Doctor Who 18x13

Directed by Peter Moffatt

Matthew Waterhouse as Adric • Arthur Hewlett as Kalmar • Clinton Greyn as Ivo • Rhoda Lewis as Marta • Thane Bettany as Tarak

Still trapped in negative E-Space, the TARDIS lands on an unnamed world to find a society sliding back into feudalism. What is the secret of the Three Who Rule? And what ancient enemy of the Time Lords is stirring again on this world...?

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1. "Who is the third Tardis Time Traveller?

2. "Who are the Three Who Rule?

3. "What Terror stalks the night?" (Radio Times)

4. This episode was first shown on 22 November, 1980, and was seen by 5.8 million viewers.

5. Although not large, this figure was part of a slow recovery after very low ratings at the beginning of the season.

6. The next shot is a glass matte, often used in the days before CGI to increase the sense of scale.

7. The top half of the frame is painted on a sheet of glass.

8. Placed in the foreground, the painting matches up with the studio set beyond.

9. Director Peter Moffatt, who made his Doctor Who debut on 'State of Decay', used glass shots in several stories.

10. There's another glass shot of the State Room near the beginning of Part Two.

11. 'State of Decay' began life in 1977.

12. The script was originally entitled 'The Witch Lords', and then 'The Vampire Mutations'.

13. It was to have opened Doctor Who's fifteenth season, and would have featured Tom Baker's earlier companion Leela.

14. Before entering production, the 1977 version was abandoned at the insistence of the BBC drama department.

15. They were concerned that a Doctor Who story about vampires would clash with a BBC adaptation of Dracula.

16. As a result, the script lay unused until 1980, when Terrance Dicks rewrote it to accommodate Romana, K9 and Adric.

17. Other elements were reworked to bring the story into line with the ideas of script editor Christopher Bidmead.

18. On 3 April, 1980, Bidmead revised the script to overlay the medieval style with a more futuristic look.

19. The Village Centre is described in this version as "the largest of the pre-fabricated domes that comprise the village.

20. "There is little clue now to the fact that this was once a medical centre."

21. Peter Moffatt disliked these new design ideas and insisted on sticking to the Gothic trappings.

22. In other respects, the revised rehearsal draft is largely the same as the original scripts, issued six days earlier.

23. It's not the radical rewrite that has sometimes been imagined. But we'll keep an eye on the differences as we go.

24. In fact, here's one now. Ivo's son Karl was originally called "Isorl".

25. Unlike the Doctor, Tom Baker was not very well during the recording of 'State of Decay'.

26. His illness caused his hair to lose its natural bounce, and it had to be put in curlers every day before recording.

27. The script includes some extra dialogue about the Tardis. Romana asks, "Must you refer to this relic as if it had feelings?"

28. The Doctor replies, "She's sensitive to the general smallness of E-Space."

29. As specified in the script, E-Space has a greenish tint.

30. In the script, the Doctor remarks, "That boy Adric seemed decent enough."

31. "If you like juvenile delinquents," replies Romana. "Underneath," explains the Doctor.

32. Romana's "You are incredible" will be echoed in Part Three.

33. The running gag about K9 trying to attract the Doctor's attention throughout the scene was introduced in rehearsal.

34. A similar routine had appeared in several earlier stories.

35. Among them was 'The Horns of Nimon', the last story in which Tom Baker wore the coat you can see on the stand.

36. The script describes "the Tardis spinning through the eerie void of E-A stylised swirling green background."

37. The planet is described as "roseate".

38. The woodland scenes were filmed at Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire from 30 April to 2 May, 1980.

39. This particular scene was shot on 1 May.

40. Burnham Beeches also starred in The Crying Game, Robin Hood. ; Prince of Thieves and Carry On Camping.

41. The four-foot-high Tower model was built by visual effects assistant Stuart Murdoch.

42. Most of the miniatures were pre-filmed on the Visual Effects model stage in Acton.

43. But when time ran out, some were later recorded on videotape during the main studio sessions at Television Centre.

44. The idea of the Doctor repeating the "ducklings" speech for K9's benefit was added in the studio.

45. That's because this dialogue was originally in the location scene, with the Doctor calling to K9 through the Tardis door.

