Doctor Who 18x15

Directed by Peter Moffatt

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

The Doctor finds archive material in the TARDIS that tells him he's dealing with an ancient enemy of the Time Lords, a nearly indestructible king vampire who's ready to revive and reenter normal space, spreading death, once again, across the universe.

Request examples:

!req Doctor Who 18x15 [02:32]
!req Doctor Who 18x15 [Doctor Who 18x15]
Syntax: !req EPISODE [quote or timestamp] (max. 8 square brackets)

For quotes, now you can request by index (e.g !req Doctor Who 18x15 [10-11]; !req Doctor Who 18x15 [20] [24]). Keep in mind, though, that index numbers might change at any time.
You can also generate a copy command with the quotes. Hover the desired subtitle and enter the amount of lines you want to copy.

Subtitle languages: English • Spanish • Brazilian Portuguese

Note: you must use specific languages with their specific pages/discord channels.

1. "What is the Power of Aukon?

2. "Which ancient enemy of the Time Lords is stirring?

3. "What is the Awakening for the Three Who Rule?" (Radio Times)

4. This episode was first shown on 6 December, 1980, and was seen by 4.4 million viewers.

5. The disappointing drop in ratings left this episode with Doctor Who's third smallest audience of the year.

6. From the following week, viewing figures would remain above 5 million for the rest of the season.

7. The "guided tour" joke follows on from the cut line in Part One about the Tower being "open to the public".

8. Emrys James (Aukon) was a noted classical actor and a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

9. In the 1970s his roles for the RSC had included Shylock, lago, Jaques and Mephistopheles.

10. Shortly before work began on 'State of Decay', he was the Player King in the BBC production of Hamlet.

11. The same production featured Lalla Ward as Ophelia. It was recorded between her two seasons of Doctor Who.

12. Hamlet was transmitted on 25 May, 1980, midway through the recording of 'State of Decay'.

13. Hamlet was played by Derek Jacobi, later to confront David Tennant's Doctor in the role of the evil Master.

14. And Derek Jacobi wasn't the only embodiment of the Master in the BBC Hamlet.

15. Joining Emrys James among the Players at Elsinore was Geoffrey Beevers.

16. In Doctor Who, he'd be appearing as the Master just two stories after 'State of Decay'.

17. Another of the Players was Doctor Who stuntman Stuart Fell. We'll be meeting him later in this episode.

18. And Patrick Stewart played Claudius, a role he'd revisit at the RSC twenty-eight years later - opposite David Tennant's Hamlet.

19. Stand by for an impressive effect achieved live in the studio.

20. It was accomplished using Colour Separation Overlay (CSO), an early version of the "green screen" process.

21. For the effects shot, Tom Baker and Emrys James stayed on the main set.

22. Meanwhile, Lalla Ward acted against a plain blue backdrop elsewhere in the studio.

23. Lalla threw a stalagmite prop against a wooden board covered in blue material, where it shattered.

24. The two shots were overlaid in the studio to create the effect of Aukon smashing the stalagmite.

25. And here it is...

26. Three takes of the effect were recorded, and three stalagmite props smashed, with the best version used in the edit.

27. 'State of Decay' wasn't Emrys James's only televised excursion into horror in 1980.

28. He also appeared in 'The Mark of Satan', an episode of the ITV series Hammer House of Horror.

29. It was transmitted on 6 December, 1980 - the very same day as this episode of 'State of Decay'.

30. Rachel Davies (Camilla) also appeared in Hammer House of Horror.

31. Appropriately enough, her episode was called 'The House that Bled to Death'.

32. William Lindsay (Zargo) Managed to go one better.

33. He wasn't in Hammer House of Horror, but he later appeared in the 1985 film Lifeforce, which had the working title...

34. The Space Vampires.

35. Designer Christine Ruscoe intended that the Tower interiors should resemble corroded metal.

36. The effect is particularly striking in the corridor and cell sets.

37. Although not named in the dialogue, the guard outside the Sleeping Vault is called Zoldaz.

38. Despite his important duties, he appears to have been last in the queue when Habris was handing out the right sized helmets.

