As the humanoid community takes refuge in their crashed spaceship, venomous marsh spiders begin to hatch from the local fruit while bestial marshmen emerge from the waters to walk the land. It is quite apparent that the marshmen desire entry into the spaceship. Meanwhile, as a curious marshchild shadows the Doctor, a group of teen rebels decides to take over the TARDIS.
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1. "What is the strange journey of the
TARDIS? How do the Marshmen make
short work of K9? What else is at large
under cover of Mistfall?" (Radio Times)
2. This episode was first shown on
1 November, 1980.
3. It was seen by 3.7 million people.
4. This was the second lowest viewing
figure achieved by the programme
up to that date,
5. only beaten by Episode 8 of
'The War Games' in 1969.
6. In the autumn of 1980, Doctor Who was
up against the US import
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century on ITV.
7. This opposition seriously dented
the programme's ratings
for the first half of the series.
8. The viewing figures would begin
to recover later in the series.
9. The Marshmen costumes were based around
standard wetsuits
10. with thin sheets of textured latex
attached to them.
11. In keeping with their aquatic nature,
the bumps on their skin were moulded
using cockle shells.
12. This made them buoyant - and the water
was shallow anyway.
13. So heavy stage weights attached to
ropes were placed underwater.
14. The Marshmen actors had to
hold onto the weights
and pull themselves underwater.
15. They then had to count to five to allow
the ripples to disperse,
16. before surfacing and making their way
out of the lake.
17. These scenes were filmed
in the height of summer,
18. but the lake was still freezing cold,
made worse by the amount of dry ice
being used to make the water bubble.
19. In Smith's original outline, Tylos
tries to use Varsh's mistake about
Mistfall to attack his leadership
20. and try to take command
of the Outlers.
21. On seeing the challenge,
Keara was to have moved her support
from Varsh to Tylos.
22. In order to bring the story
to its required length,
23. this development in the Outlers'
hierarchy was abandoned.
24. In the script, this area was referred
to as the "Bubbling Bog".
25. The sound of the Marshmen was taken
from a reel of pig noises
supplied by Peter Poole.
26. Enter Norman Bacon as the Marshchild.
27. Bacon had previously appeared as one of
the citizens in 'The Sun Makers'.
28. The Doctor's original line was,
"Yes, well I suppose I do
look pretty frightening."
29. According to the script, there are
"several thuds at the door",
which Romana then opens.
30. This set marked one of the greatest
discrepancies between
what Smith envisioned and
what Janet Budden designed.
31. Smith had imagined a room crammed full
with rows of old books,
32. but in the end, Janet Budden populated
the set with milk bottle crates
filled with sheets of coloured paper.
33. Originally, this room was to be called
the Decision Chamber,
34. but this was felt to be too close to
the Debating Chamber
in the previous serial, 'Meglos',
35. so in the end, it was renamed
The Great Book Room.
36. The script suggests that Login is none
too willing to accept
his new position as Decider:
37. "Login enters looking very unsure, very
concerned. He halts abruptly, visibly
surprised at encountering the Deciders.
38. "From the look on Login's face,
we might deduce that
he is less than delighted."
39. The rough terrain of Black Park meant
that the K9 prop could not rely on its
inbuilt caterpillar tracks for movement,
40. so for these scenes, K9 was pulled
along by a fine nylon cord,
which you may just be able to see.
41. In the original script,
it is Keara who is holding Romana,
42. whilst Tylos steps forward and grabs
her face, forcing her to look at him.
43. In his casting specifications, Peter
Grimwade described Tylos as being
a "tougher looking male" than Varsh,
44. as well as being
"a rebel and a go-getter."
45. The Doctor "comes to an abrupt halt,
a look of disbelief on his face."
46. Notice the liberal sprinkling
of mauve poster paint on the ground
to mark where the TARDIS had stood.
47. The Doctor's hand movements were all
improvised by Tom Baker
and were not scripted.
48. As scripted, at this point we would
have seen the earlier film insert
of K9 following the Marshmen.
49. Following the recording of this scene,
50. it was planned to record shots of the
citizens, the Marshchild and the Doctor
approaching the Starliner door,
51. which would later be matted in with the
model shots of the ship using Quantel.
52. It was later decided that these shots
should be abandoned
and so they were never recorded.
53. The Doctor's entry into the Starliner
was also scripted slightly differently.
54. Following his initial "Hello?"
At the door,
55. the scene was to have moved inside
the Starliner's empty boarding area,
56. where we would hear
the Doctor outside continue,
"Hello? Hello, is anyone there? Hello!"
57. From outside we would then hear
the buzz of the sonic screwdriver
and see the door open from within,
58. and the Doctor would be secretly
followed on board by the Marshchild.
59. At this point, the Doctor was to reseal
the door before putting his ear
to the wall and then to the floor,
60. as he listens to "the hubbub of voices,
vaguely conducted
over the communication system."
61. 'Full Circle' was Peter Grimwade's
first experience of directing
Doctor Who.
62. Prior to this, Grimwade had acted
as the production assistant on
a number of earlier stories, including
63. 'Spearhead from Space', 'The Dæmons',
'Robot', 'Pyramids of Mars',
'The Robots of Death'
and 'Horror of Fang Rock'.
64. Whilst working on 'The Robots of Death'
in 1977, Grimwade was asked to direct
the story's film sequences,
65. and in turn, as an on-screen in-joke,
the fear of robots was named
"Grimwade's Syndrome" after him.
66. Following 'Full Circle', Grimwade would
direct three further stories
for the programme,
67. 'Logopolis', 'Kinda' and Adric's final
story, 'Earthshock'.
