Story #113 - Warriors' Gate (1981)

Sarah -
It's been a while since I've watched "Warriors' Gate". This is an unusual story, don't you think?


Harry -
It's definitely out there, even though the foundation of it is quite simple: at a point in existence where two universes intersect, several groups of people find themselves stuck. They spend the ensuing four episodes trying to get themselves unstuck.


Sarah -
It's a lot of bother when everyone shares the same goal of getting out of there.


Harry -
"Warriors' Gate" is also known for having been a difficult production. Writer Steve Gallagher delivered to the BBC what was, in his own words: "a novel in screenplay format." Director Paul Joyce and Script Editor Christopher H. Bidmead hacked it down to mere splinters, to Gallagher's dismay. Joyce then found himself stifled by the time and budget constraints of the Beeb, which impeded the grand cinematic visions he had for the production. A frustrated Joyce was temporarily replaced, but he returned to finish the job and the conclusion of the E-Space trilogy hit TV screens in the UK in January 1981.


Sarah -
One of the amusing aspects of the making-of featurettes on so many Doctor Who DVDs is watching the directors, writers, and crew members airing their grievances thirty years on. Still, "Warriors' Gate" seems to have had more drama than your average production.


Harry -
I love how passive-aggressive everyone is on the featurettes. So many lingering grudges!


Sarah -
Really, it's kind of perfect for Doctor Who fans, as we never let go of things ourselves.


Harry -
We get an immediate taste for Joyce's big screen ambitions from the long tracking shots that open Part One. The camera drifts over a group of shaggy humanoids who lay in stasis, before pulling away and roaming through the empty, graffiti-stained corridors of a space ship. Instant atmosphere.


Sarah -
I love those establishing shots. So evocative. The ship really looks lived-in and that carries over to the crew, who all look like they've been on this ship far too long. Royce and Aldo, the lowest-ranking members of the crew, provide the comic relief as the most apathetic members of an extremely apathetic crew.


Harry -
Royce and Aldo were charmingly unenthusiastic throughout. You could tell the rest of the crew was worn out from Commander Rorvik's constant bluster. Although he presented his ship and crew as "traders" to Romana, he left out that small detail that they traded in slaves, and their cargo was the room full of Tharils in stasis -- Tharils being prized as time-sensitives who provide a valuable resource as navigators.


Sarah -
While we don't know the entire story at the beginning, the scene where the Tharil is being used for navigation is just brutal. Rorvik's lack of concern with the Tharil's well being is our first clue that these "traders" are not the good guys.


Harry -
Biroc the Tharil managed to escape and traverse the time winds right into the TARDIS. There, he warned the Doctor and friends that, basically, stuff was about to get weird. And it certainly did.


Sarah -
The opening TARDIS scene, before Biroc arrives, is interesting. Romana is still trying to avoid going back to Gallifrey, while the Doctor thinks Adric will love it. Meanwhile, the TARDIS continues to struggle against E-Space, leading to a long discussion of the I Ching, which leads to Adric tossing a coin and pressing a button. The TARDIS lands just as the time winds are sweeping in, bringing Biroc into the TARDIS.


Harry -
All season we've been having these opening scenes in the TARDIS console room where we first glimpse our friends. Usually, they've been repairing K-9, or having some down time, or puzzling over where and when they are. That's the case this time. It was a bit garbled as they jumped from one subject to another before Biroc appeared and got the story going.

The TARDIS lands and the Doctor follows Biroc into the partial ruin of an old castle. Romana follows the crew back to their trade ship. Adric and K-9 spend some time roaming the empty space in between. Did you get any "Land of Fiction" vibes during those scenes? I was half-hoping that Lemuel Gulliver might appear out of the whiteness.


Sarah -
How great would it be to see Bernard Horsfall again? I was absolutely thinking of "The Mind Robber" during these scenes.


Harry -
Bernard Horsfall, or those noisy robots.

Inside the trade ship, Romana is mistaken for another time sensitive and strapped into the navigator's chair for a spot of terror.


