to direct the serial. Multiple effects were designed for the story, including spider props and aquatic costumes for the Marshmen. After three days of location filming at Black Park in Buckinghamshire, the rest of the serial was filmed in studio at the BBC Television Centre, which was complicated by Tom Baker's on-set behavior. Paddy Kingsland provided the incidental music for the serial, composing leitmotifs for several characters.

Plot

En route to return Romana to Gallifrey, the TARDIS crew pass through a strange phenomenon and land on what they believe to be Gallifrey. Romana and the Doctor step outside onto the lush forest planet of Alzarius, home to a small civilisation of humanoids who live around a grounded spaceship, the Starliner, and are ruled by three senior colonists known as the Deciders. Meanwhile, the Outlers, a group of young Alzarians who reject the Starliner, dare Adric, the brother of their leader Varsh, to steal a riverfruit to prove himself. Draith, the highest ranking Decider, and the scientist Dexeter notice the presence of eggs in the fresh riverfruit. Draith believes it is a sign of Mistfall, an event occurring every fifty years due to the planet's orbit. As the lake water begins to bubble and mist fills the air, Draith orders an evacuation to the Starliner. As the evacuation proceeds, he spots Adric stealing a riverfruit and chases him. Draith eventually slips and is dragged under the lake, telling Adric "we've come full circle."

Adric heads into the forest in panic, finding the TARDIS, where the Doctor and Romana take him in. The Doctor and K9 head outside, where they observe the amphibious Marshmen emerge from the water. The Doctor sends K9 after the Marshmen, who knock off his head with a branch. Meanwhile, Nefred and Garif, the other Deciders, seal the Starliner, and appoint Login, a prominent citizen, to replace Draith. The Doctor, followed by a young Marshchild, sneaks onto the Starliner to search for an image translator for the TARDIS screen, which continues to show Gallifrey. After Decider Nefred calls on the Alzarian citizens to double their work towards returning to Terradon, the origin of the Starliner, the Doctor and the Marshchild are brought to the Deciders. Meanwhile, Adric warns brings the Outlers to the TARDIS, which begins to shake as the Marshmen carry it to the Outlers' cave to use as a battering ram against the Starliner. The Outlers flee and accidentally dematerialize the TARDIS, leaving Romana at the mercy of spiders hatching from the riverfruit. Romana collapses as the spiders bite her.

The Outlers, including Login's daughter Keara, materialize onto the Starliner. The Doctor and Adric take the TARDIS to rescue Romana, whom they leave in her room. Back on the Starliner, the Doctor is appalled when chief scientist Dexeter starts to perform vivisection experiments on the Marshchild, which escapes and kills both Dexeter and itself. The Doctor accuses the Deciders of hiding the fact that the Starliner no longer needs repairs and is ready to depart, to which Nefred explains that nobody knows how to fly it. Meanwhile, a possessed Romana leaves the TARDIS and begins letting hordes of Marshmen through the Starliner's lower decks.

The Doctor, Adric, Varsh, and Keara hide in Dexeter's lab. Meanwhile, Nefred is fatally injured, and tells Login and Garif that they cannot return to Terradon because they have never been there. As Romana breaks into the lab, the Doctor cures her and sends Adric and Varsh to force the Marshmen off the ship with cylinders pure oxygen, which they have discovered is toxic to them. As they do so, Varsh is killed by the Marshmen. The Doctor and the cured Romana examine the cells of the spiders, Marshmen, and Alzarians, and notice their similarity. The Doctor realizes that the Alzarians are not from Terradon, but rather the descendants of Marshmen who quickly evolved to resemble the original Terradonians. He tells Login to pump oxygen into the corridors, which forces the Marshmen outside. Once they are gone, the Doctor shows the two remaining Deciders how to pilot the ship. As the Starliner takes off, the Doctor explains to Romana that they have travelled through a Charged Vaccum Emboidment (CVE) and are now trapped in the smaller universe of E-Space.

