A welcome and dazzling return to High Gothic for Doctor Who...

Bwa-ha-ha-haaaaahhh!!! Writing this review for State Of Decay in Autumn is highly appropriate, since October's traditionally linked with gothic chills and vampire thrills.

And State Of Decay is very much a thrill-a-minute gothic horror tale, which managed to both look to the old Hammer Horror movies for inspiration and pre-empt some of the future vampire TV programmes like Buffy, True Blood and Who's very own Vampires Of Venice. In fact, Vampires Of Venice could have learnt a trick or two here, since its 1980 stablemate is far more atmospheric and creepier. New director Peter Moffatt starts his Who career in cracking style, and adds a big dollop of gothic flavour to the script from returning fan favourite Terrance Dicks.

Behind the scenes though, Uncle Terrance's script had had quite a turbulent ride. It was originally commissioned as the Season 15 opener, at least until the BBC adaptation of Count Dracula aired. Now languishing in a dusty pile, it lay there for three years until Christopher HAMILTON Bidmead chanced upon the thing when looking for new stories to include in Season 18. The good news? The story, which went from The Vampire Mutations to State Of Decay, was now green for go. The bad?

"this is by far the most traditional tale of Who this season, and in many ways, it's a sigh of relief to have some good old-fashioned gothic horror to savour"

Well, the DVD documentary tells the tale of alleged fallouts between Uncle Terrance and Fun Chris. The latter didn't think the original drafts were suitable for the new sci-fi style of storytelling, and so decided to go for heavy rewrites. Cue much weeping and wailing from poor old Uncle Terrance - until Peter Moffatt, who upon receiving the scripts claimed to demand that he wanted the original versions. In the end, Uncle Terrance got his wish - even if you can spot one or two Bidmeadisms, such as the ban on learning and technology in the peasant dwellings. Presumably, the prospect of life without science, technology and computers would send Fun Chris into meltdown.

But this is by far the most traditional tale of Who this season, and in many ways, it's a sigh of relief to have some good old-fashioned gothic horror to savour. It's a sly wink to the Hinchcliffe stories, with three vampire tyrants controlling the peasants and drinking some of the population's blood for a morning snack. The clever spin on the vampire aspect is that originally The Doctor and Romana think that the vampires are the descendants of the lost Hydrax crew (Anthony O'Connor becomes Aukon; Lauren McMillan becomes Camilla and Miles Sharkey becomes Zargo in a clever Brothers Grimm reference to the laws of consonantal shift), when in fact they ARE the originals.

Presumably, Aukon, Camilla and Zargo are several hundred years old, and it's all thanks to their master, The Great Vampire, a Big Daddy Jimmy Savile, who has fixed it for the three to live forever - complete with special badges as souvenirs. The vampires are very effective though. Interestingly, there's a bit of class squabbling here. Despite being at the top of the hierarchical pile, Zargo and Camilla are always being bossed about by their pudding bowl Councillor, Aukon. Despite boasting a swanky castle, gourmet foods, fine wines and considerable reputations among the village folk, Zargo and Camilla aren't really that happy. Zargo openly tells Aukon of his frustration in part three at not being able to commune with the Great One, while Aukon gets that happy task. And over the four parts, it's always Aukon at the front, bellowing orders and commands with hammy gusto.

"Despite the hammy acting and pudding bowl He-Man wig, Emrys James gives a hugely enjoyable performance. Anything less than subtle wouldn't have done"

All three work well though, thanks to some enjoyably OTT performances. William Lindsay and Rachel Davies are very good as Zargo and Camilla, looking like medieval versions of Lindsay Buckingham from Fleetwood Mac and Siouxsie Sioux respectively. Davies, in particular, has a nice line in evil teeth-gnashing glares, especially at the end of part three, when she's drooling with relish at tucking into a Romana pie with a side-serving of Tarak and Adric leftovers. But it's Emrys James who positively steals the show as Aukon. Just when you think the man can't get more OTT, he struts along to disprove that theory in the next scene that he's in. "Yooooo haaaave. BOOOOTH!! BEEEEN CHOOOOOO-SENNN!!" he howls at The Doctor and Romana like a slightly demented Davina McCaw choosing potentials for the Great Vampire House of Fun. And yet in the next episode, he's gone absolutely barking, as he reveals his plans for universal vampire conquest ("MOOOOORE AND YET MOOOOORE WORLDS!!"). Still, despite the hammy acting and pudding bowl He-Man wig, James gives a hugely enjoyable performance. Anything less than subtle wouldn't have done anyways.

And they certainly turn the hapless villagers into quivering wrecks. They seem to be a stereotypical lot of yokels, all hippy hair and long beards, like a moth-eaten Fairport Convention fan club. Arthur Hewlett as Kalmar is probably the best of the bunch, although Clinton Greyn gives a decent enough performance as Ivo. You certainly couldn't imagine this lot staging a revolution against the rulers though.

