What's Wrong With... Full Circle

1) Adric...

2) Matthew Waterhouse's performance...

Why are the Time Lords only now summoning Romana back home? They didn't even send her on the Kay to Time mission.

The TARDIS passes through a CVE and ends up in E-Space. We're told this is a smaller dimension than N-Space - so what are the odds that there's a planet at exactly the same co-ordinates here as Gallifrey has in ours? 

Is E-Space big enough to even have a 10-0-11-00 by 02 from a Galactic Zero Centre?

CVE's have been keeping the universe ticking over for a while - so why don't the Time Lords know about this, and hence the widely-travelled Doctor?

The TARDIS has visited Gallifrey twice in recent years, and each time landed smack in the middle of the Capitol - once in the very centre of the Panopticon. So why does it materialise in the outer wastes this time, and why does this not seem to bother the Doctor and Romana?

Turns out they aren't on Gallifrey at all - but the scanner is showing what the outside is supposed to look like... 

What is the point of the image translator? Surely you want to see exactly what's outside the ship - not what might be there. It's never been mentioned before or since - and no wonder.

The evolutionary process makes no sense at all - despite this being what the story is all about. For a start, it isn't properly evolution anyway. It's more of a mutation, if the Marshmen rely on being bitten by spider toxin to metamorphose.

How many times has the process gone full circle? It can only have happened the once as there's no way the exact same set of circumstances could replicate themselves over and over again. But the story seems to imply that this has been going on for generations.

If it has just happened the once, then how could the Starliner people have forgotten absolutely everything from the last time?

If the humanoids lock themselves in the Starliner every Mistfall, then how can they be wiped out by the Marshmen in order to be replaced? Who lets them in each time? 

There really ought to be two societies of humanoids - the one who stayed in the Starliner and the "evolved" Marshmen outside.

Just because the Marshmen turn into humanoids, it doesn't necessarily follow that they would adopt the motivations and mind-set of the people they've replaced. They've killed them - not sat down and had lessons on being Terradonians from them.

Where did the initial instinct to go to the Starliner come from in the first place?

The closer you look into it, the more it falls apart.

Why does Romana turn into a Marsh-person when bitten, when the venom is supposed to have the opposite effect? Why pick up a fruit to throw at the spiders when she's just seen them hatch out of the them?

Could you have have operated the Starliner after the rapid demonstration the Doctor gives at the conclusion? I'd at least wanted to have taken notes.

The vessel is a weird shape. It doesn't have to be streamlined to travel through the vacuum of space, but surely it ought to have been better designed for escaping a planet's atmosphere.

Going back to the top, Adric is actually a good idea for a character - a young male who is a bit "Artful Dodger". The problem is that the idea simply isn't translated onto the screen. It's not as if the character deteriorates over time - he simply never gets off the ground.

Waterhouse is simply too inexperienced for such a prominent role as Doctor Who companion.

The actor playing Varsh would have been so much better - even Bernard Padden (Tylos) who we know went up for the role.

It beggars belief that he was regarded as the best candidate at the auditions. One might expect it from JNT, but not from Barry Letts or Christopher Hamilton Bidmead, who had both been actors themselves (and Letts certainly knew how to cast effectively).

Episode 114: The Final Test

Synopsis:

Steven and Dodo have met their next opponent - the mischievous schoolboy Cyril.

They will play a dice game with him, similar to "Snakes & Ladders", in which they must traverse numbered platforms. The TARDIS sits on No.14, and the winner will be whoever lands on that square first. Players can miss a turn, roll a second time if they get a 6, but also be made to go back to the start if they are standing on a square when another player lands on it. This means that Dodo and Steven could conceivably act against each other by accident.

An additional hazard is that the game is to be played over an electrified floor. Stepping off the squares will be lethal.

The Toymaker notes that the Doctor is about to complete his game, and so allows him his voice once again.

The dice game gets underway, and Cyril commences his practical jokes to distract his opponents. Noting how gullible she is, the schoolboy targets Dodo. Steven is too firmly set against him.

Dodo is the luckier player, whilst Steven keeps losing turns or being sent back to the start. One of Cyril's ploys is to use red ink to pretend he has hurt his foot - luring Dodo off of her square. He also spreads slippery powder on another square.