Production

Conception

The first outline of Full Circle was devised by Andrew Smith, a seventeen year-old law student and fan of the show. Smith had learned script formatting from the book The Making of Doctor Who, which featured paperwork from the production of Robot (1974-75).^[3] His only prior success was in contributing sketches to television and radio programs.^[4] He submitted his first spec script to the show in 1978, at the age of fifteen.^[5] The script, entitled The Secret of Cassius and centring on a spaceship discovering an atmosphere on Pluto, was rejected that August by Anthony Read, then the show's script editor. Read, however, encouraged Smith to continue submitting scripts.^[3] The following April, Read's successor, Douglas Adams, invited Smith to a day of studio recording for The Creature from the Pit (1979), which inspired him to outline a story under the working title The Planet That Slept, which he submitted to the show later that year.^[3][6]

The Planet That Slept centres around a non-aggressive, ostracised Marshchild (nicknamed "Fem" by the regulars) who becomes attached to the Doctor and Romana.^[3] At the end of the story, the female Marshchild sacrifices itself to save the Doctor.^[7] In the outline, the Marshmen, whom Smith characterised as "disfigured savages and psychopaths"^[3] worship K9 as a god and attempt to sacrifice Romana to him. The role of the Starliner also differed from the final serial. In Smith's outline, the ship is a freighter that crashes on Alzarius and is boarded by giant spiders as its crew searches for minerals.^[7]

In December 1979^[3] Christopher H. Bidmead became Doctor Who's script editor, aiming to recentre the show around a policy of "education, education, education"^[8] and discovered that Adams had left almost no material that could be used for the show's eighteenth season,^[3] the sole available script being The Leisure Hive by David Fisher.^[4] Bidmead noticed Smith's outline for The Planet That Slept and met with him in February, whereupon he found out Smith's age.^[3] Smith assumed that Bidmead would simply offer him guidance and was shocked when Bidmead began discussing a script,^[7] which he officially commissioned from Smith on 25 February 1980, to be due on 1 April.^[9]

Writing

Script editor Christopher H. Bidmead suggested incorporating Full Circle into an overarching storyline set in E-Space.^[10]

Bidmead and producer John Nathan-Turner each hoped to use the serial to introduce new elements to the season. In January, Nathan-Turner, wishing to change the line-up of regulars and replace K9, devised a younger, male companion for the Doctor modeled on Artful Dodger. Bidmead named the character Adric, from an anagram of Paul Dirac,^[7] the physicist who originated the theory of antimatter.^[5] In Nathan-Turner's outline for the character, Adric would be from a planet called Yerfillag, the Doctor's home planet "Gallifrey" spelled backwards, and would begin traveling with the Doctor after the death of his troublemaker older brother Afrus. With Adric to be written into the next story, eventually titled State of Decay (1980), Bidmead had Smith incorporate Adric and Afrus into The Planet that Slept,^[7] and had him given the new writer's guide for the series.^[9] The Marschild's role in the original outline was mostly replaced by that of Adric,^[5] while Afrus was renamed "Varsh."^[7] Bidmead was also interested in connecting a number of serials under a common story arc. Nathan-Turner was initially hesitant, due to production issues on season 16, which also made use of an overarching story. Eventually, he approved a trilogy of serials in which the Doctor and Romana would be trapped in E-Space (for 'exo-space"),^[11] a universe with negative coordinates.^[9] A 12 June memo by Bidmead titled The Doctor's Adventures in E-Space provided a detailed scientific explanation of how E-Space and the Charged Vacuum Emboidment would function, as well as their effects on the Doctor's travels.^[11]

Smith submitted his script for the serial's first episode on March 22. Happy with the script, Bidmead commissioned the script for the next three episodes three days later, which Smith turned in on his deadline of April 25.^[12] The first draft of the serial differed in many ways from Smith's original outline. Besides adding the elements of Adric and E-Space, Bidmead and Smith developed the serial's focus on evolution, devising the origin of the Alzarians as Marshmen who had evolved to resemble the long-dead Terradonians. The first draft also added the elements of the Deciders and the hierarchy of Alzarian society.^[9] Smith imagined Adric as a runaway whose family had been killed in an accident engineered by Decider Draith, solidifying his anti-authority attitude. He also devised the character's badge for mathematical excellence.^[9] The production team removed the giant spiders from the script, prompted by the failure of an effect on an episode of Blake's 7.^[9] Smith replaced them with smaller crab spiders.^[12]

