The Day of the Doctor is, unsurprisingly, perfect. It's a massive celebration, not so much of the programme itself, but of the philosophy behind the programme. And there's honestly so much happening in this episode that I'll have to skim over an awful lot, and I'll just look at a few highlights that I feel are what makes this episode special.
For a start, there's the very concept of the episode itself, and how it plays out. One of the biggest changes that Russell T Davies made to the character of the Doctor when he brought the series back in 2005 was to have the Doctor destroy Gallifrey and kill all of the Time Lords. And that's good for the programme, as it introduces a new facet to the Doctor's character; something which leads him to have a new found sense of regret and guilt about what he's done. But the problem with this is that this doesn't seem like something that the Doctor would do. The Day of the Doctor keeps coming back to that question as John Hurt's War Doctor, who is about to commit that act, continually questions himself about what is his best option. So that gives the story an opening to consider what the character of the Doctor really should be, what connects each of the twelve actors who have so far played him into doing what the Doctor does.
And we see that through the sub-plot of the episode, where the Doctors have to not only prevent a Zygon invasion of Earth, they also have to prevent UNIT from blowing up the Earth as well. So they do this by forcing them into a situation where they have to negotiate a peace, by wiping everyone's memory of whether they are Zygon or human and then forcing them to sit down and talk. It's put down in the episode as penance for the Time War, where the Doctor feels so guilty about what he has done to Gallifrey and how he was forced to take the violent solution that he opts to always seek for the peace in the universe. It's what drives the New Series Doctors in a nutshell, that they remember what happened on that fateful day on Gallifrey and that they swear never to do it again, they will be the Doctor forever-more.
But the problem with that reading, as the story points out, is that it still doesn't excuse the War Doctor from destroying Gallifrey. Because that title that the Doctor has taken on extends far back to before the series even started, all the way back to before the TARDIS landed in a junkyard in 1963. It's a decision that he made to never be cruel or cowardly, always to help people in their time of need. And with all of that in mind, it's still impossible to imagine the Doctor destroying Gallifrey like that. As Clara says when the Eleventh Doctor joins the Tenth and War Doctors in support to use the Moment to destroy Gallifrey "I never pictured you doing it". As written, it's an easy decision to make for the character, but when you start to picture it in your mind, you can't see any of the Doctors doing it - actually killing so many innocent lives.
So, naturally, the Doctor decides to rewrite history, bringing together all of his past, and one of his future, selves so that they can save Gallifrey by sending it away somewhere safe from Daleks. And it's one of the most beautiful moments in the history of the programme because it's all about saving lives on a massive scale - taking the peaceful solution en masse. And throughout that sequence, there's one moment that stands out for me as a single segment of joy that's never fully explored in the episode. Of all the Doctors there, only a handful get put on the screen by themselves. And chief among them is not the eyebrows of the Twelfth Doctor, instead it's the face of the Ninth. This man, who has been so tortured by this decision that he believes that he has made, is here saving Gallifrey and doing the thing that he constantly wished that he was able to do throughout his all too brief time aboard the TARDIS. And that's kind of perfect.
So that's The Day of the Doctor in a nutshell. It takes the concept of what the series is all about and plays around with it, before finally settling on this idea of the Doctor as the man of peace in a Universe at war. And it's that concept that's made Doctor Who one of the greatest television programmes ever, in my opinion, and it's what made the last 2 and a bit years such a joy to do. But that time must come to an end, as all things do, and the end is rapidly approaching for We've Got Work to Do...
The Five Doctors is special. A 90 minute extravaganza where all five Doctors appear to fight various monsters whilst seeking a great and mystical Time Lord secret to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Doctor Who. It's remarkable because it's fun, the sort of story where you can just relax and watch the characters that you've seen over the past 20 years, back for one last adventure. It's also special personally for me, as it was the third Doctor Who story that I ever watched, and it will always have that place in my heart.
My parents had already shown me Frontier in Space and one other story that we're yet to cover on this blog, and I was keen to watch some more. I looked downstairs in the video cupboard and found, nestled between Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and some old cooking show, The Five Doctors. It looked cool, so I went back upstairs and put it into the video player. Settling in, I was greeted with words that stick with me to this day.
