DOCTOR WHO:  STATE OF DECAY

commentary by Judy Harris

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#39:  STATE OF DECAY (4 Parts)
ORIGINALLY AIRED:  11/22/80 to 12/13/80
WRITTEN BY:  Terrence Dicks	
DIRECTED BY:  Peter Moffatt
PRODUCER:  John Nathan-Turner
SCRIPT EDITOR:  Christopher H. Bidmead

STATE OF DECAY was written for the 1977 season, but was bumped from DOCTOR WHO's schedule because it conflicted with the BBC's production of DRACULA. It features a visual DRACULA reference when Romana cuts her finger and Camilla eagerly tries to get to the cut; and a verbal one when K9 mentions Dracula in checking his data bank for vampires.

In order to fit into its ultimate rotation, STATE OF DECAY was rewritten to insert Adric, substitute Romana for Leela, and take place in E-space. This partially explains the incongruity of the Time Lords and Rasillon's involvement with E-space. Dicks also manages to summon up some of the old sparkling dialogue which had been missing from most of the recent shows.

In his book THE TARDIS INSIDE OUT, JNT reports it was during his first year as producer--and Tom Baker's last as the Doctor--that Tom became ill with something minor which affected his metabolism, causing him to lose about 28 pounds. At the time STATE OF DECAY was made, this metabolic disorder had also caused all the curl to leave Tom's hair. Actually, Tom Baker looks quite thin throughout all 7 of the stories in this season, but despite JNT's suggestion there is a drastic change in Baker's weight during this show, it isn't obvious to me.

This is Lalla Ward's favorite story.

Habris, Captain of the Guard, approaches Lord Zargo and Lady Camilla to announce it is the time of Selection. Aukon, the Chancellor, has been looking in vain for the first of the Chosen Ones, to become servants for the Great One at the time of his Arising.

In the village Center--a building where communal meals are held--Ivo, headman of the village, lines up some villagers, making sure his son Karl is not one of them. Habris arrives and selects 5 people, including Karl.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Romana there's a low probability they can slip off home through another CVE out of E-space. He's hopeful there's a planet nearby where they can stop and ask directions.

K9 reports an isolated, habitable planet at the extreme limit of his sensor range, with atmosphere and gravity approximating Earth normal. Its day is equivalent to 23.3 Earth hours, and its year to 350 Earth days.

Romana asks how the Doctor knew there was a planet close by. "Knowing's easy; everyone does that ad nauseam. I just sort of hope," he replies.

When they get closer, K9's analysis indicates high technology with primitive life forms, as though civilization has come and gone.

The TARDIS materializes close to the energy concentration K9 detected, and the Doctor and Romana exit. The Doctor takes a telescope from his coat pocket. Through it he sees a tall multiturreted tower with some small buildings nearby. "Protective castle with its dwellings huddled like ducklings 'round their mother; typical medieval scene," the Doctor observes.

He returns to the TARDIS to get his scarf, telling K9 to remain behind. "You can compute a reverse transition from existing data--you love doing that," the Doctor suggests.

As they walk along, the Doctor and Romana encounter a villager who covers his eyes, ears and mouth and runs away in terror. They arrive at the Center, where they meet Ivo--who makes the same gestures--and Habris.

Introductions are made and the Doctor asks if there are any scientists he can speak to. "Witch wiggler, Wangateur, fortune teller, Mundanugu?" he lists. Ivo tells the Doctor such things are forbidden. He serves the Lords, who have ruled forever. They protect the villagers from the Wasting.

After the Doctor and Romana leave, Ivo uses a sort of walkie talkie to contact Kalmar and report the strangers.

Adric comes into the TARDIS control room and tells K9 he's a stowaway. Then he sets off to find the Doctor and Romana, who are walking away from the village and are suddenly surrounded by some cloaked, hooded figures--the rebels.

At the Tower, Habris reports the strangers. Aukon sends his bats out to locate the Doctor and Romana.

The rebels lead the Time Lords to a cave. "Well, it's quite a technacothaka you've got here," the Doctor remarks, telling Romana he thinks the term means museum. Kalmar says they have communicators and a generator which provides air, light and heat. He's one of the few who can read; nothing much has changed thereabouts for a thousand years. Tarak adds things will change when they overthrow the Lords.