39. Zargo and Camilla have a whiff of Shakespeare's Macbeth about them.

40. The doubting and fearful Macbeth is goaded on to commit his crimes by his wife's ruthless ambition.

41. Here Camilla echoes Lady Macbeth's famous line: "But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail."

42. The revised rehearsal script for this scene contains the most vividly different of the abandoned "high-tech" set descriptions.

43. In this version, the Sleeping Vault is called the "Officers' Sleep Room", and is clearly part of the spaceship.

44. Instead of a stone vault, the script describes "a simple womb-like chamber containing two astronaut-type sleeping cocoons.

45. "The white-walled chamber is lit with sinister infra-red lighting - a kind of sterile hell."

46. Director Peter Moffatt later recalled that the revised draft included the vampires hatching from eggs.

47. This description of their beds as "cocoons" must have been what he was remembering.

48. The sleepy guard is called Roga. We'll be coming back to him in a minute.

49. The rehearsal script refers instead to an "old woman from the mountains of South Gallifrey".

50. This was altered to accommodate a piece of Doctor Who lore dating from Terrance Dicks's days as script editor.

51. The Doctor first mentioned the old hermit in a similar prison-cell scene in 'The Time Monster' (1972).

52. The hermit then turned up in person in 'Planet of the Spiders' (1974).

53. The dialogue in this scene was reworked in rehearsal.

54. In the script, rather than repeat the Doctor's words, Romana just says, "Scientifically that's rubbish."

55. Then she says, "All right, go on. Mystify me."

56. When she asks if the vampires were all destroyed, the Doctor says, "Yes."

57. "Good," replies Romana. "I like a happy ending."

58. The Doctor continues, "Except that when they came to count the bodies, one was missing.

59. "They followed a trail of his blood right across the cosmos."

60. Roga is played by veteran Doctor Who stunt artist Stuart Fell.

61. His stunt credits include various James Bond, Superman and Star Wars films.

62. His many Doctor Who roles include a giant rat, a one-eyed hexapod, and Katy Manning's stunt double.

63. But Roga is special. Other than a muffled line inside a Sontaran helmet, this is Stuart Fell's only speaking role in Doctor Who.

64. The Doctor Who mythology is coming thick and fast now.

65. Rassilon, a founding father of the Time Lords, was first mentioned four years earlier in 'The Deadly Assassin'.

66. And Romana had previously revealed that she was a historian in the unfinished story 'Shada'.

67. Romana's mock ignorance about the Tardis being a type forty was added in rehearsal.

68. Before Rose Tyler came into his life many years later, this is as close as the Doctor ever got to a love scene.

69. Appropriately, the romance between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward was at its height by the time this story was completed.

70. The pair announced their engagement on 19 November, 1980, three days before 'State of Decay' began transmission.

71. The Doctor stunning the guard was another embellishment in the rehearsal room.

72. So was the joke with the door.

73. The script has a more violent version of Tarak's arrival, in which "the inert body of Roga is hurled into the room."

74. Then another guard "lunges at Tarak with his sword, only to find himself impaled on Tarak's knife."

75. Graeme MacDonald was concerned about this and other fight scenes in the script, and decreed that they be toned down.

76. Tarak's rescue was to be followed by a corridor scene which was cut for timing reasons.

77. Romana says, "I hope you know the way out of here..." and then sees Tarak threatening her with his knife.

78. "Make your mind up," she says, "are you rescuing us or not?"

79. The Doctor understands: "The old prisoner trick, eh? Well done, Tarak."

80. They raise their hands, pretending to be Tarak's prisoners.

81. Tarak says, "There's a small door at the back of the Tower - it's where they bring the supplies from the village."

82. "The tradesman's entrance will do very well," says the Doctor.

83. "We've got to get back to the Tardis - and I fancy there's not much time."

