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State of Decay is the fourth serial of the 18th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 22 November to 13 December 1980.

State of Decay is the second of three loosely connected serials set in another universe known as E-Space. In the serial, three vampire lords rule over a village deliberately kept at a low development level for a thousand years. The lords intend to revive their giant leader vampire, the “Great One”, that converted them from humans after their spaceship crashed on the planet.

Still trapped in E-Space, the Doctor and Romana land on a planet whose only settlement is a medieval village under a high tower, from where the vampiric Three Who Rule regularly select villager to be brought to the tower. The Doctor learns from villager Ivo that science is forbidden in the village. On their way out, they are ambushed by an underground band of rebels, led by scientist Kalmar. They show the Doctor ancient technology they have recovered detailing the crew of the Hydrax, a spaceship from Earth, and its crew, whom former guard Tarak recognizes as the Three Who Rule. Meanwhile, Adric, who has stowed away on the TARDIS, walks into the village and is sheltered by Ivo for the night. On their way back, the Doctor and Romana are attacked by bats and led to the tower.

There they meet lords Zargo and Camilla, who claim they protect the villagers. The Doctor protests that their society has backslid into a primitive one under their rule. Aukon, the last of the three lords, selects Adric from among the villagers and brings him a cave under the tower to become the first of the “chosen ones.” Left alone, the Doctor and Romana conclude that the tower was formerly the Hydrax and that the Three Who Rule are the descendants of the crew. They find an inspection shaft and reach the flight deck, where they discover fuel tanks filled with blood and hear a loud heartbeat. Aukon discovers them, leading the Doctor to realize the Three Who Rule are the original crew, not their descendants.

Imprisoned by Aukon, the Doctor recalls a story from Gallifrey about an ancient war against giant vampires, one of which he believes escaped into E-Space. Tarak rescues the two, and leaves with Romana to rescue Adric, while the Doctor heads to the TARDIS to access a magnetic card system, from which he learns that the giant vampires were defeated with ships that fired bolts of steel through their hearts. In the vampire crypt, Romana finds Adric in a trance. Zargo and Camilla awaken, killing Tarak and taking Romana prisoner as a sacrifice for the upcoming “arising.” The Doctor lands in the rebel bunker and rouses them to attack the tower, with the help of K9. Using a scanner, they discover a giant vampire creature under the tower.

The rebels attack and enter the throne room. The Doctor finds the control for one o the Hydrax‘s scout ships and programs a flight path. In the cave below, Aukon calls on the giant vampire, the Great One, to arise and drink the blood of the sacrifice. The rebels evacuate as the scout ship takes off, waking Romana. As the claws of the Great One emerge from the ground, the scout ship turns back around and strikes the giant vampire through the heart, killing it. The Three Who Rule age rapidly and crumble into dust. The Doctor helps the rebels repair their computer and leaves to bring Adric home and find a way out of E-Space.

State of Decay originated in January 1977, when then-script editor Robert Holmes directed Terrance Dicks to write a storyline that would start off Doctor Who‘s upcoming fifteenth season. Both Holmes and Dicks had written Gothic-inspired serials for prior seasons, and Dicks revived a prior idea to write a Dracula-like vampire story in a science-fiction setting, which he originally titled The Witch Lords.^[4] Dick was also simultaneously commissioned to write a novelization of the serial, to be released by Target Books. The original draft of the serial featured then-companion Leela, and saw the Doctor landing on a medieval-like planet ruled by vampiric nobles where the peasants roamed at night as zombies. Dicks submitted the script for the first episode of the serial, renamed The Vampire Mutations, on 25 January. Shortly after, however, BBC Head of Serials Graeme McDonald vetoed the storyline’s production, fearing that the serial would be perceived as a spoof of the BBC’s upcoming adaptation of Stoker’s novel. Holmes commissioned Dicks to write The Horror of Fang Rock as a replacement.^[5]