Adric sneaks into the Center and is caught stealing food by Ivo and his wife. They give him food and let him stay the night.

At the rebels' cave Kalmar tells the Doctor reading is forbidden, as is all science, all knowledge; the penalty is death. Everyone who isn't selected to serve the Lords in the Tower toils in the fields all his life.

The equipment Kalmar has is a 20th century Earth databank. The Doctor hits the screen with his hand, calling up a display of records concerning the exploration vessel Hydrax. Included are its manifest, cargo and flight plan from Earth to Beta Two in the Perugellis sector. Romana guesses the Hydrax went through a CVE the same as the TARDIS.

The data contains the names and photos of three of the ship's officers: the Captain--Miles Sharkey; the Navigation Officer--Lauren MacMillan; and the Science Officer--Anthony O'Connor. Tarak is startled to see these photos. He was once a Tower guard and saw those faces every day.

The Doctor and Romana set off for the Tower; along the way they are attacked by bats. Habris and two guards arrive and escort them to the Tower. Inside, the Doctor notices there are no windows and the architectural style is strange.

Zargo and Camilla enter and offer the Doctor and Romana glasses of bull's blood. The Doctor switches his glass with Romana's, but neither drink. They clink glasses and Romana's glass breaks. She cuts herself, which interests Camilla.

Habris returns to the Center for another Selection to be conducted personally by Aukon. He chooses Adric, promising him wealth, power, and dominion over this world and many others.

The Doctor tells Zargo and Camilla their society is sinking back into primitivism. "In terms of applied socioenergetics, it's losing its grip on level 2 development," Romana confirms, adding the society that evolves backwards must be subject to an even more powerful force restraining it. She characterizes the division between the Lords and the villagers as a sociopathetic abscess. "Yes, I've never seen such a state of decay," the Doctor agrees.

Just as the Doctor asks Zargo and Camilla about the Hydrax, Habris enters to say Aukon has seen the sign indicating the Arising is at hand. Camilla and Zargo leave, locking the Time Lords in.

The Doctor sits first on one throne and then another and asks if Romana has ever heard of the Brothers Grimm, discoverers of the Law of Consonantal Shift--how language changes over the years--hard sounds softening, Bs becoming Vs. Romana sounds out the way Sharkey changed to Zargo; MacMillan to Camilla and O'Connor to Aukon. The Lords are descendants of the original ship's officers; the Tower is the Hydrax itself.

Romana finds the inspection hatch. She and the Doctor enter it and climb up into one of the turrets. The Doctor recognizes it as an arrow class scout ship, which detaches from a main vessel for local exploration. There's a bit of power left in the energy cells. They hear a rhythmic beat and set off to find what's causing it.

Below, Aukon has hypnotized Adric and tells Zargo and Camilla Adric's the first of the Chosen Ones.

Tarak sneaks into the Tower to rescue the Doctor and Romana. He jumps a guard and steals his uniform.

Romana and the Doctor climb down into the bowels of the ship to the disused fuel tanks. "I doubt very much that the creature lives in the Tower, but since the Tower feeds it, I imagine it lives close by," the Doctor says, explaining they'll know what creature when they find it. He turns on the lights, revealing alcoves full of bodies completely drained of blood. There's a pipe going into the floor. The Doctor opens a hatch in the floor; the fuel tanks are full of blood.

They climb lower, where the rhythmic sound is even louder. The Doctor says it's the sound of a giant heartbeat. Romana discovers a feeding system for something which lives on human blood. It occurs to the Doctor there are vampire legends on almost every inhabited planet. "Creatures that stalk in the night and feast on the blood of the living. Creatures that fear sunlight and running water and certain herbs. Creatures that are so strong, they can only be killed by beheading or a stake through the heart," he tells Romana.

They go deeper and see the ground pulsate. Aukon comes up behind them and announces they are in the Resting Place. "Well, I'm glad to catch someone at home; are we in time for a guided tour?" the Doctor asks. Aukon asks the Doctor and Romana to join him--become a servant to the Great One--and, at the time of Arising, they will all swarm.

"Well, you know, I've never been a great one for swarming," the Doctor says, "Where were you thinking of swarming to?" Aukon replies out of this universe, meaning back into N-space. He tells the Doctor the Hydrax was summoned by the Great One. The Doctor reveals Aukon, Sharkey and Camilla aren't just descendants of the ship's officers, they are the original Hydrax crew.

