Day 585: Castrovalva, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Ah yes, that’s right. This episode contains the bit of Castrovalva that I’ve always thought of as being simultaneously very clever and very confusing. The Doctor manages to work out that everything here is a fictional creation because he’s identified the books as being five hundred years old, and yet they chronicle the history of Castrovalva from centuries ago... right up to the present day. The first time I saw this story, I loved that idea. I thought it was such a clever way of figuring it all out. But ever since, I’ve been confused by it. In yesterday’s episode, we saw a tapestry which records events as they happen. We’re told that only big events - like the arrival of the TARDIS - are enough to make it in to the image, but still... could it not be possible that 500 years ago they started to chronicle the history, and those ancient books are still being automatically updated as things happen? The pages would still be five hundred years old, but the information on them would be right up to date. That’s always been the sticking point for me - it’s a giveaway, yes, but I’m not sure hat there couldn’t be another explanation for it.

I’m impressed, though, that the Doctor works out that things are wrong even as he’s not sure of himself. It’s not really until the end of this episode that he’s managed to settle in to his new persona (and it’s splendid), so even in his varying states of uncertainty about everything, he’s still able to sense when things simply aren’t right. I like that, it seems fitting somehow. It’s great to see him flanked by his three young companions at the end of the story, too. There’s a range of images taken on location of the four lead actors, and this is a great counterpoint to those. The TARDIS hasn’t looked this fresh in years, and I’m really excited about it.

I suppose that I need to mention the Master, too, while I’m discussing this story. I really like his reveal in the narrative, as the Portrieve stands up straight, having been hunched over for every prior appearance, and revealing his true identity. It’s great make up, and I’m not sure that I’d have guessed it was the Master if I’d already known. It feels like a very petty reason for him to appear, though, in that he’s simply looking to destroy the Doctor once and for all. It feels a bit like a step down from the last story - there, he was wiping out half the universe while planning to subjugate the other half, while here he’s just trying to get one over on some bloke. It feels like he’s been around for ages now, so I’m keen to get back to some stories in which he isn’t the villain at the end of it all!

In some ways, Castrovalva is the perfect example of Doctor Who talking a story with a fascinating idea at the heart of it, but not quite being able to pull it off due to time, or budget, or ability. I love the idea of an entire town being based around the work of Escher, and it’s a great cliffhanger to have the entire place collapsing in on itself, but because of the way Doctor Who was made in studio at this point, it just isn’t an idea that can be very well realised. I’d really like to see what they could do with it these days, given the time to really do it properly - the sequence of the Doctor and his companions trying to make their escape would be the subject of a full day’s filming now, whereas they probably had to do it in about twenty minutes originally!

I’m also pleased to say that bringing in a supporting cast has helped to give the story a bit of life. As much as I like our regulars, and I’ve enjoyed their performances so far, it’s nice to see them bouncing off other actors, and being thrown in to a busy setting. I can’t really remember how the story winds up from here, so I’m looking forward to seeing where things go, and then we can move on from the ‘introduction’ story, and start simply enjoying this new era properly.

Day 583: Castrovalva, Episode Two

Dear diary,

There are very few bits of music from ‘classic’ Doctor Who that I can hum off the top of my head. The ‘Space Adventure’ theme that was so typical of the Cybermen in the 1960s is one of them. The ‘UNIT Theme’ from The Invasion (among others) is another one, and the music that accompanies Tom Baker’s regeneration scene, as the camera moves down from the girder to find out hero laying in the grass is another. Although I know these ones well enough to hum them while doing the dishes, the theme from this story is the only one which I occasionally find stuck in my head at the most unusual of moments. Oh, you know the one I mean: do de do de do, do, de do.... I rather like it, and there’s something about it that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Last season, I mentioned that this period of the programme feels autumnal to me. For some reason, I simply equate it with that tail- end-of-the-year feeling, and perhaps none mores that this tale. I can’t even begin to describe why to you, but I watched this episode with a huge feeling of nostalgia - it just makes me feel comfortable. I can remember the first time I saw this story. It was some time before the DVD came out, and I hadn’t been a fan for all that long. I’d say it was probably around 2005, but it could even be as late as 2006. In the farmhouse I grew up in, I’d converted one of the back bedrooms into my own sitting room, moving in a massive old book case, and a couple of old armchairs when the suite of furniture downstairs had been replaced. This became my den. The walls were covered with posters of anything and everything, and the shelves were filled with as much ‘geeky’ stuff as I could lay my hands on.