Dicks’ script was revived in December 1979, when incoming producer John Nathan-Turner discovered that his predecessor Graham Williams had left behind almost no scripts that could be used for the series’ eighteenth season.^[3] Knowing Dicks had written for the series before, Nathan-Turner first commissioned a revised outline to be due by the end of the month, followed by the scripts for the serial, to be due in February.^{[3] [6]} While rewriting the scripts, Dicks came into conflict with Christopher H. Bidmead, the series’ new script editor, who sought to place more emphasis on hard science and disapproved of Dicks’ reworking of Dracula. Bidmead, disapproving of the Hammer horror-like tone of the first draft,^[7] encouraged Dicks to write the vampires as scientists and to focus the story more on the conflict between superstition and science, while Dicks wished to portray the vampires more in line with traditional horror clichés. Bidmead’s influence led Dicks to devise the conceit of the vampires’ castle originally being a crashed spaceship.^[3] The two both collaborated to add the element of the underground band of scientists to the script.^[8]

Bidmead also ordered Dicks to incorporate two new elements of continuity into the script, the new companion Adric and the storyline of the TARDIS being trapped in the smaller universe of E-Space. Dicks felt the concept of E-Space was never fully explained to him, and was equally unsure about how to involve Adric, having been given little direction and great liberty with writing him.^[6] Although the serial was initially planned to air second in the season, it was moved further up to allow for Adric’s introduction.^[8] Bidmead vetoed the title The Vampire Mutation, feeling the audience should not know immediately that the villains were vampires.^[9] To Dicks’ displeasure, Bidmead renamed the serial The Wasting,^[6] although this was changed to State of Decay during filming,^[9] as Dick feared negative reviews making puns on the serial “wasting” viewers’ time.^[8]

Dicks’ scripts were approved on 12 March 1980.^[6] Despite this, Bidmead and Nathan-Turner requested rewrites to tone down the horror aspects of Dicks’ scripts,^[10] and encouraged Dicks to incorporate scientific elements like a discussion of Grimm’s law, which the writer felt slowed the story.^[11] Dicks, feeling that the character of K9 had been sidelined in previous stories, wrote a larger part for the character in Part Four. He included several in-jokes at Bidmead’s expense, including the Doctor’s comment comparing the TARDIS, which Bidmead wanted the show to use more actively, to a bus.^[9] More technological elements were introduced in further rewrites on 3 April.^[12] On April 11, Head of Serial MacDonald demanded further rewrites of scenes he deemed too frightening, including the death of the vampires and several instances of violence.^[13]

Nathan-Turner approached Peter Moffatt, with whom he had worked on All Creatures Great and Small, about directing the serial, as the director was well known for his punctuality and careful planning that ensured shortened shoots.^[8] Moffat accepted on 10 March based on Dicks’ scripts, and was disappointed to find that Bidmead had encouraged him to tone down the horror elements. After he complained to Nathan-Turner, Moffat was given permission to film an older version of the script with more of Dicks’ stylistic elements intact, removing some of Bidmead’s ideas, one of which was to have the vampires hatch from eggs.^[14] Amy Roberts, who had previously worked on Image of the Fendahl, was chosen as costume designer, alternating between serials with June Hudson. A former assistant, Norma Hill, was selected as make-up designer, while Tony Harding, who had worked on two previous serials as well as the BBC’s Count Dracula, came on to design the visual effects. Christine Ruscoe, who had designed sets for Pyramids of Mars and The Hand of Fear, was chosen as the serial’s set designer.^[14]

Matthew Waterhouse, an emerging actor who was a fan of the show, was cast as Adric by the end of March, having been recommended to Nathan-Turner by two sources.^[15] Although differing from the production team’s idea of Adric, Waterhouse’s audition impressed the team, who contracted him on 3 April for at least 20 episodes. Nathan-Turner took Waterhouse to lunch afterwards to assure that the actor was not a member of he Doctor Who Appreciation Society.^[13] Moffat avoided Nathan-Turner’s usual practice of casting big-name actors in guest roles, instead opting for character actors such as Arthur Hewlett as Kalmar. Moffat chose to cast actors trained in theatre rather than television as the Three Who Rule to produce deliberately exaggerated performances and stylized vocality, which he described as “ham Shakespeare,” eventually choosing Emrys James, Rachel Davies, and William Lindsay.^[2] He directed the three actors to move elegantly and ballet-like, to further the contrast with the naturalistic performances of the peasants.^[16] Welsh actor Clinton Greyn was cast as Ivo, while Rhoda Lewis was cast as Marta. Hewlett, James, and Greyn had all previously worked with Moffat.^[17]