Aukon tells them Adric has joined the Great One. The Doctor and Romana never even knew he had stowed away. The Doctor says he will destroy the Great One. Aukon tries to hypnotize the Doctor. Romana tosses a stalagmite at him, and the Doctor and Romana cover their eyes. The Doctor says hypnotism won't work on Time Lords. Aukon calls Time Lords the ancient enemies. He communes with the Great One and tells the Doctor and Romana they have been chosen to be sacrificed at the time of the Arising.

They are locked up and guarded inside and out of the cell. "There was once an old hermit from the mountains of South Gallifrey," the Doctor begins, "He used to tell me ghost stories. I like a ghost story." The story the Doctor heard was about a race of giant vampires. "They came out of nowhere and swarmed and swarmed." They were so strong, one single vampire could suck the life out of an entire planet. The Time Lords hunted them down across the universe in a war so long and so bloody, they were sickened of violence forever. One vampire escaped--into E-space. All this happened in the misty dawn of history when even Rassilon was young.

When Romana worked in the Bureau of Ancient Records she came across a reference in an old data book to the Record of Rassilon--an emergency instruction installed in type 40 time vehicles. The TARDIS is a type 40.

The Doctor knocks out the guard in the cell with them, and Tarak knocks out the one inside, almost knocking out the Doctor when he opens the cell door too enthusiastically.

Kalmar has gotten a scanner, with a full choice of frequencies, to work. It's heat sensitive and measures the presence of life. Ivo arrives at the rebels' cave, saying his son is dead--his blood drunk by the vampires. There is going to be a ceremony held in the Tower tonight. Ivo plans to launch an attack with some villagers.

The Doctor returns to the TARDIS to search for the Record of Rassilon, while Tarak leads Romana to the vampire's inner sanctum to search for Adric.

In the TARDIS, K9 tells the Doctor about Adric. "I know, I know. What you do mean letting stowaways aboard the TARDIS? It isn't a number 9 bus, you know," the Doctor says, asking K9 to tap the memory core of the TARDIS. "The information I want will be on the earliest section of the data core," he adds, telling K9 to locate the Record of Rassilon.

To fool the guard in the Tower, Romana pretends to be Tarak's prisoner. He gets a code key from the guard, but uses it incorrectly, so Romana shows him how. This arouses the guard's suspicions, so Romana claims to be Camilla's "blood group separator." Tarak knocks out the guard.

K9 can't find anything in the TARDIS' data banks on vampires. His own folklore section contains vampire lore from 17 inhabited planets. K9 tells the Doctor there are 18,348 emergency instructions in the TARDIS, but suggests the Doctor locate the magnetic card system instead.

In the inner sanctum, Camilla and Zargo sleep. Romana finds Adric, who is also unconscious.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor wheels in the magnetic cards. He feeds one into the TARDIS console and reads the results to K9:

"So powerful were the bodies of these great creatures and so fiercely did they cling to life that they were impossible to kill, save by the use of bow ships. Yet slain they all were to the last one by the Lords of Time; the Lords of Time destroying them utterly. However, when the bodies were counted, the King Vampire--mightiest and most malevolent of all--had vanished, even to his shadow, from Time and Space. Hence it is the directive of Rassilon that any Time Lord who comes upon this enemy of our people--and of all living things--shall use all his efforts to destroy him, even at the cost of his own life."

The Doctor puts in another card to see what the Record of Rassilon says about battle:

"Energy weapons were useless because the monsters absorbed and transmuted the energy, using it to become stronger. Therefore, Rassilon ordered the construction of bow ships--swift vessels that fired a mighty bolt of steel that transfixed the monsters through the heart. For only if his heart be utterly destroyed will the vampire die."

As Romana tries to wake Adric, Camilla and Zargo rise. Zargo kills Tarak; Camilla finds the blood of the dead stale and flat, so she goes after Romana and Adric, but Aukon saves them. The Great Vampire's body is healed of its wounds; he's regenerated and ready to arise.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor decides he needs to dazzle the rebels so they'll help him. "Right, K9, we need a slight spatial movement and no temporal displacement," the Doctor says, setting the TARDIS controls. K9 reports the relative smallness of E-space should render fractional increments more stable.

