Monday 21 May 2012

546 State of Decay Part Three

EPISODE: State of Decay Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 546
STORY NUMBER: 113
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 06 December 1980
WRITER: Terrance Dicks
DIRECTOR: Peter Moffatt
SCRIPT EDITOR: Christopher H. Bidmead
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 4.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The E-Space Trilogy (Full Circle / State of Decay / Warrior's Gate)

Aukon offers to share their power with the Doctor, but he refuses. Aukon learns they are Time Lords and has the Doctor & Romana imprisoned to use as sacrifices when their master awakes. While in the cell the Doctor recalls a Time Lord Vampire legend and Romana recommends that he should look it up on the record of Rassilon contained in his Tardis. They are rescued by Tarak, a former Tower guard who now is with the rebels and he & Romana stay at the tower to seek Adric. The Doctor returns to the Tardis and learns of how Rassilon fought the Time Lords ancient foes the Great Vampires with "Bow ships", wiping them out but when the bodies were counted one was missing. The Doctor realises that the Vampire must be on the planet, buried beneath the tower. Romana & Tarak find Adric in Zargo & Camilla's crypt, but Tarak is killed when the vampires awake and they advance on Romana & Adric to feed on them.....

That was fab. Top marks to Emrys James for opening the show with a truly impressive piece of barking mad villainship. They could have done anything after that and I'd have still been impressed!

This is a first Doctor Who for Director Peter Moffatt and he does a decent job, with some fabulous little graphical touches like overlaying the bats on Aukon's face. We'll be seeing him regularly over the next few years. He reuses two of the actors in this story in subsequent tales: Stuart Blake, Zoldaz (who I assume is a guard or a rebel?), is the Commander in his The Five Doctors, and also Scibus in Warriors of the Deep while Clinton Greyn, head villager & innkeeper Ivo, is the Sontaran Commander Stike in The Two Doctors. Rebel scientist Kalmar is played by Arthur Hewlett and he'll be back as Kimber in Terror of the Vervoids while Stacy Davies playing Veros (again I have no idea who he is so I'm assuming he's a guard or a rebel) was Private Perkins in The Invasion. Finally this episode sees a last appearance in Doctor Who for Stuart Fell, long term actor & stuntman. His credited appearances as The Sea Devils as a Sea Devil, The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon as Alpha Centauri, Planet of the Spiders as a tramp (whom the Doctor drives the hovercraft over), The Ark in Space as a Wirrn, The Android Invasion as a Kraal, The Brain of Morbius as the Morbius Monster, The Masque of Mandragora as an entertainer, The Invasion of Time as a Sontaran and finally here, in the State of Decay as Roga, the guard that Tarak knocks out.

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