It's the First Doctor, saying his farewell speech to Susan from The Dalek Invasion of Earth. It's a beautiful little speech, and works in the context here of seeing the Doctors return. We've seen them all go and regenerate (and in the case of the First Doctor, have the actor who played them sadly die), so it's nice to have the idea that they're still alive, working away, which indeed they are. But for now, we go straight from that into the 1980's.
We see the TARDIS team, as it is right now. The Fifth Doctor's full of enthusiasm and energy, and yet there's a calmness about him that works well when contrasted with the other, slightly more rambunctious Doctors. Tegan, who will fulfil the role of the main companion for this story, is actually written rather well here, being a companion with a mind of her own, who will complain if she's not happy, but within reason. It's a far contrast from her first appearance, where she was the reluctant companion, quick to complain and always at the Doctor's throat. Now that she's mellowed, she's a far more likeable character. Turlough has calmed down too, free from the influence of the Black Guardian, he's just keen to help the Doctor without getting into too much trouble.
But strange forces are working, as we see a black hand manipulate events. The First Doctor is taken from wandering through a rose garden into some weird maze with mirrored walls. It's perhaps now that I should mention the fact that we have a new actor for the First Doctor, by the name of Richard Hurndall. He's an adequate replacement for Hartnell, but he's not perfect. Hartnell had far more of an edge to him, and his grumpiness helped to define the character (and also, through contrast, made his lighter moments seem all the sweeter. Hurndall, on the other hand, goes mainly for an impression, playing a grandfather-esque figure, missing out on the hidden details that Hartnell put into his performance. But you can't have everything, and at least we have most of the rest of the surviving Doctors.
Troughton, for instance, drops back into the role like he was never away. He plays around, making jokes, and being a foil for the Brigadier (who he is partnered with in this story). There's part of me that's a little bit disappointed, as I kind of feel that his Doctor would be better suited to working with a companion that he worked with more frequently (such as Jamie or Victoria) but Troughton plays it brilliantly, playing a looser character than the Brigadier's straight man, making for a great double act and an excellent time with the story.
Speaking of good double acts, we get a brief clip of the Fourth Doctor and the Second Romana (Tom Baker declined to appear, hence we only get his Doctor through stock footage) from the aborted story Shada. It's a frightfully witty scene, written by Douglas Adams, and acts as a pleasant reminder of his time as the Doctor, frightfully witty and full of fun.
Pertwee's introduced with an action sequence, as befits his Doctor. There's also a brief sequence once he reaches Gallifrey where he rescues Sarah Jane after she's had a nasty fall. And in other stories, I might criticise this moment, on the basis that Sarah Jane's fall is down a very slight slope, which I refer to as The Mild Incline of Moderate Doom. But this story's fun enough and light enough that I can forgive it and just have fun with it, despite its flaws.
That said, there are several strong flaws. Susan, for one, is poorly treated as a character, where she's reduced to just screaming, spraining her ankle and calling for her grandfather. There's not even a moment where we get a heartfelt reunion, particularly after the little speech that we had at the beginning. But, then again, Susan's character was always treated this badly in the series (save for a few exceptions, e.g. The Sensorites), and so I can hardly blame it for being accurate.
The Master's back as well, playing the role of a vague ally to the Doctor. He's been employed by the High Council to find the Doctor and rescue him, in one of their more curious employment strategies. This leads to what is, in my opinion, Ainley's best performance as the Master yet. He's someone who genuinely wants to help the Doctor, only to be squandered at every opportunity because they don;t trust him. This is something that could perhaps only work with Ainley as the Master, as he is so much of a pantomime villain that it's easy to mistrust him, hence every one of the Doctors that he encounters knows better than to accept his help (contrast with Delgado, where there's enough respect between his Master and the Doctor that they would help each other if circumstances demanded it). This, naturally, makes him give up on everything and attempt to go fully evil, eventually being thwarted by being punched by the Brigadier. Which is nice.
One of the other legitimate highlights of the story is the Raston Warrior Robot. In a remarkably well directed sequence done by both Peter Moffatt and John Nathan-Turner (the producer of the series at the time). It's pacy, action packed, and has, at its heart, a neat concept of a robot that moves as fast as lightning and can take out anything that comes in its way. It also serves as a reminder of the good things that Doctor Who can do now, and that it can be a show filled with action and the like, making it one of the best shows on TV.