Oh, I loved that room. The absolute pride of it was the growing collection of Doctor Who stories sat upon the bookcase. It was an odd assortment - a mixture of VHS and DVD, with the stories slotted in to match broadcast order. I used to pick up odd tapes from charity shops, or make lists of ones from adverts in Doctor Who Magazine to hand around for my birthday, or Christmas. I can’t recall how long I’d actually owned Castrovalva, but it had been on the shelf for a while before I decided to watch it for the first time. What followed was one of the happiest times I’ve ever had watching Doctor Who. I made myself a drink and something to eat, curled up in one of the armchairs with a big quilt wrapped around me, and settled in to enjoy Peter Davison’s first story.

I’d forgotten what an odd opening episode this is for a new Doctor. Having gone with a relatively unknown actor in Tom Baker for the part of the Fourth Doctor, this time around they’ve cast Peter Davison in the role - and he’s somewhat famous at the time of all this, what with his work on All Creatures Great and Small, among  other things. Lots of expectation, all eyes on the first episode of the Fifth Doctor, a show being re-launched in a new slot away from the Saturday night home it’s had for the last eighteen seasons... and they go with showing this.

I think what they needed if they wanted to really sell the idea of a Sarah Jane and K9 spin off was to have something big and spectacular. If nothing else, this went out around Christmas, and while it captures the feel of the winter brilliantly, there’s nothing that really screams at me that this is something I need to be watching. When Sarah announces that she’s come to Morton Harwood for the foreseeable future, you start to wonder if every episode would be like this one. Perish the thought!

It feels like it needs some aliens in there somewhere, really. Probably some from Doctor Who, if they want to sell the idea even harder. Maybe Zygons could work, impersonating the locals? You could go for a Sontaran scout if you wanted (a story like The Last Sontaran from the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, for example), or even the Master! As it is, everything feels somewhat wasted - even K9. Once he’s out of his box, he gives us some more thrilling info about the gardening, shoots a few people... and that’s about it. You almost want him to trundle out of the box, announce that he’s been sent by the Doctor-Master to help Sarah Jane with some specific alien threat, and then go from there. Were we not between Doctors, you’d also almost want the TARDIS to appear at the end, so that the Doctor himself can tell Sarah to keep the tin dog (incidentally, I love that the Fourth Doctor’a three main companions - Sarah Jane, Leela, and Romana - have all ended up with their own versions of the mutt.)

It’s quite strange, writing this entry, because I’m suddenly realising that I disliked the story more than I even realised. A shame, because I so want to enjoy is based on everything that came afterwards. Still, as an interesting diversion between Doctors, it’s perfectly watchable - and I don’t know if I’d be so down on it had I not known what it could have been like. I’ll be doing some episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures when the time comes, so here’s hoping that I can see them in a much better light!

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start... 

Day 580 Extra: Fourth Doctor Overview

Dear diary,

Well. It feels like a long old time since I’ve had to write one of these entries, doesn’t it? As is tradition, let’s take a look back to my Third Doctor Overview (posted way back on February 4th) and see what I said about the era ahead of me...

And now I’m off into a bold new era. It’s a bit of a false start from tomorrow, because while Tom Baker is new to the mix, we’ve still got the same UNIT lab, with Bessie, and the Brig, and Barry Letts in the producer’s chair. It’s a few days from now, when The Ark in Space rolls around and Philip Hinchcliffe takes over the reigns that I’ll be entering the period that’s repeatedly held up as being ‘the best Doctor Who ever made’.

Most surprising to me was that on average, Tom is actually my least favourite Doctor! With an average of 6.54 across his seven seasons, he comes in marginally behind William Hartnell in the runnings (which also surprises me, because I remember rather liking Hartnell). I guess if there’s a moral to this, it’s that I don’t really have a ‘least favourite Doctor. Not really. He just happens to be my fourth favourite at the moment...

Although this last season has taken place in the 1980s, it’s really the arrival of Davison to the role which kicks off the decade, and it’s not one which is famed for being Doctor Who’s best. I’m keen to get on with it, though, and see what I think... 

Dear diary,

In some ways, it seems almost inconceivable that Tom Baker can have left Doctor Who. He’s been striding his way through time and space for seven seasons, and yet suddenly, as this episode ends, there’s some youthful-looking man laying around, swamped by the over-sized clothes of the Doctor.

I think any story would have a tough job to write out the man whom really does embody the programme. Unfortunately, for me, Logopolis has fallen even shorter than you might expect it to. Let’s start with some positives, though. For a start, this is my favourite episode of the story. Bringing it back down to Earth again really does help, and even though the Pharos Project control room is the same set that we’ve been seeing for a few episodes now, there’s something about seeing a regular person in there, instead of a man in robes with ‘sic fi’ hair, which just makes it so much more relatable.

This is also the signs of our three companion team starting to really gel with each other. Nyssa and Adric had plenty of time during The Keeper of Traken to bond, and it’s great to see how well they work together here, too. Tegan launching herself in to the fray is rather brilliant, too. While I’m still not entirely convinced that she’s been given a proper character yet, there’s some basic elements in here that are starting to feel believable - she helps the Doctor not simply because, as she puts it, he’s her ‘ticket out’ of the situation, but because she can see that he’s a good man, and needs someone at this point in his life.

(Aside-steptomorrow,tocatchupwithSarahJaneandK9,andalsolookbackontheFourthDoctyor\'sera...)

Day 579: Logopolis, Episode Three

Dear diary,

Good news, everyone! I’ve finally managed to understand what Logopolis (the place, not necessarily the story) is all about. I’ve always known the vague specifics of it, but never really got my head around it properly. It actually seems to be quite simple, now - in the same way that the Carrionites can use words as powerful science to make things happen, so too the people of Logopolis are able to use a string of complex mathematics to alter the universe around them. The power of these calculations are so powerful that they can’t be done in something as crude as a computer, because the equations would alter the state of the machinery itself. The only thing capable of withstanding it is a living mind. Ok, great, with it so far.

But that’s not necessarily the interesting part of the idea. I’d never really worked out how the whole idea of entropy factored in to this. The idea that the Universe should have died a long time ago, and that the peoples of this world are keeping it going through the use of their equations is fascinating, and I love that it was they who created the CVE that the TARDIS travelled through earlier in the season to get to E-Space - it just feels like quite a neat idea. It means that I also understand better now why the universe starts collapsing so quickly after the Master has enacted his plan.

Ah, yes, the Master. For every bit of good news, there usually has to be some kind of bad news to balance things out. I’m afraid that today, it has to be him. It feels like the production team have sat down with the plots to all of the Pertwee Master stories and realised that the usual pattern is for the Master to enact some kind of plan to dominate/kill/be generally evil (delete as appropriate), and then find he needs the Doctor’s help once he’s in too deep. In this story, all of that’s been boiled down to this single episode! The Doctor realises that the Master’s target is Logopolis... but... um... why? He doesn’t seem to realise what power the numbers here have, so he can’t be planning to use them to bend the universe to his will. As it stands, it looks like all of this was simply because he wanted to know why they’d build a big radar dish in the middle of their city. And the Doctor thinks that curiosity is his own downfall!

While I’m on the subject of companions... Tegan. It’s been an odd introduction for her character - possibly the oddest since Dodo (and perhaps even more so than that one!). Her three episodes so far have been something of an emotional roller coaster for her, but I really can’t decide if I’m liking the way she’s been written or not. She seems to settle in perfectly well when confronted with an alien world, taking it all in her stride. She’s believably upset when she discovers that her aunt has been murdered (the fact that you hear her crying in the background for a minute or so even after she’s left the screen and the focus isn’t on her is a beautiful touch), but then she’s all but forgotten it a few scenes later... by the end, when she’s against the Doctor and the Master teaming up, she seems to be fully up-to-speed with everything that comes with being a companion. I’m hoping that she’s rounded out as we go along - all the right elements are there, but they’re being thrown at us so thick and fast that none really have the chance to bed in.

