Space: 1999 (TV Series) The Full Circle (1975) User Reviews

Entertainingly daft episode

[andrew-huggett · 6/10 · 25 November 2012]

Hilariously daft but entertaining episode with great caveman music. Played with Poe-faced seriousness as usual. How on earth did going through a time warp regress their clothes as well as their minds? and then walking back through the mist reverses the process (giving them back their modern uniforms)? and if they were the only cavemen on the planet who painted the cave pictures and who made the animal trap?

There's some great cave man incidental music (stereo clicks and clacks) in the background which is extremely effective. Just one of the three blows to the head that Commander Koenig receives with a rock would surely have killed him. My rating of 6 out of 10 is purely for fun value

A pretty poor episode

[PrinceBuster5 · 6/10 · 2 February 2014]

Yes, I know that Space 1999 is silly if you examine it too closely. The moon regularly travels hundreds of light years then slows down for a grand & leisurely pass-by of yet another Earth-like planet.

However this episode has so many silly moments that it makes a regular Space 1999 episode look like a documentary. In fact I didn't realise they had been transported back in time 40,000 years til the end. But hang on, they were still in the present but were....oh, forget it. There's no possible explanation.

Now where to start? The fact that a crew disappears and then the rescue team has 1 (yes, one)Security team member. Then the crew wander around this probably dangerous planet without even carrying their staple guns.

The adorable Sandra mysteriously isn't sent back in time 40,000 years (to the present...). They also manage to source a very nice leopard fur for her from somewhere. The 'back-in-time'crew had wooden bowls, furs, tools & fire, even rituals and cave art! So they must have gone back a few years before the 40,000 years ago (present time) before going forward to the past then.....damn, I'm starting to get nosebleed thinking about it!

Only worth watching for completeness & seeing Sandra in a leopard fur. 6 stars is way too generous but I'm loathe to bag the series too much.

Worth watching only to see Zienia Merton.

[danrs000008 · 6/10 · 27 July 2021]

1. I agree that there are several potholes in this episode, but I'm so glad that Zienia Merton (Sandra) had the spotlight, at least for part of the story. She always had to remain in the background of this series. 2. She was so incredibly cute, and I want to say that she looked wonderful wearing the leopard skin outfit in this episode!

Gotta play tiebreaker

[Jimmy-128 · 1/10 · 18 September 2012]

We've had one review that hated this episode and one review that liked it--and I have to say, this one was really, really, really bad.

The plot is fairly simple - a team of Alphans goes missing, and there's mysterious mist (sorry, that was inadvertent) that apparently blocks sensors (since no one thinks to scan in it for life forms). Koenig and Russell (and later, the rest of their rescue party) follow a trail left by the first team, go into the mist--and, like them, and transformed into cave people. And the mist not only has the power to de-evolve the Alphans, which is fine, it has the ability to affect their clothing and equipment, which is just too much to swallow.

But that's not all. Sandra, part of the third team, is kidnapped by one of the cave people--yet, inexplicably, she herself isn't changed. Things go downhill from there.

What really kills this episode for me is that the cave people, in two or three days, manage to come up with elaborate ways of trapping large prey and even-more-elaborate ritual methods for healing and for execution. I'm no anthropologist, but that seems waaaaaay too fast.

All in all, this is not one I'll ever want to watch again (unlike "Dragon's Domain", which remains my favorite episode of the series).

Silly but fun

[Rrrobert · 7/10 · 24 April 2019]

Silly episode. There is no real story, just lots of shuttling back and forth to an earth-like planet, driving around in buggies, running through the scrub, being chased through caves.

The source of all this frenetic activity is the disappearance of an eagle crew, and the discovery of neanderthals on the planet. Then another crew goes missing, then another.

Sandra Benes changes into a fur leotard to run through the scrub. Alan Carter is caught in a pit. Paul stews back at the base. Kids will love it.

What were they thinking?

[jameselliot-1 · 2/10 · 25 December 2018]

Sandra gets a good amount of screen time worthy of her acting skills and looks and winds up in a piece of junk Lost in Space would have rejected. This episode was the worst of both seasons. She's terrorized and abused the entire show. No way to treat a lady. Unforgivable.