68. He would also go on to write
three Doctor Who stories,
69. namely 'Time-Flight', 'Mawdryn Undead'
and 'Planet of Fire'.
70. Peter Grimwade died in May 1990,
aged 48.
71. This scene was to have begun with
the Doctor still on his hands and knees.
72. He looks up to find the Marshchild
staring down at him.
Startled, it then flees into
the "dark recesses" of the ship.
73. After the rocking sequence, a recording
break was scheduled to remove
the tilt device from the camera.
74. This effect was achieved was using
C.H.A.R., which stood for
'Camera Head Attachment (Rocking)'.
75. This was a mechanism for rotating
the camera on top of the panning head
by up to 90 degrees horizontally.
76. From what we've seen, Alzarian gravity
is remarkably similar to Earth's.
77. Romana here indicates that the TARDIS
weighs approximately 5,000 metric tons.
78. This rather goes against previous
stories where the TARDIS has often
been carried about fairly easily.
79. The script originally specified that
the TARDIS was "10 x 10 to the 6 kilos",
making it 1,000 metric tons.
80. Look at the end of this corridor.
81. To give greater depth to these scenes,
visual effects had created
a six-foot model of
the ship's power unit and walkways.
82. The end of the corridor was
then masked off with a blue screen,
83. and the model shot was keyed into the
scene using a Quantel DFS 3000 digital
unit to achieve the correct perspective.
84. This is exactly the same corridor set
as in the last shot.
85. Notice that the model
hasn't been added this time.
86. "Welded? A massive repair" was the
Doctor's scripted line at this point.
87. Smith's original intention was that
the Marshchild should actually be
a Marshgirl,
88. which led Christopher Bidmead to joke
that they should call her "Marsha".
89. It was decided to refer to the creature
as just the Marshchild
90. to avoid potential problems
of differentiation.
91. The second studio recording day for
this story didn't go smoothly,
and over-ran by 15 minutes.
92. Firstly, a faulty videotape recorder
caused a five-minute delay.
93. A further five minutes was taken up
when retakes were needed due to
the performances of the
"younger members of the cast."
94. Finally, the mechanism used to operate
the central column of the TARDIS
broke down,
95. necessitating a visual effects
assistant having to crawl inside
the console
96. and push the column up and down by hand!
97. It was at this point that producer
John Nathan-Turner first decided that
he would need to replace the console.
98. In the end, it would take nearly
another three years
before it was completely rebuilt.
99. This sequence calls for K9's head to be
smashed off by one of the Marshmen.
100. For this, K9's dummy head was fixed
to the working body
by means of a balsa dowel.
101. Marshleader actor Barney Lawrence was
instructed to hit the dog's head cleanly
to ensure a good break.
102. Romana's comment that they always seem
to be repairing K9
103. was reflected in
"Dr. Who". ; Notes for New Writers,
a document prepared by
Christopher Bidmead in January 1980.
104. Writers were advised to
"keep him in low profile
or leave him out altogether",
105. and that using the "metal mongrel"
as an autonomous character would be
"operating outside the format."
106. Hence he would often break down
or blow up during stories.
107. 5,000 metres (assuming we're talking in
Earth metres and not tiny Alzarian ones)
Is quite a long way!
108. That's nearly five times the height of
Mount Snowdon in North Wales,
109. which makes a very long round trip
just to steal a few Riverfruit!
110. Following the production office's
acceptance of 'The Planet that Slept',
111. Christopher Bidmead wrote to
Andrew Smith to explain to him some of
the changes he had made to the script,
112. as he felt that although it had been
improved, they had also "lost something
of the original flavour" of the story.
113. Smith had extracted a "lot of mileage"
from the idea of the Marshmen picking up
the TARDIS and moving it,
114. but Bidmead felt it was never very
clear why they did it.
115. "I've tried in the rewrite,"
he explained,
"to provide a rationale for this,
116. "as well as taking the opportunity to
cut down the violence and duration of
the assault on Romana by the gang."
117. Bidmead indicated that one of
the reasons for his rewrites
118. was that Smith's script as submitted
was running a good 30% over-length.
119. "That's not the sort of over-run
that can be pared down just by
reducing the dialogue," he explained,
120. "so it was necessary to extract
a thread or two from the story."
121. A casualty of this was the rivalry
between Varsh and Tylos,
122. which Bidmead felt was too long, too
violent and didn't involve the Doctor
at any stage.
123. Smith's original story had featured
some giant spiders.
124. However, John Nathan-Turner had seen
the Blake's 7 episode
'The Harvest of Kairos'
in February of that year,
125. which had featured a rather
less-than-convincing
giant insect creature.
126. On the basis of that, he decided not to
attempt the giant spiders,
but to opt for smaller versions instead.
127. For this scene, three fully-mechanical
spiders were built by Steve Keates.
128. These were constructed out of Meccano
and with their built-in
battery-powered motor,
129. they could scuttle across the floor
under their own power.
130. Twenty five-inch latex spiders were
also created, which were pulled along
by means of thin, nylon fishing line.
131. Here, a spring-loaded fibreglass replica
of a Riverfruit is used to launch
a rubber spider towards Lalla Ward.
132. Also appearing in the episode were:
133. Terry John Wood, Nick Staverson,
Nigel McLaughlin, Colin Cook
(Citizens)
134. Penny Rigden, Val Clover,
Harry Payne, David Cole
(Citizens)
135. Marcus Campbell, Clark Stephens
(Citizens)
136. Graham Cole, Keith Guest,
James Jackson, Stephen Watson,
Stephen Calcutt
(Marshmen)