So step forward The Doctor, Romana and K9, who come to the rescue of the quaking villagers. And State Of Decay is very much one of the best outings for Tom, Lalla and John - ironic, given the troubled making of the story. The DVD 'Making Of', as well as books and magazines, chart a turbulent game of two halves. In the first production block, Tom's allegedly feeling ill, not speaking to Lalla, and telling new boy Waterhouse to "Piss off". Lalla, in the meantime, is allegedly falling out with Waterhouse already and getting reduced to tears by a grumpy Peter Moffatt. Who fan Waterhouse, in the meantime, is presumably crying into his latest copy of Doctor Who Weekly at such a crazy working atmosphere. And yet, in the next production block, Tom and Lalla are apparently on speaking terms again, and it's a cheerier atmos all round. It's fun trying to tell which scenes belong to which production block - a rule of thumb is to look for the difference in Baker's haircut. If it's long and flat, it's Block One. If it's notably shorter (and Tom's looking far healthier), then it's Block Two.

"The relationship between The Doctor and Romana is very much a grown-up one, laced with wit and charm, and it's enough to make a grown man weep, considering that their replacements are devoid of maturity, wit or charm."

Despite all this hoo-haa, Tom and Lalla give excellent performances, and there's a real sense of closeness between The Doctor and Romana, the closest they've been since City Of Death. The pinnacle of all this is of course, the sweet scene in the cell, in which Romana points out the fact that the TARDIS has information on great vampires, to which The Doctor whispers: "Pssst. You are wonderful!" It's highly understated, beautifully acted by the two, but in a sense rather poignant, given that this is really the last chance they get to spend a long amount of time together. In Warriors' Gate, they're apart from each other most of the time, and by the end of the story, Romana will leave. The relationship between The Doctor and Romana is very much a grown-up one, laced with wit and charm, and it's enough to make a grown man weep, considering that their replacements are devoid of maturity, wit or charm.

One of whom really grates on the nerves in State. Yes, it's Adric, who manages to achieve a considerable miracle in behaving like an even bigger arsehole than he did in his first story. This was Matthew Waterhouse's first story before the cameras, and it blatantly shows up on screen, right from the opening moments when he plods across the TARDIS console room like an injured duck trying to make it across a cess pit. It doesn't help that Adric achieves absolutely naff-all in this story apart from getting in everyone's way and behaving like a whiny brat. He manages to demand food from poor old Ivo and Marta, and even getting extra portions of cheese in the bargain. He manages to get himself captured by Aukon. And even when he comes up with a plan to free himself and Romana from the clutches of the Three Who Rule, it's so ill-conceived that you wonder how on Alzarius he got his badge for mathematical excellence. All Adric manages to achieve is to get hypnotised again and pull a cross-eyed face like Nookie Bear watching an X-rated film. Cheers for that Adric.

"State Of Decay may not contain any deep and meaningful subtext. It may not stand up to the fast pace of modern vampire TV programmes. But it's still a wonderful slice of gothic Who, full of shocks and scares, and thrills and spills"

Even with the annoying Adric pissing off everyone in sight, State Of Decay is a class act all the way. It's stylishly assembled by Peter Moffatt, who really does Uncle Terrance's script justice. His casting of the Three Who Rule is inspired, and he manages to bring balletic, ethereal but highly creepy performances out of the actors. Production-wise, it's a treat, with some moody location work, effective use of stock footage and clever camera trickery (such as superimposing the stock footage of a bat flying in slow motion over a close-up of Aukon gurning).

The only downer is the shot of the Great Vampire, which is basically a close-up of an extra waggling his fingers in a moth-eaten gardening glove. Add to this a lolly stick spaceship plunging with wobbly imprecision into the so-called heart of the Great Vampire (ie: the ground) and it's a pretty ropey climax. Thank god then for the following sequence in which Zargo, Aukon and Camilla slowly age and rot away to three smoking skeletons. And please note that they don't actually crumble to dust - they age slowly in gruesome fashion, before their mummified heads deflate and fade away to smoking skulls. If there is dust, my Mr Magoo eyes can't pick it out. Brilliant sequence though.

State Of Decay may not contain any deep and meaningful subtext. It may not stand up to the fast pace of modern vampire TV programmes. But it's still a wonderful slice of gothic Who, full of shocks and scares, and thrills and spills. And it's also the last time really this season that you get the idea that The Doctor, Romana and K9 are allowed to have fun. The Doctor certainly seems to enjoy cajoling the rebels into a formidable attack force, even quoting Shakespeare into the bargain. And beacuse they're having fun, it's a safe bet that the viewers are having loads of fun too. A gothic masterpiece.

John Bensalhia limbered up for this mammoth task with a full four-series review of Blake's 7, and writes professionally and recreationally all over the web. Check out his portfolio of work at Wordprofectors.

Check out John's previous Doctor Who review, Full Circle

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE, PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR SITE, AT NO COST WITH ONE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK 'LIKE' BUTTON BELOW: