“State of Decay” is an adventure of the eighteenth season, the second of the mini-arc known by the global title “The E-Space Trilogy”, which aired in 1980. It follows “Full Circle” and it’s a four parts adventure written by Terrance Dicks and directed by Peter Moffatt.
The story
The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana II (Lalla Ward) are trying to get out of E-Space and land on a planet with a medieval society where people seem to be enslaved to a small aristocracy.
While the Doctor and Romana are investigating a society that seems to be in a state of decay, Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), who was hiding in the Tardis, gets out to to explore the place on his own. The three foreigners will face old enemies of the Time Lords.
Extras
This DVD contains a good amount of extras. There are typical contents such as BBC continuity, a PDF file with the Radio Times Billings, production subtitles, a gallery of pictures from this adventure and the announcement of the DVDs to be published shortly.
There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by actor Matthew Waterhouse, director Peter Moffatt and author Terrance Dicks.
The Vampire Lovers. A documentary on the production of this adventure with interviews with cast and crew.
Movies Trims. Some images of alternate versions of the special effects for the ending of “State of Decay.”
Leaves of Blood. A history of vampires in literature. It may be interesting for fans of the genre but it’s only indirectly connected to “Doctor Who”.
The Blood Show. Some specialists in blood in various ways speak of its meaning in society and culture. Another extra for fans of the genre not directly connected to “Doctor Who”.
The Reading Frayling. Historian Christopher Frayling put “State of Decay” into the perspective of the vampire genre in literature and cinema.
Isolated Score. The option to see this adventure with music by Paddy Kingsland in an isolated audio track.
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“State of Decay” derived from a script that was supposed to be produced during the fifteenth season but the BBC put into production an adaptation of “Dracula”. The powers that be ordered to abandon that idea for “Doctor Who”, believing that a vampire story would’ve created a sort of internal competition. The adventure “Horror Of Fang Rock” was produced instead.
During the years of the classic “Doctor Who” series there were occasional problems in finding good stories to be produced so the abandoned script was once again taken into consideration after three years. Producer John Nathan-Turner didn’t like the typical horror stories seen in previous seasons but accepted a revised version of the script to use as a second story in E-Space.
The script development was rather convoluted because author Terrance Dicks, script editor Christopher H. Bidmead, producer John Nathan-Turner and director Peter Moffatt had different ideas. Even the title of the adventure was changed several times as long as it was modified.
Eventually they reached a compromise that led to the transformation of the vampire castle into a spaceship and the introduction of the back story about the war between the Time Lords and the Great Vampires. Thus the horror elements were toned down.
It’s a miracle that the result of so many discussions among people with different ideas is so good. Despite all the changes, “State of Decay” is a very atmospheric horror story and the actors who play the vampires portray them very well in a classical way.
Tom Baker had accumulated considerable experience in this type of stories and in “State of Decay” provides another very solid performance. Romana also works well in this adventure that originally saw Leela as the Doctor’s companion.
As for Adric well, not everything works perfectly. 😀 “State of Decay” was the first adventure produced with Adric because they weren’t in the ’60s anymore, when the episodes were shot in sequence to air shortly after. Various production needs sometimes caused the adventures to get shot out of order so “State of Decay” was filmed before “Full Circle”.
The good thing is that the Adric’s presence in “State of Decay” is limited because sometimes he looks like a fish out of water. His character was added later to the story, when producer John Nathan-Turner decided to introduce a more vulnerable companion to a strong group such as the one composed ​​by the Doctor, Romana and K-9.
It’s difficult to understand who’s mostly at fault for the rather negative result between Terrance Dicks, who doesn’t really seem to know what to do with Adric, and actor Matthew Waterhouse, who sometimes doesn’t seem to know how to play him. Actually this is another case where there were discussions among Terrance Dicks, script editor Christopher H. Bidmead and producer John Nathan-Turner. Adric’s part was modified in various ways so it’s possible that Matthew Waterhouse received different indications and the blame should be split among more people.
The biggest flaw of “State of Decay” is however in the ending, where one of the notorious special effects produced with very little money ruined what should’ve been the climax of the story.
It’s a shame that “State of Decay” has these flaws because it’s a story with a great potential. In my opinion, despite those problem it’s overall really evocative.
Because this DVD is part of “The E-Space Trilogy” box set – available on Amazon UK
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