The Doctor refuses to speak to the Toymaker initially, annoyed as he is with him trying to put him off his game.

Cyril throws the winning dice score but is in such a rush to gain Square No.14 that he forgets about his slippery powder. He slides off onto the floor and is electrocuted - reduced to a burnt doll.

Steven and Dodo must play out the game properly, and luckily she rolls the winning dice throw.

The TARDIS is gained.

The Doctor has only one more move to make before he finishes his game. He refuses to make it, and goes to join his companions. They enter the ship but find that it has been immobilised.

The Doctor storms out and demands that they be permitted to leave, but the Toymaker points out that his game has not been completed.

The Doctor re-enters the TARDIS and confers with his companions, explaining how they cannot depart yet. They are stuck here until the Trilogic Game is actually completed. 

If he goes outside to make the final move, however, he will be caught up in the instantaneous obliteration of the Toyroom.

Recalling the earlier actions of the Toymaker, he commands the final counter to move automatically. Nothing happens.

A frustrated Steven asks if they are just going to talk their way out of their predicament.

Inspired, the Doctor impersonates the Toymaker's voice to make the final move, then has Steven operate the dematerialisation sequence. The evil being can only look on in horror as the last counter moves into place and his domain is destroyed.

The Doctor points out that in order to move the counters as his opponent had done, he had to use his voice. Steven had given him the idea when he spoke about talking their way out of the situation.

The Doctor knows that their foe is immortal and will simply create a new realm whenever he wishes, but for now he has been defeated.

Dodo continues to feel sorry for the characters they encountered. She recalls the sweets Cyril gave her and is going to dispose of them when the Doctor stops her - fancying one himself. As he pops it into his mouth, however, he suddenly cries out in agony...

Next episode: A Holiday For The Doctor

Data:

Written by: Brian Hayles

Recorded: Friday 8th April 1966 - Riverside Studio 1

First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 23rd April 1966

Ratings: 7.8 million / AI 43

Designer: John Wood

Director: Bill Sellars

Critique:

Production on The Final Test began with the Ealing filming of the Trilogic Game's automatic movements, and the final shots of the invisible Doctor (hand-doubled by Albert Ward).

The last move - 1023 - saw the counter slowly rise up into the air on a piece of wire.

Neither Campbell Singer nor Carmen Silvera were required for this episode, so only Michael Gough and Peter Stephens joined the regular cast. 

William Hartnell returned from holiday, and only featured in the second half of the instalment.

The set comprised 14 triangular podia, mirroring the Trilogic Game board, with the TARDIS prop sitting on the final one. The walls were metallic blue and silver, as with previous areas of the Toyroom.

The two giant toy robots were present. One had the Game tally displayed on it, whilst the other held a TV monitor on which the Toymaker could appear, filmed on another part of the set.

The other significant prop was the revolving score column - an illuminated pillar which gave the dice scores and other instructions such as "Miss A Turn".

The squares were to have flashed  when Cyril was destroyed - off camera - according to the script, but this effect was not seen in the finished episode.

Cyril's demise saw Stephens move out of camera shot as a flash charge was detonated. The camera then cut to a shot of a burnt doll - the same one which the Toymaker had been seen to remove from the dolls house - lying smoking beside a podium.

As the action moved closer to Square No.14, a recording break allowed some of the other prop squares to be removed, to allow the cameras to move forward.

There's a clever shot where we see the Toymaker on the robot's chest monitor, then suddenly appear right next to Steven. No recording break was necessary.

The Toymaker was being recorded by one camera for the monitor, with a second camera taking in the robot and Steven as a wide shot. Gough was standing just out of shot but close to Purves, with a third camera pointing at him. A rapid cut from the second camera to the third made it look like the distant Toymaker had miraculously appeared right next to Steven.

The destruction of the Toyroom was achieved simply through the use of stock footage.

The closing credits played over a close-up of the TARDIS console, which remained on screen for a longer period than usual. Ordinarily, the fade to black came in quite quickly.

After recording, Peter Purves retained the Trilogic Game prop as a souvenir. However, on leaving the series he found himself out of work for more than a year. Thinking the game to be bad luck, he threw it away. He was then offered a role in Z-Cars, and his long-running stint as Blue Peter presenter followed soon after.

William Hartnell had been issued with two new contracts - one covering episodes one and four of The Celestial Toymaker, and another for the next 16 weeks, covering the last three stories of Season 3, plus another story to be held over for the start of Season 4.

The efforts of John Wiles and Donald Tosh to replace him in this story fell by the wayside. Both Gerry Davis and Innes Lloyd found ways to manage his increasingly frustrating behaviour.

Both Wiles and Tosh complained bitterly about the changes which Davis had made to the story since they handed it on, thinking a cleverly sinister script had been reduced to pantomime, but Brian Hayles actually thanked the new Story Editor for his contribution.

For many years, The Celestial Toymaker was regarded as the great lost masterpiece of the Hartnell era. It had a huge reputation within fandom, mainly thanks to the nascent Doctor Who Appreciation Society. One of the original members was Jeremy Bentham, who acted as the society's historian. 

When Marvel Comics decided to produce a weekly Doctor Who publication, editor Dez Skinn looked to the DWAS to help with the non-fiction aspect of the comic. What Bentham liked, Doctor Who Weekly liked - and what he disliked, it disliked. His opinion became the "official" position.

At this stage, full access had yet to be gained to the BBC archives, or to the actual episodes themselves, so much of what was written about the programme came purely from the memories of those who had watched the episodes on their initial transmission.

Doctor Who Weekly and its monthly successor carried inaccurate information about the series for many, many years - well into the mid 1980's:

The Edge if Destruction was written purely because the sets for Marco Polo weren't ready, The Seeds of Doom was filmed at Mick Jagger's Stargroves home, a clip of the Second Doctor from The Macra Terror was viewed by the Time Lords in The Three Doctors, and many more.

Along with these misremembrances - or plain old fashioned mistakes - were somewhat clouded and biased opinions. 

Perhaps it was its surreal nature, combined with its perversion of childhood games and toys, that gave this story its dizzyingly high reputation...

But then people got to see The Final Test, when it was released in June 1991 on The Hartnell Years VHS. It rapidly became clear that the story comprised little but silly, childish games, with no real threat.

The Toyroom characters are far from sinister, and the dangers all seem very low-key. The games were too simplistic for adults, and complicated for children as the rules weren't properly explained and the lacklustre direction didn't help.

 It was not the surreal masterpiece that fandom had long claimed it to be.

Those who had been championing it began to keep quiet about it - revising and reversing their once outspokenly positive view of it.

The novelisation, widely believed to be primarily the work of Alison Bingeman, was also a massive disappointment. The audio release simply reinforced the realisation that this was not terribly good.

Perhaps the imagery of the missing episodes might have done something to raise their reputation once more, but the new animation doesn't look like it is going to help with this as they've chosen to totally reimagine the story (see Trivia below).

The story still has its champions, but they are no longer in the majority.

Trivia:

• The ratings see a significant drop to below 8 million, and the appreciation figure continues to slide, to a new second lowest score.
• This episode was the subject of a BBC Audience Research Report, which found that almost as many people had watched the rural soap Weaver's Wynd (15%) as had watched Doctor Who (15.6%). 
• A third of the respondents disliked the episode, stating that the conclusion lacked excitement.
• The general view was that people didn't like excursions into outright fantasy - "fantasy gone mad" as one put it.
• The one positive from most reviews was Michael Gough's powerful performance.
• Junior Points of View on 29th April featured a letter from a young viewer pointing out that the Trilogic Game was actually very simple to play, having taken only 25 minutes to complete it. Another correspondent complained that the Doctor should have been a lot more clever than to accept one of Cyril's sweets as it was almost certainly poisonous.
• Some newspapers picked up on the on-screen announcement about the complaint from the Frank Richards estate, regarding the similarity of Cyril to Billy Bunter.
• The Final Test was discovered in the archives of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and returned to the BBC in 1984. It was missing the "Next Episode..." caption.
• This was Bill Sellars only Doctor Who story. He went on to have a hugely successful career as a producer - including period country vet drama All Creatures Great And Small.
• The story is due to be released in animated form on 10th June 2024 in the UK, with a remastered version of this surviving instalment. The animation style has met with a considerable amount of disapproval, with many unhappy that it fails to respect the original production. The counter argument is that this cartoonish CG style compliments the surreal nature of the story, and may attract newer fans to the classic stories.

