Four Episodes
Aired between 22nd November 1980 and 13th December 1980
Written by Terrence Dicks
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Peter Moffatt
Synopsis
Whilst looking for an exit from e-space, the TARDIS takes its crew to a planet where there's one primitive village that sits at the foot of a giant gothic tower.
As the Doctor and Romana explore the planet (unaware that Adric has stowed away in the TARDIS), they soon find out that the lords of the tower rule over the village and demand a selection of people that are taken to the tower never to return.
If that wasn't odd enough, the Doctor soon finds out that all forms of reading and studying are forbidden, and the practice of science is punishable by death. Only a select group of old men have rebelled, and hide themselves deep within the woods.
They use scraps of technology that they've found, and these seem to come from an old crashed ship called the Hydrax. The Doctor gets the stuff working again and looks through the logs. They tell of a three man crew - Captain Sharkey, Nav Officer Lauren McMillan, and Science Officer Anthony O'Conner.
Meanwhile, Adric sneaks out of the TARDIS and ends up earning his keep at the local inn of the village chief - Ivo. Whilst there, he is found by one of the rulers, Orcon, and taken to the tower.
The Doctor and Romana leave the rebels cave and are soon attacked by vampire bats shortly before being captured by soldiers and taken to the tower. Once there, they meet King Zargo and Queen
Camilla. They wittily spar back and forth until the Doctor mentions the hydrax.
One of the guards, Habris, comes in and says that Orcon wants to speak to the King and Queen about the "time of arising". They post guards outside the throne room and confine the Doctor and Romana there.
The Doctor and Romana figure out that the names Zargo, Camilla and Orcon are descendent of Sharkey, McMillan and O'Connor. They also discover via a hidden bulkhead panel that the tower IS the Hydrax. They use the bulkhead and explore the old parts of the ship until they find lots of bodies stored in the bowels of the ship, with drip feeds that lead to a huge vat of blood in the fuel tanks. This, coupled with the steady, thumping heartbeat, leads the Doctor to understand that the three who rule ARE the original crew of the Hydrax, and have been transformed into Vampires by a huge vampire creature known to them as the great one.
They are captured by Orcon who understands that they are Time Lords and are the great enemy, they apparently fought a great war back in the days when Rassilon was young. The vampires were ultimately destroyed apart from their king who disappeared (meaning, he fled into e-space and is now hibernating). With this knowledge, the Doctor and Romana know they must kill the head vampire or the universe is doomed.
Lucky for them, the old rebels decide to infiltrate the tower and they help them escape. As this happens, Romana hears that Adric has been captured and she wants to rescue him. The Doctor goes to get more info from the TARDIS, leaving Romana and one of the rebels, Tarak, to find him. They do indeed find him, laid on a bed, sleeping like a vampire.
Everything goes awry when the King and Queen awaken and attack. They kill Tarak and keep Romana and Adric as sacrifices.
The Doctor learns from ancient records that the Time Lords used "bow ships" and formulates a plan.
The Doctor sends K9 to sort out the guards and he goes to set off the scout ships that lie dormant at the top of the Hydrax. Meanwhile, Romana is put on a sacrificial alter where bats suck on her blood,
and the great king vampire begins to awaken.
Unfortunately for him, the Doctor manages to launch the scout ship, sending it straight up, then it runs out of fuel and falls straight down, it's spike'd nose piercing the king vampire's heart and killing it.
In response, Orcon, Zargo and Camilla crumble to dust and the villagers are free.
The Doctor gets the technology working and leaves Ivo, and the remaining rebels to figure out their new tech, whilst he, Romana and Adric go off to find a way out of e-space.
Trivia
- This story was originally written during Phillip Hinchcliffe's run as a producer in 1977. Whilst the story was good enough, they were told they couldn't use it because the BBC were doing a serious attempt at Dracula, and didn't want the competition (or didn't want it to look like they were taking the mickey out of it). It worked out okay in the end, because the alternative script was The Horror of Fang Rock.
- The original working title was "The Vampire Mutation", but script editor Christopher H. Bidmead didn't like it. He wanted "The Wasting" but Terrence Dicks thought they'd be the butt of the joke for "Wasting everyone's time".
- Talking of Bidmead, he had a heavy hand on this script, wanting to place more emphasis on scientific theories and less on the horror element. His contribution was the evolution of the Hydrax Crew names, which he thought was fascinating, but Terrence Dicks was not pleased at all. Despite this, he made the changes and the script was presented to Director Peter Moffatt. As it happened, Moffatt had seen an earlier draft and he demanded that the original script be returned or else he wouldn't do it! Terrence won his victory and the script was returned to its original state
- This was the first story actually filmed in the sequence, and so the first time Matthew Waterhouse (Adric) had been on the set. He and Llala Ward didn't hit it off at all and tensions grew even harder amongst the crew.
- Tom Baker believed that the Time Lords would have blue blood and if you look at the bat scene, his blood is indeed blue. JNT was not impressed when he found out, but there wasn't the time to re-shoot.
The Review
Shown only three years beyond the point in which it was written, the State of Decay stands out in the midst of season eighteen like an absolute sore thumb. It's a pseudo-historical set on an alien planet, and there's some of those through the Key to Time era, but what's different in this is that there's the added element of nostalgia. State of Decay returns with the gothic horror elements thrust upfront and is unapologetic about it.
If we follow the old formula of Brain of Morbius being Frankenstein and Talons of Weng Chiang being the Phantom of the Opera, then you'd be forgiven for saying State of Decay is Dracula, but it's not. Well, not really. It's far more like Hammer Horror Dracula than the actual Bram Stoker story. It's got the intimidating castle on the cliff, it's got the suspicious villagers warning the visitors not to visit said castle, oh and it's got over dramatic vampires.
I like State of Decay because it's not trying too hard. There's probably lots wrong with it, ham acting for one, but they're not necessarily things to get hung up on because in a way, it's not meant to be taken that way. The beauty of it is that it's taking all these horror tropes and just playing with them and it does so in a way that's fun. You might say it's clumsy and obvious but I disagree. Look at the line from Romana when the Doctor tells her about the hermit on Gallifrey. There's not a "LOOK AT THIS - AREN'T I FUNNY!" moment, it just flows. For every hissing vampire woman, there's unsettling revelations about the threat they pose and blood hidden in great vats.
Maybe it's because we've had such a run of bad stories of late that I want to give this a higher mark than perhaps it deserves, but to me, State of Decay is a final farewell to old Doctor Who and is a pretty damn good one at that.
Rating
9 out of 10
Rewatchability Factor
7 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- The Mysterious Planet (Trial of a Timelord Parts 1-4)
- The Impossible Planet (Doctor Who, Series 2)
- The Vampires of Venice (Doctor Who, Series 5)
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