Smith's scripts went through four drafts in all.^[12] Although initially surprised at Bidmead's changes, Smith characterized the development process as collaborative. He described Bidmead's contribution as growing throughout the serial, with Part One being mostly his own.^[4] Nathan-Turner asked Smith to revise his first draft of the final episode, which he felt did not sufficiently involve the Doctor as an active character.^[12] The treatment of the Marshchild was also changed from the first draft, in which Omril tortures it.^[12] Smith also inserted a continuity reference to Meglos upon reading its script.^[12] Bidmead and Nathan-Turner encouraged other continuity references to season 15's The Invasion of Time and the season 16's The Key To Time arc to develop the Doctor and Romana's approach to their situation. The production team issued rehearsal scripts on 30 May.^[13] Nathan-Turner did not like Smith's title for the serial, leading Bidmead to reissue the scripts with the new title Full Circle on June 19, displeasing Smith. The new title was worked into Decider Draith's last words in Part One to clue the audience in on Alzarius' process of evolution. The serial's ending gained a new scene in which the Doctor shows the Deciders how to activate the Starliner, replacing an ending in which Adric is explicitly shown stowing on board the TARDIS as its scanner shows the Marshmen returning to the swamp.^[11] On 2 June, Peter Grimwade was chosen to direct the serial. Grimwade was a friend of Nathan-Turner's, and had worked as a production assistant and, more recently, a writer for the show on a planned serial called Xeraphin.^[13]

Design and effects

Amy Roberts, who had previously worked on the serial Image of the Fendahl (1977), was brought on as costume designer, Francis Needham and Janet Budden, both new to the show, were chosen for make-up and set design respectively. Visual effects were assigned to John Brace, who had worked as effects assistant on various serials for the show.^[13] Roberts and Brace each produced a design for the Marshman costumes, which were tested on location by Marshman actor Barney Lawrence on 21 July. Grimwade ultimately selected Roberts' design, eight of which were created for the serial. Although initially imagined as cavemen-like by Smith, Roberts' Marshmen costumes were aquatic in appearance, with latex decorations suggesting seaweed and shells and also functioning as wetsuits. The costume incorporated masks with a fibreglass underskull over a rubber skull cap, surgical gloves, and rubber slippers. Two actors passed out from the heat of the Marshmen costumes both in studio and on location.^[14] The costumes for the two extras playing swimming Alzarians were changed from thongs to more substantial clothing at Nathan-Turner's request.^[2]

The visual effects department, under Brace, developed multiple variants of Marshspider props, including a twelve-inch one with glowing eyes which could pop out of a fruit on a rod, one string puppet for a close-up, and twenty five-inch spiders made of latex, which would move by being pulled across the floor. Three battery-powered spiders that could "walk" through the use of an internal pulley system were also designed; they also featured moving fangs and glowing eyes.^[15] The effect of Romana's blue and green veins after being bitten by the spiders would be accomplished by Scotchlite make-up which would reflect the colored lights.^[16] The effects of Mistfall would be produced on location with dry ice and a wind machine, which the effects team experimented with on the morning of the first shoot day.^[2]

Grimwade, inspired by the use of CSO on the 1977 serial The Robots of Death, opted to screen model corridors into the background of Starliner interior scenes to increase the illusion of depth.^[15] The corridor set was able to be redressed as an entrance hatch and a lower section of the ship through which the Marshmen would enter. The production team obtained permission to use overhead lighting arrays to raise and lower doors and hatches on the Starliner set.^[16]

Casting

Matthew Waterhouse was a longtime Doctor Who fan before being cast as Adric.^[17]