Sarah -
That was terrifying!


Harry -
Back in the castle, the Doctor finds the dusty remains of an ancient banquet, complete with guard robots who conveniently spell out just what's going on. So convenient! Sort of. The robot's story was a bit garbled too, and didn't really explain how certain characters could start jumping between striations of time - literally going through the looking glass to do so.


Sarah -
Don't you love it when a handy plot device turns up? The Gundan robots are certainly visually interesting, not so much on the whole sticking-to-a-clear-narritive thing. The plot was even more confusing after the Doctor got the robot to "explain" the situation.


Harry -
On the other side of the looking glass, the Doctor discovers the ghosts (?) of dead Tharils at the banquet, and discovers that they too employed slaves - humans in fact.  O ho!  This twist seemed to render both the traders and the Tharils no better than the other. There was no angry speech from the Doctor this time, perhaps because Rorvik and his crew were growing increasingly impatient and violent, and the intersection between the universes started contracting. Time to find a resolution, fast.


Sarah -
The Tharils aren't the innocent victims we think they are, after all. The plot thickens.


Harry -
Eventually, everyone makes it to the banquet room for a final confrontation. Obsessed with getting through the looking glass, Rorvik and company decide to employ heavy weaponry to smash it. Adric saves the Doctor and Romana with another bluff, turning the MZ device on the traders. The idiots eventually blew themselves up as everyone else legged it back to the TARDIS.


Sarah -
I love the imagine of Adric perched about the MZ, staring down the traders. Before Rorvik kills the rest of the crew, we witness the death of Sagan at the hands of a Tharil. The final shot of his corpse nearly drove me behind the sofa -- so disturbing.


Harry -
There is a lot of horror and gore in E-Space - more than I remembered.

I'm not sure what happened with Adric and K-9 in this story. They got lumped together for a period of time, wandered around and didn't do much until right at the end. I wonder if Gallagher didn't have much use for them, or Joyce and Bidmead found themselves running long and shunted them aside. K-9's most memorable moment was when he got a bit panicky with a lot of "Danger! Alert! Warning!" shouts as the intersection continued shrinking in upon itself. Little did we know that this was his swansong.


Sarah -
Poor K-9.

How many times have we said that in this last season?


Harry -
No kidding. At least the fiends didn't blow him up.

Romana foreshadowed her own swansong earlier in the story, when she mused aloud about her and the Doctor going separate ways. As everyone returned to the TARDIS, she made her surprise announcement...


Sarah -
Overall, Romana has a good send-off. Having had her mind expanded by traveling with the Doctor, she's not content to go back to Gallifrey and sets off on her own to make the universe a better place.


Harry -
It was so sudden, yet so decisive, and totally cool. No emotional sendoff, just a calm, mature parting of two equals (despite what was going on between Lalla and Tom away from the cameras).


Sarah -
Sadly, this is exactly why JN-T decided Romana had to go. The Doctor having a companion who is an equal is a rare thing and those are the companions I always like the best. I adore both Romanas, but Lalla Ward is truly the Romana of my heart. Her parting from the Doctor is one of the most memorable moments in Doctor Who for me.


Harry -
Of course, it set up not only the best line of the story, but one of the best lines in all of Doctor Who.


Sarah -
"You were the noblest Romana of them all."

It makes me teary-eyed every time.


Harry -
According to the fine folks at Big Finish, Romana continued her adventures and eventually returned to Gallifrey to assume the Presidency. I really can't see her making a return in the new series. Most of the main companions in New Who have followed the same template: young female from contemporary Britain. And repeat. And Clara is back for another season. There have been flashes of that "team of equals" thing with Clara that the Doctor had with Romana -- to the point where Clara assumed the role of the Doctor herself a couple of times last season, in "Flatline" and "Death in Heaven." I like. Hopefully there will be more of that in the future.


Sarah -
Have you read Terrance Dicks' Blood Harvest? Apparently, Romana turns up again, still in E-Space.


Harry -
I don't think I have read that one, but it sounds fascinating!