And, actually, that’s not a bad analogy for Logopolis as a whole...

Frankly, this episode is bonkers. Genuinely, I’m used to the way that Doctor Who works - able to go anywhere and do anything, adapting its format to suit any story you care to tell - but I’ve come away from today’s episode with a headache. It’s all so... odd.

To start with, you’ve got the Doctor being arrested. Now, that doesn’t sound particularly out there, but it does look very unusual to see Tom Baker’s Doctor being directed into the back of a police car. I wonder if it would have felt less unusual with the Third Doctor, considering how used to seeing him on Earth I was? This incarnation has spent more time on contemporary Earth than I expected him to, but even then it’s in places like laboratories, or old houses (sometimes, both): it’s rare to see him in such an ‘everyday’ situation as this. That’s not a complaint - it’s actually quite interesting to see him like this. I know he can talk his way out of a showdown with a monster, but you almost wonder how he’ll pull of escaping from the police.

It’s after that that things start to go really off-the-wall. The Doctor reasons that the Master’s TARDIS must still be inside his ship somewhere. Ok, that’s quite neat idea. You could use that as the basis of a story in itself (a short one, perhaps...) as the Doctor and Adric get caught up in a chase around ever-moving TARDIS corridors in the hunt for their foe. What’s barmy is his realisation that the only viable solution is to materialise underwater and use the force of that to flush the Master out of the ship. I genuinely cannot get my head around this. For a start... where’s the Master going to come out? Is there a back door large enough for the water to force him out of? How does the Doctor think he’s going to cope after that, with a ship full of water? Does he really think that he and Adric can simply hold on to something to avoid being washed away? Absolutely bizarre.

In fairness, though, it leads to a couple of wonderful moments, and the ones that I enjoyed the most in today’s episode. First, the Doctor tells Adric that they’ve managed to perfect a nice soft touchdown. Seconds later, the ship lurches, and they’re thrown to the ground. There’s something about the timing of that sequence that just really works, and had me laughing. Then the image of the TARDIS having materialised on the boat is also wonderful, as is the shot that follows, of the Doctor spotting the white figure on the bridge overlooking them. It’s a great image when he goes to speak with this watcher, and you simply see the Doctor hang his head. Really quite striking, and probably the first time that you get a real sense that the end is fast approaching.

Day 577: Logopolis, Episode One

Dear diary,

Picture the scene: It’s early 1981. After seven years in the role, Tom Baker is about to begin his final adventure. Just four episodes until he departs the TARDIS, and that bloke from All Creatures Great and Small is about to take over. For a generation of kids, this is inconceivable. Tom Baker has been the Doctor (I know, I’ve already said it, but it bears repeating) for seven years. To many of the children watching, he’s the only Doctor. Even if they were old enough to remember a time when Jon Pertwee used to save the universe, all of that was a lifetime ago in the world before repeats. It’s a momentous occasion, and you can only wonder what will be enough to finish off this incarnation of the Time Lord. You sit down, ready to begin the march to the end...

And then, they show this. Bloody hell. I’m sorry, but this episode is just dull! Don’t get me wrong - there’s plenty of nice things about it, and I’ll come to those in a moment, but as the start of such a momentous story, it’s really, really boring. All that happens, really, is the Doctor paces around the TARDIS a bit, and some Australian you’ve never seen before tries to replace a flat tire on the side of a bypass. I’m bored watching it now, so I can’t imagine how kids must have found it thirty years ago.

