Full Circle DVD NTSC E-Space Trilogy Region 1 for North America DVD PAL E-Space Trilogy Region 2 for the U.K. VHS Video E-Space Trilogy NTSC PAL

(Doctor Who Story No. 112, starring Tom Baker) written by Andrew Smith directed by Peter Grimwade produced by John Nathan-Turner music by Paddy Kingsland 4 episodes @ 25 minutes each Story: After dropping through a freak hole in space, the Doctor, Romana, and K9 find themselves on the planet Alzarius in a pocket universe known as E-space. The planet's bizarre orbit has taken it into a tranformational period known as Mistfall, when Marsh creatures rise from the swamp, and atmospheric changes force the local humanoid population back into their colony ship from the planet Terradon. Aided by Adric and his rebelious teenage gang who sense lies in the old legends, the Doctor soon uncovers a trail of secrets about the Alzarians, but can he piece the puzzle together and save the Alzarians before the Marshmen overrun the ship?

DVD Extras include:

• Audio commentary by actor Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), writer Andrew Smith, and script editor Christopher H. Bidmead.
• "All Aboard the Starliner" making-of featurette (24 min.) including Bernard Padden (Tylos), Lalla Ward (Romana), John Leeson (Voice of K9),
  George Baker (Login), film cameraman Max Sammett, and vintage interviews of the late director Peter Grimwade.
• Featurette on the science behind "Exo-Space" (14 min.) - highly recommended! This is as good as "What the Bleep Do We Know?"
• Music Only option
• Photo Gallery (6 min.)
• Pop-up Production Note Subtitles for main feature AND THE PHOTO GALLERY.
• "K9 in E-Space" featurette with Lalla Ward, John Leeson, & writers Andrew Smith, Terrance Dicks & C.H. Bidmead. (4 min.)
• Matthew Waterhouse on "Swap Shop" (8 min.)

At last the quality of Doctor Who content picks up with this fascinating and generally well-written story. Add to the mix a great director, the interest of introducing a new companion, plenty of excellent location work establishing the setting, and a very thematic and enjoyable score, and we have the best story that the season has offered so far.

This is the season's first true sci-fi mystery, which when resolved presents concepts unique within the series. The tale deserves honourable mention for that alone, and still has plenty more going for it. The cast of characters are all real, likeable, understandable people as well, and there is no hard-core villain in the piece either, which makes the ensuing conflicts quite organic and natural.

In many ways, the Marshmen fill the typical role of a race of Doctor Who "monsters", but they are nicely reminiscent of many of the adversaries that Malcolm Hulke created in the Jon Pertwee days. They become worthy of our sympathies, and the Doctor treats them with as much respect and first-contact etiquette as he does the more human-looking characters. Indeed, he seems ready to go to bat for either of them, as the situation and his principles dictate.

I've always been surprised at the amount of flak that the character Adric receives from many vocal fans of the series, since I rather liked the character myself, and often found myself empathizing with him. Perhaps a key clue to this phenomenom can be found in Matthew Waterhouse's statement that he decided to play the character rather "shut-down" emotionally, a fair interpretation which can have the side effect of not offering the audience as much charisma and charm as they want from a regular character. Perhaps it is also significant that I formed my first impressions of Adric from Season 19 before I saw anything of him in Season 18. Some of Adric's moments are not too pleasant to watch, particularly in these first stories of his, but that is the case in real life sometimes as well.

I think Adric is also woefully mis-labeled as the idiot of the emerging new TARDIS crew. He actually has an unmatched capacity for technical science, mathematics, and more of a knack for piloting the TARDIS than any other companion before or since, and it's not too much of a stretch to believe that that came at a cost to his social development. Indeed, such a character seems more appropriate in science fiction than in any other genre, as a means of connecting with your core audience if nothing else, although I suspect this works better in print than in film or television, where charisma speaks volumes to everyone. Nonetheless, Adric's first inadvertant piloting of the Doctor's vehicle here is less than helpful.

K9 often gets left in the TARDIS when the Doctor and the rest of the crew go out exploring in the first episode, but there is a nice reversal here as the Doctor takes K9 with him to investigate Mistfall and orders Romana and Adric to stay inside instead. K9's luck does not hold though, as he goes to pieces and remains out of action for most of the rest of the story. John Nathan-Turner really seems to have it in for the little guy, and I was most upset to see K9 being repeatedly given such a wimpy showing when I first saw this season. The lack of any laser beams (from K9 or anything else) was another source of great disappointment for me back then, but of course seems far less important these days.

The Doctor is better involved in this adventure than in any other season 18 story so far. He brings us viewers to the new planet and engages our curiosity about the place, thus prepping us nicely for all the exposition of the guest characters that then takes place without his presence, which is the right sequence of doing things in my book. Adric then gets most of the focus of the first episode, which works since he's an important character being introduced. The Doctor then shifts from his investigation of the phenomena that the TARDIS went through and embarks on a different line of exploration and investigation, beginning with Adric, Mistfall, and the marsh creatures, and continuing with the Starliner and the customs of the people living in it. He also proves as interested in Dexeter as in the scientist's experiments. His trip back to the cave keeps things moving literally, and begins to cement his working relationship with Adric. And of course, he is quite busy in the final episode resolving most of the story's challenges, amidst quite a bit of a type of action that shouldn't be as a-typical for the show as is usually the case in practice.

Peter Grimwade's directing is also the best the season has seen so far. He seems just as capable of being creative like Lovett Bickford, yet has a far greater ability to use that creativity to serve the story and pace it appropriately.

Paddy Kingsland's musical score is quite good, and very enjoyably melodic. Although it seems that both Romana's and K9's theme aren't substantially different enough from the theme for Adric & the Alzarians, perhaps these are simply meant to be variations on a general theme for the entire story. And perhaps it is only strange in retrospect, as the theme became so strongly established as Adric's in later stories like "Earthshock" (story no. 122) and "Terminus" (story no. 127). I love most of Kingsland's trademark instrument sounds, particularly the synthetic "flute", although I often imagine he had a secret desire to be a rock-star in bringing the electric guitar so boldly into the mix all through this particular story. I love Adric's theme and many of the mysterious & transitional cues in this story, but the electric guitar bits are some of my least favourite cues of the season, which probably says more about my personal tastes than the quality of Kingsland's work.

The complete Musical Score by Paddy Kingsland is available on: Audio CD - Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume 4 - Meglos and Full Circle More info & buying options Special Sound by Dick Mills from this story is available on: Audio CD - Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Volume 3 - The Leisure Hive More info & buying options

The story is blessed with some very moving performances as well, particularly in the Alzarian elite. James Bree is at his Doctor Who best in this story, making the burdoned, partially antagonistic character of Nefred very sympathetic. George Baker is also outstanding as Login, a very balanced touch-stone character amongst the Alzarian population. Decider Draith and Dexeter are delivered with great performances as well, while the rest of the cast do an excellent job of supporting them.

The Marshmen costumes seem a bit dated by today's standards, and the spiders are a bit too cheap in many shots. But the director still manages to get some good stuff across with Marshmen performances and the odd surprising spider effect, keeping the whole thing engaging nonetheless.

"Full Circle" has given this season its first glimpse of excellence. Thankfully, the excellence is far from over....

DVD NTSC Region 1 The E-Space Trilogy for the North American market: in the U.S. in Canada	DVD PAL Region 2 The E-Space Trilogy for the U.K.	VHS Video The E-Space Trilogy NTSC in North America PAL for the U.K.

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