The character of Adric was first announced in the Evening News on 26 February.^[12] The outline for the character had described him as "about 15" and "wiry" with "short, straight black hair."^[18] The next month, Nathan-Turner cast Matthew Waterhouse in the role. Waterhouse was a former news clerk at the BBC and, like Smith, a longtime Doctor Who fan.^[12][19] Waterhouse was formerly the first correspondent for the fan magazine Doctor Who Weekly,^[19] and had once participated in a TV Action competition to design a monster for the show, debuting as an actor in the then-unreleased To Serve Them All My Days (1980).^[20] Although Full Circle introduces Adric, the first serial Waterhouse filmed was State of Decay.^[12] Waterhouse later stated that he was given the role without much preparation, claiming he had lunch with Nathan-Turner and sent "straight into rehearsals."^[21] Waterhouse competed for the role with a friend and fellow fan, Bernard Padden.^[19] After three auditions, Padden was disqualified for his strong Manchester accent, but was given the role of Outler Tylos, which Grimwade initially wanted to cast Billy McColl in.^[11]

Nathan-Turner approached film and television actor George Baker in the BBC's Rehearsal Rooms in Acton, asking him to play Login, an Alzarian citizen and later Decider whose daughter Keara is among the Outlers. Baker agreed, relating to the part due to his five daughters. Grimwade was responsible for much of the casting. Child performer June Page and The Feathered Serpent actor Richard Willis were cast as Keara and Varsh respectively; the two later married.^[11]

A number of actors had made previous appearances on the show. James Bree, cast as Decider Nefred, had appeared in The War Games (1969), whereas Alan Rowe, cast as Decider Garif, had appeared in The Moonbase (1967), The Time Warrior (1973-74), and Horror of Fang Rock (1977), on which he had worked with Grimwade, who initially wanted John Franklyn-Robbins in the role.^[11] Because of their matching green costumes, the three Decider actors were nicknamed "the Decider Sister" on set.^[16] Despite hoping to cast Steve Kelly, Grimwade gave performer Barney Lawrence, who had been an extra on State of Decay, the role of the Marshman Leader. He also cast Norman Bacon, also a former extra on the show in The Sun Makers (1977), as the other main Marshman role, the Marshchild.^[11]

Filming and post-production

Location shooting

Three days of location shooting occurred at Black Park, Buckinghamshire, whose lake was used to depict swamps on Alzarius.^[14]

The cast first read through the script on 22 July at the Television Centre. Although Smith had been warned of Tom Baker's harsh reaction to scripts, Baker did not respond as dismissively as he usually did.^[14] The three-day 16mm location shoot began the next day at Black Park in Buckinghamshire, on the east side of the lake. The crew kept two local swimmers on standby for the scene featuring the swimming Alzarians and their rescue. Also filmed on the first day were the scenes of Decider Draith's address to the other Alzarians, Draith's conversation with Dexeter, and the attempted theft of riverfruit.^[2] Smith visited the location shoot, where he caught a virus and vomited on the costumes.^[14][5]

The next day, production shifted primarily to the lake's northern end and saw the filming of Draith's death, as well as the Alzarians walking to the Starliner. Draith's death was accomplished by dragging stuntman Stuart Fell into the lake with a wire pulled by frogmen.^[22] The third and final day of location shooting was mostly conducted in the park's woods, and comprised all the exterior scenes featuring the Marshmen and the regular cast. While filming its scenes in the afternoon, the radio-controlled K9 prop began to have difficulty moving, which controller Nigel Brackley discovered was a result of mud clogging its rubber treads. Grimwade waited until the sun was low in the sky to film the day's final scene of the Marshmen rising up from the swamp. Grimwade recorded two takes; on the second one, the Marshmen actors held weights under the water to prevent them from rising too quickly.^[22]

Studio shooting

Studio filming began at the BBC Television Centre in London on 7 August, 1980.^[23]

Studio rehearsals began the following Tuesday, 29 July at the Acton Rehearsal Rooms. A number of rewrites took place before the shoot resumed, including the removal of Login's cabin to avoid building another set and a reworking of the Marshchild scenes. On Thursday, 7 August, studio filming began at the Television Centre's Studio 3 with an evening session to record the scenes set in the TARDIS.^[23] Close-ups of Romana being possesed were also filmed, during which Lalla Ward's screaming kept distorting the tapes. The next day, the crew filmed scenes set in the Starliner's lower decks, followed by filming on the cave set, which proved longer and more complicated than anticipated.^[16] Due to the time constraints, Grimwade postponed the recording of scenes set in the Starliner corridors to the second block of production.^[15]

