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Full Circle is the first of the so-called E-Space trilogy and the introduction of a new TARDIS companion, Adric. The idea of people who have turned the technical manuals of a space ship into their religion and their life philosophy is an interesting one, though not an original idea. It echoes slightly the Seveteem who were also the descendents of a crashed space ship crew and who had devolved even further. It also presages Circle of Decay in which a crashed space ship crew had become immortal vampires.
The Alzarians and the Marshmen being connected through their evolution is not an original idea, either. It was done in the Third Doctor era in The Mutants. But all the same it isn’t a bad little story with a few original ideas. 9/10
Commentary Commentary is by Matthew Waterhouse, Adric, Christopher H. Bidmead,
script editor and Andrew Smith, writer do the commentary. This is
quite a good combination, a cast member and two crew members. Matthew
is the anchor of the three, with plenty to say for himself in terms
of anecdotes and comments. There is an underlying hint of problems
behind the scenes with Tom and with Lalla. Problems with K9 take up
a little time. Andrew and Christopher talking about the fact that
Andrew had recently bought a very early word processor when he wrote
this story, hence the reference to things like ‘system files’
and other computer talk. Realising that this story comes from the
start of the era of personal computers is rather disturbing in a way.
9/10
Extras All Aboard The Starliner is the ‘making of’ documentary. It goes over some of the same territory as the commentary, although there is a deeper explanation of how Andrew Smith developed the story and finally had it accepted as a script. The inserts from actors like George Baker and Lalla Ward who weren’t involved in the commentary add to the understanding of the production. The laughing hints about the friction between Tom and Lalla are a bit worrying. I wonder if it really was FUN working with them when they were fighting? And I really get a little tired of hearing how the limited budgets of the good old days actually helped encourage creativeness and ingenuity. It might be true, but I hear it so often in these DVD extras it starts to sound like a line. 9/10
8/10 Swap Shop! Why, God, Why! Why do we have these things resurrected? They’re just embarrassing for everyone, including Noel Edmonds! Matthew Waterhouse isn’t too bad talking, but the style of presenting is so old fashioned. The questions from the phone are inane. Matthew deserves a medal for putting up with them. 6/10
10/10 Continuity! Those globes rolling around each other and the theme tunes overdubbed with announcers telling us all about the Doctor Who Exhibition in Madame Tussauds in London! I don’t know why we need these things on the DVD at all! They really do nothing but remind us what the BBC logos used to look like. 3/10 Photo gallery comes with optional info text, which is an interesting development. I hope they stuck with it. This makes the gallery much more relevant. 10/10 Radio Times Listings – I really don’t know WHY they put these things on the DVD. 0/10 Coming soon features the First Doctor double bill, The Rescue and The Romans. It makes both look far more action packed and dynamic than they ever seemed. 9/10
State of Decay is The Doctor’s only real entanglement with Vampires. We’re not going to talk about that silly bit in The Chase. It is a wonderful gothic horror with frightened villagers and evil in the forbidding castle, but with the added bonus that the castle is a disguised space ship and the Time Lords actually being pro-active for once, with the legends of their bow-ships that killed all but one of the Great Vampires. It stands the test of time, too. 10/10
Commentary Commentary is by Matthew Waterhouse, Adric, the late Peter Moffatt, director, and Terrance Dicks, writer. Peter Moffatt, this time, leads the discussion and proves himself an able talker as well as getting the best out of the others. Terrence Dicks can get irritating at times. He’s a bit of an old fogey yearning for the good old days and dismissing the new bloods with their CGI effects, but he’s not too bad in this commentary. Matthew Waterhouse is always interesting to listen to with plenty of filming anecdotes. Again, there are comments about Tom and Lalla which are disturbing to long term fans. When it is pointed out, it is all too obvious that Tom never looks at Lalla at all in the early scenes when they are together. And perhaps that’s one reason why the script allows them to be split up for most of the story. 9/10
Extras The Vampire Lovers is the making of documentary. Lalla Ward and Terrance
Dicks have the most to say, but there are contributions also from
Peter Moffatt and other cast members. They talk about how State of
Decay owes less to Bram Stoker and more to the Hammer Horror genre,
which is no bad thing. Hammer Horror is the right sort of melodrama
for Doctor Who. Finally, Peter and Terrence speak a little disdainfully about the giant hand of the Great Vampire and how that was the one failure of the effects on this lavish and enjoyable production. 9/10 Film Trims are sequences of the model shop hand before effects were added, including a female arm with a nice bracelet coming in to adjust the model at one point and the ship taking off from the castle and crashing down. Belief is not so much suspended as put into a coma. Five minutes is a bit too long. 7/10 Leaves of blood is nothing to do with Doctor Who as such, but is an excellent documentary, narrated by Nicholas Briggs, about the history of the vampire in literature and then, eventually, television and film. A lot of very intelligent people talk enthusiastically about their favourite subject – vampires! It covers the whole gamut of vampire legend from Le Fanu to Stoker, through to Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Well worth a look. 10/10 The Blood Show is a slightly more tongue in cheek exploration 9/10 The Frayling reading is a talk by Sir Christopher Frayling, cultural historian, about vampire literature and Marxism in context with State of Decay. He really knows his stuff and I could have listened to him for much longer than he was allotted. Some of what he says has been covered by the other documentaries, but Frayling talks so well that I found myself wishing he was a lecturer in my university. I could have stayed awake in lectures much better. 10/10 Continuity – oh dear, here we go again. I 2/10 Photo Gallery again includes info text which adds to the experience considerably. It seems shorter than usual, though, with less stills from the episode and too many posed publicity shots. 7/10 Coming Soon is, again, The Rescue/The Romans. And lets not even start about Radio Times Listings.