• The Toymaker never returned to the series during its "classic" era. He came close to doing so, however, in 1986. Ex-producer Graham Williams was commissioned to write a story which would launch the 23rd Season. It would feature the Toymaker, operating out of a lair beneath Blackpool Pleasure Beach, and involved a lethal computer game which unleashed electronic monsters. Titled "The Nightmare Fair", it had its director - Matthew Robinson - allocated and the funfair had agreed the filming when the series was suddenly thrown into hiatus. The story was novelised, and later produced as both a full cast audio adventure and an audiobook.

• The Toymaker has also appeared in comic strips in Doctor Who Monthly, in Missing Adventures novels, and in original audios from BF, in which he was voiced by actor David Bailie, who had portrayed Dask in The Robots of Death:

Story 289: Orphan 55

In which Graham wins a luxury holiday at the exclusive Tranquility Spa resort. The winning ticket automatically teleports them to the location, where they are greeted by staff member Hyph3n. She informs them that they are booked to stay for two weeks, but can be transported back to where they came from at any time. Graham is all for relaxing, whilst the Doctor wishes to explore.

Yaz meets an elderly couple named Benni and Vilma. He intends to propose to her, but is interrupted by Yaz's arrival.

In the control centre of the complex, owner Kane is concerned about an intruder. She sends a couple of  fully armed guards off to deal with this.

Ryan is infected by a "hopper virus", contracted from a vending machine. The Doctor helps him expel it from his body, and he meets a fellow sufferer named Bella. She claims to be a hotel critic.

They see the armed guards and decided to investigate - as does the Doctor, who follows Hyph3n into the control centre, where she meets Kane.

It transpires that the virus has infected most of the resort's systems, including teleports. Graham sets off to find a technician to fix them, and meets Nevi and his son Sylas. It is obvious that the boy is more technically skilled than his father.

One of the guards is attacked and killed by a large, savage bipedal creature.

Ryan and Bella encounter another of the creatures in the sauna area, and the Doctor has everyone gather in the control centre, which can be sealed off.

Benni, however, goes back to fetch his hat and does not return.

The Doctor discovers that the resort is completely protected by a holographic shield - but the virus is breaking this down. 

Beyond is a wasteland, where oxygen is scarce, as this is an "orphan" planet - Orphan 55. These are worlds which are unable to sustain life, and have been sold off cheaply to people like Kane who can set up an artificial environment.

Orphan 55 is not devoid of life however, for it is home to a race of savage creatures known as Dregs. They attempt to break into the resort, and the virus has allowed them to gain access. As the shield deteriorates, the oxygen will escape and the Dregs will overrun the resort, killing everyone.

It becomes clear that Benni has been taken by them, but not killed for some reason. A rescue mission is organised, which everyone will participate in. They have portable breathing apparatus, but it will only last a short time.

It soon becomes clear that the Dregs are not unintelligent. They have taken Benni specifically to lure the others into the wasteland.

The vehicle they are travelling in is disabled, and Benni is killed. Hyph3n also perishes.
Kane leads everyone to a tunnel which will take them back into the resort.

Here, the Doctor and her companions are shocked to see a Metro sign in Russian. Orphan 55 is actually the Earth of the far future. The Doctor makes a psychic link with a dormant Dreg, and learns that the planet was destroyed by warfare and a collapsing eco-system.

Vilma sacrifices herself to enable the others to get into the resort. It has been revealed that Bella is really Kane's estranged daughter, and she had come here to destroy the resort with a powerful bomb in revenge for her mother abandoning her.

Reconciled in the face of the danger they face, Kane and Bella hold back the Dregs whilst Sylas helps the Doctor and his father repair the teleport.

