545 State of Decay: Part Two

EPISODE: State of Decay: Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 545
STORY NUMBER: 113
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 29 November 1980
WRITER: Terrance Dicks
DIRECTOR: Peter Moffatt
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 5.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy (Full Circle / State of Decay / Warrior's Gate)

"Let him feed the Great One with his blood!"

The Doctor & Romana are captured by guards and taken to the tower, where they meet the Three Who Rule: Zargo, Aukon & Camilla. Camilla takes a great interest when Romana cuts herself. Theorising that the tower is the remains of the starship Hydrax, the Doctor & Romana explore and find a still functioning scout ship forming the top of the tower. Aukon stages another "selection" and takes Adric from the inn. Descending to the depths of the castle the Doctor & Romana find vats of human blood and hear a pounding heartbeat from elsewhere in the underground cavern. Aukon enters and welcomes them to his domain....

That wasn't bad at all, rather enjoyed that. Some really nice stuff in there, the Castle being the ship.

DOCTOR: Oh yes, this is much more comfortable. What were those Hydrax officers called?
ROMANA: Captain Miles Sharkey, Navigation Officer Lauren MacMillan, Science Officer Anthony O'Connor.
DOCTOR: That's very good. Have you ever heard of the Brothers Grimm?
ROMANA: This is no time for fairy tales.
DOCTOR: They also discovered the Law of Consonantal Shift. How language changes over the years.
ROMANA: You mean the hard sounds softening, B's becoming V's and so on.
DOCTOR: Hmm.
ROMANA: Camilla, Aukon and Zargo. Wait a minute. Sharkey, Zharkey, Zarkey, Zar, Zargo. The same name passed down through generations.
DOCTOR: That's right. And MacMillan becomes?
ROMANA: Camilla.
DOCTOR: And O'Connor becomes?
ROMANA: Aukon. The descendants of the original ship's officers.
DOCTOR: Yes. And this is the original ship. The pilot here, co-pilot there. No, no, no, pilot there, co-pilot here. Instrument banks there, control panels there.
ROMANA: You mean this is the Hydrax, the explorer ship?
DOCTOR: Yes. Do you fancy exploring it?

However the rulers being the descendants of the original officers sort of back tracks on the insinuation of the previous episode that Tark had seen the people whose pictures were in the ship's databank! And not all the ship appears to be dysfunctional either...

ROMANA: We must be right inside the turret.
DOCTOR: Yes. It's an Arrow class scout ship, Romana. It detaches from the main vessel for local exploration.
ROMANA: I wonder why they didn't rip out all these instruments, too.
DOCTOR: Well, why bother? No one comes here. Look! There's even a bit of power left in the energy cells.
ROMANA: So it could still fly?
DOCTOR: Possibly.
ROMANA: Could we possibly jet our way out?
DOCTOR: Getting out is not exactly the object of our mission, is it?
ROMANA: It proved your point that this is a spaceship.
DOCTOR: Shush.
ROMANA: Sounds like a faint engine noise.
DOCTOR: Shush.
ROMANA: What is it?
DOCTOR: More evidence.
ROMANA: Of what?
DOCTOR: I have a suspicion, but it's too horrible to think about.

Oh, what might we use an operational scout ship for? A bit Chekov's Gun, one of his favourite tools, from writer Terrance Dicks here!

Then we get bellow for the blood in the fuel tanks being fed to some giant thing with a heartbeat under the castle/ship and we're into real Hammer Horror territory.

By an odd coincidence Bray Studios, the home of Hammer Films, isn't that far from the locations used in this story. All the exterior scenes here were filmed at Burnham Beaches just north of the M4 at Maidnehead/Slough and Bray is just a little south of the motorway.

Rebel scientist Kalmar is played by Arthur Hewlett and he'll be back as Kimber in Terror of the Vervoids. He appears in Blake's 7 as the Old Man in The Keeper and in The Black Adder episode The Archbishop as both Godfrey, Archbishop of Canterbury and William, Bishop of London.

Rebel Tarak, who disguises himself as a guard, is played by Thane Bettany.

Stacy Davies playing Veros was in The Invasion, playing Private Perkins, the UNIT Soldier cut down by the Cyberman in the sewers. You can also see him in The Professionals as Sammy Blaydon in Backtrack.

544 State of Decay: Part One

EPISODE: State of Decay: Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 544
STORY NUMBER: 113
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 22 November 1980
WRITER: Terrance Dicks
DIRECTOR: Peter Moffatt
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 5.8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy (Full Circle / State of Decay / Warrior's Gate)

"You're not from the village!"

