Full Circle (TV story)

"That's not scientific understanding, it's cold-blooded murder!"

- The Doctor

Synopsis
The TARDIS falls through a CVE into E-Space and arrives on the planet Alzarius. There the inhabitants of a crashed Starliner and a group of young rebels called the Outlers, led by a boy named Varsh and including his brother Adric, are being terrorised by a race of Marshmen who emerge from the marshes at a time known as Mistfall.

The Doctor discovers that the Starliner's inhabitants are not the descendants of its original crew, as has been claimed by their leaders the Deciders, but evolved Marshmen. With the Time Lord's help and encouragement, the Starliner is repaired and able to leave the planet.

Plot
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Tom Baker
 * Romana - Lalla Ward
 * Adric - Matthew Waterhouse
 * Voice of K9 - John Leeson
 * Login - George Baker
 * Draith - Leonard Maguire
 * Nefred - James Bree
 * Garif - Alan Rowe
 * Dexeter - Tony Calvin
 * Varsh - Richard Willis
 * Tylos - Bernard Padden
 * Keara - June Page
 * Omril - Andrew Forbes
 * Rysik - Adrian Gibbs
 * Marshman - Barney Lawrence
 * Marshchild - Norman Bacon

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Alex Bridcut, Lynn Richards
 * Costumes - Amy Roberts
 * Designer - Janet Budden
 * Executive Producer - Barry Letts
 * Film Cameraman - Max Samett
 * Film Editor - Mike Houghton
 * Incidental Music - Paddy Kingsland
 * Make-Up - Frances Needham
 * Producer - John Nathan-Turner
 * Production Assistant - Susan Box
 * Production Unit Manager - Angela Smith
 * Script Editor - Christopher H. Bidmead
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Mike Jefferies
 * Studio Sound - John Holmes
 * Theme Arrangement - Peter Howell
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - John Brace

Alzarians / Terradonians
This is a short explanation of the Terradonians / Alzarian's history on Alzarius


 * A ship from Terradon crashed on Alzarius, a planet of hyper-evolutionary creatures. The Terradonians were replaced by the humanoid Alzarians (i.e. the marsh men), but were unable to make the starliner take off.


 * The evolving society lived in fear of Mistfall, a period every 50 years or so, when the influence of another planet takes Alzarius away from the sun's warmth. This acts as a 'trigger' to the marsh creatures to emerge onto the land. During this period the people, ignorant of their true heritage, shut themselves away in the starliner. The spiders will eventually evolve into marsh men (their poison establishes a symbiotic link with the marsh creatures).


 * The people believe that they are Terradonians, and that they have been stranded there for 40 generations, but are gradually mending their ship. In actual fact, the ship is completely operational, and successions of advanced Alzarians have lived around the starliner for 4000 generations (approximately 140,000 years).

Story Notes

 * This is the first story in the 'E-Space Trilogy'.
 * The story has a working title of The Planet that Slept.
 * Adric's name was suggested by script editor Christopher H Bidmead as an anagram of that of eminent physicist P A M Dirac (who in 1930 was the first to predict the existence of antimatter).
 * Alan Rowe makes his final Doctor Who appearance, as Garif. He had previously appeared as Doctor Evans and the voice of Space Control in The Moonbase, Edward of Wessex The Time Warrior and as Skinsale in Horror of Fang Rock.

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 5.9 million viewers
 * Part 2 - 3.7 million viewers
 * Part 3 - 5.9 million viewers
 * Part 4 - 5.5 million viewers

Myths
to be added

Filming Locations

 * Black Park, Black Park Road, Fulmer, Buckinghamshire
 * BBC Television Centre (TC3 & TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * When the TARDIS is seen drifting through E-Space, the background stars appear in front of the TARDIS.
 * Romana says that the TARDIS weighs 5x106 kilos 'in your gravity' (i.e. 50,000 tonnes), which doesn't really explain firstly how the Marshmen can easily pick it up and also numerous references in other stories (DW: Marco Polo, Army of Ghosts, etc.) to the TARDIS being light enough to be lifted by a group of men. It is possible that the gravity is different to Earth's or that the TARDIS's mass is variable. The gravity is clearly similar to Earth's, as everyone moves around just as on Earth and has an Earth-type physique - and water waves are the same shape as on Earth too. It's possible that Romana is referring to the mass of the TARDIS's internal spaces. If the exterior of the TARDIS weighed 50,000 tonnes it would sink deeply into the soil or destroy floors at most of its landing-points - and could not possibly float as seen in Fury from the Deep.
 * How did Adric get to the Rebels without passing The Doctor or any Marshmen? And how did the Rebels get back without seeing them?
 * The Marshmen have cuffs.
 * The technology of Gallifrey and Alzarius/Terradon is very interchangable.

Continuity
to be added

DVD, Video and Other Releases

 * Full Circle was released on video by BBC Worldwide in 1997 as a boxed set with State of Decay and Warriors' Gate.
 * Full Circle has been released on DVD in a box set alongside State of Decay and Warriors Gate. The box set in titled The E-Space Trilogy.
 * Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.

Novelisation

 * Main article: Full Circle (novelisation)


 * Novelised by Andrew Smith in 1982.