Full Circle Part Two

The one where K-9 has his head knocked off...

The Marshmen really are the perfect monsters. They're ugly, they're lumbering, they're scaly, they growl, and they emerge from the marshy waters grasping and dripping with seaweed. Peter Grimwade directs their emergence from the marsh with horror film elan, making it one of the most effective monster scenes Doctor Who's ever had. And if their initial appearance isn't eerie enough, once they've made it to the side of the water, they stand still, hissing and moaning as they acclimatise to their new world. Grimwade also has the Marshmen leer into the camera lens a few times, which proves he had a good eye for what's scary!

The Doctor and K-9 watch from the undergrowth as the Marshmen lumber slowly but purposefully through the forest, wading through bog and fen. Surprisingly, the Doctor asks K-9 to follow the Marshmen to see where they settle. This is the robot dog that can barely move across a perfectly smooth, flat surface, never mind a lumpy, boggy, grassy, muddy wasteland. At least the Doctor's optimistic about his pet's abilities!

In the cave, the Outlers are chatting about things they barely know about as if they've known about them for ages. Adric talks about "the Doctor" and "the TARDIS" freely, and Varsh and Tylos respond as if they know exactly what and who he's talking about. I realise Adric has told them about his experiences off-screen, but they react to it all with such familiarity, accepting that the Doctor and his TARDIS exist too easily.

Believing Adric, the Outlers decide to storm the TARDIS. Adric may well have a homing device, but he doesn't have a key to get in, which suggests Romana is to blame for leaving the doors open. I do like how she loses her temper with these kids quite quickly, spitting: "What do you want?"

It's quite unnerving to have strangers force their way into the TARDIS, especially when they twist Romana's arm behind her back and hold her at knifepoint. It would become quite common for strangers to go inside the TARDIS through the 1980s (friends and enemies), but at this point in Doctor Who's history, it's a rare thing, and as a viewer I feel sort of infiltrated! You always consider the TARDIS to be a safe haven, so when it's invaded - as it is in Death to the Daleks by an Exxilon, for example - it feels all the more dangerous.

Having won the Outlers' trust by using the old "handing the weapon back" trick, Romana next has to contend with the TARDIS lurching from side to side (love the detail of the toppling hat stand). We learn that the Marshmen have picked the TARDIS up and transported it all the way to the top of the highest vantage point, and it's a shame we don't get to see that as it would have made a fantastic visual, especially on location. I imagine the logistics of hoisting the police box prop onto the shoulders of several Marshmen actors, who probably had very limited vision, was beyond possibility.

Romana and Adric, who make quite a formidable thinking team here, establish that the Marshmen probably see the TARDIS as just a big boulder, and their intention is to hurl the TARDIS down the mountainside to use as a battering ram to smash their way into the Starliner. That's a pretty epic plan they have there! At first I thought perhaps the Marshmen gravitated toward technology, which they intended on destroying like Luddites. They try and smash their way into the TARDIS with cudgels, and then when K-9 turns up, they knock his block off. That's quite a shocking sight, to be honest. On one level, you're shocked that K-9's had his head knocked off, and on another level you're concerned for the K-9 prop!

Meanwhile, the Doctor sonics his way inside the Starliner (why don't loads of alarms go off when the doors open?) and notices that he is being followed by a baby Marshman, a Marshchild that was late getting up. There are some lovely sequences with the Doctor sensing the Marshchild is following him around the ship, and when he does finally come face to face with the creature, we find it being threatened by Omril. The Doctor crouches down to try and placate the frightened creature, and it's heartbreaking to see it cowering fearfully, and the whimpering, crying sounds it makes are harrowing (the late Norman Bacon does a great job, using body language to great effect). When they drag it into the Deciders' chamber trussed up in a net, I can barely watch.

The Deciders are having a dilemma of their own. Now that Nefred is the new leader, he can read the system files, and discover all of the secrets of his people. It's surprising that the secrets are still secret because it looks like the system files are highly accessible bits of coloured paper neatly arranged on shelves. One gust of wind and the whole lot goes! Whatever Nefred discovers is game-changing, but he can't discuss it with anybody else for some reason (it's not explained why). We already know, thanks to K-9, that the atmosphere during Mistfall is not toxic, but Nefred asserts that it is better that the Alzarians think it is, to stop them venturing outside.

At this stage I'm a bit confused about what the Alzarians know and what they don't know, and what they are supposed to know. It's clear that they know about the Marshmen, because Keara quotes some unnamed source about them: "When Mistfall comes, the giants leave the swamp." So what is it that they don't know that is being held back from them in the system files? The fact Nefred holds the truth back from the community is unsettling, as he is suppressing his people. He may well think that it's best they don't know the truth, but in a democratic society, surely that is for the people to decide? The Alzarians need a Freedom of Information Act, because this is a community built on lies.

We do learn that these people are not indigenous Alzarians, but actually crashlanded here generations ago in the Starliner on a journey from Terradon. Their ultimate aim is to get back to Terradon - the "embarkation" - but seem to spend a lot of time affecting repairs but not actually preparing to leave! I like how Nefred summarises the heritage of his people for the benefit of the viewer by addressing his citizens (and the gradual tracking shot, slowly zooming out to show the vastness of the chamber, is magnificent). Also, in the quick glimpses we have of citizens listening, there seems to be an unusual amount of lookalikes among the extras. I can spot a Louise Jameson, a Jordan Knight, a Michael Craze, a Dexter Fletcher, maybe even a Simon O'Brien and a Paddy Considine (this is so ridiculously niche that most of my blog readers won't even know who I'm referring to!).

It feels very much like Tom Baker is "back in the room" for this story, and he's on finest form when acting against more seasoned performers like George Baker, James Bree and Alan Rowe. The beaming smile lights up his face far more often than it has been doing in Season 18 so far. Also, as an aesthetic aside, his rich burgundy silhouette looks gorgeous against the lush greenery of the forest.

I really like Janet Budden's Starliner corridor sets too, they are in keeping with other Season 18 corridors which look and feel much more realistic than Doctor Who corridors have been in the past. They just look properly designed, as if real people really do walk along them every day. They're no bigger than they need to be, and their pentagram shape puts me in mind of the corridors on Blake's 7's Liberator.

The cliffhanger is ably provided by some giant spiders which hatch out of riverfruit and begin scrabbling toward Romana, their Belisha beacon eyes flaring. "They're only spiders," scoffs Romana as the others wisely flee. Yes, they're bloody huge spiders that move fast, have fangs and look poisonous, so I'd stop with the high and mighty attitude and run! Oh, too late: a spider hatches out of a riverfruit Romana's holding and bites her on the face. There, told you. But no, they're "only spiders"...

First broadcast: November 1st, 1980

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Again, it's Peter Grimwade's masterful direction of the Marshmen, as well as that gorgeous tracking shot of the chamber during Nefred's speech.
The Bad: "They're only spiders." Nobody says that when the spiders are so bloody big, with fangs!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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

NEXT TIME: Part Three...

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