46. In the script, Adric is hiding inside a locker in the control room.

47. Stand by for a terrified peasant played by veteran Doctor Who extra Victor Croxford.

48. Coincidentally, he also appeared in a 1971 story called 'Vampire From Space'.

49. It was re-titled 'The Claws of Axos' for transmission.

50. The line about the tailor was ad-libbed by Tom Baker.

51. But Romana's quip was scripted. It's a reference to Gilbert and Sullivan's 1880 operetta The Pirates of Penzance.

52. In the original, the Pirate King sings of "Some person in authority, I don't know who, very likely the Astronomer Royal".

53. Lain Rattray (Habris) went on to become a ubiquitous player of police officers.

54. He played policemen in Casualty, Minder, Inspector Morse, London's Burning, Between the Lines, and many other series.

55. In the script, the Doctor says, "Now that's out of the way, perhaps you could point us in the direction of... somewhere or other."

56. The Doctor's thesaurus was scripted as "Wise men? Witch Doctors? Shamans?" Tom Baker embroidered it in rehearsal.

57. A "witch-wiggler" is a rhabdomancer, who divines water or other substances with the help of a witch-hazel branch.

58. "Wangateur" and "mundunugu" are tribal witch doctors, from Haiti and Africa respectively.

59. Quite why Ivo appears to recognise only the last term is a trifle mystifying!

60. In the script, Romana adds, "I've heard of rural insularity, but before the Doctor interrupts.

61. One of the things Christopher Bidmead didn't like about the original script was the title 'The Vampire Mutations'.

62. He felt the word "vampire" was too obvious and would spoil the story's revelations, so he changed the title to...

63. 'The Wasting'.

64. This remained the working title until a late stage in production: It appears on the scripts and the filming schedule.

65. Terrance Dicks was unhappy with the new title.

66. He thought it might offer ammunition to critics, as in: "The BBC is wasting our time with this story."

67. In the end, Christopher Bidmead came up with the title 'State of Decay'.

68. Although transmitted fourth in the season, 'State of Decay' was the second story to be made, before 'Meglos' and 'Full Circle'.

69. It therefore saw the debut of Matthew Waterhouse in the role of Adric.

70. Waterhouse was eighteen years old when he began work on Doctor Who. It was only his second professional acting job.

71. His previous role was in the BBC adaptation of R. F. Delderfield's novel To Serve Them All My Days.

72. In the first two episodes he played a public schoolboy called Briarley, whose father was killed in the Great War.

73. It began transmission on 17 October, 1980, just over a week before Waterhouse's first episode of Doctor Who was shown.

74. So Briarley bowed out the day before Adric bowed in.

75. Another schoolboy in To Serve Them All My Days was Simon Gipps-Kent, fresh from playing Seth in 'The Horns of Nimon'.

76. A third was lan Sears, soon to star as Brendan in the Doctor Who spin-off 9 and Company.

77. Like all the boys in To Serve Them All My Days, Matthew Waterhouse was given a severe "short back and sides" haircut.

78. As a result, for 'State of Decay' he had to wear a wig while his hair grew back.

79. "Gotcha" replaced the original line: "Hmm. You're not as intelligent as I thought."

80. This scene was reworked on location.

81. In the original Romana says, "Typical peasants. Think there's nothing in the world beyond their own little village."

82. And she doesn't know what bats are. "Small flying mammal," explains the Doctor.

83. The Doctor's speech is quite different in the script.

84. He says that he and Romana have dropped in to "take a look around, you know, see the sights, pay a visit to the Tower.

85. "Is it open to the public, by the way?"

