Well, I figured its time I reviewed something else new on this blog and having just recently watched the Doctor Who E-Space Trilogy for the first time in its entirety a couple of days ago. So, I thought I would do a review of each story in turn although I was initially planning on reviewing all in one post but that would be a VERY big post!
The trilogy itself is from the Tom Baker era of the show and it sees the Doctor and his companion Romana trapped in an alternate universe known as E-Space and consists of three stories: Full Circle, State of Decay and Warrior's Gate.
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!! (NOT MANY THOUGH!)
STORY
So, the story begins with the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) along with K-9 (voiced by John Leeson) enroute to Gallifrey to return Romana back home. However on the way, the TARDIS passes through a strange phenomenom that sends him into E-Space (Exo-Space) which is an alternate universe.
The TARDIS soon lands on a habitable planet called Alzarius where the inhabitants are looking to repair a spaceship called the Starliner to make it navigable. The colonists on the planet work in a hierarchical manner to their task but there are also a band of rebels lead by Varsh (Richard Willis) who has rejected the Starliner society and lives by stealing harvested river fruit and his brother Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) wishes to join them to prove himself to his brother. Adric however is a well respected youngster as he has a badge for mathematical excellence that distinguishes himself from the other young rebels.
Nevertheless, Adric attempts to join Varsh's cause by trying to steal river fruit but he fails to do so as he caught by one of the Starliner's chief members, Draith (Leonard Maguire) who is soon attacked by an unseen force from the marshes and before he is dragged into the waters he shouts "Tell them, we have come full circle!".
Meanwhile, the Doctor and Romana take a look around on Alzarius only to soon be separated and Romana soon encounters the rebels. But its not long before the a strange mist falls over the marshes and we start to see lizard like creatures emerge from the swamp to head for the Starliner....
THOUGHTS
As the first part of the E-Space trilogy, I felt that Full Circle was the strongest of the three stories as it nicely sets up the concept of the Doctor and Romana being trapped in E-Space even if it does lead toward a new and rather annoying companion in Adric! Regardless of that though the struggle between the colonists and marshmen is an intriguing one and its quite good as you learn more about their backgrounds as the story progresses.
PERFORMANCES (Warning: this section may refer to some spoilers!)
Quickly on the performances, the cast are all very good (well mostly!).
For starters, Tom Baker is once again excellent as the Doctor and he displays a fairly light hearted tone in this story, which is welcome after his dreary start to the first story of his last season in The Leisure Hive (although Meglos was an improvement, the story that preceded this one).
I won't mention much here of Tom's scenes (or anyone else's for time) but I will mention a funny moment where the TARDIS materialises onboard the Starliner and one by one, Varsh's rebels exit and he expects to see Romana. So, the Doctor says as he sees the TARDIS door open he says "Romana..." and out steps out Tylos, one of Varsh's gang and the door opens again and the Doctor says "Romana..." and out steps Varsh and then the door opens again and its Adric. So, the Doctor says in surprise "Adric! What is this? Noah's Ark? Where is Romana?!".
Lalla Ward also does a fine job here as Romana and for once she get's to do something a bit different in the story as she becomes possessed by spiders and ends up doing the bidding of the Marshmen later on.
And I will mention one of Lalla's scene and its the one where at the start we see Romana is upset about having to return to Gallifrey when she would rather travel with the Doctor. So, Romana says to the Doctor "So, you've made up your mind then?" and the Doctor says "Oh, yes we can't resist a summons to Gallifery. Anyway, I'm so looking forward to seeing how Leela and Andred are getting on. You can meet your twin, K-9!". However, Romana has gone from the TARDIS console room to the interior room and the Doctor goes in where Romana is lying on her bed, upset.
So, the Doctor says "Can, I come in?" and Romana says "The Time Lords want me back" and the Doctor says "Yes, well you only came to help with the Key to Time". Romana however pleads with the Doctor and says "Doctor, I don't want to spend the rest of my life on Gallifrey. After all this". The Doctor then solemly tells Romana "You can't fight the Time Lords, Romana" but Romana reminds him "You did once" and the Doctor says "Yes, and lost" and Romana resignedly says "Well, there's choice then. We have to go" and the Doctor says "I'm afraid so".
Matthew Waterhouse however is the weak link in the cast here as the new companion, Adric, a young Alzarian, who is skilled in mathematics but wants to prove himself to his older brother, Varsh that can rebel against the conformity of the Starliner crew. Matthew looks very awkward without and again its clear he doesn't know what to do with himself onscreen as he has his hands pinned down either side of his body! Basically he just isn't a natural actor (or at least wasn't back then!).
John Leeson is very good also again as the voice of K-9 although he does become the victim at the hands of a marshman later on as K-9's head is literally knocked off by one of the Marsh people! Regardless of that though, K-9 still get's to do quite a lot here in the story and Leeson's delivery is always engaging.
As for the supporting cast, I will quickly mention a few of them.
Starting with Richard Willis, who is good as Varsh, Adric's older brother who leads a rebel group against the Starliner crew and its funny as you look at him, I thought he looked like a bit like Bruce Lee! George Baker is also pretty good in his role as one of the Starliner crew members and one of their leaders, Decider Login. And lastly James Bree does very well also in his role as the main decider, Nefred, who apparently is holding back crucial information to the progress of the Starliner crew.
MUSIC
As for the music score for this story it was done by Paddy Kingsland and its not too bad and has that typical, leisurely sound to it that Paddy brought to his synth heavy music (well all the scores were electronic at that time in the JNT era!). It is however a pretty forgettable score, so its nothing much to write home about that in that regard but it does sit nice enough in the background of the story.
FLAWS
Flaws??? Full Circle??? Yes, there are some worth a mention.
For starters, I thought the story was pretty slow to get going and the first episode or so can be a bit tedious as can be the main storyline of the Starliner crew planning to take off as their main objective. And this is also further worsened by the lack of decisiveness in the rather ironically titled deciders, who spend too much time deliberating over their next move!
I also felt that the Marshmen as enemies were a bit weak even if their emergence from the marshes was pretty good and their infiltration of the Starliner later is quite well done. And even though the Marshmen are supposed to be quite intelligent and adaptive, I thought it was a bit underwhelming how they were portrayed without any kind of voice from them or figurehead but instead their existence was explained the Starliner's ship files.
I also thought it was a bit daft how the Time Lords wanted Romana to return to them after all this time when she had travelled with the Doctor so long and the Doctor reminds her that she was only sent to assist him to attain the Key to Time yet that happened in Romana's first season. However if she was only to accompany the Doctor for that period of time, why didn't they summon her back after that instead of wait a LONG period of time to pass before finally requesting Romana's return?! So, I felt her request to be returned was a hastily written one given the amount of time Romana had spent with the Doctor since the Key to Time ended. Perhaps, the Time Lords are just a bit slow on the uptake!
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up, Full Circle is a pretty decent story to kick off the E-Space trilogy and it features some good ideas and has its moments and good performances from the regular and supporting cast. However, it does take a while to get going and there is of course the new addition of Adric to the show, which really left a lot of fans disgruntled as he was seen to be a whiny little son-so, which is hard to dispute!
Despite its flaws however, this is still is a fairly good story and its easily the strongest of the three E-Space stories (well for me anyway).
Right, so next up will be the second part of the trilogy, which is State of Decay and I will be back fairly soon with that one.
Till then, its bye for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment