18x3. Full Circle
Writer: Andrew Smith
Director: Peter Grimwade
Script Editor: Christopher Bidmead
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Synopsis: While responding to a
summons to Gallifrey, the TARDIS is pulled through a Charged Vacuum
Emboitment into E-Space, where it materializes on the planet Alzarius.
The humanoid inhabitants, ruled by three "Deciders," are supposedly
preparing their Starliner for a return to their original home planet
while trying to avoid the Marshmen, who appear in conjunction with
Mistfall, a cyclical atmospheric change that the long-preserved
Alzarian records claim is unsurvivable. But something about their story
doesn't add up, and soon the Doctor finds himself trying to avert a
potentially fatal conflict between the Marshmen and the Alzarian
humanoids.
Review: "Full Circle" represents the first example of the new approach to Doctor Who,
as mapped out by Christopher Bidmead and John Nathan-Turner, really
hitting the mark on all fronts. It is an imaginative, well-realized
science fiction yarn, its characters are complex and believable, and
its themes play to the strength of the Fourth Doctor.
I can't claim to understand Charged Vacuum Emboitments or E-Space, but
it's a creative way of slightly altering the assumptions of the series
by trapping the Doctor and Romana outside of normal space, and it's in
line with the capacity of the Whoniverse to go beyond the simple
existence of aliens and spaceships and explore some more unusual
concepts. Just as importantly, Alzarius itself emerges as one of the
series' more compelling takes on an alien society. The Alzarian
humanoids believe that they are descended from the planet Teradon, with
their ancestors having supposedly crash-landed the Starliner on
Alzarius. But as the Doctor discovers - and as each successive "First
Decider" has kept hidden - the entire story is a fabrication, as they
actually evolved from the Marshmen that they now fear. Unable to figure
out how to pilot the Starliner, the Deciders have kept their people
engaged in unnecessary repairs and maintenance for generations,
promising an "Embarkation" that may never come. The Alzarians speak of
their "records," "manuals," and "procedures" with a reverence that
further suggests that their traditions have become a source of
stagnation rather than rational governance.
A lesser serial might have portrayed the Deciders as maniacal
dictators, but the script actually presents them as well-meaning and
conflicted. Nefred, who assumes the title of First Decider early on in
the serial, is clearly deeply affected after consulting the secret
records, and at the moment of his death, he tells the others the truth
that they never came from Teradon and urges them to leave the planet.
Representing a more forward-thinking outlook is Login, who is newly
promoted to the rank of Decider. He is respectful of his society's
traditions and is initially talked into continuing the deception about
Mistfall, even parroting what seems to be a party line about his
daughter, who has remained with the "Outlers" outside the Starliner
during Mistfall, being a disruptive influence. But his personal
concerns eventually prompt him to break with custom, and at the end of
the serial, he is the one pushing for an end to the delays so that the
Starliner can finally take off as Nefred had urged.
Tom Baker is often particularly effective when the Doctor is deflating
the pretensions and rigidity surrounding some outdated laws or customs,
and "Full Circle" gives him a chance to play up this side of the
character. As we saw in "Nightmare of Eden," he has little time for
fellow scientists who lack the proper concern for morality, and his
anger at the scientist Dexeter who is prepared to conduct lethal
experiments on a Marshchild is convincing and very justified. Later,
when one of the Deciders seems horrified at the notion that the
Alzarian humanoids and the Marshmen are somehow alike, the Doctor quips
that perhaps they are pretty different because the Marshmen are
adaptive. One set of rulers he doesn't seem inclined to oppose,
interestingly, is the Time Lords. Romana doesn't want to go back to
Gallifrey after all she's seen and experienced with the Doctor, but he
doesn't see disobeying their summons as an option. When she notes that
he fought them once, he remarks that he lost when he did so; it would
seem that he hasn't truly stepped outside the boundaries of their
tolerance ever since "The War Games" (or, at least, he doesn't think he
has).
If there's one area where "Full Circle" falls a little short, it's the
way it handles both the origin and the resolution of the
humanoid/Marshmen conflict. Apparently a group of Marshmen took over
the Starliner after it initially crashed many centuries ago (and
possibly wiped out its original crew?), evolved into the humanoid form,
and are resented by their ancestors because they're "not Marshmen,"
according to the Doctor. This comes off as arbitrary, and it might have
been more in keeping with the themes of the serial if the humanoids and
Marshmen had found a way to communicate. Still, there's something to be
said for the fact that the Doctor helps the humanoids to depart from
the planet without any further violence even in the absence of any
greater understanding. Either way, "Full Circle" is still an
imaginative and successful piece
of anti-establishment Doctor Who.
Rating: ***1/2 (out of four)
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