It can also deal with fairly big ideas as well, such as the prize for winning the Game of Rassilon: immortality. Borusa, President of the Time Lords, has manipulated these events such that he may win the prize, and so he meets with Rassilon to collect it. However, immortality is not that great, and Borusa is given it in the form of becoming a statue, frozen in time forevermore. It's another cool idea, and one which actually works well with memory of the previous series. If Mawdryn Undead, and to a certain extent Enlightenment, are recalled, it can be seen that immortality has not been seen as a blessing, but rather a curse. Sometimes it's best to die with dignity intact, or you risk being a walking zombie for the rest of time. That's why the series has changed so much, a way of cheating death without immortality, allowing for constant rebirth and renewal, so that we can have five Doctors, all of them different, and all of them part of the same fantastic programme.
And coming back to the beginning of the blog entry, I mentioned that this was the third Doctor Who story that I ever saw. I loved it, as it had everything that I could want. Multiple Doctors, action, a Dalek, great jokes, an intriguing story, I would watch it regularly from that point onwards. In fact, when watching it today, I was struck by how much of the dialogue I remembered, as I quoted various bits and pieces along with the characters, having fun with them on their adventure.
And, oddly enough, this story ended up helping me out one day. I was doing my end of school examination for Physics, and there was a question about calculating orbital velocity, or something along those lines. My mind panicked, this was something that I knew how to do in theory, but I couldn't quite remember how to calculate it. Suddenly, I remembered a scene from The Five Doctors. The First Doctor and Tegan are discussing, in order to cross a minefield, how the solution is as easy as Pi. The Greek Letter Pi, it turns out. Tegan says "The ratio of a circumference of a circle, to its diameter, is equal to the Greek letter Pi". Using this relation, I answered the question. So I have to thank The Five Doctors, for helping me with my Physics exam.
And, so, to close this entry, there can only be one way to end it.
That's the essence of the implications of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, as looked at yesterday. It's also the essence of this story, as we see things die and decay all around us, whether it be the planet of Logopolis, or the very nature of the series itself. On the physical side, we have the fact that entropy is now eating up vast chunks of the Universe. This comes to a head as Nyssa looks on a screen and quietly remarks that her planet has just been destroyed. She remarks on the fact that the Master has killed everything that she has ever loved and cared about, creating an emotional attachment to the mass destruction that is being done in this serial, and making things seem more serious. The serious nature continues as the Doctor is forced into an alliance with the Master, in order to save the Universe from this seemingly unstoppable threat.
But it's a different sort of Doctor that makes the deal with the Master. Tom Baker, as the Doctor, has been somewhat less jovial over the past series. There are less jokes, less moments to have fun, even his hair is less curly than it was when the series started. It's a more serious Doctor that makes the deal then, one who has had some weight hanging over him since the beginning of the series, in particular since the beginning of Logopolis, where a ghostly figure known as The Watcher has been haunting the Doctor across these four episodes, having quiet conversations with him that seem to make him slightly more resigned as a result. It's an interesting change to notice in the Doctor, an end to the laugh giving man who we first saw burst onto our screens in Robot, now a man approaching some unknown fate.
But this is one of several changes that have been occurring within this series. We've lost Romana and K9, replaced with Adric, Nyssa and Tegan, characters with whom we don't have the same emotional connection. They're a different breed of companion, with a woman who doesn't necessarily want to be on an adventure, a young boy eager to learn about the Universe, and a quiet young girl with a keen scientific intellect. But it's not just their basic character that differentiates them from everyone else, it's their relationship with the Doctor. Because the Doctor is more serious, we don't have the sparkling wit and strong chemistry with the Doctor that went into every companion before them, from Sarah Jane to Romana, instead we just have a selection of supporting characters that happen to travel on the TARDIS with the Doctor.
But the Doctor's found himself in trouble. Attempting to stop the Master from carrying out one last scheme, he finds himself hanging by a thread on a radio telescope. Haunted by his past foes, he loses grip and falls. We next see him lying on the ground, surrounded by his companions. But it's not just his new companions, all of them are there, as we see clips of his old friends, helping him hang onto life for one last moment. It suddenly hits home how important this one character has been to the series, and just how much fun and excitement we've had together, and how much more we hope to have. But it's not enough.
It's the end...