Dicks, conscious of budget limitations, capped the number of sets to be used in the serial at eleven, including the TARDIS interior, which was augmented with a new door and printer. Despite being referred to as rococo in the story, Ruscoe drew on Saxon and Romanesque architecture for the vampire planet. Ruscoe designed a set for the entrance to the tower that could be modified to depict either the view looking out or the view looking in.^[2] Inspired by Mont-Saint-Michel,^[18] her concept for the tower’s interior was that the walls would be made of copper that had corroded to partially resemble stone.^[2] However, the end result resembled wood, which provoked an on-set argument with Bidmead.^[18] Some parts of the set were made from repainted elements from BBC2‘s Not the Nine O’Clock News.^[18] Ruscoe carefully structured the rebel hideout set to disguise its size, and featured a monitor from one of the BBC’s Ceefax machines as part of a scanner prop. The largest set was the cave, which was further complicated by the need for blue screens and hidden tubes for dry ice. To give the throne room the illusion of size, Moffat commissioned a glass painting for the top of the set.^[2]

Although Adric’s first appearance would be in the prior serial, Full Circle, State of Decay was to be produced first. Costume designer Amy Roberts therefore had to design a uniform for Adric in line with Full Circle‘s script for State of Decay, as Nathan-Turner wanted consistent costuming for each cast member.^[14] For Romana‘s costume, Lalla Ward was given a beige hunting suit with a wool waistcoat, white shirt, and black necktie. A white nightgown with gold trim inspired by Hammer films was also designed for the scene in which the vampires attempt to sacrifice Romana. The vampire costumes were made from padded velvet and were given jagged capes to suggest the appearance of bat wings. A vampire-like costume made of the same material was also designed for Adric.^[2] For the vampire make-up, designer Norma Hill applied foundation to pale the actors’ faces with red highlights around the eyes on and on the lips. Acrylic teeth were used for the fangs.^[2] Due to Tom Baker’s poor health, his hair had to be permed by the make-up department.^[19]

Most of the visual effects for the serial consisted of model work, principally of the vampire tower and ship.^[20] Tony Harding built a four-foot model of the tower out of polyester and filmed it for several establishing shots on 35mm film,^[21] fitting the model tower and village with small wired lights for realism.^[20] Due to a lack of time for model filming, priority was given to night shots, as they were the most difficult to light. Harding also built a model scout ship fitted with a Schermuly rocket for the scene of the rocket blasting off.^[21] Shots of the model rocket flying were accomplished with wires.^[20] Due to lack of space, the model had to be kept in the studio during filming with actors.^[22] A model of the underground chamber where the Great Vampire emerges was built with layered plaster over a platform with a hole in it, through which effects assistant Chris Lawson pushed his gloved hand. A red light was added under the set to suggest the Great Vampire’s energy.^[20][21] Two versions of the Great Vampire were attempted, one as a costumed extra and one as a mechanical puppet. Moffat decided against the former and chose to include the latter, albeit seen distorted through Kalmar’s scanner. To produce the prop bats, Harding modified bird toys with flapping wings, which the effects team refashioned to be self-powered. A scene of a bat landing on Romana’s neck was performed by pulling the prop bat away on wires and reversing the footage.^[20] The effects of the vampires rapidly aging were done in nine stages, the first five of which comprised increasing layers of prosthetics, followed by the use dummies and vacuum pumps to show the vampires crumbling to dust.^[23]

Production began with location filming on 30 April and 1 May at Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire with Baker and Ward alongside Iain Rattray as Habris and Thane Bettany as Tarak. Baker was ill and initially abrasive towards Moffat, as he was new to the show, until Moffat gave Baker helpful acting suggestions. The first shoot day consisted of day for night shots, using a dark filter over the camera. The second day saw the filming of the rest of Part One’s cliffhanger, as well as the Doctor and Romana encountering the rebels.^[24] At Baker’s suggestion, the Doctor’s wound was depicted oozing blue blood. When Nathan-Turner saw the footage, he initially ordered the scene reshot, but due to time constraints simply ordered a close-up on the blood removed.^[7][24] The bat attack was completed on 2 May, after which footage was shot on a ventilation tower’s ladder to depict an inspection shaft.^[24]

Studio rehearsals began 6 May at the BBC TV Centre, marking Waterhouse’s first day on the show.^[24] Waterhouse was sent home from rehearsal as he had not joined the actor’s union Equity, which was resolved that night. While rehearsing the speech the Doctor gives to the rebels, Baker ad-libbed lines from Henry V, which were subsequently written into the script.^[25] The vampire ship was initially called the Hyperion, but during rehearsals was renamed the Hydrax, as the former name had been used previously in the 1972 serial The Mutants.^[7] Studio recording began on 15 May in Studio 3 of the TV Centre. During this first session, a dispute over an invoice led to Nigel Brackley, the usual operator for the K9 prop, being replaced with Mat Irvine.^[25] The crew first recorded scenes set in the rebel headquarters, followed by those in the scoutship control room.^[19] More rehearsals followed from 19 May, during which more elements, like the reference to an old Gallifreyan hermit, were added.^[26] Recording continued from 29 to 31 May in studio 6, beginning with shots in the throne room, followed by scenes in the sleeping vault and the tower corridors. While filming with a prop dagger during the session, Waterhouse dropped the prop and cut his leg with it.^[18][27] Stuart Fell and Alan Chuntz coordinated the stunts for the session, including hand-to-hand combat and Tarak being thrown across the room.^[22] On the final day, Baker insisted on saying the word “herbs” with an American pronunciation, despite Moffat’s protest. The model effects were filmed between the studio sessions, on 20 and 21 May, as well as on 4 June.^[28]

Filming was beset with conflict among the production team, mostly among the main cast. Baker, who was also ill, and Ward were in an increasingly fraught relationship at the time, and kept almost entirely separate between takes.^[24] Waterhouse remembers being told on his first day bout the “blue corner” and “red corner” the set was divided into between them by Moffat.^[27] While recording a scene in which the Doctor and Romana climb down from a ladder, Baker responded to Moffat’s suggestion that the Doctor help Romana down by saying Ward could do it herself.^[21] Ward and Baker, however, grew closer again during the shoot,^[21] and began plans to marry. Ward also began planning to leave the series during the serial’s filming.^[28] Waterhouse’s presence and inexperience led to further conflict. On the first day of rehearsal, Waterhouse made a poor impression on Baker by giving him advice on the scene. Waterhouse remembered Baker telling him to “piss off” after he introduced himself. In response, Waterhouse tore down his poster of Baker upon arriving home.^[25] Although Baker was kinder to Waterhouse during the next day of rehearsals,^[25] Waterhouse felt he continued being difficult to work with. On the final day, he confronted Baker vulgarly, which Baker responded to by keeping quiet for the rest of the day.^[28] Ward was annoyed with the young actor, believing he did not realize his luck in booking the role,^[25] and at one point had to intervene in an argument between Waterhouse and Amy Roberts over the actor wearing his costume to lunch.^[19]

Editing for the serial began on 3 June, using Quantel equipment for visual effects like the green tint of E-Space, the orange color of the planet, and superimposed footage of bats, which came from Animal Marvels: Frontiers of Life, a BBC-Universal nature documentary, and the BBC Natural History Film Unit. The second episode originally ended with a reveal of the tanks of blood as a cliffhanger but was lengthened to end on Aukon’s arrival, as the episode ran too short. An additional scene of Tarak rescuing Romana and the Doctor was removed from Part Three.^[29]

At Moffat’s request, sound designer Dick Mills created a chittering noise for the bats using a synthesizer. Mills recorded his own voice and slowed it to depict the Great Vampire’s death.^[22] To keep continuity with Full Circle, Tom Baker dubbed a line over the end of Part Four about taking Adric back to his home planet of Alzarius.^[29] Paddy Kingsland, who alternated with Peter Howell throughout the season, composed the serial’s score. Kingsland had previously composed the score for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on BBC Radio 4 and used a similar range of synthesizers for State of Decay.^[22]