My wonder is, though... did this have impact when it first went out? The Master here is only a slightly modified version of the one seen in The Deadly Assassin (am I right in thinking that one story goes that they found the cloak from that story in the skip just as they were preparing for this one, and salvaged it in time?), but that last appearance was ages ago. That story went out around October/November 1976, whereas The Keeper of Traken didn’t make it to screen until early 1981! You’re looking just over four years between appearances, and a lot has changed in the programme since then! Graham Williams has come and gone, as have Leela, Romana, and K9... did the audience at the time sit up in their chairs here thinking ‘bloody hell, it’s the Master!?!?’ or was it just an excited puppy in a tatty, skip-bound cloak?

Oh, I’m just nit-picking really, because it is a very good cliffhanger when you’re watching through in order like this. The mysterious bad guy who has been wreaking all this havoc on Traken and causing problems for the Doctor is none other than the Master! And he finally reveals himself to us just as Kassia takes the seat of the Keeper, and is instantly replaced with the Melkur sitting on the throne! It really is a very striking way to end the episode, and the fact that the Doctor has felt more hopeless in this story than many others makes it feel like the Master is a very real threat to him again.

I’m a little puzzled by exactly what this ‘Source’ is that he’s gained control of, mind. As far as I can tell (bear with me): it’s the power source for the Keeper. A kind of technology that needs to be guided by a living mind (the Keeper), and has the ability to keep everything in check throughout the Traken Union (is this a series of planets? That’s how I understand it, though it could simply be a number of countries on the one world of Traken). Being connected to the Source grants the Keeper an unusually long life, because... well... because it does. Hence, when a Keeper dies, they’re unable to hold back forces of chaos any longer, and thus storms begin to brew etc etc. In some ways, it’s the struggle between the Black and the White Guardian in miniature. If I’ve got that right, then it’s a great target for the Master, and fairly reminiscent of his plan in The Deadly Assassin, without all that boring Time Lord Stuff.

For all that, though, knowing these things flags up a few interesting new angles to enjoy with the story. When the Keeper warns the Doctor to think carefully before accepting the mission to help him on Traken, he tells the Time Lord that there is great danger in the task, and that it could cause obliteration to even the Doctor. In hindsight, this can be read as a warning of the impending regeneration, and the fact that this story really kicks off the chain of events that will lead the Doctor to the Pharos Project, and his death. Equally, it’s great to see the way the Doctor behaves here, too, responding to the Keeper’s assertion that the passing of ages have taken their toll on him by claiming to know the feeling.

Day 572: Warrior’s Gate, Episode Four

Dear diary,

I was really impressed, at the end of Meglos, when Romana announced that they’d had a call from Gallifrey, and were required to head there immediately. It was probably the ear lies that any companion departure to date had been foreshadowed so far in advance of it actually occurring. When Full Circle opened with Romana in a funk because she didn’t want to give up her life with the Doctor, it was even better. It felt like the beginning of the end for the Fourth Doctor, and it was nice to have it all being worked in so early. I’ve often seen the 1980s eras of Doctor Who criticised for being a bit like a soap opera, but I thought that this was an example of the format being used very well.

Equally, I knew that Romana didn’t end up returning to Gallifrey (at least, not during the lifetime of the original TV series. She ends up as president in the books and the audios), I was well aware that she left the TARDIS to stay here with the Tharrils: but I never knew why. The more this story went on, the more I started to piece it together. K9 could only be accurately repaired by passing through the mirror... but he wouldn’t be able to pass back again. Would the same happen to Romana? More likely, I thought, she’d opt to remain behind to simply avoid being recalled to Gallifrey. She’s well aware that the Time Lords can send out a recall signal and drag the TARDIS back there whenever they like, but there’s less chance of them getting hold of her in E-space.

As it happens, the actual departure... just happens. It’s gone from being a great example of foreshadowing and setting up to being the absolute epitome of the quick companion departure. They save the day. They’re safely back at the TARDIS. Then Romana casually states that she’s not tagging along for the ride, and the Doctor responds by giving her K9 and buggering off. It’s the most amicable divorce I’ve ever seen. But it feels all wrong.