In one final moment, the Doctor who stopped the Jagaroth while remarking on the historical nature of chairs, the Doctor who had the power of the Key to Time, the Doctor who saved Gallifrey from an invasion of tin foil, the Doctor who fought in the land of nightmares, the Doctor who prevented an invasion of obscene vegetable matter, the Doctor who wondered whether he could kill a child to save the Universe, the Doctor who did all of those things and so much more, dies.
But the moment has been prepared for.
The Watcher moves to the Doctor, and merges with him, changing the Doctor's features. We see a regeneration, not an end, but a renewal, revealing a new Doctor for us, in the form of Peter Davison. And although we may not know who this Doctor is, and whether we'll like him or not, we know that it's still the Doctor, and so we wait with expectation, to see how everything will pan out, as he's got work to do.
There's actually an awful lot to talk about that occurs in this episode. There are key character developments for Nyssa and Tegan, as well as a strong moment at the end of the episode for the Doctor and the Master. But one thing keeps cropping up: Entropy.
Doctor Who has become more scientific as a result of the new script editor, Christopher H Bidmead, and as such he has been introducing more scientific concepts into the series. Entropy is a concept in thermodynamics, referring to the nature of decay within systems. It is related to the second law of thermodynamics, being that energy will always increase in a closed system until thermal equilibrium is achieved. In other words, everything decays. The way in which this is used in this story is that the Logopolitans who live on Logopolis have quietly been working away to prevent the decay of the Universe, by opening up portals to other universes such that the Universe as we know it is no longer a closed system and entropy will no longer be as much of a problem. This fails when the Master meddles with it, meaning that the Doctor now has to prevent the heat death of the Universe. Which would be bad.
So why do I mention all of this? Well, as has perhaps been mentioned previously on this blog, I study Physics. And today, I had a test on Statistical Mechanics, a particular branch of thermodynamics that's possibly a bit too complicated for me to go in right now. But it does mean that I get an extra level of enjoyment from this story, as I can now look at various explanations of the thermodynamical concepts and smile as I see stuff that I study in class in Doctor Who, making both the story and my studies just a little bit more exciting.
We need to talk about the next new companion. Her name is Tegan Jovanka, an Australian air stewardess, and my family has an interesting relationship with her. It's difficult to quantify what our relationship is with the character, but it generally consists of us walking around, putting on strong Australian accents, and proclaiming the words "Tegan Jeblanka!". Tegan Jeblanka is quite forthright in her opinions, expressing such proclamations as "Pharos is Greek for Lighthouse!", as well as various ruminations on Brisbane High and their knowledge of handcuffs. It doesn't bear too much relationship to the character though, which makes things awkward for me when I watch her stories, as I struggle to reconcile the two Tegans in my head. But it makes for a lot of fun with engaging with the character, and I strongly recommend that you find it in your hearts to let Tegan Jeblanka in.
There's a short lived relationship, for reasons that soon become apparent, between the Fourth Doctor and Adric that's quite interesting to watch. The Doctor takes Adric on as a student, almost, teaching him about how various concepts work and operate. An example is when he talks about entropy, quickly and elegantly describing the concept such that Adric can understand it. It works because Adric is naturally curious, seeking to discover more about the world of maths and science, at least when the current script editor, Christopher H Bidmead, is writing for him, and this extends to a certain proportion of the audience, allowing us to become the Doctor's students as well. But, as entropy states, everything decays, and things are going to change awfully soon.
The Melkur's true identity is revealed, showing him to be the Master. It's recognisably the Master, not so much from the look where he's a variation on the husk that we saw in The Deadly Assassin, but in the manner, as we see the more charming side of the character. He seeks power, and uses it for terrible things, yes, but he goes about it in such a way that you can't help but admire the man behind the actions. There's also a deperation at the heart of this Master, as he seeks a new body to replace his now cripplled one. It's an interesting motive for him to have, not to take over the Universe, but instead to just live. He fails in this venture though, as Adric somehow manages to save the day with the help of Nyssa and science. Left to die as his TARDIS burns around him, we are left wondering if the Master escapes.
But not for long. We get a small scene at the end where the Master kidnaps Tremas, one of the major characters in this story and a man who has shown himself to be generally kind and wise, and then takes over his body. Tremas is no more, killed by the Master such that he might live. It's uncomfortable to see, particularly as we have grown rather fond of Tremas over the past few episodes. But it's also uncomfortable as we see what he leaves behind. As the Master's TARDIS dematerialises, Nyssa wanders into shot, wondering where her father is. It's a moment that reminds the audience of how cruel the Master is, because he has now not only killed Tremas, he has deprived his daughter of ever seeing him as he truly is again, only his face with a new mind behind it.