The Tardis lands on a planet supporting a medieval level civilisation. The population are under the rule of the Three Who Rule who have recently selected young villagers and had them brought to the tower. K-9 picks up a trace of high technology, but is left in the Tardis while the Doctor & Romana investigate. The Doctor & Romana visit the village inn where the headman Ivor tells him that the Lords protect them from the wasting. Adric, who has stowed away in the Tardis, goes looking for the Doctor & Romana. While seeking another village the Doctor & Romana are captured by rebels. Their presence is reported to the Three Who Rule and the Chancellor Aukon dispatches his bat servants to find them. The Doctor & Romana are taken to meet Kelner, a man who is experimenting with some advanced equipment. He tells them they intend to overthrow the Lords. Adric arrives at the inn and is given shelter by the innkeeper and his wife, whose son has recently been taken to the tower. The Doctor is told that all science and knowledge is forbidden by the Lords. The Doctor & Romana discovers that the equipment is from an Earth vessel Hydrax that they think must have passed through a CVE. One of the rebels recognises the faces of the ships officers, found in a database, as the three lords. Leaving the rebel base, the Doctor & Romana are attacked by bats!

We've got bats, we've got a castle, we've got villagers in thrall to their lords, who are nice and pale.

Yup Doctor Who finally does Vampires it would seem. All done very well here.

DOCTOR: Please, don't shout. Splendid, I'm sure. So you serve the Lords, but what do the Lords do for you?
IVO: They protect us from the Wasting.
DOCTOR: Did you say the Wasting?

We're gifted some local history courtesy of the rebels:

ROMANA: How long have things been like this?
KALMAR: Forever. The Lords rule in the Tower, the peasants toil in the fields. Nothing has changed in a thousand years.
TARAK: But it will change when we overthrow the Lords.

And how the rebels came to be formed:

DOCTOR: How long ago was that?
TARAK: Years ago. Some of us were on the run from Zargo and his men. We escaped into the wasteland and discovered this, all kinds of wonderful things just thrown about, half hidden. There was even food, mountains of it.
KALMAR: Some of us could still read. It's forbidden, but the knowledge was passed on in secret.
DOCTOR: What? Reading forbidden?
KALMAR: All science, all knowledge is forbidden by the Lords. The penalty for knowledge is death.
ROMANA: No schools of any kind?
KALMAR: Children start in the fields as soon as they can walk, stay there till they grow up, grow old and die.
TARAK: Those that escape the selection.

But the real revelation here come rather quickly when the Doctor & Romana turn their attention to the ancient technology the rebels found:

DOCTOR: Definitely an Earth device.
ROMANA: Ship's manifest and cargo, flight plan from Earth. So it is Earth. Crew of exploration vessel Hydrax en route from Earth destination Beta Two in the Perugellis sector.
DOCTOR: Instead of which they finish up here.
ROMANA: Hmm, they must have gone through a CVE as well.

What, another crashed spaceship straight after the Starliner in Full Circle?

ROMANA: Ship's officers, Captain Miles Sharkey, Navigational officer Lauren MacMillan, Science officer Anthony O'Connor. Identification pictures follow. It's still legible.
DOCTOR: Yes, not bad after a thousand years in memory.
TARAK: Those faces!
DOCTOR: Yes, long since dead.
TARAK: I was a Tower guard before I joined Kalmar. I saw them every day.
DOCTOR: What?
TARAK: But, as you say, it can't be.
DOCTOR: Who did you see every day?
TARAK: The three who rule. The King, his Queen.
DOCTOR: That's two.
TARAK: And Aukon, the councillor. No, I'm sorry, I see their faces everywhere. If you knew these people, Doctor
DOCTOR: Well, I think it's time we got to know them, don't you, Romana?

Now where were? Ah yes: 3rd September 2017 when we did Horror of Fang Rock part 1. The then script editor Robert Holmes had commissioned his old friend (and former Doctor Who script editor) Terrance Dicks to write a story based on one of the few horror tales they hadn't previously "paid homage to" over the last few years: Dracula. Dicks duly supplied the scripts for "The Witch Lords"/"The Vampire Mutation" only to then have the story spiked (staked?) when high ups at the BBC realised it would be airing at a similar time to the prestigious adaptation of the original story, Count Dracula. So Terrance Dicks was sent away to write another script in an extreme hurry and given the instruction to "set it in a light house". Dicks' original script went into a drawer where it stayed for three years until John Nathan-Turner & Christopher H. Bidmead found themselves with no other script ready to go at the start of this season. Uncle Terrance gets a call and quickly refreshes his script to take into account the change in companions and that we're in E-Space. One quick change of title later and State of Decay was ready to go as the second story filmed that season, straight after the Leisure Hive and before Meglos & Full Circle which preceded it.

This is a first Doctor Who for Director Peter Moffatt who had previously worked with new Producer John Nathan-Turner on All Creatures Great and Small and he does a decent job, with some fabulous little graphical touches like overlaying the bats on Aukon's face.

We'll be seeing him regularly over the next few years as he returns to direct The Visitation, Mawdryn Undead, The Five Doctors, Twin Dilemma and The Two Doctors. He is, equal with Ron Jones and Chris Clough, John Nathan Turner's most used director.