86. Romana says, "Doctor, maybe you'd better shut up."

87. All four characters in this scene underwent changes of name.

88. Camilla was originally Karmilla.

89. Habris was to have been called Harkan.

90. And Zargo began life as Zarko.

91. Mikos became Aukon which is probably why the rather similar Harkan was changed to Habris.

92. Like all the bat footage in 'State of Decay', this shot came from the BBC Natural History Film Unit.

93. It had originally appeared in a 1975 nature documentary called Animal Marvels. ; Frontiers of Life.

94. For this location scene, the script suggested a more complex entrance to the rebels' headquarters.

95. Approaching "a rusting, half-buried metal instrument console, a rebel produces a metal device from under his cloak.

96. "There is a low beep and a panel in the console slides back to reveal a tunnel leading downwards."

97. The "technocotheca" line was a late addition by Christopher Bidmead.

98. Originally the Doctor says, "Quite a museum you've got here."

99. "More like a jumble sale," adds Romana.

100. "Technocotheca" is a made-up word that echoes "pinacotheca", an ancient Greek term for an art gallery.

101. "Pinacotheca", and its German version "Pinakothek", still appear in the names of several art galleries in Europe.

102. Christopher Bidmead clearly had a penchant for the word.

103. Some years later, he worked on a script called 'Pinacotheca' for Colin Baker's Doctor, but this was abandoned.

104. Kalmar, the rebel leader, is played by Arthur Hewlett.

105. He later returned as a character called Kimber, who fell foul of the Vervoids in a 1986 episode featuring Colin Baker.

106. Coincidentally, the Vervoid story was one of those that replaced 'Pinacotheca'.

107. The script explains that Kalmar is "fanatically devoted to the rediscovery of scientific knowledge".

108. Tarak is "concerned only with the practical application of science. Knowledge only interests him if it is useful in their struggle."

109. This is the second and last scene to mention the mysterious "Wasting".

110. The theme was all but dropped from the final script, leaving these few remnants from an earlier draft.

111. In the rehearsal script, Tarak says, "The Lords. They are the Wasting."

112. Like all Doctor Who serials of its time, 'State of Decay' was recorded out of sequence for logistical reasons.

113. As a result, this was the very first scene that Matthew Waterhouse recorded in the role of Adric.

114. Like all the Village Centre scenes, it was taped at BBC Television Centre on 15 May, 1980.

115. Adric's description of the Doctor was trimmed to remove the line "a funny hat".

116. This was because Tom Baker disliked the hat that came with his new costume, and he doesn't wear it in this story.

117. In fact, Tom had already worn his hat for the last time in 'The Leisure Hive'.

118. Besides a photograph seen on a monitor screen in 'Meglos', he remains hatless for the rest of his Doctorate.

119. It has been conjectured that Marta's son Karl might have played a larger part in the original story.

120. The theory goes that Karl's role was usurped by the new companion Adric. We'll return to this idea in Part Two.

121. It's odd that Marta and Ivo have never heard of cheese.

122. There's plenty of cheese on offer at Camilla's finger-buffet in Part Two.

123. Perhaps the Lords make it themselves.

124. In Christopher Bidmead's revised draft of the script, the explanations by Veros and Kalmar that open this scene were cut.

125. Instead the scene would have begun with the Doctor saying, "Reading is forbidden?"

126. In the end, the full version was restored.

127. The suppression of knowledge by a tyrannical society is a traditional theme in Doctor Who.

128. But 'State of Decay' also sits comfortably among the ideas that interested new script editor Christopher Bidmead.

129. It concerns a hidebound society steeped in tradition, held back by its ignorance of a shocking secret about the planet.

130. In one way or another, the same pattern is true of nearly every other story in this season.

131. And it is central to all three of the Doctor Who scripts written by Bidmead 'Logopolis', 'Castrovalva' and 'Frontios'.

132. The readouts on the computer screen were generated using Ceefax, the BBC's Teletext system.

133. The spaceship Hydrax was originally called Hyperion.

134. Fan adviser lan Levine pointed out that a ship called Hyperion had already appeared in the 1972 story 'The Mutants'.

135. Funnily enough, 'The Mutants' was yet another tale of alien overlords ruling a primitive planet with a momentous secret.

