Episode #111 : Full Circle

"Why can't people be nice to one another, just for a change? I mean, I'm an alien and you don't want to drag me into a swamp, do you... You do?!"

Episode 111:     Full Circle.
Companions:    4th Doctor, K9 and Romana.
Air Date:           25th October to 15th November 1980.

The TARDIS falls through a CVE into E-Space and arrives on the planet Alzarius. There the inhabitants of a crashed Starliner and a group of young rebels called the Outlers, led by a boy named Varsh and including his brother Adric, are being terrorised by a race of Marshmen who emerge from the marshes at a time known as Mistfall.

This story starts the short E Space story arc. These are three unconnected short stories that detail the adventures of our time travelling companions in an alternate universe called E Space (Exo Space). I don't know that the story arc actually makes any difference but at least it's something different.

Full Circle introduces the new companion of Adric, an inhabitant of the planet who after helping the Doctor and Romana, stows away on board the TARDIS. Adric is a mathematical genius, he even has a star for excellence, and this gives us another companion who is almost a match for the Doctor. Many fans hate the character of Adric but I really cannot see why myself.

The story itself deals with a fifty year cycle on the planet Alzarius when the native fauna awakens and evolves. The inhabitants of the starliner find themselves under attack by the native inhabitants for reasons they don't quite understand. The story is quite good although some of the fauna (the spiders) look terrible.

Romana gets some interesting screen time when she is infected by the genetic material of the local wildlife and is almost transformed into one of them. Because of her the marshmen manage to gain access to the starliner. The story then transforms from one of investigation into something more action and survival based.