DOCTOR WHO-FULL CIRCLE part one












 

DOCTOR WHO-FULL CIRCLE part one

 

Still love this. When Adric is finally up and around and just before the Doctor leaves, Matthew, on the commentary says he sees a boom mike. I don’t so maybe it was edited out or maybe the squat screen adapted to not see it? In any case, this is still enjoyable despite the flaws. I NEVER noticed that the Outlers, including Adric’s brother Varsh, as they try to steal river fruits, in this case again, watch Adric try to prove himself to be one of them, carry knives. Were they planning on using them? Similarly, the two non outlers who chase them carry alien looking machetes. Were they going to use them as weapons? Chris Bidmead reveals he hung out with the actors who played Keera and Tylos as well as Matthew on the set and maybe at locations. He also reveals (and maybe it was Matthew, too) that they had lots of footage they could not use of the two “teenage” swimmers being rescued out of the marsh waters because their thongs revealed far too much, mostly cheek he says but on screen we see quite a bit of that. I suspect there was more shown. He also suspects that the footage will turn up on the internet. It hasn’t. Darn. Varsh is played by Richard Willis who married Kate O’Mara! Willis played with Patrick Troughton in THE FEATHERED SERPENT for ITV and…in one nightmarish scene he’s only in a flimsy lion cloth of rags tied out under the sun! Adric running away from Draith means he sort of causes the foolish old man’s death but he does try to save him, too. Not sure I like that. Also: what the heck pulled Draith into the marsh? A marsh man? It’s not seen. It looks like some invisible force does it. That and the comment from Adric about the handles not being on the same level seem confused and not making sense. One of the Outlers looks as if he has a twin among the citizens who listen to Draith and take off for the Starliner when the Mistfall is coming and announced. That or he’s played two bit parts. Is he a twin? There are lots of young men in this. Oh, and Adric seems to have some kind of precognitive abilities NOT expanded on in the show, unfortunately. Also not expanded upon were his healing properties. The wig is unfortunate but doesn’t detract from anything really. The location work is nice, the lighting well done, the sets just fine, and all seems right with the DW world here. This is a nice intro for Adric and frankly, it’s about time we had a young male companion that seems like a real person, a real teenager and I related to him a great deal, if not here, then certainly in KEEPER OF TRAKEN which I saw first and loved. I often wonder if his part there was really written for Romana who was departing but no one knew? The story has some elements introduced that we’re not given full explanations for yet but we DO get them later. I love the idea of a companion coming from another universe. The cliffhanger is the Marshmen coming up out of the marsh just after K9 reveals that the mist is not toxic.

 

Waterhouse revealed that the actor who played Tylos came out on national TV in the mid 1980s. In his book, he also told how he and Tylos “hung out” together and maybe went off and watched Doctor Who repeats. Waterhouse also felt that his time filming this was a nightmare and a misery as Peter Grimwade, the director, wasn’t particular used to handling young actors in a certain way AND Tom, bless his heart, as Matthew states, also made things difficult for Matthew.

 

Still, despite similarities to both FULL CIRCLE of SPACE: 1999 and more to FACE OF EVIL, this works and feels new and fresh. And I love it to pieces!

 

Oh and there's a fly in the TARDIS. 

 

 

 

My older review:

1

 

Okay this is more like it. Or rather it's not like anything on DW before. It's

got a lot of color and lights, and a very cool looking jungle and lakes and

forests in the background and young people doing things young people do: making

mistakes mostly. It's just great.

 

The Tom Doctor admits he cannot fight Time Lords or rather that he did once and

lost. Romana is called home and doesn't want to go...which means...we can

probably guess however the angst for these two is welcome and they're not as all

powerful as we've been lead to believe.

 

The story: Well, Andrew Smith, 18 yr old wrote it and...to be honest...the plot

is really VERY similar to the inferior (but also enjoyable) SPACE: 1999 episode

THE FULL CIRCLE. I kid you not. The Alphans find cavemen that...are really them

somehow passed through a time warp. There are many differences but a great deal

of similarities. The two stories even filmed, I think, in the exact same parks.

 

The monsters? Well, they appear onll in the cliffhanger to ep1 and also pull

the old man into the lake. They're not exactly sympathetic here and in the

original a Marsh child female follows the Doc into the TARDIS and sacrifices

her life for him later but none of that now. The monster outfits are best seen

far away and in mist or fog. Close up: they're rubbery and zip locked it seems.

Still, they're a lot more effective monsters than the monsters of late (yeah, the

Nimon, the Mandrel, the big ball sack, don't really cut it as monsters). That

said, these things can't really hold a patch to the much older 1950s classic

monster outfit and movie classic CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, which they are

reminiscent of.

 

What's good is the set up. The colony here looks like a colony with swimming,

food finding, workers, and a lot more females among their numbers. There's also

a great deal of...and I'm not complaining, just noticing, of...male flesh on

display. A lot of skin of the males. That said, there's a lot of really good

character actors playing the older guys and they've been in DW before in WAR

GAMES, HORROR OF FANG ROCK, and others. And they're believable at least in ep1

but I feel all the way through. The ship looks okay. The caves okay and the look

is nothing like any of the old look of DW, Pertwee's colorful colors aside

maybe...it certainly looks better than THE MUTANTS, THREE DOCTORS, and CARNIVAL

OF MONSTERS combined.

 

It also sounds better than almost every DW story before it. The music, I believe

done by  a new musician, is really much better than anything before and sounds

really good on its own. And it has themes for characters including the Outlers,

Varsh, and especially Adric. Yes, Adric. Ahh, yes, Adric. Truth is that

Matthew's not bad in this episode. I did have a question about the dialog

though---what does he mean by handles on the TARDIS doors not on the same level?

The phone box itself and the handle on the phone box door? Not really important

anyway.

 

The healing aspect of Adric is interesting. In the novel he is given a bit more

background. Something about his parents dying in the fires when the ship crashed

or something. Thing is this planet was supposed to be Gallifrey in the negative

universe, and it was supposed to be anti matter but that was dropped thanks to

the anti matter guff of PLANET OF EVIL, which I liked too. So does Adric have

Time Lord abilities? Certainly he seems to have some of their personality

traits. And some intelligence. Not sure but he seems to want to save the man

that is pulled into the lake. So he's somewhat heroic. And he wants to warn the

others. Some of this story wise is a bit awkward: warn them about what exactly?

The mistfall which they already know about? That they have come full circle? and

just why does the decider pick that time...where he's in dire danger to say this

to Adric? Is it that important to reveal the truth then and there as he's about

to die? Did he have a pang of conscience about not revealing something that

should have been revealed? And why change his mind then and there?

 

Still none of that detracts from the enjoyment of the story. Waterhouse reminds

us on the DVd of he and the actor who played Tylos. The actor who played Tylos

came out as gay on daytime TV. He and Matthew used to go off together to ...uhm,

watch DW repeats (HORNS OF NIMON or NIGHTMARE OF EDEN I think) or at least

that's what Waterhouse says.

 

The extremely attractive guy who plays Adric's brother Varsh married Kate

O'Mara, the Rani! It boggles the mind.

 

The story is off to a great start and is head and shoulders above LEISURE HIVE

and MEGLOS already. And there's no reason why young people can't be in DW...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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