84. With the loss of this scene, the finished episode offers no clear explanation of how the Doctor leaves the Tower undetected.

85. But he's always been very good at that sort of thing.

86. In his novelisation of 'State of Decay', Terrance Dicks gives Ivo an extra line that offers a more horrifying image:

87. "They dumped his body outside my door at dusk. Those monsters drank his blood."

88. Ivo is played by Clinton Greyn.

89. He'd starred in the BBC soap opera Compact and the Victorian spy spoof Virgin of the Secret Service.

90. Like Arthur Hewlett, he reappeared in Doctor Who opposite Colin Baker.

91. In 'The Two Doctors', he was the Sontaran Group Marshal Stike.

92. Here's another scene that was tightened up in rehearsal.

93. In the script Romana says, "You've forgotten something, Doctor - in all the excitement I'd forgotten it myself."

94. "Forgotten what?" asks the Doctor. "Adric," replies Romana.

95. The Doctor doesn't propose to spend time rescuing Adric when billions of lives are at stake.

96. But Romana says, "I can't count lives in billions, Doctor. I'm staying to look for Adric."

97. The Doctor says, "Tarak - it's a lot to ask, but - she won't stand a chance on her own."

98. "All right, Doctor," says Tarak. "I'll stay with her." A decision he's going to regret.

99. 'State of Decay' sees another significant Doctor Who debut.

100. It's the first production to be scored by incidental composer Paddy Kingsland.

101. His other television credits include The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and several of Michael Palin's travel series.

102. In 1972 his new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme had been shelved.

103. But he was responsible for some of the most memorable Doctor Who scores of the early 1980s.

104. In the script the Doctor says, "Just plug in, will you?", and K9 connects his probe to the console.

105. Here's Zoldaz again, still squeezed into his helmet.

106. He is played by Stuart Blake, who had two further encounters with challenging headgear in Doctor Who.

107. In 'The Five Doctors' (1983), he is the guard commander who is authorised to use the mind probe.

108. And in 'Warriors of the Deep' (1984), he is the Silurian Scibus.

109. The line about the "blood group separator" was added in rehearsal, and again the violence was reduced.

110. In the script, "Tarak clubs down the guard with the hilt of his knife and drags the body through the open door."

111. Blooper alert: As the camera pulls back in the next scene, the shadow of a microphone boom appears on the console.

112. The boom shadow will appear again in a moment, just as the Doctor moves away from the controls.

113. There it goes!

114. Concealing unwanted shadows was always a challenge on the brightly lit Tardis set.

115. As we've already seen, there isn't really a "legend" of Count Dracula.

116. Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was published only eighty-three years before 'State of Decay' was made.

117. Stoker named his bloodsucking count after the 15th-century Romanian nobleman Vladislav Draculea.

118. His cruel reputation for skewering his victims on stakes earned him the nickname "Vlad the Impaler".

119. But nobody ever accused him of being a real vampire.

120. Then again, K9 was created in the 50th century - and Dracula might well have been a legend by then.

121. The idea of a magnetic card system was introduced by Christopher Bidmead.

122. The revised script has the Doctor retrieving a metal box full of cards from behind a base panel in the Tardis console.

123. Peter Moffatt preferred the original description of the Record of Rassilon as a collection of ancient scrolls.

124. So on screen we have an artistic compromise.

125. Tardis scenes always present a challenge to a director who wants to keep the viewer interested.

126. This one is particularly imaginatively shot.

127. The entire scene consists of a single developing master-shot travelling around the set on a crane.

128. The master-shot is broken only by two brief close-ups of K9.

129. 'State of Decay' was the first full-blooded vampire tale to appear in Doctor Who's seventeen-year run.

