Doctor Who 18x16

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 joins the villagers' revolt against their vampire rulers, unsure how to kill the king vampire. Meanwhile Adric is first in line to join the new vampire order while Romana is laid out as a sacrificial Time Lord for the awakening king vampire and his swarm of bats.

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1. "Is this the exit from E-Space?

2. "What is the purpose of the Blood Ceremony?

3. "How does the Doctor improvise the ultimate weapon?" (Radio Times)

4. This episode was first shown on 13 December, 1980, and was seen by 5.4 million viewers.

5. It received an Audience Appreciation figure of 69: The highest recorded during the whole 1980-81 season of Doctor Who.

6. On the same day, Tom Baker and Lalla Ward were married at Chelsea Registry Office.

7. The wedding was covered in a BBC News bulletin shown immediately after this episode.

8. Although coached by fight director Alan Chuntz, Matthew Waterhouse had difficulty throwing his dagger convincingly.

9. There were several takes. And BBC records show that Matthew's dagger woes didn't end there.

10. He sustained a grazed shin and an injured foot.

11. The first rule of acting: When you don't need it, give it straight back to the props man.

12. Unlike Emrys James, Lalla Ward and Stuart Fell, Matthew didn't appear in the BBC Hamlet.

13. But he did play the title role in a London fringe theatre production fifteen years later.

14. Lalla Ward, meanwhile, was no stranger to vampire stories.

15. One of her earliest screen roles was in the 1971 Hammer film Vampire Circus.

16. She played a bloodsucking acrobat called Helga.

17. Also in Vampire Circus were Laurence Payne and Adrienne Corri, who both appeared with Lalla in 'The Leisure Hive'.

18. It's a small cosmos.

19. Several times in this season, the Doctor uses the Tardis to make brief journeys within the same location in time and space.

20. Three stories later in 'Logopolis', he comments that "The Tardis and I are getting rather better at these short hops."

21. This has seldom happened before, and here K9's dialogue goes to the trouble of making a short hop sound more feasible.

22. In the script, the Doctor is less polite to K9: "I think you've said something intelligent for a change."

23. Tom Baker suggested that the startled rebels should hurl spears through the open door of the Tardis when it arrives.

24. The Doctor would then emerge unharmed, clutching all the spears in a bundle.

25. Peter Moffatt overruled the idea, but Tom later worked a similar gag into 'Warriors' Gate'.

26. 'State of Decay' echoes several earlier Doctor Who stories.

27. A planet inhabited by the primitive descendants of a spaceship's crew was a central concept in 'The Face of Evil' (1977).

28. And the idea of a strange ritual gesture to ward off evil is common to both stories.

29. Here it echoes the sign of the cross made by vampire-fearing villagers in countless horror movies.

30. In 'The Face of Evil' it is a remnant of the procedure for checking the seals on a spacesuit.

31. 'State of Decay' also shares several similarities with the 1968 serial 'The Krotons'.

32. In both stories, a backward society is ruled by aliens who live in a castle that's really a spaceship.

33. The aliens plan to escape the planet, and select the best specimens among the dull natives to revitalise themselves.

34. The Doctor's arrival catalyses the rebellion led by a local scientist.

35. Coincidentally, 'The Krotons' was originally entitled...

36. 'The Space Trap'.

37. Then again, perhaps it isn't such a coincidence when one considers this:

38. 'The Krotons' was written by Robert Holmes and script-edited by Terrance Dicks.

39. Meanwhile, 'State of Decay' was written by Terrance Dicks and (in its original 1977 version) Commissioned by Robert Holmes.

40. A slight alteration was made to the rehearsal script here.

41. Originally, only Camilla was instructed to initiate Adric.

42. This quotation from Shakespeare's Henry Vwas added at Tom Baker's suggestion.

43. In the original, Shakespeare decides to go with "Crispian" rather than "E-Space".

44. This is because Henry is addressing his army on St Crispian's Day, just before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

45. Although he's never quoted this speech before, it's the third time that the Doctor has referred to Agincourt.

46. He mentions the famous battle in both 'The Masque of Mandragora' and 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang'.

47. The fourth Doctor is particularly fond of Shakespeare.

48. He's been known to quote from Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet.

49. The Henry Vgag is reminiscent of a scene in 1979's 'The Armageddon Factor' in which he freely adapts Richard II.

50. In the script, the Doctor acknowledges Kalmar's "healthy scientific scepticism", but adds, "We can't afford that luxury."

51. Of the scanner he observes, "It scans all the way through the spectrum, from radio frequencies right down to sound waves."