State of Decay was broadcast on BBC One in four weekly parts from 22 November to 13 December 1980. Like the rest of season 18, the serial saw relatively low viewership at around five million per episode. Part of the reason for this was competition from ITV, which concurrently broadcast the American series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. As a whole, the serial received a decent Appreciation Score of 67 from audiences.^[31]The BBC advertised the serial with a 40-second trailer the evening prior to Part One’s broadcast. An interview with guest actor Emrys James ran in The Sun on 22 November, in which he discussed working with Tom Baker. Various press items about the series as a whole were published as the serial aired, including about Ward and Baker’s marriage on 13 December, the date of Part Four’s broadcast.^[32]

A Doctor Who exhibit at Madame Tussauds was advertised after the broadcasts of the first three episodes, while the end of Part Four announced the airdate of the next serial in January. The serial was sold overseas in New Zealand and North America the following year, to Australia in 1982, to Canada in 1983, and to Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates later in the decade.^[31] It was shown again on UK Gold in 1994, airing in production order between The Leisure Hive and Meglos.^[31]

For Radio Times, Mark Braxton awarded State of Decay four stars out of five, writing that “Terrance Dicks’s penultimate script for Doctor Who positively gushes with invention and wit. In fact, it’s among his cleverest, and gives an already striking season 18 a tremendous shot in the arm.” He considered it “a throwback to the Hinchcliffe/Holmes golden age, played with a totally straight bat and all the better for it.” He regarded it as “gorgeously designed” and the “vampiric triumvirate” as “wonderfully cast”, and “one of Tom Baker’s finest outings”, saying there was an “on-screen rapport” between him and Lalla Ward which was “charming and relaxed”. He found some faults, stating that “some effectively chilly location filming at Burnham Beeches notwithstanding, the bats are a bit lame, rendered by stock footage, cut-outs dangled from a string or a tinkling electronic noise. Despite their simmering menace, Aukon, Camilla and Zargo are all threat and no bite, swishing about with some bizarrely stagey movements. And the Great One is a gloved hand.” However, he concluded by stating that it was “supremely atmospheric, solid of script and with potent production values.”^[33] Writing for The Guardian in 2019, Toby Hadoke described it as “a clever meld of vampire legend and science fiction”.^[34] In Doctor Who: The Complete Guide, Mark Campbell was less impressed, awarding it six out of ten, describing it as a “limply directed vampire tale that doesn’t really gel – the horror should be more explicit, the vampirism more obvious. One feels the production team deliberately didn’t want to plagiarise Hammer, which, considering the Hammeresque script, seems a mistake.”^[35]

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by W. H. Allen Ltd (hardback) in September 1981, with the paperback from Target Books following in January 1982. A novelisation with different text was written by Dicks for an audiobook read by Tom Baker and released on cassette by Pickwick in June 1981.^[36] On 7 January 2016 the full audiobook of the Target novelisation was released read by Geoffrey Beevers and John Leeson.

State of Decay was released on VHS in October 1997. It was released on DVD in January 2009 as part of a boxed set entitled The E-Space Trilogy. This serial was also released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files (issue 86) in April 2012. In 2020, it was released as part of the Time Lord Victorious: Road to the Dark Times Blu-ray.

• Broster, Steve (producer) (2009). The Vampire Lovers: The Making of State of Decay (Documentary). 2|entertain.
• Anghelides, Peter; Richards, Justin, eds. (1994). “State of Decay: The Making of a Television Drama Series”. In-Vision. No. 49. Retrieved 28 March 2026.
• Miles, Lawrence; Wood, Tat (2004). About Time 5: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who (Seasons 18 to 21). Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 0-9759446-4-9.
• Wright, Mark, ed. (2018). State of Decay, Warriors’ Gate, The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis. Doctor Who: The Complete History. Vol. 33. London: Panini Comics, Hachette Partworks. ISSN 2057-6048.

• State of Decay at BBC Online
• State of Decay on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• State of Decay on YouTube

• Doctor Who and the State of Decay title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database