The following Monday, 11 August, rehearsals at Acton began again in preparation for the second shooting block, which began on 21 August, this time in Studio 6.^[15] The first evening session began with the scenes set in the Starliner's science unit. The session concluded with two more scenes in the cave, including the spiders attacking Romana. The next day's afternoon saw filming on the Great Book Room set, with model shots of the TARDIS and Starliner recorded that evening.^[24] On 23 August, the final day of filming, scenes set in the Starliner boarding area were shot, including Varsh's death and the Marshmen attacking, for which dry ice was used again. Waterhouse drew on his memory of his brother's suicide to play the scene of Varsh's death. The evening session saw the completion of the postponed corridor shots from the first block of filming.^[25]

Filming was complicated by Tom Baker's difficult behavior on set.^[25] While filming, Nathan-Turner asked Baker to redo a scene in which the Doctor chastises Adric, feeling Baker was acting too pleased. Baker asked Nathan-Turner if he should instead be playing Francis of Assisi, and began calling Nathan-Turner "the Vatican."^[24] Because of his frustration with the K9 prop, Baker carried its head around the studio, barking "woof-woof" during camera rehearsals, prompting Grimwade to intervene. On the final shoot day, Waterhouse, whose relationship with Baker had become particularly strained, responded to Baker's behavior by swearing at him. At one point during the production, Baker, due to his exhaustion and dissatisfaction with Nathan-Turner, first discussed with the producer about leaving the series.^[25]

Post-production

An Oberheim OB-X, one of the three synthesizers used by Paddy Kingsland to compose the score for Full Circle.^[26]

The serial was edited from 28 August to 6 September.^[27] Several scenes were trimmed from Part Four, which overran,^[28] as well as one in Part One.^[27] Some shots of the Marshmen and Starliner were played in slow motion. Some of the visual effects were accomplished with Quantel 3000.^[27] A few lines, including Draith's dying words, were dubbed over. Grimwade also recorded two announcements playing in the Starliner himself. Last minute edits continued until 12 November.^[26] Radiophonic Workshop composer Paddy Kingsland wrote and produced the incidental soundtrack for the serial, having previously composed for State of Decay and Meglos. Kingsland, at Grimwade's suggestion, composed leitmotifs for each character, reusing Adric's from State of Decay. The soundtrack was realised using Yamaha SY2, Oberheim OB-X, and Roland Jupiter-4 synthesizers in addition to drums.^[26] Dick Mills, also of the Workshop, obtained the noises for the Marshmen by recording at a pig farm.^[5]

Reception

Episode	Title	Run time	Original release date	UK viewers (millions) [29]
1	"Part One"	24:23	25 October 1980 (1980-10-25)	5.9
2	"Part Two"	22:11	1 November 1980 (1980-11-01)	3.7
3	"Part Three"	22:00	8 November 1980 (1980-11-08)	5.9
4	"Part Four"	24:16	15 November 1980 (1980-11-15)	5.5

The second episode of the serial achieved 3.7 million viewers, which was one of the lowest viewing figures in the programme's history up to that time. This was due to the BBC's competitor, the ITV Network, screening Buck Rogers in the 25th Century in the same timeslot, which had severely impacted on the ratings for this season of Doctor Who. The serial 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.^[30]

Commercial releases

In print

Full Circle

Author	Andrew Smith
Cover artist	Andrew Skilleter
Series	Doctor Who book: 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 by Target Books in 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

Full Circle was released on VHS in October 1997. The DVD was released in January 2009 as part of a boxed set called The E-Space Trilogy. This serial was also released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files (issue 85) in April 2012. Paddy Kingsland's incidental music for the serial was released as part of the compilation album Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume 4: Meglos & Full Circle in 2002. In 2019, the story was released on Blu-ray as part of the Doctor Who Collection Season 18 box set.

Academic Studies

A book on the serial, written by New Zealand academic John Toon, was released by Obverse Books in January 2018 as part of its Black Archive series.^[31] It won the Sir Julius Vogel Award in the category of Best Professional Production/Publication in 2019.^[32]