Lots of cast, and we'll cover many of the ones missed here as the story progresses. Clinton Greyn plays innkeeper Ivo. He'll return to Doctor Who in the Peter Moffatt directed The Two Doctors where he plays the Sontaran commander Stike and later appears as another Sontaran in the Jim'll Fix It mini episode A Fix with Sontarans. He appears in UFO as Mark Tanner in The Dalotek Affair.

Ivo's wife Marta is played by Rhoda Lewis. She appeared in the Doomwatch episode Public Enemy as Mrs. Freeman. She's also in the Barry Letts/Terrence Dicks production of Dombey and Son playing Louisa Chick and later has a semi regular role in the BBC Miss Marple stories playing village shopkeeper & postmistress Mrs Brogan in A Pocketful of Rye, 4.50 from Paddington and The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side.

Their son Karl is played by Dean Allen.

Onto the Peasants in the inn:

Ernest Jennings was in The 1st Man in Market in The Romans: All Roads Lead to Rome, a Highlander in Jail in The Highlanders and one of the Old Scientists in Shada. He returns as as the Aged Rebel in The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp.

Dennis Hayward was a Scotsman in Hold/Highlander in The Highlanders, an Auton/Display Mannequin in Spearhead from Space and a Control Room Assistant in The Ambassadors of Death. He's in Blake's 7 as a Federation Trooper in Warlord and Doomwatch as a Man in The Islanders.

Jimmy Mac had been a Refugee Priest in The Underwater Menace, a Man in Pub/Coven member in The Daemons, a Noble in Androids of Tara and a Peasant in the Village Centre in State of Decay. He returns as an Extra in The Awakening. In Doomwatch he's a man in The Islanders. He's a semi regular in Are You Being Served? as Warwick in The Junior, Anything You Can Do, A Personal Problem & Lost and Found. In Dad's Army he's a Platoon Member in Number Engaged and in Hi-de-Hi! he's a Camper At Table in Desire in the Mickey Mouse Grotto.

Eileen Winterton Slave in Day of the Daleks In Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em she's a Parent at Toy Fair in Learning to Drive and in Are You Being Served? she's a Shop assistant in Gambling Fever. There's some discussion if the biographical details and earlier roles on her IMDB entry belong to the same actress!

Laurie Goode was a Mutant in The Mutants, a guard in the Time Monster, a Time Lord in The Invasion of Time, a Bandit in The Creature from the Pit. and a Tigellan in Meglos. He returns as a Tharil in Warriors' Gate, a Sailor on the Shadow in Enlightenment, a Colonist in Frontios, a worker in Trial of a Timelord: Mysterious Planet and a British Unit Trooper in Battlefield. He's in Blake's 7 as a Hi-tech Patient in Powerplay, Survivors as a Looter in The Chosen and Star Cops as a Dealer in Little Green Men and Other Martians. He was a Looter in the Survivors episode The Chosen, the Jogger in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a Pirate Rat in the The Box of Delights episode In Darkest Cellars Underneath and appears twice in The Sweeney as Laurie in Queen's Pawn and the Supermarket Manager in Trojan Bus.

Joe Phillips had previously been a Extra in Robot, had been a Coven Member in Image of the Fendahl. He also is one of the actors playing a Holidaymaker in this episode. He returns as a Peasant in Village Centre in State of Decay, a Patient in Frontios and a Schoolboy in Mawdryn Undead.

Jill Goldston was a Female Guest in The Masque of Mandragora, a Peasant in State of Decay, a Lady in Waiting in King's Demons, a Citizen/Unbeliever in Planet of Fire a Mutoid in Blake's 7: Animals and a Woman in Doomwatch: The Islanders.

Marie Antony was an Audience Member/Dancing Girl/Stagehand in Talons of Weng Chiang

Michael Joseph was a Tourist in Louvre in City of Death. In Return of the Jedi he's Janus Greejatus - Emperor Palpatine's Advisor

Tom Gandl had been a Citizen in Full Circle and returns as a Villager in The Visitation, and a Male Onlooker in Remembrance of the Daleks. In Blake's 7 he was a Kairos Guard / Labourer in The Harvest of Kairos.

Olwyn Atkinson (Alwyn Atkinson) returns as a Gallifreyan in Arc of Infinity, a Lazar in Terminus, aCustomer/Mercenary in Dragonfire and one of the Happiness Patrol in The Happiness Patrol

Leon Lawrence returns as a Miner in Mark of the Rani.

Monty Morris was in Blake's 7 as a Prisoner in Cygnus Alpha Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em as the Extra Patient in Wendy House.

Angela Taylor, Douglas Jones Ruby Buchanan, Vera Lennox, Juliet Darnley, Bob Marshall and Dennis Hewson. have all not reappeared in Doctor Who.

The Peasant in The Wood is Victor Croxford who had been an Auton/Hospital Porter in Spearhead from Space and a Laboratory Technician in Claws of Axos. He returns as a Villager in The Visitation.

