Sunday 6 December 2020

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)

"At the time of Arising, we servants will swarm. You could be one of us!"

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!

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DOCTOR: Well, I'm glad to catch someone at home. Are we in time for a guided tour?
AUKON: You're a fool to mock, Doctor. There is power here such as you have never dreamed of. Can you not feel it?
DOCTOR: No.
AUKON: Power, Doctor! It is the only reality. Why fight it when you could share it?
DOCTOR: Me?
AUKON: When I sent my winged messengers to hunt you down, I sensed the power of your mind. We seek such minds for our great purpose.
DOCTOR: What purpose?
AUKON: At the time of Arising, we servants will swarm. You could be one of us.
DOCTOR: I could? Well, you know, I've never been a great one for swarming. It's awfully kind of you to offer, but where were you thinking of swarming to?
AUKON: Out of this universe and back to our own.
ROMANA: You know the way out of E-space?
AUKON: That is the secret of him who brought us here.
DOCTOR: Ah ha! So there was a guided tour.
AUKON: We were summoned, the whole ship, to be his servants.
DOCTOR: Was that when you were just plain Science Officer O'Connor?
AUKON: What?
ROMANA: He was O'Connor?
DOCTOR: Yes. Those officers aren't the descendants of the originals, they are the originals.
AUKON: He has given us unending life. He summoned us here speaking to the others through my mind. We fed and nourished him until now he is ready to arise.
ROMANA: Suppose we pretended to cooperate till we get the data on E-space?
DOCTOR: Yes. No. Too dangerous.
AUKON: Consider well, Doctor. Won't you join us, like your other companion?
DOCTOR: Who's he talking about?
ROMANA: Can't even count on this planet.
AUKON: The boy will be the first of the Chosen Ones.
ROMANA: Boy? What boy?
AUKON: He came here looking for you. The name he used was Adric.
ROMANA: Adric?
DOCTOR: Adric?
AUKON: You will all serve the Great One, Doctor, one way or another. If you do not join us, you will feed him with your blood.
DOCTOR: No. There is a third choice.
AUKON: What is that?
DOCTOR: I can destroy the Great One. Off you go, Romana!
AUKON: Stop, Doctor! By the power that is mine, I command you.
DOCTOR: I will not serve. I will not serve.
AUKON: Come, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Cover your eyes, Romana. That might be all right for half-starved peasantry, Aukon, but it doesn't scare Time Lords.
AUKON: Time Lords! The ancient enemies!
ZARGO: Always so anxious to leave, Doctor?
CAMILLA: Now is the time of our feast.
ZARGO: We shall drain the blood from your bodies slowly.
CAMILLA: Drop by drop.
AUKON: Silence! I hear you, O great One. Your ever faithful servant Aukon awaits your command. Yea, O Great One. Preparations are complete. Sacrifice will be made. At the time of your Arising, you shall drink the blood of Time Lords! You have been chosen. You have both been chosen!
They could have done anything after that and I'd have still been happy!

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However the comments about the Time Lords being the ancient enemy send the Doctor down a train of thought while they're banged up in the cell...

