State of Decay

Recently I've been bigging this story up on message boards. I've always liked the idea that there are all kinds of aberrant societies festering away in E-Space, and wished the Doctor had spent longer exploring them. The juxtaposition of advanced technology - the scout ship, the rebels' technocotheca - with a medieval culture is also a favourite SF trope of mine. But, even more so than with The Stones of Blood, the reality of seeing the story again has been a harsh one.

For a start, the music is incredibly intrusive. It's like having someone experimenting with the Square Wave voice on a BBC micro in the same room: too loud and not suited to the mood either.

I don't mind the model shot of the Tower amid the green landscape. I used to remember that as hinting that we knew very little else about this nameless planet. But that impression has been spoilt by the carefully drawn map (complete with seas and rivers) which we see during the scene where the Doctor plans the attack on the Tower.

I expected to find Adric a bit annoying, but wasn't prepared for Romana II being an equally big pain. She's got 'snotty posh girl' turned up to High in this, which works when she and the Doctor are conversing with the vampires, but seems unnecessary in the other scenes.

I'd forgotten how much I disliked the senescent Purple Doctor of season 18. He may have survived the aging process in the Recreation Generator in The Leisure Hive, but he was never the same man afterwards. Yes, on one level that was a clever prefiguration of the 'decay' theme which runs throughout the season. But it doesn't mean I have to like watching him. The 'rouse him at the name of E-Space' speech strikes a particularly false note.

There are other silly moments too. The erring youth in the initial scene with the peasants slides across the hut floor as if it were, say, a smooth studio floor. Aukon's detection of Adric's mind among those of the peasants is less impressive given that he has probably also spotted the massive great shiny star on the front of his tunic, which his jerkin fails to conceal. And the Bok-like image of the Great Vampire on the scanner screen is just stupid. The pulsating ground under the Tower was a hundred times scarier. Less is more.

The Lords are mostly good enough. Terrance describes Zargo and Camilla in the novelisation as looking like the King and Queen from a pack of cards. And they do indeed have some of that artificiality that you'd expect to see in beings who've stolen extra years of life from others. There's an impression of Camilla being the power behind Zargo, and Aukon being the power behind both of them.

Suspension of disbelief rating: HIGH. Too many scenes of Pythonesque guards running back and forth. The 'scout ship turns round in space' model shot left me unconvinced even as a 10-year-old. And the scene at the end where the Lords advance, shoulder to shoulder, on the Doctor, reminded me of the 'Fracula and Drankenstein' strand on Emu's Broadcasting Company circa 1980. Sheer comedy.

Overall rating: 2 / 5. Like Zargo, Camilla and Aukon at the end of episode 4, my liking for this story had been artificially preserved beyond its proper time, and has now crumbled away into dust.