Another new companion is introduced in this story. Her name's Nyssa, and the incredibly obvious question that comes up as we look at her character is 'why does she become a companion?'. Her role in the story is relatively minor. She spends much of the time running around with the Doctor, Adric and and her father Tremas in order to prevent the plans of the Melkur from bearing fruit, with most of the story going towards the work of the Doctor and Tremas, with Adric fulfilling an assistant's role. Nyssa is worth pretty much nothing in this story, only existing to be nice and help everyone else.
And here's the interesting thing. Nyssa wasn't originally going to be a companion. She was brought back into the series, because the production team felt that she was a good enough character to work well enough to become a regular, even though she's had virtually nothing to do in the entire episode. It's like if Princess Astra from The Armageddon Factor became a companion. They may have worked well as a side character in their own story, but you wonder whether they'd be suited to run off with the Doctor at the end of the episode.
But still, we mustn't pre-judge, and maybe the character will work well in the future. Only time will tell though, as the serial draws to a close.
The Melkur is the villain in this story, a statue of pure evil that has landed on Traken and has slowly been injecting impurities into their otherwise pure society. It's interesting to see this character, mainly because of the way in which it's portrayed between Part 1 and Part 2. In Part 1 it is a silent menace, remaining perfectly still and only moving towards the latter half of the episode. Up until that point, the only indication that life was inside it were some ominous red eyes that glowed at various intervals. Part 2, on the other hand, gives the creature voice through the actor Geoffrey Beevers. Beevers has a smooth, rich voice that gives the Melkur a slightly sinister quality, and one that adds an extra dimension to the character. And yet, the portrayal of it being silent works better in my opinion, as it makes it far more of an unknowable and worrying quantity, which creates a better villain. But, the Melkur may not be as it seems as we delve deeper into the story of The Keeper of Traken.
There's a certain quality to this story as we begin it. It's set on a world that has transcended all forms of evil, a place were everyone "held together by...people being terribly nice to one another", to quote the Doctor at the beginning of the story. This transcends to the way in which the story plays itself out. Everything feels slightly more relaxed than what's come before, with the threats not being too imminent at the moment. This is done by slowing the pace of the story down, so that we're allowed to breathe and enjoy the story, by exploring the back stories of some of the supporting cast members or the planet itself. We also get a more natural set, filled with well maintained plant life that gives an air of serenity to the proceedings. All in all, it's just a lovely beginning to the story, but this is subject to change as the story slowly progresses. The Doctor has entered the story now, and brought with him a dangerous amount of chaos...
As it turns out, I was left nowhere with regards to understanding much of what happened in Part 3 of this story. But I do understand a good deal of the rest of it, oddly enough. The story concerns an alien race called Tharils. They are time sensitives, able to use their powers as god-like abilities in a variety of scenarios. They created an entire empire, and were rulers over it for a considerable period of time. But they were cruel gods, and enslaved both humans and robots to serve them. Naturally, an uprising occurred, and they were left helpless as the humans took control of them as their slaves, torturing them to use their time-sensitive abilities to traverse the universe. Their story is one of reversals, that they were once kings and now they are slaves, doomed throughout the cosmos, which is symbolised in the fact that the Doctor and Romana travel through a mirror to reach the point in history when they were rulers, as mirrors not only reflect incoming light, they present an image which is the reverse of the one which the mirror reflects. So they enlist the Doctor and Romana to help set themselves free, and in doing so create a better future.
This works as a story, mostly because of the way in which the story is revealed to us, through having us figure out their entire history and so we get that sense of satisfaction of figuring everything out. It would be a much less satisfying story if we were presented with a generic 'free the slaves' plotline, instead we get a story about helping someone, and we have to figure out both how they need to be helped and the motive for which we should give them help.
And there's one other thing about Warriors' Gate. At the end of it, Romana leaves. She makes a simple decision that she'd much rather be helping the Tharils than return to Gallifrey. The Doctor gives her K9, bids her farewell and leaves E-Space with Adric. It's a quick exit for two characters who have meant so much to the programme, K9 bringing humour as well as appeal for children, whilst Romana was a character who proved to be an equal to the Doctor in every way, shape and form, something that we often don't see with companions. It's a shame to see them leave, and more than that, to see them leave quickly, but that reflects the new period that we're in, production-wise. It's a period of 'out with the old, in with the new'. Or at least, out with some of the old...