As for K-9, he had quite a long run as a companion, although the version that joined up with the Doctor and Leela was succeeded by a second one at the end of "The Invasion of Time." Another one will be gifted to Sarah Jane Smith. Do we just assume that there is a continuity among K-9s? I don't know. Regardless, K-9 was wildly popular with the kiddies. Many adults who get asked about classic Who always go back to two things right away: the scarf, and the robot dog. I like that too. He was a very very very good dog!


Sarah -
A very good dog -- the noblest of them all!

Before we say our final farewells to Romana and K-9 and make our way out of E-Space, I wanted to ask if you thought Tom Baker look tired in this story. There were so many shots were he just looked exhausted and his hair seemed to have a will of its own. As we move into our final two Fourth Doctor stories, it really feels (in retrospect, of course) that he's just winding down in the role. It's all so bittersweet.


Harry -
It's funny because I was just looking at pictures of him in "Robot" the other day, and the physical changes between then and now are striking.


Sarah -
Best Line: "You were the noblest Romana of them all." *sob*

Favorite Moment: The Doctor and Romana's parting *sob*

Lasting Image: Romana and K-9 staying behind in E-Space

6/10


Harry -
Best Line: agreed on this one. One of the best lines ever!

Favourite Moment: the parting scene is up there, but I'll also mention those moments in the whiteness of space and time, when it seemed as if they were back in the Land of Fiction.

Lasting Image: those striking black and white backgrounds from the universe on the other side of the mirror.

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #114: The Keeper of Traken...

Story #112 - State of Decay (1980)

Sarah -
Still trapped in E-Space, the Doctor and Romana find themselves on an unknown planet with a medieval society consisting, it seems, of only a village and the tower. Of course, as one might expect, things aren’t quite that simple.


Harry -
It was an unexpected thrill to see Terrance Dicks' name in the credits again. I had forgotten that he wrote "State of Decay." Forgot most of the story too. Seeing that tower in the opening shot brought it all back.


Sarah -
It's always reassuring to see Uncle Terry in the credits, isn't it? "State of Decay" is one of those stories that remains extremely vivid for me. I've been eagerly anticipating our visit to the tower, which is inhabited by The Three Who Rule, who started out as the crew of the Earth spaceship Hydrax, which is now their tower. They were drawn into E-Space by a giant vampire – the lone survivor of a great war with the Time Lords – and are now vampires themselves, ruling over the village and preparing for the eventual return of the Great Vampire.

The villagers are also not all they seem to be. Seemingly docile, they allow themselves to be selected for delivery to The Three, never to be heard from again. Meanwhile, a hearty band of rebels has a storehouse of technology from the spaceship, which they hope will eventually help them overthrow the vampires and find their way back to Earth.


Harry -
It's great how you can always sense what era a Doctor Who story is part of - and I mean beyond the obvious details like which Doctor and which companions are in it. An eerie, gothic air permeates this story right from the start. As The Three Who Rule vamped it up in the throne room, it felt like watching something out of the Hinchcliffe Horror era.

I did some reading up, and it turns out that Uncle Terry's story was intended to be part of the 1977 season. However, the Beeb was producing a version of Dracula that year, and they didn't want vampire overload, so the story got shelved for three years. Still a story for Tom Baker, but by then Romana had replaced Leela as the main companion.


Sarah -
Apparently "Horror of Fang Rock" took its place in 1977. It's amusing to imagine what Leela would have made of the vampires!

The Doctor and Romana set out from the TARDIS, quickly making contact with the village. Meanwhile, Adric reveals himself as a stowaway to K-9 and sets out after them.


Harry -
That kid from Alzarius stowed away! At least we found out where he went. I liked how he talked his way past K-9, entered the village unchallenged, and within minutes one of the local women was offering him food and clothing.


Sarah -
He does have a way about him, doesn't he?