In theory, it shouldn’t - it’s the perfect way to cap off this season’s running theme of the Doctor setting up new societies at the end of each adventure, by giving this one his beloved companion to help. And Romana too. It should feel like a fairly brilliant way for Romana to depart the series, and all the little hints throughout this episode that she’s becoming more and more like the Doctor (at one point, she even quotes him verbatim) should be part of her journey to staying behind in E-space, but it just lacks any emotion or drama in those final moments. The TARDIS door has shut, and the Doctor has gone.

It’s a pity, in many ways. I’d always been a bit weary of the Romana period of the programme - I said as much when she first appeared way back during The Ribos Operation. Almost three whole seasons of the Doctor travelling with an intellectual equal didn’t really appeal to me all that much, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised as the stories have rolled by. Romana has worked well in both incarnations, and it’s coincided with Tom Baker finding the joy in playing this role again, too. It feels like a shame to end three seasons of travel in such a brief exchange.

Day 571: Warrior’s Gate, Episode Three

Dear diary,

It was this cliffhanger that I could recall from a previous viewing of Warrior’s Gate - though curiously, three quarters of the way in, it’s still the only thing that I can remember from last time round. It’s not a surprise that this one stuck in the memory, though, because it’s brilliant. The Doctor sits around the table with the Tharills and goes on to berate them for their way of life. Just as a group of attackers burst into the room and the axe falls... we see time shift to much later, and the Doctor finds himself sat at the table in the other gate, surrounded by people who’re specifically looking for him. I can’t quite get my head around all of the specifics (for instance, is this the same room in two time zones? That’s the implication, but they’re in two different locations. I assumed that the mirror was the barrier between E-space and N-space, but then why don’t you emerge from the mirror in the same place?), but that doesn’t really matter, because it’s a brilliant cliffhanger all the same.

Day 570: Warrior’s Gate, Episode Two

Dear diary,

When I said during yesterday’s episode that I hoped we’d get more of the slightly surreal stuff today, I didn’t mean quite like this. We’re now half way through this story, and I still don’t really know what’s going on. There’s a broken-down space ship, a gateway to an unusual abandoned medieval world, and a supposedly empty void between two universes. But after 50 minutes, not a lot has actually happened yet. There’s lots of roaming around and any bouts of action - like Romana being strapped in to the broken ship to see where they’re going - seem to be over with very quickly. Before you know it, Romana has been left behind, and the crew have gone for another wander through nothing.

As, presumably, Adric has, too. He goes off exploring with K9, and we’re told that the only way to navigate in this place is through the use of a mass detector (the crew of the spaceship have one that they’re using to get around, and K9 serves the purpose for Adric). That’s fine, but following the attack of time winds in the last episode, K9 isn’t functioning at full capacity. Ok, not a problem, because Adric is able to take one of the dog’s antenna, and move further away to help correct the problem. At this point, K9 heads off to find the Doctor... where he arrives with both ears in tact! We see Adric wandering in the void briefly, but I can’t tell if he’s still got an ear. Was a scene cut out at all? Is it just an error in production?

Day 569: Warrior’s Gate, Episode One

Dear diary,

Warrior’s Gate. I know I’ve seen it (or at least some of it - I have a distinct memory of the Doctor sitting in one of the chairs at that table in the main hall, and possibly an axe falling towards him, I think...), but I really couldn’t tell you anything about it. Yes, it’s one of those stories that I’ve watched before but not paid attention to. Either that, or it just simply failed to stick in my mind to any real degree.

I’m guessing that it’s probably not that latter option, though, because right from the start of this episode, the story is wildly different to anything that Doctor Who has ever given us before. We open with a wonderfully long shot, which guides us through several rooms of a spaceship. It makes this set feel genuinely huge, even though it probably isn’t. Even when we finally do move to a new shot, it’s all done with fades, and all the subsequent parts of the opening follow the same pattern of having the cameras glide around the set, showing us everything and creating an almost dream-like quality. There’s a lovely film called Russian Ark, which is all filmed in one single, continuous shot, and this is very reminiscent of that*, creating a lovely - slightly surreal - dream-like start to the story.