The Rebels seen only in the film sequences in this episode include:

Paul Barton was previously a UNIT Soldier and a Silurian in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a Roundhead in The Time Monster, a Courtier in The Masque of Mandragora, a guard in Face of Evil, Marn’s Attendant in The Sunmakers and a Skonnos Guard in The Horns of Nimon. He returns as a Citizen/Unbeliever in Planet of Fire and a Walk on in Remembrance of the Daleks. He was in Doomwatch as a Man in Hear No Evil, Invasion and No Room for Error and appears in Moonbase 3 as a Technician in View of a Dead Planet.

Martin Clark had been a Soldier in Masque of Mandragora and a Time Lord in Invasion of Time. He returns as a Rebel in State of Decay, a Brown Time Lord in Trial of a Timelord: Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe and a Husband at Garden Centre in Battlefield.

Timothy Oldroyd had been Pangol Body Parts & one of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive. He returns as a Kinda in Kinda, a Passenger in Time-Flight, a Vanir in Terminus and an Officer in Enlightenment. In Blake's 7 he was one of Gerren's Associate in Games.

Mark Middler had been one of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive and returns as a Foster in Keeper of Traken.

George Serghe & John Sylvan don't reappear in Doctor Who.

543 Full Circle: Part Four

EPISODE: Full Circle: Part Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 543
STORY NUMBER: 112
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 15 November 1980
WRITER: Andrew Smith
DIRECTOR: Peter Grimwade
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 5.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy (Full Circle / State of Decay / Warrior's Gate)

"Yes that settles it. We're out of our own time and space!"

Marshmen attack the Starliner inhabitants. A chance remark by The Doctor makes Adric recall Draith's last words of "We've come full circle" and, coupled with Adric's accelerated healing, the Doctor comes to a startling conclusion. He retrieves K-9's head from a Marshman that was using it as a staff top and finds the infected Romana. Adric finds an image translator for the Doctor. Login proposes bringing the Starliner population into the Decider's chamber but the other Deciders hesitate, allowing the Marshmen to storm the chamber, scattering the files everywhere and injuring Nefred. The Doctor tells Adric he believes the Tardis is in E-Space. The Doctor synthesises an antidote for Romana as Nefred tells Gariff & Login to seek out the Doctor to teach them how to fly the ship and leave Alzarius and that they did not come from Terradon and then passes away in the arms of the other elders. The Marshmen storm the science lab but are contained using oxygen cylinders. Romana attacks them but is overpowered and given the serum which cures her. Varsh is slain by a marshman covering his brother Adric's escape. The Doctor finds the same cells in the spiders, Marshmen & the deceased Dexeter and theorises that all three are the same life form, subject to rapid evolution. The Marshmen are driven from the ship by flooding it with oxygen. The Doctor reveals to Login & Gariff that the Marshmen are their ancestors that entered the crash ship, evolved, learned to read and took the ship as their own. Adric hides in the Tardis, leaving the image translator for the Doctor. The Doctor teaches them how to launch & fly the ship before leaving. The Tardis dematerialises, and K-9 is repaired. The image translator is installed proving that the Tardis is in Exo-Space having passed through a Charged Vacuum Emboitment (CVE) into this other universe. Their only option to get home is to find another CVE.

The climax to the story on the planet we now know is called Alzarius isn't bad and is packed with big clever ideas like the humans are an evolved form of the Marshmen which are in turn evolved from the spiders.

DOCTOR: How long's it supposed to be since the starliner crashed?
KEARA: Forty generations.
DOCTOR: Forty generations. That's a good round figure. Can't be right, though.
KEARA: Why not?
DOCTOR: Well, evolution goes in quantum leaps, but doesn't go that fast.
KEARA: What are you doing?
DOCTOR: Carrier type comparisons. Yes. Definitely morphological similar carrier types. Plus the inversions in bands eight to ten might be significant. I need to establish how long the evolutionary process has taken.
KEARA: From spiders to marsh creatures?
DOCTOR: From spiders to marsh creatures and beyond.

ROMANA: Forty generations? More like four thousand generations.
KEARA: Since the Starliner crashed?
DOCTOR: Yes. The Deciders procrastinated more than we thought.
KEARA: Can I see? How can you tell all that from the marsh creature cells?
DOCTOR: That's not the marsh creature. That's Dexeter.
KEARA: Dexeter?
DOCTOR: That's the marsh creature. And that's the spider.
KEARA: The same cells.

LOGIN: So the first marsh men came to resemble the original crew of the starliner.
DOCTOR: Yes. The creatures most willing to survive in it.
GARIF: Terradonians. We are not Terradonians.
DOCTOR: I know you're not Terradonians. You're not marsh men either, are you?

There's been hints at this in the previous episodes but here the full explanation comes out and in a bit of a rush. The problem is it's hard to identify with the Alzarians: the Outlers are annoying wingers, the Deciders are indecisive and if Adric & Login are the best characters in this bunch then you know you're in trouble!

Decent monster rampage this episode though and the possessed Romana isn't bad either.

ROMANA: Hmm. Adric's left us a present.
DOCTOR: Really? An Image Translator! Loot! He stole that. Still It might come in useful.
ROMANA: It works!
DOCTOR: Yes unfortunately.
ROMANA: Negative coordinates.
DOCTOR: Yes that settles it. We're out of our own time and space, Romana.
ROMANA: Exo-space?
DOCTOR: Yes. What I think we came through was a Charged Vacuum Emboitment.
ROMANA: A CVE.
DOCTOR Hmmm. One of the rarest Space-Time events in the universe.
ROMANA: Doctor, look. The Starliner is taking off.
DOCTOR: Well, they made a decision.
ROMANA: And we're trapped. Unless we can find another CVE.
K9: Affirmative.

Hands up who knows what an Emboitment is? Didn't think so. I'm guessing that since Bidmead is involved it's some piece of real science but can I find out what it means? Whatever an Emboitment is, a CVE is meaningless gobbledegook, but we do know that passing through it has stranded the Tardis in another universe. Full Circle is the start of what's known as "The E-Space Trilogy" as the Tardis tries to escape from this extra dimensional realm. These three stories have another name, but I'll tell you that come the end of Warriors' Gate.

The following actors are Starliner Citizens in just part 4:

Peter Dukes was a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and an Astronaut in Planet of Evil. He returns as a Man at Arms in King's Demons, an Extra in The Awakening, a Technician in Vengeance on Varos and a Native in Trial of a Timelord: Mindwarp. In Blake's 7 he was a a Federation Trooper in Project Avalon & a Kairos Guard / Labourer in The Harvest of Kairos.

Robert Goodman was a Mandrel in Nightmare of Eden. He'll be back as a Gallifreyan in Arc of Infinity, a Buccaneer Guard/Wrack Deck Crew/Striker Deck Crew in Enlightenment, a Colonist in Frontios, a Crewmember in Resurrection of the Daleks and a Crew member/Loader / Hyperion III Officer in The Trial of a Time Lord as well as playing Reg in the new series episode Listen. He also was in The Spy Who Loved Me as a Stromberg's Guard, has an episode of one of my childhood favourites Pipkins on his CV where he plays a Dustman in The Sink, is in the Yes Minister episode Jobs for the as Robert the Waiter, A Fish Called Wanda as a Street thug.

Tom Gandl returns as one of the Peasants in the Village Centre in State of Decay, a Villager in The Visitation, and a Male Onlooker in Rememberance of the Daleks. In Blake's 7 he was a Kairos Guard / Labourer in The Harvest of Kairos.

Ian Ellis returns as a Kinda in Kinda and as the location version of Trooper Marshall in Earhtshock . In Blake's 7 he was a Hi-tech Patient in Powerplay and a guard in Traitor. A former child actor, he had appeared in The Day the Earth Caught Fire as Michael Stenning.

Malcolm Harvey later plays the Ergon in Arc of Infinity. In Blake's 7 he was a Space Princess Guard / Passenger in Gold.

I fluctuate on Full Circle: sometimes I like it, other I don't. Last time viewing fell in the second category: the music was intrusive, everybody bar the Doctor was annoying and in our sequential viewing it marks the start of us being saddled with Adric and the end for Tom Baker. This time it's worked out a bit better!

Full Circle was repeated from 3rd to 6th August in 1981, the first of two stories from the season repeated that summer. It was novelised by Andrew Smith in 1982. The E-Space Trilogy, containing Full Circle, State of Decay & Warriors' Gate, was released on video in 1997 and on DVD on 26th January 2009.

Doctor Who Season 18, including Full Circle, was released on Blu-Ray on 18th March 2019.

542 Full Circle: Part Three

EPISODE: Full Circle: Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 542
STORY NUMBER: 112
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 08 November 1980
WRITER: Andrew Smith
DIRECTOR: Peter Grimwade
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 5.9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy (Full Circle / State of Decay / Warrior's Gate)

"That's not scientific understanding, its cold-blooded murder!"

The Marshmen advance on the Starliner. The Doctor becomes interested in the maintenance work being carried out there. The Tardis materialises on the Starliner bearing the missing outlers. The Doctor takes Adric and the Tardis back to the cave where they collect a dazed Romana, the damaged K-9 and a dead spider. Dexeter wishes to experiment on captured Marshman. The Outlers are put to work on maintenance duty. The Tardis returns to the Starliner just as Dexeter is about to dissect it. In the Tardis an infected Romana detects it's pain and screams as the creature breaks it's bonds going on a rampage and killing Dexeter before it is accidentally electrocuted. The enraged Doctor reveals to Login that the starliner is ready to take off but Nefred denies they have procrastinated however they are missing the knowledge of how to fly the ship. The Doctor & Login examine the spiders and the Doctor recognises the sample from somewhere. Romana escapes from the Tardis descending to the depths of the Starliner where she opens the escape hatches admitting the Marshmen to the ship.