Harry -
While Adric enjoyed the local hospitality, the Doctor and Romana met some of the other locals, an increasingly suspicious lot. First there was the villagers themselves, then some hooded characters who turned out to be a group of rebels. The Doctor helped them make some sense of the battered old computer equipment they were harbouring in a cave. After a brief bat attack (eek!), the Doctor and Romana talked their way right into the throne room, for their first encounter with the King and Queen of the land.


Sarah -
A spider in the last story, and now a bat. Hope you're holding up under all this, Old Boy!


Harry -
They did a great job scouting out the park for those external scenes. Some lovely old, gnarled trees there. Very atmospheric.

My word, they nailed the casting for The Three Who Rule, didn't they? William Lindsay and Rachel Davies play Zargo and Camilla with unnerving "deadness". Both have amazingly cold eyes. As for Aukon their chamberlain, Emrys James plays him with smooth malevolence. Campy or not, I love these vampires!


Sarah -
I love the vampires, love the camp, love the sets. Seriously, I just love everything about this story! It has one of the creepiest moments in Doctor Who for me: when the flying bat is super-imposed over Aukon's face. I'm getting the willies just thinking about it now. I still remember seeing it for the first time and it's still my lasting image from "State of Decay."


Harry -
There were many moments in this story that were decidedly not for the kiddies.

The closing sequence of Part Two was brilliant. Having realized that they were inside the shell of the Hydrax, the Doctor and Romana explore the tower. When they climb down to the fuel tanks, an ominous heartbeat can be heard. They find the fuel tanks filled with blood. They find a room full of drained corpses piled high. As Aukon sneaks up and confronts them, they discover that they are in the lair of the last Great Vampire. This was a fantastic few minutes of atmosphere and looming dread.


Sarah -
And so much blood! That has to be more blood than we've seen in all other Doctor Who stories combined. Get thee behind the sofa, kiddies!


Harry -
Part Three was a bit of a lull as the various forces in the story marshalled themselves for the final battle. Aukon realizes that the Doctor and Romana are Time Lords. The Doctor slips away to go read up on the Great Vampires (what a bizarre way to pull him out of the story for an episode). Meanwhile, Romana and Adric are both seized and prepared for sacrifice to the "Great One." The vampire attack at the end of this episode was another horror chiller.


Sarah -
As this story was written for another Doctor-companion combo, Dicks had to do a bit of reworking to get Adric in the story. It feels shoehorned in at times, but I do like the scene where Adric seemingly abandons Romana to her fate, saying that there's no reason for them both to die. We almost suspect that he is still in the thrall of the vampires -- or at least a completely heartless bastard! In the end, he mounts a rescue attempt that fails miserably, but redeems himself as a companion.


Harry -
Adric's heel turn was a shocker, but it turned out he was just bluffing, and, yes, his rescue attempt did fail miserably. He did get some flash threads to wear. I wish he could have kept that outfit and ditched the PJs.


Sarah -
I will admit I was admiring the brocade jacket-thingy he wore.


Harry -
Anyway, having completed his reading -- and provided John Leeson with some justification for his paycheque -- the Doctor rallies the rebellious villagers with a faux-St. Crispin's Day speech, and they storm the tower. (I couldn't help notice that Tom got a haircut halfway through the filming of this story. He has extremely shagged out hair in all the interior TARDIS scenes, but over at the tower, he's found the time to get a quick trim.)


Sarah -
I thought perhaps I was imaging the change in his hair. I read somewhere that Baker's hair had lost its curl due to health issues and he actually had to have it permed for this story.

In the end, of course, the day is saved when the Doctor uses one of the rockets that comprise the tower to drive a steel bolt through the heart of the Great Vampire. Romana, Adric, and the hirsute villagers scamper to safety, the not-so-great vampires crumble to ash, and all is well on this planet without a name.


Harry -
Uncle Terry couldn't be fussed with too many details, haha.

One of the best things about "State of Decay" is that the ultimate evil -- the Great Vampire -- remains concealed for almost the entire story. The Three Who Rule were wicked baddies, but to realize that they were merely servants to Something Even More Monstrously Evil, well, the imagination ran rampant. That is, until the villagers used the scanner to pick up an infrared image of the Great One as he stirred to life. That image was lame. Much better was the image of the gigantic talon-like hand pushing up through the ground as the Great Vampire began to emerge. That hand was all we needed to see. The scale of it was awesome. It was truly believable that this was a colossal monster stirring up from the depths of planet no-name.