The TARDIS materializes in the rebels' cave. The Doctor tries to whip up some enthusiasm: "Lack of weapons, no experience, odds almost insurmountable, but he who outlives this day and comes safe home shall stand atiptoe when this day is named and rouse him at the name of E-space!"

Using the X-ray facility of Kalmar's scanner, the Doctor calls up an image of the King Vampire beneath the Tower. This is a brief and blurry shot of a fakey looking bat-winged puppet with a human head.

At the Tower, Adric is prepared for his initiation ceremony and Romana for her sacrifice.

The Doctor lends K9--who's been reconfigured in aggression mode--to the rebels, telling them he's "armored, immune to hypnotism and a dead shot with a nose laser." K9 and the villagers gain the Tower, The Doctor tells them to hold it until K9 gives the signal, then go 'round to the caves to rescue Romana and Adric.

In the caves the ceremony begins. Romana is in a trance. Habris interrupts to ask for help in holding the Tower, but Aukon refuses. It is the time of the Arising.

The Doctor climbs up to the turret, which is composed of 3 scout ships. He climbs into one, but it's "dead as a dinosaur; the circuits must be corroded."

Adric pulls a knife on Aukon, but is stopped in his tracks by Aukon's hypnotic powers.

The Doctor tries the second ship, but it's also out of commission.

Aukon summons the Great Vampire; his bats start to swarm.

The Doctor tries the third ship. He hits the control panel in frustration and the ship comes to life. "A scintilla of power left in the energy cells, a few drops of fuel. Oh, lovely Earth craftsmanship!" the Doctor gloats. He sets the controls for a "short trip, quick flip."

K9 gives the signal to evacuate the Tower.

In the caves, a bat lands on Romana's throat. This is the third story in which she's been bitten by something--first a flying insect from Eden in THE NIGHTMARE OF EDEN; then a spider in FULL CIRCLE; and now a bat.

The scout ship starts to take off, waking Romana from her trance. Adric leads her to safety, as the Doctor climbs down into the cave.

The clawed hand of the King Vampire pushes through the ground. It is so large, Aukon, Camilla and Zargo could easily fit in its palm. The ship flips over and heads back down again. It lands directly through the heart of the Great Vampire.

Fangs bared, Aukon, Zargo and Camilla head for the Doctor. Suddenly, they age and crumble to dust. K9 and the rebels arrive. The Doctor shows them the remains of the vampires.

The Doctor returns to the rebels' cave and gets their computer working. He tells Kalmar, "There's all the knowledge you'll need in there. Use it well and, if that's what you want, you can be a high technological society in no time."

Kalmar asks if they can get the main ship working, is there any way out of E-space? The Doctor doesn't know. Threatening to take Adric straight back to the Starliner, the Doctor enters the TARDIS, which dematerializes.

This ending was included so that Adric could have been written out of the show at this point, if the character had not worked out. The script for the next story, WARRIORS' GATE, must have been commissioned before the decision was made for Adric to continue, because he has almost nothing to do in it. STATE OF DECAY was actually shot before FULL CIRCLE, so it is a nice bit of continuity that Adric's pant leg is mended, since he doesn't actually rip it until he hurts his knee in part 1 of FULL CIRCLE.

Arthur Hewlett, who plays Kalmar, plays Kimber in the third installment of the Colin Baker story THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD.

Stacy Davies, who plays Veros, played Perkins in the Troughton story THE INVASION.

Stuart Fell, who plays Roga, has played an Entertainer in THE MASQUE OF MANDRAGORA, a Kraal in THE ANDROID INVASION, the Morbius Monster in THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS, a Sontaran in THE INVASION OF TIME, a Wirrn in THE ARK IN SPACE--all Tom Baker stories--as well as other roles.

Alan Chuntz, who plays a Guard, also played a guard in the Pertwee story THE GREEN DEATH; and a Chauffeur in the Tom Baker story THE SEEDS OF DOOM.

Stuart Blake, who plays Zoldaz, plays Scibus in the Davison story WARRIORS OF THE DEEP; and the Commander in THE FIVE DOCTORS.

Clinton Greyn, who plays Ivo, plays the Sontaran Stike in the Colin Baker story THE TWO DOCTORS.