State of Decay

"Now is the time of our feast."

Writer: Terrance Dicks
Format: TV
Broadcast: 22nd November-13th December 1980
Series: 18.04

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II, Adric, K9

Synopsis

The Doctor, Romana and K-9 are trapped in E-Space, a strange alternative universe. They are unable to find an escape, and do not realise that a young boy called Adric has stowed away aboard the TARDIS. Arriving on a primitive planet where the local inhabitants fear the Three Who Rule, they soon find themselves facing a hideous creature from Time Lord legends. Long thought dead, the Doctor must confront a blood-sucking monster that is very much alive.

Verdict

State of Decay was a very good continuation of the E-Space trilogy but a great adventure in its own right. I really like the Gothic theme and the atmosphere throughout was excellent. It had a terrifically eerie feel and the concept of doing a vampire story in Doctor Who was tackled fantastically by the great Terrance Dicks. With how much of his Target novelisations I have blogged, I often forget that he wrote on screen as well but one thing I do wish this story did was leave things away from N-Space. I didn't think that the peasants needed to have come from Earth and with them trying to sell how rare a CVE was, there were an awful lot of things that had arrived to E-Space in that way. Anyway, the story as a whole was still very good but when you have the pairing of the Fourth Doctor and Romana II, it's kind of a given. They were once again marvellous together and Lalla Ward continues to impress with her eccentric attires. She fits the era perfectly. I liked Adric once again in this adventure and I thought it was good that the Doctor and Romana didn't know of his stowing away until the third part. The Three Who Rule were very good villains and I liked that they also had quite a significant backstory. It seemed like they were merely the descendants of the pilots who crashed the ship generations ago. I was quite surprised by how quickly the Doctor deduced that the Three Who Rule were actually the same people who arrived all those years ago and it seemed now that the Great One had had a hold on them quite tightly. The legend of the vampire is a brilliant one and the idea of them having battled with the Time Lords and being devastatingly defeated was terrific. It was nice to get some Gallifreyan history and I liked how the one that survived was the King Vampire. One thing I thought was impressive about this story was that the threat and fear of the Great One was all that was required. We didn't need to see him but I did like that we got a glimpse of a giant hand as it told so much. It showed the scale of the creature and it also showed that it was real. I thought Kalmar was a lovely character and his interest in science meant he enjoyed a good relationship with the Doctor. Adric and Romana got on pleasantly which was good and I thought the ending was pretty decent. It was quite action-packed which I like and the Three Who Rule were painfully relieved of the Great One's clutches as the ship destroyed it. Overall, I thought it was a great serial!

Rating: 8/10