Doctor Who – 'Full Circle' (1980)


I'll own up right now, I'm far from the most knowledgeable 'Doctor Who' fan' I just love watching the show and reading the occasional book Okay, there is a Tardis stood on top of one my book cases but even so... ;o) It's only in the last few years that I found out 'Full Circle' was actually called 'Full Circle' and that was only after I googled 'Doctor Who and the Marshmen' to try and find a story that I hadn't seen since I was about five years old. It had Marshmen in it, it was an easy mistake to make. I never got round to watching it again though so once payday had put in an appearance, the other day, I thought I'd do something about that now ;o)

Another thing I hadn't realised was that 'Full Circle' was the first part of the 'E-Space' trilogy of tales; my new copy came as part of an 'E-Space' box set so you'll hear more about that over the next few weeks. For now though, lets have a little chat about a story that I had vague memories of it being mostly about lumbering Marshmen, but was actually about much more.

The Doctor discovers the TARDIS has fallen into E-Space and landed on the planet Alzarius. Its only inhabitants live on a vast, dilapidated spaceship which they have been attempting to repair for generations in order to return to their home planet. But Mistfall, a legendary time of terror, is coming again to Alzarius, and an eerie menace is rising out of the misty marshes. The Doctor and Romana must solve the riddle of the strange Marshmen if they are to have any chance of returning to their own universe.

'Full Circle' is a bit of an odd to call, for me anyway. There's plenty there to recommend it but at the same time, it felt like all these cool plot elements didn't hang together all that well and the end result for me was a story where I was all into the horror of the 'March of the Marshmen' and the science of the 'Full Circle' but putting them both together felt like jamming two things together that really didn't want to go.

This is a real shame as the individual components worked really well. The horror of the marshes was built up nicely and unleashed in a wave of gibbering Marshmen, what's not to like there? It freaked me out, just a little bit, watching it the other day so I can only imagine what I was like seeing it as a five year old. And watching the panic spread through the humans on board the starliner... It was great fun to watch, deliciously unsettling.

And the science of the 'Full Circle' was explored fairly thoroughly as well although thinking about it... The science is well laid out but it felt that there was a disconnect between that and the activities of the Marshmen. I won't give the secret away (although the title is a massive clue) but it felt like that science should have done a lot more to explain why the Marshmen were reacting to the humans in the way that they did.

But having said all that though, 'Full Circle' does provide an entertaining reason for Romana not to have to go back to Gallifrey, just yet, and Tom Baker is typically brilliant as the Doctor. Even the introduction of Adric is, well... okay, I'm still not sure about Adric but it is fun to see how misplaced his confidence can be. Just because you're clever, doesn't mean you're intelligent (or is that the other way round... I'm clearly neither at the moment).

And that's more or less 'Full Circle' in a nutshell for me. Watch it for just one thing and it's a more than serviceable story; try to put them all together though and it doesnt quite work. Watch it for the horror is my advice, it really works on that score.

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