136. In the revised script the Doctor says, "Not bad considering it's been in CMOS chips for a thousand years."

137. The script explains that the officers "look young and fit and wear space pilot uniforms".

138. This is the only time that anyone refers to Zargo and Camilla as King and Queen.

139. Elsewhere they are described and addressed as lords never as "Your Highness" or "Your Majesty".

140. Perhaps royal protocol is just different on this planet.

141. All the same... Queen Camilla. Who would have thought it?

142. "Day for Night" camera filters were used to suggest dusk, and a greenish tint was added to the sky.

143. For this sequence, visual effects designer Tony Harding created a variety of bat props.

144. And the Animal Marvels film was again pressed into service for footage of real bats.

145. The Doctor's line was originally "These bats seem to be exceptionally carnivorous".

146. For close-ups, like the bat that bites the Doctor, Tony Harding adapted a wind-up toy that was on the market at the time.

147. He built the body and wings of a bat around the clockwork mechanism and wing armature of a flapping toy bird.

148. But most of the bats were static models, flown on nylon wires from the ends of long poles.

149. The script suggested that the flock of bats might be created with electronic effects.

150. "They run on, faster and faster, the cloud of electronic bats swirling around them."

151. Also appearing in this episode were:

152. Fernand Monast, Reg Woods (Guards)

153. Laurie Goode, Jill Goldston, Angela Taylor (Peasants)

154. Joe Phillips, Monty Morris, Ernest Jennings (Peasants)

155. Douglas Jones, Ruby Buchanan, Marie Antony (Peasants)

156. Vera Lennox, Eileen Winterton, Jimmy Mac (Peasants)

157. Paul Barton, Martin Clark, Timothy Oldroyd (Rebels)

158. Uncredited production contributors included:

159. Lesley Smith, Charlotte Norman (Make-up Assistants)

160. Sheelagh Lawson (Design Assistant)

161. Jane Judge (Production Secretary) edge is forbidden by the Lords.

162. The penalty for knowledge is death.

163. No schools of any kind?

164. Children start in the fields as soon as they can walk,

165. stay there till they grow up, grow old and die.

166. Those that escape the selection.

167. What's the selection?

168. Some are taken to the Tower to serve the Lords.

169. So they say.

170. I see you've got a lot to rebel against.

171. Just a minute! Got it! Ha-ha!

172. Now we'll find out something. I...

173. Oh, must have been out of guarantee. Instruction manual would be helpful.

174. Nonsense, it's just a standard Earth-type databank.

175. I'll have to crack the entry code but... Earth type!

176. Ah, lovely old technology.

177. Back on 20th-century Earth, the engineers used to just...

178. Definitely an Earth device.

179. "Ship's manifest and cargo, flight plan from Earth."

180. So it is Earth.

181. "Crew of exploration vessel Hydrax, en route from Earth,

182. "destination Beta Two in the Perugellis sector."

183. Hmm, instead of which, they finish up here.

184. Hmm, they must have gone through a CVE as well.

185. "Ship's officers, Captain Miles Sharkey.

186. "Navigational Officer Lauren MacMillan, Science Officer Anthony O'Connor.

187. "Identification pictures follow." It's still legible.

188. Yes, not bad after a thousand years in memory.

189. Those faces!

190. Yes, long since dead.

191. I was a Tower guard before I joined Kalmar. I saw them every day.

192. What?

193. But as you say, it can't be.

194. Who did you see every day?

195. The three who rule, the King, his Queen...

196. That's two.

197. And Aukon, the counsellor.

198. No, I'm sorry, I see their faces everywhere.

199. If you knew these people, Doctor...

200. Well, I think it's time we got to know them, don't you, Romana?

201. Mmm.

202. They're supposed to be our prisoners, or have you forgotten that?

203. No. When I lead, I will make the decisions.

204. They are free to go.

205. Thank you.

206. It's getting dark suddenly.

207. Night must fall, Romana, even in E-Space.

208. Doesn't feel natural.

209. - There's that noise again. - Why, it's bats. Quite harmless.

210. Oh!

211. Well, in theory. That one was a bit carnivorous.

212. Do you mind if we get a move on?

213. Come on!