Full Circle Part Three

The one where Romana gets possessed by the Alzarian eco-system...

It's weird seeing the TARDIS rammed with youths in pyjamas. It's also amazing how the Outlers manage to operate the door mechanism and instigate dematerialisation with the very first switches they try. Beginners' luck, I suppose. These kids are becoming less relevant as the story progresses, starting out as a way to introduce new companion Adric, but increasingly becoming wallpaper. In truth, Tylos should have been written out in some way by now, because his presence is pointless, and Keara's only really there because she's Login's daughter. It's a real shame that Richard Willis is wasted as Varsh, because he's got such a striking screen presence, and he can act, which helps. It would be quite a different couple of years had Varsh become the companion instead of Adric

The Doctor is getting frustrated by the community's endless preparations for the fabled Embarkation, when the Starliner finally leaves Alzarius and returns to Terradon. Login tells him that the preparations take generations, despite the fact everything is checked and counter-checked on a monotonously regular basis (it takes six people to change a circuit at one point). Surely it's ready to go by now?

The truth, of course, is that the Starliner is indeed ready. It has been for quite some time. The only problem is that nobody knows how to pilot the ship, but instead of revealing the inconvenient truth to the people, the Deciders have decided to keep schtum and get everybody making repairs and checks for the foreseeable future. It's a terribly defeatist attitude to take. Why can't the Deciders just admit the problem to the people, and then everybody can rally round and try and find a way to learn how to pilot it? Keeping it a secret won't solve anything, and is a pretty poor decision.

The scene where the truth of the Starliner is revealed is one of Tom Baker's finest as the Doctor. After witnessing the cruel attempt to experiment on the Marshchild - something that goes terribly wrong and results in the death of Dexeter, the science lab being trashed and the electrocution of the Marshchild - the Doctor is furious. Baker delivers his lines with a barely tempered ferocity, he's almost feral in his anger at the Deciders' ineptitude. When the Fourth Doctor's got his dander up, people really should sit up and listen. The way he tears out the system files, hurls them to the ground and reveals the fully operational system controls is marvellous stuff. Truly, one of Tom's finest performances in the role.

How come Decider Login knows all about the Marshmen, but nothing about the truth of the Starliner? Decider Draith knows about the Starliner, so why not Login? And it can't be because he's only just become a Decider, because he knows about the Marshmen already. Maybe he's just behind on his homework?

Lalla Ward spends the entire episode either possessed by the riverfruit spider's bite, or in a coma. It's a bit fudged what's going on, because she starts out conscious and chatting in the cave, but suddenly slips into a coma in the TARDIS. She seems to revive in tandem with the Marshchild, even though they've never met, which suggests some kind of genetic connection between aspects of the planet's eco-system. Now the Marshmen are on the march, the spiders become poisonous, and anything they bite becomes possessed by, and a part of, the evolutionary make-up of Alzarius. The glow-in-the-dark veins which appear on Romana's cheeks are nicely done.

The possessed Romana trashes her bedroom, before grabbing the Doctor's old waistcoat and tearing it in half so that she can helpfully drop them on the floor on her way through the Starliner to the hull. I'm not sure why she takes the waistcoat, unless it's a subconscious attempt by Romana to help the Doctor find her. And I'm not clear why she takes the image translator either.

The cliffhanger shows Romana opening the Starliner doors to let the marauding Marshmen in, complete with their cudgels. It's a great monster moment, and promises to make part 4 quite exciting.

First broadcast: November 8th, 1980

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Tom Baker is magnificent in the scene where the truth of the Starliner is revealed.
The Bad: All these kids wandering around are pointless now.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 24

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/08/full-circle.html

Full Circle is available on BBC DVD as part of the E-Space Trilogy box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Space-Trilogy-Warriors/dp/B001MWRTUY