State of Decay

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 Savages

• The Daemons

• The Face of Evil

• Terminus

• 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)

Full Circle

Four episodes
Aired between 25th October 1980 and 15th November 1980

Written by Andrew Smith
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Peter Grimwade


Synopsis

Romana is upset that she has to return to Gallifrey.

The Doctor seems to sympathise, but he knows it's impossible to refuse the call.  On their way, they luckily pass through a Charged Vacuum Embodiment (C.V.E. or in other words, a rift in space).  This event takes them to another dimension that they refer to as Exo-Space or E-Space.

At first, The Doctor and Romana don't realise what's happened, and they think the TARDIS is faulty when they supposedly land on Gallifrey, but the area outside is a wooded clearing.

They begin to trouble shoot the problem, when a young boy called Adric barges into the TARDIS and collapses.

They learn that Adric is one of the descendants of a colony crew that crash landed here thousands of years ago.

They are ruled by a council of three men called the deciders, and  they are periodically trapped inside the ship when toxic mists descend on the planet.  Adric's brother and some of his friends have rebelled against society and hide in a cave nearby.  They were goading Adric into helping them steal fruit from the community (Adric's a nerd who has a badge for mathematical excellence).  Adric was caught by one of the Deciders who was in the market, but before he could be taken in, the Decider was dragged into the marsh by some humanoids.  His final words to Adric were that they had come "full circle".

The mistfall is upon the planet again, and Adric gets the Doctor and Romana to try and help him get his brother and friends to safety.

The Doctor gets to the colony ship and starts to investigate, as he finds the fact that the deciders have been lying to the colonists - the mists are perfectly fine.  The monsters (marsh men) rise up out of the swamp and make their way onto land.

One of them gets into the colony ship and is captured.  The Doctor tries to stop the colonists from dissecting the marsh man up, but it gets free, kills the surgeon and itself. 

As the Doctor is messing about, Romana and Adric stay in the TARDIS.  The Marsh Men come along and take it on their backs to a cave above the starliner (the colonist's crashed ship). They intend to use it as a battering ram.

The Marsh Men are scared off and Romana goes outside to find out why.  They meet Adric's brother and his friends and they find some fruit that has strange spiders in it.

The kids run into the TARDIS as they swarm against them, but Romana gets bitten and possessed.

She turns into an ally of the Marsh Men and starts to direct them. Adric and the kids meanwhile manage to haphazardly pilot their way to the starliner.

Ultimately, the Marsh Men, led by Romana attack the starliner.

The Doctor figures out that the Marsh Men are actually ancestors of the humans living there (they killed the original colonists).  Romana is captured and injected with a serum devised by the Doctor and he cures her.  The Marsh Men are driven out of the star liner when the colonists discover that the marsh men don't like pure oxygen (they use cylinders to drive them out).  Adric's brother is killed in the attempt.

The Doctor gives the deciders knowledge on how to pilot their star liner and he goes off again with Romana in the TARDIS.

Trivia

• This story was written by a fan who'd read a Doctor Who production book that was published with a "how to create a script" section at the back.  He impressed Script Editor Christopher H Bidmead and he was brought in.  After extensive work on the script, it was made 

• The role of Adric was thought up by John Nathan-Turner, but didn't quite turn out how he wanted.  The original concept was for him to be a sort of Artful Dodger character.  The reality was much more a whiny brat than skilled pickpocket.

• The name Adric is derived from eminent physicist P A M Dirac. 

• By this time, Tom Baker and Llala Wards relationship was worse for wear.   Guest stars recollect that they would be at opposite ends of the rehearsal room, screaming and shouting at one another

The Review

The first thing fans comment on when they discuss this story is that it was written by a genuine fan. I think because of that, a lot of people try to look for things to like about it, effectively giving it a "pass" because if it's bad, there's a fear of the "I'd like to see you do better", especially when you realise that the fan in question was nineteen at the time.  I'm not immune to those feelings, but as much as I want to like it, I just can't.  Why not?  Because to me, it's very, very boring.

I know some people will say "hold on, there's a lot of science in there and fascinating stuff about evolution".  Yep, I'll give you that, there is.  But it's just not covered in an interesting way for me.  I'm not even sure how I'd do it.  Look, it's sort of like Day of the Daleks.  The concept is pretty good, but you've to watch three quarters of it before you get to the point.  And to add insult to injury, the whole thing is so wooden.

There's only two people in this entire story that show any kind of genuine pathos - one is the Doctor, and I don't mean Tom Baker. I'm talking about the surgeon that gets killed by the Marsh Man, the other is Login who has some compassion for his daughter being trapped outside.  Everyone else is pretty bland.  I didn't care about Adric's brother or his mates.  Adric himself is totally unsympathetic, and even Tom Baker and Llala Ward are just plodding through it all. 