They are transported away as the bomb detonates.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor explains that Orphan 55 is just one of many possible futures for the earth - one which will come to pass if the human race fails to look after it properly...

Orphan 55 was written by Ed Hime, and was first broadcast on Sunday 12th January 2020. Hime had previously contributed the lacklustre It Takes You Away for the previous season.

Having been arrested at a climate change protest in 2019, the writer made no secret of his intention to feature ecological issues in his script and indeed the BBC had claimed that green issues like plastics in the oceans would be covered by the series when it returned. The plastics issue would appear later in the run, but this was Hime's turn.

Rather than let the theme develop out of the story, getting the message across through allegory, Chris Chibnall allows the writer to throw subtlety out of the window and go for a sledgehammer approach. 

The last few minutes of the episode comprise the Doctor hectoring her companions - and through them we the viewers - about the state of the planet. It transcends the all too familiar preachiness of this era and sees the Doctor berate everyone, as though it was their fault, personally. Nothing constructive - just a rant. We're told we must look after the Earth better. 5-year-olds watching would have known that already. Talk about stating the obvious...

The lecture might have been more tolerable had it come within a story that was original and entertaining. This is neither. The whole "this alien planet is actually the Earth!!!" business has been handled in near identical fashion by Doctor Who before - when Peri sees the Underground signage for Marble Arch in The Mysterious Planet. There, the reveal was couched in an intriguing story involving the Doctor's trial and the mystery of the Earth being transported halfway across the galaxy.

It was also written Robert Holmes, who was infinitely superior at his craft than the writer of the drivel currently under consideration.

Holmes made no bones about borrowing from popular films and books, and back then he was leaning heavily on the original Planet of the Apes film, with its awesome reveal of the trashed Statue of Liberty in the closing moments. Himes' problem is that Holmes got there first, and did it better.

The episode suffers equally from poor performances - Julia Foster's Vilma standing out especially. She is simply irritating, spending much of the episode shouting "Benni!" over and over again.

Characterisation overall is cardboard. Plotting makes no sense. Would you really allow a vulnerable old lady and a child to participate in a dangerous rescue mission into hostile territory?

The whole hopper virus business is childish nonsense.

Design issues are apparent in simply plonking fake looking green wigs on the heads of Nevi and Sylas, and making Hyph3n look like a woman wearing a teddy bear outfit, made for a church panto, with a painted face.

The Dregs are really wasted. A very good design, but we don't get to see much of them, and shots of multiple creatures really highlight their CGI nature.

As well as Foster (who is actually a very good actor, so we very much have the director to blame for her performance) we have Laura Fraser (The Loch, Traces and Breaking Bad) as Kane; Gia Re as Bella and Col Farrell as Benni.

James Buckley of The In-Betweeners (on a perpetual time-loop on E4) plays Nevi, a truly thankless part. Sylas is Lewin Lloyd. Hyph3n is portrayed by Amy Booth-Steel. Apparently the character is supposed to be a space-squirrel.

The principal Dreg is Spencer Wilding, who had previously played the Minotaur in The God Complex, the Wooden King in the 2011 Christmas Special, and Ice Warrior Skaldak in Cold War. He took on the iconic role of Darth Vader in Rogue One - A Star Wars Story.

Overall: dreadful. 

Unoriginal plot. Unrealistic, cardboard characters and some awful performances (one of which stands out a mile). The costume designer clearly wasn't given any money for this. Deservedly bottom of every season poll. The 60th Anniversary polling by DWM had it the lowest ranked story of the entire Chibnall era. 

Things you may wish to know:

• Location filming took place in Tenerife, as it allowed for both the volcanic landscape of the wasteland and the holiday resort.
• An early draft was titled "Safari" and involved a hunting expedition on an alien planet.
• Vilma's "Benni!" rapidly became an internet meme, so annoying is it.
• Another possible inspiration from the series itself is The Curse of Fenric. In that we learned that a polluted future Earth had produced the Haemovores.
• Torchwood's similarly savage Weevils were theorised as potential degraded humanity of the far future.
• To end on a positive, a couple of images of the Dreg costume from the Worlds of Wonder exhibition:

M is for... Mykros

Mykros was a member of the ruling council of the planet Karfel, under their chairman the Maylin. This council merely acted as figureheads, as the real power lay with the reclusive Borad.