Hmmmm, as a story this is progressing quite nicely but there's something not quite right about what's going on..... and I think it's the lack of Doctor. There's not much of him in the last two episodes. What there is is good but we keep cutting to the Outlers who I couldn't give a stuff about and Romana who's getting increasingly annoying!

Her possessed make up is nice, a vraiant on the cyber virus last seen in Revenge of the Cybermen.

Playing Decider Login is George Baker This is his first and only Doctor Who appearance but he been in absolutely everything you'll have ever seen: He was in Curse of the Fly, which is great for spotting 60s Doctor Who props in, as Martin Delambre and played The New Number Two in Arrival thr first episode of he The Prisoner. He's been in 3 James Bond films playing a NASA Engineer in You Only Live Twice, Sir Hilary Bray in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Capt. Benson in The Spy Who Loved Me which makes his Up Pompeii! appearance as Jamus Bondus in Secret Agents Jamus Bondus more amusing! He was in Doomwatch as John Mitchell in Train and De-Train, which survives and can be seen on The Doomwatch DVD, and Survivors as Arthur Wormley in Genesis. In I, Claudius he played the Emperor Tiberius and in Robin of Sherwood he was The Prophecy, Herne's Son & The Power of Albion. Late in his career he found fame as Det. Chief Insp. Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.

Tony Calvin plays the scientist Dexeter. He was in The Professionals as Terry In the Public Interest.

Decider Nefred is James Bree He was was previously in Doctor Who as the Security Chief in the War Games and he'll be back as the Keeper of the Matrix in the final 2 episodes of The Trial of a Timelord. He'd been in The Prisoner episode Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling where he plays Villiers and goes onto appear in I, Claudius as Montanus in Poison Is Queen, The Sweeney as Saxby in Money, Money, Money and The Professionals as Grant in Man Without a Pas. On the big screen he appears in George Lazenby's only James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service as Gebrüder Gumbold.

This is the last appearance in Doctor Who by Alan Rowe who plays Decider Garif. He was previously in The Moonbase as both Dr. Evans & the Space Control voice, The Time Warrior as Edward of Wessex and James Skinsale in Horror of Fang Rock. His IMDB entry shows he was a much in demand actor. I thought I Doctor Who was the only thing I've seen him in but my most recent look at IMDB spotted Inspector Morse: The Death of the Self where he played Alistair Haines. He was the partner of actor Geoffrey Bayldon who speaks about Rowe and their relationship during Whos' Round #117.

We're still making our way through the mass of Starliner Dwellers/Citizens in this story. This lot are in all four episodes, but not the film sequences in episode 1:

Robin Squire had previously been the show's Assistant Script Editor at the start of the Third Doctor's time and, as a non equity card holder he was pressed into service as an emergency stand in Squire was so good that he was used for all the main Auton appearances as credited as the suspiciously sounding Ivor Orton..... . He returned as the BBC3 TV Cameraman in The Dæmons and later this season plays a Pharos Project Technician in Logopolis.

Steve Ismay had been a BBC3 TV Crewmember in The Dæmons, a Guerilla & Stills Cameraman in Day of the Daleks, Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, Varan's Bodyguard in The Mutants a Presidential Guard in Frontier in Space and a Security Guard in The Green Death. He's in every story in season 10 playing a UNIT Soldier in The Time Warrior, an Army Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, an Exxilon & Exxilon Zombie in Death to the Daleks, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon and a Metebelis 3 Guard in Planet of the Spiders. He then plays a Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Leviathan Guard in Ribos Operation, a Gracht Guard & one of Zadek's Guards in The Androids of Tara then would have been a "Space Monster" in Shada, possibly a Cyberman. He returns as a Cyberman in Earthshock. and a Security Guard in Time Flight. He had been a Man in the Doomwatch episode The Islanders & Flood, and then appears in The Sweeney as a Policeman in Cover Story, a Driver in Golden Boy and a Villain in Stoppo Driver. In Porridge he played a Prison Warden in A Night In and a Gardener in Happy Release while in The Tomorrow People he was in a Vesh Rebel in Worlds Away and an SIS Sergeant in The Dirtiest Business. In Blake's 7 he plays a Scavenger in Deliverance, a Guard in Dawn of the Gods, a Convict in Moloch and a Hommik in Power.

Stephen Kane had been an IR Guard in Exchange Hall in The Sunmakers. He returns as a Citizen in Full Circle. Blake's 7 he was a Customer / Gambler in Gambit.

Bobby James, who evades me on IMDB, was a a Gallifreyan in Invasion of Time, a Engineer in Creature from the Pit, He returns as a Citizen in Full Circle. He may or may not be the Bob James who was a Villager/Coven Member/UNIT Soldier in The Daemons.