130. But some earlier stories had sucked a few drops from the genre.

131. In 'The Chase' (1965), the Tardis materialised in a haunted house inhabited by Count Dracula.

132. But on that occasion he turned out to be a robotic fairground attraction.

133. We've already mentioned that 'The Claws of Axos' (1971) was originally called 'Vampire from Space'.

134. And 'The Stones of Blood' (1978) Featured a circle of alien stones that fed on human blood plasma.

135. Now, listen out for another characteristically eccentric ad-lib from Tom Baker.

136. "Cattle, rattle..." Apparently the Record of Rassilon is arranged not in alphabetical order, but in rhyming order!

137. The Doctor later met the vampiric Haemovores in 'The Curse of Fenric' (1989).

138. And in 'Smith and Jones' (2007) He was pitted against a bloodsucking Plasmavore.

139. The giant vampires who caused Rassilon so much bother reappear in several Doctor Who spin-off novels.

140. Among them are two books by Terrance Dicks: Blood Harvest (1994) And The Eight Doctors (1997).

141. In both of these novels, Terrance Dicks revisits the planet seen in 'State of Decay'.

142. Ivo, Kalmar and the vampire Lords all make return appearances.

143. Like Zargo and Camilla, in the revised rehearsal script Adric is sleeping in a "cocoon".

144. And when Romana wakes him, he comes to his senses much more quickly.

145. "For a moment his face looks cold and sinister, then he gives his usual cheeky grin."

146. He says, "Hullo, Time Lady. What are you doing here?"

147. In the script, Zargo merely "throttles Tarak in a brief ferocious struggle."

148. The idea of Zargo lifting Tarak single-handedly into the air was added in rehearsal.

149. The effect was achieved very simply: Out of shot, Thane Bettany stepped up onto on a wooden box.

150. The cliffhanger, too, is less elaborate in the script.

151. Instead of recoiling when hit by the dagger, Zargo "looks down at the knife-hilt jutting from his chest and laughs.

152. "Camilla at his side, he advances threateningly on Romana and Adric. The vampires crouch for their final spring."

153. For once in Doctor Who, the lack of blood on the knife works in the scene's favour. He's a vampire!

154. Also appearing in this episode were:

155. Alan Chuntz (Stunt Guard)

156. Brian Moorhead (Guard)

157. Uncredited production contributors

158. Nigel Brackley (K9 Operator)

159. Al Huxley (Props Buyer)

160. Gail McAlec, Kim Vines (Make-up Assistants) s.

161. "However, when the bodies were counted..."

162. I knew it. Just like the legend said.

163. "When the bodies were counted, the King Vampire,

164. "mightiest and most malevolent of all, had vanished,

165. "even to his shadow, from time and space."

166. Until now.

167. Continue, master.

168. "Hence, it is the directive of Rassilon

169. "that any Time Lord who comes upon this enemy of our people

170. "and of all living things, shall use all his efforts to destroy him,

171. "even at the cost of his own life."

172. Query. How may this creature be destroyed?

173. What? That's a good question.

174. Let's see what it says about battle.

175. "Cattle. Rattle..."

176. Battle.

177. Got it.

178. "Energy weapons were useless

179. "because the monsters absorbed and transmuted the energy,

180. "using it to become stronger.

181. "Therefore, Rassilon ordered the construction of bow ships..."

182. Ah!

183. "Swift vessels that fired a mighty bolt of steel

184. "that transfixed the monsters through the heart.

185. "For only if his heart be utterly destroyed

186. "will a vampire die."

187. K9: Query.

188. What? What is it?

189. Is this data of practical value, master?

190. Well, it might come in useful.

191. If we could only lay our hands on a mighty bolt of steel.

192. Surely not so soon.

193. The mutation must take some time.

194. Maybe he's still under hypnosis.

195. Adric, wake up.

196. Wake up!

197. I'm trying to rescue you, come on!

198. (WEAKLY) It's like a kind of dream.

199. Someone was whispering to me about power and eternal life.

200. They're going to initiate me in some big ceremony.

201. Tonight.

202. Come on, Adric. We've got to get out of here.

203. - I think not. Look out!

204. No! No! No!

205. You killed him.

206. The blood of the dead is stale and flat. I must feed on the living.

207. We still have these.