9/10
Commentary
9/10
Extras The Dreaming is the Making Of documentary for Warriors’ Gate. It has a rather irritating 1980s electronic theme running through it, but apart from that it gets down to some interesting points about this being the end of many things other than Romana and K9. It was the beginning of aiming at computer literate teenagers rather than children. Stephen Gallagher, the writer, Christopher H. Bidmead, script editor and Paul Joyce, director, have the most to say. And they do manage to cover different areas than the commentary a lot of the time. It makes an interesting documentary and explains a lot about the nature of the episode. 10/10 The Boy With The Golden Star is a feature about Adric from his first to last episode, featuring, of course, Matthew Waterhouse. He speaks very well and enthusiastically about his time on Doctor Who, and although there were problems behind the scenes his memories are mostly fond ones. 10/10 Lalla’s Wardrobe is a look at the clothes Lalla Ward wore as Romana II. It features Lalla, of course, along with June Huson the costume designer of the time and Louise Page, who is responsible for the costumes on the current series who gives an interesting perspective. 10/10 Extended and Deleted Scenes are mostly from episode two. One in which K9 can only move and talk backwards seems a bit silly and pointless. I can see why that was cut. The others don’t seem to stand out too much and I don’t think they would have added much to the story. 8/10 Continuity – the only thing I got out of this was the fact that subtitles in 1979 were on page 170, not 888 as they were later on. 2/10 Radio Times Billings – don’t go there. Why? Photo Gallery is a bit dull. There are too many pictures of the space ship crew pointing guns in one scene, and very little else. 4/10 Coming Soon is of The Rescue/Romans as on the other discs. The extras are imaginative and well produced. The lack of any Blue Peter or Swap Shop items is a bonus.
Overall, this isn’t a bad package if you can get it for less than RRP and you’re really into the Tom Baker/Romana era. For anyone who isn’t, this might drag a bit. 8 out of 10
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We
all take them for granted now. But it wasn’t VERY far back.
The costumes of the people swimming in the first episode make for
an interesting anecdote about taste and decency and how hard it is
to get usable film of young men in wet clothing. Matthew admits to
feeling quite miserable making this episode, which is another clear
indication of trouble behind the scenes. Most of the commentary is
positive and cheerful, though, and we learn the interesting fact that
Christopher H. Bidmead actually left scriptwriting and became a police
officer.
K9 in E-Space focuses on K9 and what a pain in the neck he was! These
three stories up to Warrior’s Gate see his final demise. Terrence
Dicks has a lot to say, and so does Lalla Ward who LIKED K9. John
Leeson, of course puts in a lot of discussion, since K9 was his character.
There isn’t a whole lot to say, though. K9 was the worst idea
in television history, but he has somehow gained cult status. 
E-Space,
Fact or Fiction explores the scientific possibility of exo-space.
Matt Irvne, visual effects designer takes a part in this, and he is
always worth listening to, as well as scientist Dr. Andrew Ball and
Sir Patrick Moore. There is some basic history of science and physics
beautifully illustrated with CGI space scenes explaining why we can’t
prove or disprove the existence of E-Space. It’s not exactly
a university thesis, but it’s enough to actually take a Doctor
Who fan from science fiction to real science. 
The
issue of whether this was too gory for children also comes up, and
is dismissed as it certainly should be. Kids don’t care about
scares. The lady set designer, Christine Ruscoe talks about her inspirations.
I don’t think it needed Lalla Ward pontificating about how they
did it all on a tiny budget. It really IS getting boring. I was more
impressed by Christine telling us that she was inspired by a picture
of Mont St. Michel in her design of the castle/space ship. Another
interesting element from Christine is the description of using a ‘glass
shot’ a painted piece of glass to make the ceiling of the throne
room higher and more stately. The same thing is done in Torchwood,
now, using CGI to give the impression of a high ceiling over the practical
set. 
of
the fascination with blood. Some of the commentators are a little
weird. Others brilliant. The most intelligent of them is Sir Christopher
Frayling, who talks about ‘blood’ in literature. The strange
thing is that almost all the speakers are talking in a butchers shop
or an abattoir. I’m not sure why! 
t’s
rather amusing, at least, in the midst of sell out Doctor Who Exhibitions
across the country, to hear about the Madame Tussauds experience,
I suppose. I never went. I was happy with the one in Blackpool. There
is also a forewarning that Peter Davison soon to take over as The
Doctor will be appearing on Pebble Mill at One, and inviting questions
for him about his new role. 
Commentary
is by Lalla Ward, John Leeson, Paul Joyce, Director, Christopher H.
Bidmead, script editor and Matt Irvine, visual effect designer. This
is rather too many people. Lalla and John could have been dropped
and the other three men could have talked quite well about their respective
areas of expertise. In the first five minutes of the commentary mention
is made of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Waiting for Godot, Alfred
Hitchcock, Roman Polanski, Shakespeare, Citizen Lane and Peter Brook's
production of Marat/Sade! Even as a literature graduate who has some
knowledge of all of those cultural references I felt just a little
patronised as the luvvies name dropped. It must have been very irritating
for anyone with less than A level media studies. Later, Roger Corman
gets talked about a lot. Finally, in the middle of part two they get
reduced to talking about more popular cultural references like Bungle
the Bear and the Cadburys Smash robots. Inbetween, Matt Irvine is
very interesting talking about the visual effects, and Paul Joyce
and Christopher H. Bidmead are intelligent. Though it is hard to tell
their voices apart. On the whole, if you can put up with the name
dropping, there’s some good stuff in here.
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