Sarah -
The monster you can't see is always scarier than the one you can see. Don't you think?


Harry -
Absolutely, and perhaps especially in classic Who. And if there were any kiddies still left unscarred by the experience, we got to see The Three Who Rule decay, wither and crumble to dust in a matter of seconds, after the Great Vampire's hold over them was released. Oh my!


Sarah -
I wonder how the villagers will fare without their vampire overlords. Oh well, no time to stick around and find out -- Adric needs returning to the starliner.


Harry -
That was such an awkward goodbye scene. The villagers were so desperate for help escaping E-Space, but the Doctor clearly has no interest in ferrying people around the universe. He practically made a run for the TARDIS. And so ends one of the real standout stories of Season 18.


Sarah -
Best Line:
The Doctor: “Knowing’s easy. Everyone does that ad nauseam. I just sort of hope.”

Favorite Moment: When the Doctor tells Romana, “You are wonderful.” She responds with, “Me? I suppose I am. Never really thought about it.” Maybe I’m feeling a little emotional about Romana’s impending departure, but this scene summed up the wonderfulness of the Tom-Lalla on-screen partnership for me.

Lasting Image: The flying bat superimposed on Aukon’s face is still one of the most terrifying Doctor Who images ever!

9/10


Harry -
Best Line:
DOCTOR: "What is the Wasting?"
TARAK: "The Wasting?"
DOCTOR: "Yes."
TARAK: "The Wasting is... The Wasting.
DOCTOR: "Ah."

(I giggled at that one.)

Favourite Moment: Zargo and Camilla's synchronized hand-washing scene.

Lasting Image: The Three Who Rule.

9/10

 


Our marathon continues with Story #113: Warriors' Gate...

Story #111 - Full Circle (1980)

Harry -
Strangely, it didn't feel like Season 18 had properly started until we got to this, the third story of the season. For all the changes that JN-T, Bidmead and company were bringing to the show, "The Leisure Hive" and "Meglos" felt like they had a foot still in the 70s.


Sarah -
Cue the Killing Joke:

We're living in the 80s! I've got to push. I've got to struggle. I've got to go to E-Space!

Harry -
It's Goodbye 70s!

Matthew Waterhouse is so innocent here.


Sarah -
It's a whole new era and the stage is set for the departure of Romana and K-9.


Harry -
It's very clear that Romana and K-9 are yesterday's news. K-9 spends most of the story trundling around, before having his head knocked off. Horrors! The moment leads to a groanworthy in-joke from Romana: "He can be repaired. In fact, we always seem to be repairing him." Hah!

After that, Romana gets bitten by a huge spider (my personal horror) and is very much not her old self as she goes into shock, then a coma, then becomes part of a sort of hive mind linked with the "marsh creatures" on the planet Alzarius. In short, K-9 and Romana both get the short end in "Full Circle".


Sarah -
As if K-9 hasn't suffered enough these past seasons!


Harry -
Strangely though, in my notes I recorded the fact that for most of this adventure, the Doctor spent all his time just strolling from place to place, having little chats with people until the final rush to the finish. An odd one, this.


Sarah -
Odd, yet still compelling. I put much of this down to the excellent guest actors.


Harry -
Still, Matthew Waterhouse. Couldn't you just bring him home, put him under glass and watch over him forever?


Sarah -
Ah, Adric! Poor, maligned Adric. I have a theory about Adric. Do you want to hear it Old Boy?


Harry -
You have piqued my interest.