When setting up this blog, I gave myself a few rules to follow. One such rule was no skips ahead. Aside from brand new episodes, I said to myself that I could not watch any episode until the day upon which I have it scheduled to appear on my blog. This has mostly worked well, but there are one or two hiccups that get in the way. One such hiccup is Warriors' Gate Part 3.
I've seen this story at least once before, maybe twice. I've read reviews of it and listened to analyses in the past as well, so I'm readily familiar with the basic beats of the story. I know, for instance, the journey of the Tharils, which we may perhaps talk about tomorrow. But in all that viewing, I can never really claim to fully understand what happens from about halfway through Part 3. Basically, Romana meets one of the Tharils, they hold hands and start glowing, then they walk off and disappear, re-appearing near the titular gate. At no point is any explanation given for how this occurs. It's all a bit confusing, and left me somewhat lost for words that didn't begin with a W, T, or F.
Another instance is the cliffhanger, where the Doctor would appear to be magically teleported from one position to another, because an axe hit the table in front of him. Or it may be that he travelled from one time period to another. It's the sort of thing that gives the idea that the production staff had a perfectly good idea of what was going on, but they failed to effectively communicate that on screen, leaving the viewers with very little idea as to what was going on.
But we get back to the hiccup at the introduction. As the episode concluded, I felt the need to put on Part 4. I needed to see whether an explanation would be made as to what everything means, with full discussions of the various concepts and their importance to the story. And the fact that I wanted to watch the rest of this must say something about the story, and how it somehow manages to draw viewers in, even if it's only to find out what the hell is going on.
An impressive thing about Warriors' Gate is how it deals with its supporting cast. We have a crew who have been similarly marooned at the zero point of the Universe, and through a combination of writing, directing, design and performance, we get to feel that this crew is easily one that is comfortable with one another and their surrounds. Take, for instance, a scene where Packard, a crew-member, gives some gobbledygook order to someone under his command. They respond quizzically, to which he responds by saying that it means to close the door. They promptly do, and so we get a shot of the door closing on his disappointed face, as he relays the information that he'd like it to be closed after he's gone through it. It's a simple character moment, but nice, and adds depth to the story, making it a more enjoyable experience on the whole.
When looking at Doctor Who stories en masse, it's easy to categorise them. There are those that are on alien worlds, those that have alien invasions, those that are less about a group of monsters and are more about just one villain, and those that are all about visiting history and meeting famous figures from the past. But there's another type, one that hasn't been shown very much in the 1970's and is about to make a return in the 1980's. We are about to witness the return of the trippy story.
Trippy stories are weird. Normally high concept, they look and feel different to everything else around it. They can be difficult to understand, but can be incredibly rewarding due to the intricate way in which the story has been constructed. But the main point to make here is that they're a bit weird. Take Warriors' Gate for instance. Part 1 features the Doctor and co. landing nowhere, the zero point that connects normal, or N-Space, with E-Space. We meet Biroc, who moves in such a way that he leaves a shadow in time behind of his past position. It's all very curious, and sparks the beginning of a story that's a bit different from everything else around it.
It's easy to dislike Adric in this episode. It's as if the episode goes out of its way to make us dislike him intensely. Romana and one of the villagers have just been on a rescue mission to try and save him, but they failed with Romana about to be sacrificed and the villager already dead. So you'd expect Adric to be a little bit grateful for what everyone has gone through for him. But instead, he's quite annoyed because he was looking forward to becoming a vampire, and Romana has gotten in the way of his defection to the bad guys. And it's not as if he doesn't know that they're evil, he just wants to give up on the whole notion of being on the side of good and instead be on the winning side. Granted, he does attempt to save Romana later, but this fails terribly and is dealt with too swiftly for us to even notice the character's change of heart.
This is Adric's second story, and we're being inclined to dislike him already, before we get a full impression of the character. This does not bode well for the character, and it may be some time before we can be willing to look at him with fresher eyes and see his positives for what they are. But for now, we end this story on a low note and hope that this companion will be better treated in the future.