Jerry Judge was a Bearer in Creature from the Pit He returns as a Kinda in Kinda, a Buccaneer Officer in Enlgihtenment, a Man at Arms in King's Demons and a Soldier in Caves of Androzani.

Katy Jarrett had been an Anethian Sacrifice in Horns of the Nimon and later plays a Daymaid in Ghost Light. She caught my eye in Horns of the Nimon as reminding me of someone but try as I might I cannot spot her in this story! She was scheduled to be part of a group of Tourists at Windsor Castle in Silver Nemesis but the actors planned to be used were replaced with cameos from those conected with the show. She can be seen in the Roger Moore James Bond film Octopussy as a Circus Guest, Supergirl as an Argonian Citizen and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: The 4:50 from as Miss Marple's Housemaid Mary. She also acts under her given name of Catherine Munroe and uder that appeared in The Empire Strikes Back as Zuckuss and Wiorkettle. She regularly appears at Star Wars coventions and has a website at http://www.cathymunroe.com/.

Tim Goodings was a member of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive. and returns as a Crewmember in Earthshock. Attempts to identify him there make us think he has red hair.

Nikki Dunsford returns as Trooper Austin in Earthshock. In Blake's 7 she was a Hi-tech Patient in Powerplay and Watching Blake's 7 thinks she's the Mutoid in Moloch.

Beverley Jennings returns as a Lady Passenger (Mid 20s) in Time Flight.

Mykel Mills Returns as a Plasmaton in Time-Flight, a Lazar in Terminus, plus one of the Wrack Deck Crew & Striker Deck Crew in Enlightenment. In Star Wars he is Red Seven Elyhek Rue.

I can't Find Martin McEnvoy, David Brody, Alexander Joanner or Amanda Winn on IMDB nor can I see any further Doctor Who appearances for them.

541 Full Circle: Part Two

EPISODE: Full Circle: Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 541
STORY NUMBER: 112
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 01 November 1980
WRITER: Andrew Smith
DIRECTOR: Peter Grimwade
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 3.7 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy (Full Circle / State of Decay / Warrior's Gate)

"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?"

Romana gives Adric a homing device for the Tardis as he leaves to warn the other outlers. In the short time in the Tardis his injuries have healed. The Outlers decide to use the homing device to find the Tardis to shelter from the mists where they take Romana prisoner. The Doctor has K-9 follow the Marshmen. Decider Nefred, now in charge, has read the secret system files and is burdened but what he has read. Login accepts the offer to join the Deciders. From within the Tardis sudden lurches violently and when the Doctor returns he finds it gone. Exposed in the mists the Doctor uses the Sonic Screwdriver to break into the Starliner. He is followed in by a juvenile Marshman. Nefred speaks to the the people of how the Starliner brought them from Terradon and how they must labour to get it functional again. The Tardis comes to rest, Romana discovering the Marshmen have carried the Tardis to the cave the Outlers use. The Doctor and the Marshman are captured on the ship and taken before the Deciders. K-9 tracks the Tardis to the cave but the Marshmen smash his head off. Romana deduces that the Marshmen intend to use the Tardis as a battering ram to breach the Starliner. Romana goes outside to find why the Marshmen have left but he Outlers, scared by the spiders hatching from marsh fruit, shut the Tardis doors on her and accidentally dematerialise, leaving Romana in the cave where she is bitten by one of the spiders and falls unconscious.

Not bad there, with some background to the humans on the planet revealed: they're the descendants of the crashed starliner trying to escape from the planet. We've seen the Tardis physically removed before (Space Pirates & Frontier in Space spring to mind) as the Marshmen do in this episode but is this the first time the Tardis has dematerialised without the Doctor or another Time Lord aboard?

All locations for this story are found in Black Park in Buckinghamshire.

The scenes of the Marshmen coming out the swamp would seem to owe something to the Sea Devils coming out of water many years before!

We've got a case of a familiar household object turning up in the story as something else: The walls of the Deciders room are obviously milkcrates!

Richard Willis, playing Adric's older brother Varsh, has a link to another Doctor Who cast member: he was the third husband of Kate O'Mara, who later plays The Rani.

I've seen Bernard Padden, who plays Tylos, on he big screen when he appeared in Erik the Viking as Mordfiddle the Cook.

June Page plays Keara, the lone female Outler and Decider Login's daughter. She was in three episodes of Survivors, New Arrivals, Over the Hills & New World, as Sally.

Norman Bacon plays the Marshchild. He had been an Other in The Sunmakers and returns as a Dalek Operator in Rememberance of the Daleks He's been in Out of the Unknown as the Boy in the missing fourth season story Taste of Evil and appeared in the Blake's 7 episode Gambit as Cevedic's Heavy.