Mykros and fellow council member Vena - daughter of Maylin Renis - secretly supported efforts to return democracy to the planet. The young man attempted to discuss his concerns with Renis, but they were overheard by the Borad. He killed the Maylin and ordered Mykros' capture. He was to be thrown into the Timelash - a crude time tunnel from which no-one ever returned.

Trying to save him, Vena stole new Maylin Tekker's seal of office and fell into the Timelash with it. Tekker forced the newly arrived Doctor to pursue her in the TARDIS and retrieve it, as it was a vital component of the Borad's technology. 

Mykros was held prisoner for a time, but the Doctor soon him helped lead a revolt.

Once the Borad had been defeated, Mykros helped prevent a war with the neighbouring Bandrills, and assumed the role of Maylin himself.

Played by: Eric Deacon. Appearances: Timelash (1985). 

• Eric appeared in the Peter Greenaway film A Zed and Two Noughts the same year as his Doctor Who story. In this he starred alongside his brother Brian, portraying twins. (Brian starred in children's Aztec drama The Feathered Serpent alongside Patrick Troughton).

M is for... Myers, Miss

A member of the Fleshkind, who were engaged in a centuries-long war with the Metalkind in a distant galaxy. Her people developed a biological weapon in the form of a child. However, this was taken away from them and deposited on the doorstep of Sarah Jane Smith where it rapidly grew into a young girl. Sarah named her "Sky", as she had appeared just as if she had fallen from the sky. 

The child was traced to Earth and Miss Myers arrived to retrieve her. She gained mental control over a power station worker, as part of the plan to energise and activate the weapon. A member of the Metalkind arrived at the same time, determined to prevent the Fleshkind from using Sky against them.

The girl's destructive powers were neutralised, then the Metalkind captured Myers and teleported her off the planet.

Played by: Christine Stephen-Daly. Appearances: SJA 5.1 Sky (2011).

• Stephen-Daly was a regular on long-running medical soap Casualty.
• Another sci-fi role was as Lt Teeg in Farscape.

M is for... Mutos

Genetically maimed outcasts from both sides of the thousand year Thal-Kaled war on the planet Skaro. They were descendants of the victims of the chemical, biological and radioactive weapons used in the first decades of the wars - their genetic mutation being passed down the line. New Mutos were created as the conflict progressed. 

They were forced to scavenge in the wasteland between the Thal and Kaled cities, and regarded anyone not like them - "Norms" - as their enemies. The troops of the opposing armies used them as slave labour and killed those who could not be exploited - but resented wasting ammunition to do so.

One of their number - a man named Sevrin - saved Sarah Jane Smith when she became separated from the Doctor and Harry. A fellow Muto named Gerrill had wanted to kill her.

Sevrin and Sarah were captured by Thal soldiers and set to work loading a missile with toxic explosives. There were several other Mutos forcibly engaged in this.

After the war was brought to a close, with the Daleks ascendant, Sevrin helped some of his people join forces with the combined Thal-Kaled survivors.

Played by: Stephen Yardley (Sevrin), Jeremy Chandler (Gerrill). Appearances: Genesis of the Daleks (1975).

• Yardley returned to the series to play Arak in Vengeance on Varos.

M is for... Mutes

Black-clad servants of the Shadow, who was himself servant to the Black Guardian. They had skeletal features and wore monk-like hooded robes. As the name suggests, they never spoke, and appeared not to have any mouth. 

The Doctor and Romana encountered them on the Shadow's planet - an artificial construction in a fixed orbit between the twin planets of Atrios and Zeos. They travelled between these worlds via a secret transmat system. They abducted Princess Astra on one of their raids.

They were all wiped out when the Atrian Marshal launched a missile attack on Zeos, which was diverted to the Shadow's domain.

Appearances: The Armageddon Factor (1978).

• Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin named these creatures after "mutants", but the design team took them literally and made them mouthless.
• BBC paperwork referred to actor Stephen Calcutt as "Super Mute", so presumably he's the one in the Doctor / Drax shrinking sequence.