52. The line was clearly intended to pave the way for the heartbeat that's building in the background.

53. The Great Vampire was a rod-puppet constructed by visual effects designer Tony Harding.

54. It was 12 inches high, with a two-foot wingspan.

55. It was used after test shots of an extra in a vampire costume were deemed unsatisfactory.

56. Life often imitates art, and the friction between Romana and Adric is a case in point.

57. Lalla Ward would later reveal that there was little love lost between her and Matthew Waterhouse.

58. Matthew got off to a bad start when Lalla intervened in an argument he was having with costume designer Amy Roberts.

59. He was refusing to change out of his costume before going to the BBC canteen.

60. Lalla Ward took him to one side and had a stern word about his conduct. Rather like she's doing here.

61. Romana's scripted speech is: "The Doctor's spent all his life coping with this sort of thing. He won't just clear off in the Tardis.

62. "He'll stay here and risk his life and he'll try to save ours. When he does turn up, he'll need your help."

63. At this stage, the production team had made no plans about Adric's eventual departure from Doctor Who.

64. So the irony of this line is entirely unintentional.

65. Another exchange was cut from the script here. Aukon asks Adric, "You will join us of your own free will?"

66. To which the boy replies, "I'd have to be crazy not to, wouldn't I?"

67. The idea that Adric might be siding with the villains reappears in several later stories, but this is the first time it surfaces.

68. The script explains that Romana is "uncertain, as we should be, how serious he is." Perhaps Adric himself isn't too sure.

69. The map is not mentioned in the script.

70. Instead, the Doctor and the rebels are still looking at the scanner.

71. The script underlines the Doctor's moment of realisation.

72. "The Doctor isn't listening," explain the directions. "He is adjusting controls to bring back the picture of the Tower."

73. It was decided in rehearsal to make the revelation just a fraction less obvious for the audience.

74. Stand by for a unique moment in Doctor Who history.

75. When K9 enters or exits the Tardis, he usually does so off-screen.

76. Instead of seeing it, we get a close-up of someone "watching" him cross the bumpy Police Box threshold.

77. But once, just once, K9 exits the Tardis in full view. And here he comes now.

78. Go K9!

79. K9's line was added in rehearsal.

80. Since his last outing in 'The Leisure Hive', he had undergone a major refit to improve his manoeuvrability.

81. Once again, violence was toned down in this scene.

82. In the script, Ivo throws a spear that transfixes the guard, who dies with "a choking scream".

83. Spare a thought for the second guard. First K9 shoots him...

84. and then he has to get out of the way.

85. The fight sequences were arranged by Stuart Fell.

86. The main stunt guard was Alan Chuntz, another long-serving Doctor Who artist.

87. His previous roles included a violent chauffeur in 'The Seeds of Doom' (1976).

88. And Omega's champion in 'The Three Doctors' (1972).

89. "One day you'll apologise for that" was added in rehearsal.

90. Adric's line was a late addition. In the original script, he remains in a trance until later.

91. On the other hand, in the script Romana is not in a trance, and "looks exultant" at the news brought by Habris.

92. The depiction of vampire bats in 'State of Decay' caused a bit of a flap.

93. The BBC received complaints from several bodies concerned that Doctor Who was stirring up irrational fears.

94. Among the concerned parties were the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology.

95. Another was the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

96. The controversy even reached the House of Lords.

97. On 4 December, 1980, the pioneering environmentalist Lord Melchett tabled a question in the Upper House.

98. He asked if Her Majesty's Government would approach the Nature Conservancy Council.

99. He wanted them "to draw the BBC's attention to the damage likely to be done to bats in this country,

100. "if they are portrayed as harmful to human beings as they were in a recent episode of Doctor Who.

101. "All species of British bats are beneficial to human beings, and are now known to be drastically declining in numbers."

102. Lord Melchett was, of course, correct: All 32 species of European bat are harmless.

103. Vampire bats live only in Central and South America. They grow no bigger than 9.5cm long.

104. Their association with fictional vampires is another comparatively recent invention.

105. Dracula doesn't turn into a bat in Bram Stoker's novel. The idea was added in stage and screen adaptations.

106. Adric's rebellion was another last-minute addition. In the script he merely "watches impassively".

107. The three scout ships are of course the same set, shot from three different angles.

108. Here's another of Peter Moffatt's impressive crane shots.

109. Coming up in a moment is some rapid editing, so while we have time, here's something to look out for.

110. Prepare for another appearance by the fluttering clockwork bat prop.

111. It lands on Romana's neck in a reversed shot.

112. The bat was pre-set on Lalla Ward's neck, and then pulled away on a nylon line.

113. The shot was then played backwards during the edit.

114. Make-up then added the bite marks to Lalla's neck, and the bat was pulled away for a second time.

115. But before all that, watch out for another hapless ex-guard in the foreground of the next shot.

116. Oops!

117. And here's the reversed bat shot.

118. The shuddering effect was created electronically with the Quantel 3001 image manipulation system.

119. In the script, it's only now that Adric comes to his senses and rescues Romana from the slab.

120. Terrance Dicks imagined the three scout ships standing out from the Tower like turrets.

121. The final transmission script alters this description to match Tony Harding's design:

122. "The nose cone at the top of the Tower slowly opens up, revealing that it forms the three scout ships."

