Return of the Marshmen
Rutherglen man Andrew Smith has returned to his roots and written a sequel to his original Doctor Who story.
Andy, a former pupil of Stonelaw High School, speculatively sent in a script to the production office in 1979, and the team liked it so much that it was made into a four-part story for Tom Baker’s final season as the Time Lord.
Full Circle was broadcast during October and November 1980, and also featured actress Lalla Ward as the Doctor’s companion Romana, John Leeson as K9, and had a guest cast that included George Baker, who would go on to play Inspector Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.
And this month sees the release of Mistfall, an audio play sequel which directly picks up from Full Circle.
Although he only had one Doctor Who story on TV, Andy has written several more audio plays featuring several incarnations of the Time Lord. Approved by the BBC and produced by Big Finish Productions, Andy’s plays have garnered critical acclaim from fans.
And January sees the release of his latest play Mistfall, which returned the TARDIS to the planet Alzarius, for the sequel to Full Circle.
“I really didn’t expect it to happen, but there was something I had played about with a while back, an idea that never went anywhere, and one of those stories was called Mistfall. In the end I didn’t use any of the story elements from that, but I nicked the title!
“My novelisation of Full Circle has a passage at the end where the Marshmen return to the marsh, and I came back to that. When (script editor) Alan Barnes asked me if I had any ideas for the story, sent a copy of that passage to Alan and said, ‘This might be a good basis.’ The Marshmen have a mental communion and it’s clear that their job is to protect the ecology of Alzarius. That was always going to feature, to match up with the book.
“Also, at the same time, I had provided a contribution to a book by James Goss and Steve Tribe, The Doctor: His Lives and Times. I had written a piece sayingyg how much I love (1978 TV story) The Ribos Operation, and James also asked me to write a log entry showing what happened to the Starliner when it left Alzarius, written by th First Decider.
“In this, they find a new world to live on, and befriend local natives called the Haragi. I decided to use this, and among other things it’s the basis for the character Drell.
“No one needs to have read either of these to understand things, but if they have, or come to it later, it all marries up nicely with Mistfall.
“It was really nice to write a sequel to my own TV
For an audio script, listeners will discover that Mistfall is a very visual play.
Andrew explained: “It’s got its own tone, containing elements of but distinct from Full Circle, and it moves along at quite a nice pace.
“I decided one of the first things we would see would by a group digging the
Marshmen The story
ures a tremendous guest cast, with Jemma Redgrave – Kate Stewart in 21st century Doctor Who – taking on a key role.
“Producer David Richardson sent over an email. He asked, ‘Are you going to come along to the recording,’ and I said I could be there. He replied, ‘Oh, by the way, here’s the cast list...’, and sent me a PDF. I thought that was a bit odd as he doesn’t usually do that, and when I opened it, I just thought, ‘Oh... Jemma Redgrave... Wow!
“She was just perfect for Decider Lana Merrion. I was so pleased with her casting, and it’s the first time she’s done a Big Finish. She was just excellent for the part.”
Andrew admits he’s excited to hear the finished play: “The writers don’t get to hear what it sounds like until it comes out – you’re not involved in the process after the studio recording. When it’s released is the first time I get to hear it.
“Having heard the trailer, it really whets the appetite.”
Having gained plenty more life experience since writing his first Doctor Who story, Andrew was able to invest that in his play.
He concludes: “I didn’t want to rehash Full Circle. You want to educate people a little bit more on what the characters are about, and I was a little wary at first.
“Mistfall takes another look at the role of the Decider, and the nature of making decisions. When you’re in authority, the decisions you have to make are often about choosing between two unpalatable choices.
“That’s the sort of thing I’m writing about, on a different scale, and wanted to get that across, as well as explaining something that’s unanswered in Full Circle – why were the Marshmen as hostile as they were in episode four? We will find out why they were so hacked off – and why they might have been quite entitled to be...”