The tension in the plot is built around the Marsh Men attacking, the mists killing people, and the spiders.  Well, the spiders are laughable, the Marsh Men lumber about so slowly that they never feel like a threat at all, and there's absolutely no fear about the mists because we never get to build up anticipation that the Doctor's going to die when he come's into contact with them, I.e. the killer mist theory's immediately disproved and done in a very casual manner. 

Sorry to all fans of this story, but despite the slightly interesting concept of long evolution, this story is booooorrrinng!

Rating

5 out of 10

Rewatchability Factor

4 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Rescue 

• The Sea Devils

• Planet of Evil

• The Face of Evil

• The Pirate Planet

The Power of Kroll (The Key to Time Part 5)

Four episodes
Aired between 23rd December 1978 and 13th January 1979

Written by Robert Holmes
Produced by Graham Williams (actually it was John Nathan-Turner but he's unaccredited)
Directed by Norman Stewart

Synopsis

The Doctor and Romana arrive on the third moon of Delta Magna, a swamp planet.

They are once again split up as The Doctor is captured by a bunch of humans that are refining chemicals from the planet.

Romana is captured by a bunch of green skinned natives referred to by the humans as "Swampies".

The Doctor is told by the humans that their refinery is in danger as the Swampies attack it, and are helped by the notorious arms dealer - Rohm Dutt to try and drive off the humans from the moon.

The Doctor escapes the refinery and manages to rescue Romana, just as the Swampies try to sacrifice her to their god, Kroll.

They are captured again and throughout their captivity, they discover that Kroll is a giant squid that has swallowed the Swmapies holy symbol and grown enormous.  Now, it wakes up every few hundred years and feeds.

The high priest believes that Kroll is punishing them for consorting with Rohm Dutt and does what he can to repent, by tying them up to a bed with vines that shrink in the sunlight, thereby making it like a rack.

The Doctor frees them all by using an ultra high pitched scream to shatter the window above them and let rain wet the vines, allowing them to escape.

Meanwhile, the refinery staff squabble amongst themselves until their leader lets his racism get the better of him, kills one of his crew and intends to blow up the swampies once and for all.

The Doctor, Romana and Rohm Dutt race to stop the Swampies as they go to storm the refinery but Kroll turns up and kills Rohm Dutt and some of the natives.

They all get to the refinery, just as Kroll returns to attack it.

Many die including the deluded high priest and the refinery leader, before the Doctor touches Kroll with the tracking device for the Key to Time and turns him into the fifth segment!  It turns out that the holy symbol he swallowed was the true segment, and Kroll has reverted back to a tiny squid.

The Doctor and Romana make their way back to the TARDIS and console K9 whom they had to leave behind.

Trivia

• The story was given to Robert Holmes, but with orders to keep it serious and for the monster to be huge. He didn't like it, but that's what he did.

• There were many mess up's on the casting front, as Philip Madoc (the man who played great characters in the Brain of Morbius and the War Games) was due to play the refinery commander, but ended up as a subordinate, and John Leeson, the voice behind K9, was pulled in as one of the crew too.

• Graham Williams was taking a break when this was filmed, and then Production  Unit Manager, John-Nathan Turner, stepped in to fill his shoes, with Barry Letts being asked to keep an eye on them from a distance. 

• It was around this time that Script Editor, Antony Read decided that he'd had enough of the low budgets and Tom Baker's bullying, and so he gave notice.

• The green makeup for the Swampies had to be waterproof, as there were several scenes in the swamps and during rainfall.  After the scenes were shot, the unfortunate actors had to go to a nearby RAF base and get it off with swarfega in the chemical showers; a process that could have been avoided had the necessary solvent that removes the paint been ordered at the same time!

The Review

This would be one of the stories that if it was lost and only existed in stills, would be a true classic.  Just look at the pictures above and you can see that your imagination makes it feel terrifying, just like the 1950's B movie - you can see what they were getting at.

Alas, we do have this story, and the reality is somewhat deflated.  You expect a story about a giant squid to have lots of action, but this just doesn't.  It's boring.

There's a good kind of analogy around man's hubris, drawing parallels with the refinery leader and the high priest stubbornly clinging to their beliefs that ultimately cause their downfall, but we have 90 minutes of it.  Kroll shows up now and again, and we're left to fill the remainder with funny men painted green dancing around, and other men with terrible accents looking to fill the void.

This story tries too hard to be something it's not.  The selling point is the giant squid, but all we get is capture and escapable death trap after capture and escapable death trap.

This could have been so good, and from Robert Holmes, I expected better.

Rating

4 out of 10

Rewatchability Factor

5 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• An Unearthly Child
• The Ark
• Fury From the Deep
• Colony in Space
• The Mutants
• The Face of Evil
• The Caves of Androzani