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!
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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