DOCTOR: There was once an old hermit from the mountains of south Gallifrey.
ROMANA: Did he lead a very sheltered life?
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, he did. He used to tell me ghost stories. I like a ghost story. Do you want to hear one?
ROMANA: No.
DOCTOR: It's about a race of giant vampires.
ROMANA: Vampires?
DOCTOR: Mmm. They came out of nowhere, and swarmed and swarmed
ROMANA: What did they do, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Swarmed. That was the word he used.
ROMANA: Oh.
DOCTOR: They swarmed all over the universe. And they were so strong that one single vampire could suck the life out of an entire planet.
ROMANA: One single vampire could suck the life out of an entire planet?
DOCTOR: Yes.
ROMANA: Rubbish.
DOCTOR: Well, he wasn't a scientist. There are other ways of looking at life, you know. Anyway, according to the story, we Time Lords hunted them down across the universe in a war so long and so bloody that we were sickened of violence forever.
ROMANA: So they were all destroyed?
DOCTOR: One of them escaped, I think.
ROMANA: And?
DOCTOR: Just vanished into thin air. Poof.
ROMANA: Like the Hydrax into E-space. When was all this supposed to have happened?
DOCTOR: Hmm? When was all what supposed to have happened?
ROMANA: The legend.
DOCTOR: Oh, that. Oh, in the misty dawn of history, when even Rassilon was young.
ROMANA: I once worked in the Bureau of Ancient Records, for a time.
DOCTOR: So?
ROMANA: Oh, nothing. It's just that I once came across a reference to something called the Record of Rassilon in one of the old data books.
DOCTOR: And?
ROMANA: And it was an emergency instruction. A copy of the book was to be installed in certain time vehicles.
DOCTOR: What time vehicles?
ROMANA: Oh, I don't know. I forget.
DOCTOR: What time vehicles?
ROMANA: Type Forty, I think.
DOCTOR: Psst. The Tardis is a Type Forty.
ROMANA: Is it?

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After their escape he is able to return to the Tardis to check his theory:

DOCTOR: Well?
K9: Nothing.
DOCTOR: Well?
K9: Nothing.
DOCTOR: Nothing? What do you mean, nothing?
K9: Nothing, master. There is mention of the Record of Rassilon.
DOCTOR: Have you tried Rassilon, Record of?
K9: Access attempted under all permutations.
DOCTOR: Vampires.
K9: Information on vampires totally absent from Tardis databanks.

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DOCTOR: Okay, try your folklore section.
K9: My folklore section contains vampire lore from seventeen inhabited planets. I will begin with Earth, the legend of Count Dracula.
DOCTOR: No, thank you. Not Dracula. Emergency instructions.
K9: There are eighteen thousand three hundred and forty eight emergency instructions. I will now list them in code order. One
DOCTOR: No, no, no, thank you. No, thank you.
K9: There is a magnetic card system on this vehicle, master.
DOCTOR: Well, why didn't you say? Of course!

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DOCTOR: Oh, good. The Record of Rassilon.
DOCTOR: Got it! Vampire army. Phew, listen to this, 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. Bow ships? What are bow ships?
K9: Bow ships, unknown.
DOCTOR: Never mind. Yet slain they all were, and to the last one, by the Lords of Time. The Lords of Time destroying them utterly. Well, that's good news. However, when the bodies were counted... I knew it. Just like the legend said. When the bodies were counted, the King Vampire, mightiest and most malevolent of all, had vanished, even to his shadow, from time and space. Until now.
K9: Continue, master.
DOCTOR: 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.
K9: Query. How may this creature be destroyed?
DOCTOR: What? That's a good question. Let's see what it says about battle.
DOCTOR: Cattle, rattle, battle.
DOCTOR: Got it. 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. Ah. Swift vessels that fired a mighty bold of steel that transfixed the monsters through the heart. For only if his heart be utterly destroyed will a vampire die.
K9: Query.
DOCTOR: What? What is it?
K9: Is this data of practical value, master?
DOCTOR: Well, it might come in useful, if we can only lay our hands on a mighty bolt of steel.

As we'll see, Uncle Terrance has already prepared us for this one by hanging Chekov's Gun on the wall in part 2!

William Lindsay plays Zargo. You can see him in the Blake's 7 episode Animals as The Captain.

c1 Zargo c2 Camilla

Rachel Davies plays Camilla. New director Peter Moffatt had previously used her on the All Creatures Great and Small episode Bulldog Breed where she played Mary Metcalfe but she can also be seen in The Sweeney episode One of Your Own as Tina Adams and The Professionals as Deborah in Hijack.

Emrys James plays the chancellor Aukon. He's got a CV as long as your arm and obviously impressed writer Terrance Dicks and executive producer Barry Letts as they reuse him on their production of Dombey and Son where he plays Captain Cuttle.

c3 Aukon c4 Habris

Iain Rattray plays Habris, the Guard sent to select the villagers. He is in Inspector Morse Twilight of the Gods as the Fingerprint Lab Director.