The story has taken an interesting turn, minutes into Part 3. The Doctor off-handedly mentions that he and Romana are Time Lords and the vampires get quite excited about this, proclaiming that they are the great enemies. Further investigation reveals that these vampires were created by one of the Great Vampires, an ancient race that was fought and, until now, presumed destroyed by the Time Lords in their infancy, led by the President Rassilon.
This makes the story feel far more interesting as a result, mainly because it means that we get a sense of the real peril that the Doctor and Romana are up against, given that these are old foes of the Time Lords, a race that we have seen to be all-powerful and mighty. This is compounded by Tom Baker's performance, where he displays fear and a sense of worry over everything that is taking place, something which we're not really used to with this incarnation of the Doctor, who has been far more relaxed in his fights with various creatures. By seeing him in such a position, we know that things have become far more serious, as we eagerly await the conclusion of State of Decay.
This story features vampires. Slowly, over the course of this episode, we begin to notice that various tropes of the vampire mythos are appearing, such as a fascination with blood, control over bats, and a general gothic demeanour. It's all reasonably effective stuff, and may send a chill down the spine of some young children. But there's still an interest in making this feel different. The key mystery surrounding this story is not the nature of the vampires, but who created them, given that the vampires were originally humans before being converted by some unknown power. It gives the story a driving force that is able to engage the viewer, and make for a more interesting story as a result.
This story feels very traditional as a Doctor Who story. We have the Doctor and Romana landing on a planet and setting off to explore it, and they encounter the locals, who range from people living in fear of the villains who are subjugating this planet, to those who are keen to form a resistance and take back what is rightfully theirs. The villains are clearly defined as well, wandering about their castle sending plagues of bats to attack the Doctor and Romana, whilst taking people from the village for nefarious purposes. It's a far cry from Full Circle, which was more a story about exploring and learning about the surroundings. But this isn't that bad though, as it's still an engaging story, mostly due to the fact that it is written by Terrance Dicks, long time writer for the series. He's a writer that knows how to tell good, simple, entertaining adventure stories, and he certainly delivers on that front, providing a story that is simple, yet engaging. And at the end of the day, sometimes all you want from a story is for it to be a nice fun adventure.
I suppose that we should talk about Adric. Adric, although this story doesn't confirm it, is the new companion aboard the TARDIS. He's an interesting character, in that a lot of writers have different ideas about how he should be written. Andrew Smith, for one, writes him as a normal teenage boy (albeit one that has grown up around a spaceship). He's a little bit cheeky, a little bit clever, and he has a need to rebel against his surroundings. He's aspires for something greater, as he speaks of travelling beyond his home planet to other worlds and other stars. He looks up to his brother, Varsh, as well, and seeks his approval. This comes to a head when his brother is surrounded by Marshmen. Adric goes to help him, but he's too late and the Marshemen overpower Varsh and kill him, leaving Adric with only his belt in memory of him. It's a scene that allows us to empathise with his character, given that we have seen him fail, and now we want him to succeed. So we'll come to follow him and know him better as part of the TARDIS crew.
But he's not going to be joining them on any voyages to Earth or Gallifrey any time soon though. The TARDIS remains stuck in another universe at the end of this story, which sparks a feeling of renewal within the programme. Now, everything that they will encounter will be new and different, and we can join with the Doctor, Romana, K9 and Adric as they explore E-Space together, trying to find a way back to their own universe.
Another thing to enjoy about Full Circle is the way in which it deals with the monsters, the Marshmen. Their design is instantly memorable, being a simple swamp creature building upon a light brown colour palette that works well with the lush greens that are seen on location, and is also able to feel slightly out of place and unwelcome in the dull greys of the spaceship, making them stand out in the scenes aboard the spaceship.
But there's also more to it than just that. Consider the scene where the Marsh-child is about to be dissected by the scientist aboard the spaceship, Dexeter. The director, Peter Grimwade, makes the clear decision to have its eyes present throughout the entire scene. This works in particular as we see the human behind the rubber mask, and so we empathise with the creature. When the Marsh-child breaks free from its bonds, we are on the side of the creature, however this changes when the Marsh-child kills Dexeter. Now we see it for something that is dangerous, although still child-like in manner. It makes the monsters feel more threatening, but also gives them enough depth that we can empathise with them and thus we are interested in their plight. It all makes for a good story as we near the conclusion of Full Circle.