Sarah -
Yes, my word, you may well ask what it is, this theory of mine. Well, this theory that I have -- that is to say, which is mine -- ...is mine. *AHEM!* "The Adric Theory by Sarah Jane brackets Ms. brackets." My theory is along the following lines:

-- Adric is a teenage boy.
-- Teenage boys are annoying. (I know this for a fact, as I currently live with one. I love him more than the entire universe + E-Space, but he's still annoying and that's quite beyond his control. It's just how teenage boys are.)
-- Teenage boys who are, or perceive themselves to be, smarter than others are especially annoying.
-- A significant majority of Doctor Who fans were once teenage boys, many of whom would have perceived themselves to be smarter than others.

Adric simply hits too close to home for Doctor Who fans. They either were Adric as a teenager, or knew someone like Adric as a teenager. I know this is only his first appearance and there's more Adric to come, but he's got a bad and unfair rap in fandom. It's become received knowledge that Adric is the worst companion and he's not even close. I don't remember there being so much Adric hate back in the day, but it's become the cheap laugh line to rip on Adric. So cut it out, everyone!

Have I ever mentioned I had a cat named Adric in the 80s?


Harry -
There is much to appreciate in this, your theory, which you have.


Sarah -
And which is mine.


Harry -
It's true we have both rolled our eyes at the cheap laugh lines about Adric over the years.

At the same time, it is interesting to compare his reputation to that of another young character who is something of an outcast, quite brainy but socially awkward, and also presented as someone for viewers to relate to -- I'm talking about Osgood in the current series. Adric is generally panned, but Osgood seems to be popular. She's embraced as a "fan" of the Doctor's, even though Matthew Waterhouse himself was a fan before being cast as Adric. Maybe time will be cruel to Osgood too, as fans "outgrow" her the way most people seemed to outgrow Adric. Three decades from now, people might deride her as "that nerdy fangirl character, ugh how embarrassing."


Sarah -
I hadn't thought of that connection. And, well, she is dead. I know, I know -- spoilers!


Harry -
Back in the 80s, my impression of Adric was that he was this amazing starchild who got to travel with the Doctor. At the same time, it didn't occur to me that he was traveling through time and space in rumpled, dirty-looking pajamas, which is the first thing I see now. It's all in the perception I guess. (This should not imply that I spent my youth shuffling about in rumpled pajamas.)


Sarah -
He did have that star for maths, which kind of spiffed up the jammies!


Harry -
Anyway, Adric isn't even a companion in this story. He's just Matthew Waterhouse playing a kid in a gang. You can tell how carefully he's acting here, almost terrified to get his lines wrong. The actors playing Varsh, Tylos and Keara appear more comfortable in front of the cameras. Ironically, it will be Adric whom we will see again after this adventure.

And I'm not sure if you ever mentioned the cat before. Was it smarter than everyone else?


Sarah -
Mostly, he was annoying.


Harry -
Maybe we should talk about the adventure now. I can hear Christopher H. Bidmead sighing all the way over here!


Sarah -
He does quite enough sighing in the bonus featurettes. We don't need to encourage him. To the adventure!


Harry -
At the end of "Meglos", the Doctor informed Romana that they had received the call -- the call from Gallifrey. Suddenly acting very responsibly, the Doctor set the coordinates for their home planet. Romana's reaction was very much the opposite. Having travelled time and space with the Doctor and K-9, the idea of going back to Gallifrey's static, almost calcified culture of non-interference was horrid to her.

Sprawled out bed pouting followed. The Doctor's strangely dutiful behavior was, well, strange. Did he want to be alone again so badly?


Sarah -
It's definitely out of character. It seems even the Doctor cannot escape the will of the producer...er, I mean the Time Lords...no, really, I mean the producer.

Romana's reaction is brilliant. She entered the TARDIS as an agent of the Time Lords, with barely concealed contempt for the Doctor and his unconventional ways. Now she's addicted to adventure and doesn't want to give up the vagabond life. No one leaves the TARDIS unchanged -- for better or worse.


Harry -
Before we can find out what was going on there, the TARDIS suddenly enters a space-time anomaly event thing. Shaking cameras! The console tells them that they have landed on Gallifrey, but stepping out through the doors, they find an entirely different planet. It's Earth-like with familiar climate and vegetation, and the local culture seems to be an odd combination of mediaeval times and the space age. They aren't on Gallifrey, or Kansas for that matter...