Stuart Blake, playing the guard Zoldaz, is the Commander in director Peter Moffatt's The Five Doctors, and also Scibus in Warriors of the Deep. He was in The Sweeney as Doctor in Feet of Clay and the Flash Gordon film as an Azurian Man.

3y Zoldaz 3z Roga

After an absence of two years this is a reappearance in Doctor Who for Stuart Fell, long term actor & stuntman, playing Roga. Fell had been a UNIT soldier & Auton in Terror of the Autons, UNIT staff member & a photographer in The Mind of Evil and a UNIT Soldier & Axon in The Claws of Axos before he got his first credited appearance as Alpha Centauri in The Curse of Peladon. He then appeared as a Guard, Sailor & Sea Devil in The Sea Devils and a Functionary in Carnival of Monsters, Alpha Centauri in The Monster, the Tramp in Planet of the Spiders part two, who the Doctor drives the hovercraft over, and a Guard later in the same story, a Wirrn Larvae & Wirrn in The Ark in Space, the double for Styre in The Sontaran Experiment, The Kraal in The Android Invasion part three, the Monster in The Brain of Morbius, Forking peasant / Guard / Acolyte in The Masque of Mandragora, a Policeman, Coolie & the Giant Rat in Talons of Weng Chiang, a Guard in The Sun Makers, a Sontaran in The Invasion of Time, and a Shrivenzale in the Ribos Operation. He'd go on to double for Decider Draith in Full Circle, which was shown before this story but filmed after, then plays a Castrovalvan Warrior in Castrovalva, a masked villager in The Visitation and a Cyberman in The Five Doctors. Fell also did stunts in Terror of the Autons, was fight arranger in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, more stunts in The Ribos Operation & Full Circle and served as fight arranger again in State of Decay.

In Blake's 7 he was Dortmunn in Mission to Destiny, a Subterron in Project Avalon, a Goth Warrior in The Keeper, a Sarran in Aftermath, a Labourer in The Harvest of Kairos, a Guard in City at the Edge of the World, a Federation Trooper in Rumours of Death, a Guard in Moloch, a Gunman in Death-Watch, a Link in Terminal & Rescue and a Hommik Warrior in Power plus he was the stunt coordinator for Project Avalon, The Keeper, Aftermath, Volcano, The Harvest of Kairos, City at the Edge of the World, Rumours of Death, Moloch, Death-Watch, Terminal, Rescue & Power. He plays a man in the Doomwatch episode Spectre at the Feast. He's in The Empire Strikes Back as a Snowtrooper and does stunts in Return of the Jedi. He also does stunt work on the Roger Moore James Bond films For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy & A View to a Kill. And so much more.

Also as Guards we have the following:

Brian Moorehead was an extra in Robot, a Guard in State of Decay, and returns as a Dinner Guest in Snakedance. He's in Blake's 7 as a Hooded Figure in Cygnus Alpha and a Federation Officer in Trial. He was previously in Quatermass II as the 1st Guard in The Mark and a Paratrooper in The Destroyer.

Reg Woods had been a Palace Guard in Androids of Tara, a Bearer in Creature fron the Pit, would have been a Krarg in Shada,then played a Pangol Body Part & Member of Pangol Army in The Leisure Hive He has his role as Policeman at Station cut from Black Orchid, and then returns as a Security Guard in Timeflight and a Member of Striker's Crew in Enlightenment. In Blake's 7 he's a Scavenger in Deliverance, a Rebel in Voice from the Past, a Menial in Ultraworld, a Space Rat in Stardrive and a Space Princess Guard / Passenger in Gold. He's also in The Professionals episode Black Out in what IMDB describes as "Bit Part" and the Fawlty Towers episode The Kipper and the Corpse as a Hotel Guest.

Fernand Monast is making his Doctor Who debut He returns in Black Orchid as a Dancer/Cricketer, a Colonist in Frontios and as the Space Station Professor shot dead by Sontarans in The Two Doctors.

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