(535) Full Circle - Episode 2

I still like the sight of the marsh creatures coming out of the lake, the directing and the music help make it as effective as it is. The marsh creatures are quite good because not only are they visually impressive but there are little things included that make them seem quite good and most notably is that they can adapt to their surroundings. Such a simple thing can make a lot of difference in a creature that never actually utters a word.

The Doctor is very different in this episode and I mean that in a good way. The Doctor encounters a Marsh child and is surprised when it doesn’t react well to his welcome and he responds by saying something about usually being good with children. Throughout the entire episode Tom Baker doesn’t really take the roll up to 11, he spends most of it at 5 or 6 and he only really gets animated when he encounters the Deciders. The Doctor and Romana don’t meet during the episode and I feel slightly sorry for Romana because she is stuck with Adric and the rest of the Outlers who make Adric take them to the TARDIS. I like the bit where Romana hands the knife back to one of them after having it pointed at her. I have decided that Adric isn’t quite as annoying as I have previously thought (at the moment) but I am not so sure about his friends.

There is one truly fantastic moment and maybe one of the best moments of the entire season and that is when K9 gets beheaded and not in a going to be back to his normal self in the next episode kind of way.

If I had to pick one thing that was wrong in this episode then it would be that the spiders don’t look very scary. It would probably have been best to have them in low light or not much of them seen because they could have worked but in their current state they just look a little bit hokey and I don’t just mean by 2014 standards. Ok there might be another thing but its not necessarily a fault of the story but more of a shift in the rules of the TARDIS. I say rules but its more like guidelines. Despite only being in the TARDIS for mere minutes, he is able to pilot the TARDIS. Ok so he accidentally does this but I think that off all the buttons he presses he somehow manages to press the right one. This is a trend that occurs quite often during the JNT era where any bugger can operate the TARDIS. This in my opinion does weaken the magic of the TARDIS.

The cliffhanger was good but not quite on the same level as the previous episode. Romana being bitten by a spider and there being no sign of help is something that works really well and it’s the perfect way to end this episode. Two episodes in and this story is just as good as I have thought of it in the past. The writing, directing and performances have all been on good form and I cant really see how the next two episodes are going to see a change in this.