Sarah -
E-Space at last! We meet the locals, who seem to be obsessed with harvesting river fruit and frolicking in the river -- except for the hearty band of teenage malcontents, determined to steal the river fruit. Our band of young rebels is led by Varsh, whose younger brother Adric is eager to join the group. The others are suspicious of him, partly due to the maths badge he wears, which marks him as an elite, not to be trusted. Desperate for approval, Adric says he will steal some river fruit. In an epic twist of bad timing, he's heading to the river just in time for mistfall...


Harry -
Mistfall... Mistfall! The Deciders give the order: "Quick, everyone aboard the starliner!"


Sarah -
"The Deciders" is an odd name for leaders who can't ever seem to make a decision.


Harry -
Hold on now, this society of rural melon-gatherers has a spaceship? There's an odd twist.

Soon enough, we find out that the ship is more like a fallout shelter where everyone is supposed to hide for ten years everytime Mistfall comes around. Supposedly, the air outside cannot support life - a lie soon exposed when the Doctor and Romana arrive.


Sarah -
I also have questions about the demographics of this society. Did you notice that the entire colony seems to consists of four adults and dozens of teenagers? What is with that? Perhaps there are more folks in the starliner, but we never see them. the model does make it look quite large.


Harry -
While the Alzarians are holed up inside the starliner, another race of creatures appears out of the waters. The marsh creatures stagger about, looking scary but as the Doctor observes, they are childlike and confused. At first. It's not very long before they start a rampage, attacking the starliner, attacking our friends, and causing the aforementioned knocking off of K-9's head. Poor dog!


Sarah -
They also end up toting the TARDIS to a cave full of spider eggs just about to hatch (!) -- while it contains Romana, Adric, and the other rebels. These marsh men must be stronger than they look!


Harry -
I mentioned above that Romana being bitten by the spider was horrific. With her sidelined and K-9 in pieces, it falls to the Doctor to get the Deciders off their arses. Their willful procrastination was the reason why the starliner never took off - when it was just sitting there, in a state of readiness, for generations.


Sarah -
It's almost tragic that they spend all their time just maintaining the starliner, when it's more than ready to take off.


Harry -
The Doctor does some sciency stuff too, in order to cure Romana of the spider bite. Turns out the spiders, the marsh creatures and the Alzarians share the same gene pool, and each of them reflect a different stage of the evolutionary process on the planet. There was no home planet for the starliner to go to - Alzarius was the home planet. This "full circle" concept is at the heart of Andrew Smith's story.

Smith by the way was also a youngster, making his writing debut here. He has since cranked out a bunch of Big Finish audio stories, including some set in E-Space.


Sarah -
Discovering the truth of their history certainly makes recent events a bit awkward for the Alzarians. To think they were running from grandma and grandpa all this time.


Harry -
All in all, "Full Circle" is a decent story. It continues the serious, "hard science" theme of the season, introduces some fresh new faces, and bounces along through four brisk episodes.

Too bad about Varsh. He had potential. I wonder where that Adric kid disappeared to at the end...


Sarah -
Who knows, maybe he'll turn up again.


Harry -
Best Line:
LOGIN: "A little patience goes a long way."
DOCTOR: "Yes, but too much patience goes absolutely nowhere."

Favourite Moment: when the ineffectual Deciders introduce themselves with a pompous flourish.

Lasting Image: the marsh creatures emerge like something from the Black Lagoon.

7/10


Sarah -
Best Line:
Romana : "Doctor, I don't want to spend the rest of my life on Gallifrey - after all this!"
The Doctor : "Well, you can't fight Time Lords, Romana."
Romana : "You did, once."
The Doctor : "And lost."

Favorite Moment: Romana doesn't want to leave the TARDIS.

Lasting Image: Romana bit by the spider.

7/10


Harry -
Thank you ever so much for making me search that image, SARAH.

 


Our marathon continues with Story #112: State of Decay...