State of Decay

State of Decay
by Terrance Dicks
Originally Broadcasted: November 22nd-December 13th, 1980

The Doctor and Romana land on an unnamed medieval planet in the barren depths of E-Space, where the townsfolk are terrified of the "Three Who Rule". Those three beings are in fact vampires who are trying to awake the Great One to return to N-Space and feed on all living beings...

State of Decay was originally written as The Vampire Mutation for the 1977 series of Doctor Who. However, due to a BBC production of Bram Stoker's Dracula, the story was shelved. Rare for a shelved story, this one was dug up three years later and actually produced, with a few changes to include the E-Space story-line and the inclusion of Adric. Now The Doctor and Romana don't actually know Adric is there, for he stowed away on the TARDIS at the end of Full Circle. Adric is a pretty annoying character in mostly every story, but I think this has gotta be him at his worst. Some of the lines he comes out with and his reasoning is just awful. I think Terrance Dicks probably noticed the lack of character in this character and wrote him to be just plain annoying. It baffles me why The Doctor wouldn't just kick him out of the TARDIS a la Adam in The Long Game for the stupid things he says. But enough about Adric... State of Decay is actually a fantastic story. It has such a wonderfully creepy mood to it that is brilliantly enhanced by Paddy Kingsland's score. Terrance Dicks knew how to write for Doctor Who. He's right up there with Robert Holmes and Malcolm Hulke as one of the best writers in the shows history. A seasoned Doctor Who writer was something that became uncommon in the JNT era, and this was actually the second-to-last story Terrance Dicks wrote for the series. The performances of the three vampires are a little overacted, but I think that actually enhances the kind of role they're playing. State of Decay is blood curdling, good-old fashioned Doctor Who fun!

Luke's Rating: 8/10