Sexy Sandra in a story full of plot holes

[trashgang · 7/10 · 25 August 2014]

Even as this episode is thrown to bits by many fans I did like it even as it has many plot holes. If you don't have problems with the story then this is fun to see because we go back to the stone age men.

When a few Alphans are lost on a planet a search and rescue is send out to find the lost ones. But by walking through some mysterious mist the Alphans are turned into cavemen and cavewomen so it's rather funny to see our heroes talking stone age and looking very primitive. The problem in the script lays in the fact that some do change and others stay normal.

The effects used were laughable too, you can see the wires on the Eagles and some miniature snow mobiles driving through the forest. Still, it's funny and the main lead is for Sandra who turns into a sexy scream queen.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 1/5

Pretty much an episode to skip...

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 4 May 2010]

An Eagle ship lands on a nearby planet. However, the landing party never reports back and when the ship is brought back to Moonbase, they only find a dead caveman inside. Two Eagles are sent to the planet to look for the survivors. However, when Commander Koenig and Dr. Russell walk into a fog, they somehow revert to a primitive state themselves. In other words, some of the cavemen on the planet are actually members of Moonbase who have become unreasoning hairy beasties.

Much of this episode consists of Koenig and others running about in troglodyte costumes, trying to molest Sandra and grunting. It's sort of like the film "One Million B.C." merged into a sci-fi show. As you might expect, this is all pretty stupid. Really, really...REALLY stupid. A thoroughly dumb plot makes this one very hard going and if you ever are going to skip an episode of this series, this might just be the best one NOT to see! What's to like about this one?! Not much. Think about it...Martin Landau and Barbara Bain running about much of the show in caveman gear. 'Nuff said!

Definitely one to avoid

[darrentjones · 2/10 · 26 September 2018]

I guess that the cast had fun making this episode running round screaming - acting skills were definitely not required! The plot is poor and implausible (even by Space 1999 standards). What were they thinking of?

Caveman John

[oopboys · 13 September 2011]

I liked this episode ..Sorry but I like the handsome commander and he had nice looking legs anyway..I believe a long time ago Barbara Bain in a interview said how she hated how her character was made up as the cave woman she thought they purposely made her ugly as the cave woman. I admit she wasn't her best.. I guess I understand why caveman John would like Sandra.. now to bad wigs on the cave dwellers especially the female bad bad hair pieces..I am little confuse about John the caveman going out through the exit Victor and Alan came through..so how did John appear as himself on the other side of the cave as if he came out of the other exit to the cave???....I assume they all came out on the other side as cave dwellers.. so How did john come out that exit when he clearly came out another?? I saw the episode 5 more times lol and I figured when caveman John ran out of the cave he went right into the mist and ended up on the other side as John himself..anyway John was the leader of a 40.000 thousand years old of a tribe of caveman and woman..did the first landing crew have anyone, before john and Helena came in as the leaders of the pack???...I think the story would have been more enhance if John the caveman was taken to Alpha he was injured severely Victor could have taken him to alpha and got info on the 40.000 year old caveman John nursed him back to health and returned him back to the planet.. better yet Victor figure out how their landing crew turned into cave dwellers..pushed all in the mist out come the normal crew ,but John can not be changed yet, because he still injured and still on alpha or he is awake as caveman John and running amok on alpha..and time is running out to return John back to his normal self ,before the moon leaves orbit..but they are pondering how to get John the caveman back with such a injury or to find him on alpha if he was awake running around and if they don't bring him back he will be a caveman forever ..now that would've been a story.. as for John's head injury that was a really big goose egg on hi temple but when he was taken to alpha and awaken he had no signs of the injury??/did the injury fade away the furthere John was away from the palnet??or did someone forget he had the injury ???and finally why did Sandra try to kill the commander anyway??? hit him pretty darn good with that rock several times knowing it was somehow the commander..did Sandra tell that part of the story to John and Victor or did she leave that part out..it was not clear in the episode

THE SILLIEST EPISODE OF ALL

[duncanbrown-76733 · 1/10 · 4 November 2021]

Me Full Circle is the weakest and silliest episode of this series.

Helena Russell when she becomes a cave woman, behaves like an moaning old woman.

The acting in this episode is awful and funny, because it is a joke.

Don't watch this episode, because it is an embarrassment to the world of Science Fiction.