Down in the DWAS Production File as "Marsh Leader", presumably the Marshman Leader, is Steve Kelly. He'd been a UNIT Soldier in the Invasion, a UNIT Soldier in the Ambassadors of Death, and an Ogron in Frontier in Space,. He returns as the Marshman leader in Full Circle and a Sea Devil in Warriors of the Deep. In Blake's 7 he's a a Scavenger in Deliverance, a Customer / Gambler in Gambit, a Goth Guard in The Keeper, a Hommik Warrior in Power and a Plantation Bounty Hunter in Blake. In Doomwatch he was a Man in Re-Entry Forbidden, a Man in The Islanders and the Lieutenant in Flood. In Monty Python's Flying Circus he was a Viking in Spam and in Fawlty Towers a Lorry Driver in Gourmet Night and an Ambulance Driver in The Germans. He's also in The Young Ones episode Cash.

The only credited Mashman is Barney Lawrence on his Doctor Who debut. He returns as a guard in State of Decay, a Foster in The Keeper of Traken, a Kinda Hostage in Kinda, the Male Android Silhouette in Earthshock, Air Steward Dave Culshaw in Timeflight, Tanha’s Bodyguard in Snakedance, a member of Striker's crew in Enlightenment, a Marine Guard in Warriors of the Deep, and a Trooper in Resurrection of the Daleks. He was in Blake's 7 as a Federation Trooper in Time Squad & Bounty, a Guard in Traitor and Zukan's Technician in Warlord.

Several actors play Marshmen uncredited though:

Stephen Calcutt was a Muto in Genesis of the Daleks and a Mute in The Armageddon Factor. He returns as the Snake in Kinda. He was also a Transylvanian in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and appears in Flash Gordon as an Azurian Man. In Rentaghost he was Leonardo da Vinci in the third episode of the second series, still unreleased on DVD!

Graham Cole who would later go on to find fame as PC Tony Stamp in The Bill. He should have been seen last season as a young scientist in the cancelled Shada so made his actual debut inThe Leisure Hive as a Zero Gravity Squash Player He returns in Keeper of Traken as the Melkur, Kinda as a Kinda tribesman (there's two other Bill cast members in that one!), Earthshock as a Cyberman, Time-Flight as Melkur, The Five Doctors as a Cyberman, Resurrection of the Daleks as a Crewmember & Duplication Body and The Twin Dilemma as a Jacondan.

Keith Guest returns as a Security Guard in Logopolis and a Villager in The Visitation.

James Jackson returns as a Guest Gambler in Enlightenment.

This is Stephen Watson's only Doctor Who appearance. He goes on to appear in No Place Like Home as Paul Crabtree where he made national news when he died, aged 26, while on his honeymoon in Spain, just before the fourth series of No Place Like Home was screened but after most of the episodes had been recorded.

There's a small bunch of Actors who are Citizens in episoders 2 & 4 only:

One of the actors presents a problem: we believe there are TWO Davd Coles who have worked on Doctor Who. There is a David Cole who played Billy Clanton in 1966's Gunfighters He was born on April 8, 1936 so, aged 43, is likely to have still been working at this time. During this period fro the late 70s through to the mid 80s there's a supporting artist under this name playing a Crewman in Nightmare of Eden, a Student in Shada, a member of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive, a Savant in Meglos, a Citizen in Full Circle, a Kinda in Kinda, a Student in Arc of Infinty, a Schoolboy in Mawdryn Undead, a Mutant in Mawdryn Undead, One of Ranulf's Knights, a Spectator & a Beggar in King's Demons and a Trooper in The Awakening. Some of those could well be the David Cole from the Gunfghters but The Students in Shada & in Arc of Infnity and the Schoolboy in Mawdryn Undead would seem to require a much younger actor and indicate that there is a second one so who knows qute how these roles are split!

Colin Cook returns as a Citizen in Keeper of Traken and a Castrovalvan Man in Castrovalva.

Harry Payne played one of the Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive. He returns as Kinda in Kinda, and a Soldier in Caves of Androzani

Clark Stephens Returns as the first Concorde's First Officer and a Passenger in Tinme Flight.

Penny Rigden returns as a Colonist in Frontios and a Lakertyan in Time and the Rani.

Two actors whose only Doctor Who appearance is as Full Circle Citizens but have been in Blake's 7: Val Clover was a Patient in Hospital Ship in Powerplay and a Mourner in Sarcophagus while Nigel McLaughlan was a Federation Trooper in Rumours of Death.

A Full Circle citizen is Marcus Campbell's only Doctor Who role

Finally the DWAS Production file has a note that Alys Dyer was booked, but not used. She was Baby Pangol at the end of The Leisure Hive and returns as a Child in Trial of a Timelord: Mystertious Planet with Lucy Dyer - is that her sister?

At 3.7 million viewers this episode has the second smallest audience of any Doctor Who episode so far and the smallest since the 3.5 million recorded for The War Games part 8!