That’s quite a fitting way to start the story, really, because it’s a story set in the nowhere between our universe and E-Space. In theory, there’s no time here, no up or down... it seems only right that we should start the first episode of such a story by being given something so unlike the programme’s usual stock. It’s really quite a nice place to set a story, but it’s a pity that everything happening in this nowhere is just a bit... dull. There’s nothing that’s really grabbing me once those initial shots are out of the way.

Romana spends the whole episode trapped inside the console room trying to repair broken equipment... which she also had to do for the first episode of Meglos (where she was also repairing K9, though there her stay in the ship was extended by a time loop), and she spends a vast amount of time during Full Circle stuck in the TARDIS, too. No wonder she’s off before the end of this story! Elsewhere, we’ve got a space ship filled with not especially stand-out characters, and they’re bickering about broken equipment, too. There’s a slight bit of interest injected by the fact that their ‘navigator’ seems to be slightly more unusual, but I’m finding it hard to connect with any of their scenes, either.

*While I’m mentioning it, Russian Ark really is worth checking out, if you get a chance. It’s all in - surprise, surprise - Russian, but there are subtitles. It’s a time travel story, and it’s all filmed in the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. It runs about an hour and a half in one continuous take, and it’s such an unusual experience, but somewhat magical and enchanting. Certainly, if you enjoy that kind of thing, it’s very much worth tracking the film down. 

Day 568: State of Decay, Episode Four

Dear diary,

Um... Ok, well, let’s start with the positives. Despite what the general opinion among several friends seems to be, I rather like the shot of the Great Vampire’s hand reaching up through the ground. What I mean to say is that during that initial shot of it doing so, it actually look quite effective. Certainly, it’s not a bad shot. It does rather fall to pieces once our three villains are CSO’s in front of a less well realised example of the scene, but that initial moment of breaking through the earth is rather good, so there.

No, I’m more put off by the Doctor’s X-Ray of the area (which seems to somewhat miss the way that an X-Ray works, but ho-hum), revealing what appears to be a poor quality rubber bat model representing the greatest and most powerful foe that the famous Time Lords have ever encountered. For some reason, in my head, I had the Great Vampire down as being a lot more Nosferatu-esque in design. Perhaps fittingly now that John Nathan-Turner is in the producer’s chair, ‘the memory cheats’.

Overall, I think that the model work in this episode is probably one of the weakest points. The shot of the tower breaking apart as one of the ships takes off isn’t the best model shot that the programme has ever given us, and it took me right out of the entire climax. I don’t think it helps that everything moves a little bit too quickly for my liking. The Doctor rounds up the rebels and prepares to lead an attack on the tower! He figures out what he needs to fro to destroy the Vampire, and rushes off to do it! A battle ensues, and there’s slaughter! Romana is being sacrificed, with bats coming to feast on her blood! And yet, there’s no tension in any of this. Despite sitting through three very enjoyable episodes, I’ve just no connection to anything that’s happening here. A pity.

As is rapidly becoming traditional for my Episode Four write ups this season, I’m keeping an eye on the Doctor’s actions at the end of a story. He’s at it again, you know, setting up a new society and leaving them to get on with it with very little information to go by. His advice today is that if the newly-liberated proletariat of this world use their recently salvaged technology well, then they can be a high technological society in no time. I think he’s being perhaps a little facetious there, but it does keep in with this seemingly running theme of the Doctor setting up new societies at the moment!

Day 567: State of Decay, Episode Three

Dear diary,

I know I’ve banged on about it during the other two episodes of this serial, but I really do love that Adric has a story more-or-less separate from that of the Doctor and Romana for the most part here. It’s not until almost the very end of today’s episode that Romana actually finds Adric, and the Doctor has yet to see him! It means that there’s an interesting new vibe to the series, which can only be described as ‘parents and child’.

This is best exemplified during the Doctor and Romana’s daring escape from the tower, when they reach the door, freedom in their grasp... and then they stop because they can’t simply leave Adric behind now that they know he’s there (even though he shouldn’t be - as far as they were concerned, they’d ‘sent him to bed’ at the end of the last story). It’s rather lovely, and the way that they bicker about who’ll go and get the kid and who’ll go and get on with the proper adventure is brilliant. It’s a bit of a shame that this TARDIS team will only have one more story together, before it’s changed again.