123. This exchange was reworked to make Romana smarter and remove the dreaded line "What's happening, Doctor?"

124. The Great Vampire's hand belongs to visual effects assistant Chris Lawson.

125. His hands were full in this sequence: They also operated the smoke machines and pulled the bat from Lalla Ward's neck.

126. Adric is unfamiliar with Earth expressions - just as in 'Full Circle' when he doesn't know how to cross his fingers.

127. Nobody was very happy with the shots of the scout ship in space.

128. They were scheduled for pre-filming, but when time ran out they were recorded as CSO shots in the studio instead.

129. The revised script inserts an extra scene here: The death of the Great Vampire as seen on the scanner at the rebels' HQ.

130. "The whole vast length of the Great Vampire writhes and subsides, its luminance slowly fading as it dissolves into the earth."

131. The ageing of the three vampires was a triumph for make-up artist Norma Hill.

132. She had assisted on previous Doctor Who productions, but this was her first story as chief make-up artist.

133. There were several recording breaks while Hill and her assistants applied fresh layers of make-up.

134. The last stage included bald caps and prosthetic cheekbones.

135. For the final collapse of the vampires, Tony Harding used three dummies, rigged to implode with the use of vacuum pumps.

136. Harding had constructed the collapsing dummy corpses three years earlier.

137. Ironically, he made them for the same BBC adaptation of Dracula that had postponed 'State of Decay' in the first place.

138. This exchange was rewritten after Adric's role in the ceremony was altered.

139. Originally he said, "Come on, that was just a trick to get the chains off. Good job I did, you'd have been bat-food by now!"

140. Adric underwent some further rewrites.

141. After the Doctor's explanation he remarked, "Took you long enough to think of it."

142. And this was originally Adric's line.

143. The scripted scene ends here, with the Doctor saying, "It seems to be getting light."

144. Kalmar's congratulations and Ivo's apologies were added in rehearsal.

145. This was the final studio scene to be recorded, at a few minutes to ten on the evening of 31 May, 1980.

146. The Doctor's review of the troops was another unscripted embellishment.

147. In the script, the Doctor doesn't send Romana and Adric into the Tardis so soon.

148. Instead, he says to a protesting Adric: "I'll tell you one thing. You're going straight home."

149. "By the ear, the Doctor leads Adric into the Tardis, still arguing and protesting".

150. When 'State of Decay' was in production, the script of Adric's debut story hadn't yet been finalised.

151. In the finished programme,

152. Tom Baker's dubbed line about the Starliner was added to bring the story full circle.

153. Also appearing in this episode were:

154. Barney Lawrence (Guard)

155. Lan Sheridan (Guard)

156. Richard Sheekey (Guard)

157. Michael Bryden (Guard)

158. Uncredited production contributors

159. Allison Stewart (Floor Assistant)

160. Chick Hetherington (Show Working Supervisor)

161. Cathy Burczac (Make-up Assistant)

162. Originally assigned but replaced before production were:

163. Norman Brierley (Technical Manager)

164. John Holmes (Studio Sound Supervisor)

165. Production subtitles written by Nicholas Pegg. And came straight down again.

166. But what about the Lords, Zargo and the others?

167. Ah, well, they just went to pieces.

168. - Doctor... - Yes?

169. As one scientist to another, congratulations.

170. - It was nothing. - There is one thing, Doctor.

171. Yes?

172. I feel I really must apologise for the things I said about K9.

173. Go on then.

174. Well done, dog.

175. Your thanks are recorded.

176. There, that should do it.

177. Oh.

178. There, that should do it.

179. Well, Kalmar, there's all the knowledge you'll need in there.

180. Use it well, and if that's what you want,

181. you can be a high technological society in no time.

182. - We'll do our best, Doctor. - Good, good.

183. - Doctor... - Yes?

184. If we can get the main ship working...

185. Inside, you two. We'll just have to go along in a minute.

186. Is there any way out of this E-Space?

187. Perhaps one day, we can get back to Earth.

188. Well, I really don't know. You see, we came here by accident.

189. But you were brought here by the Great Vampire's brain

190. and his secret died with him.

191. Kalmar, such good luck.

192. Oh, thank you, Doctor.

193. And you, young man, you're going straight home.

194. But, Doctor...

195. You're going straight back to the Starliner.