I’m also enjoying all the new Gallifreyan lore that’s being introduced here. It seems quite soon after we had a lot of information about the very early days of the Time Lords in Shada, though I suppose that won’t have mattered at all on original transmission, but I really do enjoy delving into the dark and mysterious past of this ancient race from time to time. I especially love that we first get the Doctor musing that there are vampire legends on almost every civilised world, before going on to give us the tale of these creatures in the form of a legend, a fairy story that was told on Gallifrey. It also means that we get to hear him speak again of the old hermit who used to live in the mountains not far from his home (he lived a very sheltered life), who was first mentioned in The Time Monster, and played a fairly significant role during Planet of the Spiders. You have to wonder if this simply comes down to the script being written by Terrance Dicks, who would have over-seen those stories at the time.

From there, we go on to the Doctor getting the true record of the tale from the TARDIS. There’s something rather brilliant about the idea that the information is so old and out of date that the main databanks on the ship don’t contain it, and he has to get out some more antiquated equipment before he can have his theory backed up. I think this is the only disappointment that comes from all of this - his theory is completely backed up. In a story which has very cleverly played with the way that language changes over time (in the names of the crew members evolving and changing while they’ve been on this world), I’d have liked to see the official story of the great war against the vampires be slightly different from the subsequent retelling to a young Doctor in the form of a story. That feels like a bit of a missed opportunity when you consider the richness in other areas of this serial.

Day 566: State of Decay, Episode Two

Dear diary,

There’s something in the format of this story which feels very different to usual. The Doctor and Romana making their way around the spaceship as they explore is the kind of thing that would usually make up an Episode One of a story, but here it’s the focal point of this second episode, while they also get their first confrontation with the villains of the piece, and start swapping information with them that feels as though it’s coming too early in the story. That might sound like I’m complaining, but I’m really not - it’s nice to have a story which is a bit different the the norm. Despite having seen this story once before, there’s an awful lot of it that I’ve forgotten, and the fact that Adric still hasn’t encountered the Doctor and Romana since leaving Alzarius surprises me: I thought that they’d have all met up by now.

Here, it feels only right that our heroes should be called ‘lord’ and ‘lady’, and they suit the place perfectly. I’m pleased that Adric has still to join the Doctor and Romana not just because it means they all get their own strands of the story, but because he’s spoil the wonderful dynamic we’ve got going on this week - just before we lose her from the series - Romana has never felt more right by the Doctor’s side. The Doctor and Romana, and more importantly, Tom and Lalla, have never quite fitted the series as well as they do here, steeped in the story, and the feel of the whole piece. Who could ask for more?

State of Decay is the only story from the E-Space trilogy which I’d ever seen in full before starting out on this marathon, and it’s usually the story that I’m thinking of when I say that I like this season. It’s also the first real example of this season doing something that I’d probably describe as being ‘lush’, with lots of rich textures and fabrics, and almost a return to the kind of Gothic styling of the Phillip Hinchcliffe era, but given a bit of a 1980s ‘new romantic’ twist. We’ll see similar trappings in the next two stories, as well, but it looks very different here, and makes the whole thing look rather more expensive than usual...

Watching it like this, though, immediately after Full Circle, you start to realise that there’s more links between the stories in this trilogy than simply being set in E-Space. Both feature a marooned space vessel, and technology that the people of this planet don’t quite understand (while the crew of the Star Liner knew how everything worked, more or less, they didn’t know what to do with it). There’s a trio of people who make the decisions and rule over everyone else, and there’s a real sense that things take took much time - whether that be the Deciders not actually, um, deciding, or the rebels here spending time to plan and plot their next move. There’s even a point where someone complains that nothing here has changed for a thousand generations, and it feels even more linked back to the previous tale.

Because I’ve seen this story before, I know what the big twist to the story is, but I’m wondering if that will be enough to make it stand out from the last one? There’s a danger that my enjoyment of Full Circle could end up rubbing off and damaging how well this one fares with me.