State of Decay Part One

The one where the Doctor and Romana encounter a swarm of carnivorous bats...

I have a deep-rooted relationship with State of Decay. When I was five I had the Pickwick audio cassette of the story which I listened to over and over again, both fascinated by and slightly afraid of Tom Baker's doom-laden narration. It came out before the Target novelisation, and differs from both the TV and book versions significantly (I seem to remember it cuts a lot of K-9 out). Another fundamental connection I have with this story is that (I believe) it is the first memory I have of watching Doctor Who. There's a very specific scene and shot (maybe in part 3 - I'll know when I get to it) of Romana and the Doctor climbing the ladder to the top of the Hydrax, which for some reason, despite its humdrum quality, stayed with me. I can even visualise it in the same hazy way I could for all those years until I got the VHS and could relive it again.

The episode opens with a tracking shot of a huge cathedral-like tower looming over a rural landscape and village. So far, so folk horror. The architecture inside the tower is what I might call gothic, others might call rococo, still others might call Romanesque, but whatever the truth, it's a gorgeous design by Christine Ruscoe which, in partnership with Amy Roberts' sumptuous costumes, just screams HAMMER HORROR! Doctor Who and Hammer are two of my favourite things in the world, so State of Decay is already shaping up well.

Full Circle Part Four

The one where the Marshmen run riot through the Starliner...

It's weird seeing the Marshmen lumbering along the Starliner's corridors, but a cool sight nonetheless. We've only seen them on location, or in their natural habitat, so far, so it's mildly arresting to see them flooding the ship, wielding cudgels (and robot dog heads). They're really good at marauding, smashing up laboratories, breaking their way through barraged doors and tearing up those bloody silly system files. And there's a lot of them. Romana lets an awful lot of the Marshmen in!

Another thing the Marshmen do well is kill people, and the first victim we see is Tylos. I'm not sorry to see him go, he should have been written out episodes ago, but the way he goes at least has some pathos to it, as he helps a nameless supporting actor escape the clutches of a Marshman, only to be dragged back by the same monster. There's a very deliberate shot of the rescued man deciding not to return the favour, and running away instead of helping to save Tylos. It's a nice little character beat for a background artist, giving him more characterisation than Tylos had!

Full Circle Part Three

The one where Romana gets possessed by the Alzarian eco-system...

It's weird seeing the TARDIS rammed with youths in pyjamas. It's also amazing how the Outlers manage to operate the door mechanism and instigate dematerialisation with the very first switches they try. Beginners' luck, I suppose. These kids are becoming less relevant as the story progresses, starting out as a way to introduce new companion Adric, but increasingly becoming wallpaper. In truth, Tylos should have been written out in some way by now, because his presence is pointless, and Keara's only really there because she's Login's daughter. It's a real shame that Richard Willis is wasted as Varsh, because he's got such a striking screen presence, and he can act, which helps. It would be quite a different couple of years had Varsh become the companion instead of Adric

The Doctor is getting frustrated by the community's endless preparations for the fabled Embarkation, when the Starliner finally leaves Alzarius and returns to Terradon. Login tells him that the preparations take generations, despite the fact everything is checked and counter-checked on a monotonously regular basis (it takes six people to change a circuit at one point). Surely it's ready to go by now?

Full Circle Part Two

The one where K-9 has his head knocked off...

The Marshmen really are the perfect monsters. They're ugly, they're lumbering, they're scaly, they growl, and they emerge from the marshy waters grasping and dripping with seaweed. Peter Grimwade directs their emergence from the marsh with horror film elan, making it one of the most effective monster scenes Doctor Who's ever had. And if their initial appearance isn't eerie enough, once they've made it to the side of the water, they stand still, hissing and moaning as they acclimatise to their new world. Grimwade also has the Marshmen leer into the camera lens a few times, which proves he had a good eye for what's scary!

The Doctor and K-9 watch from the undergrowth as the Marshmen lumber slowly but purposefully through the forest, wading through bog and fen. Surprisingly, the Doctor asks K-9 to follow the Marshmen to see where they settle. This is the robot dog that can barely move across a perfectly smooth, flat surface, never mind a lumpy, boggy, grassy, muddy wasteland. At least the Doctor's optimistic about his pet's abilities!

Full Circle Part One

The one where creatures emerge from a black lagoon...

The Time Lords have put out a call for Romana to return to Gallifrey, and she's not very pleased about it. As the Doctor reminds her, she was only sent in the first place to help him find the Key to Time, and that's long done and dusted. The scenes between the Doctor and Romana in her bedroom are tiny glimpses into the real emotions and feelings of these characters, and it's refreshing because we're too used to them just swapping wisecracks and trying to outsmart one another. Here, writer Andrew Smith gives Romana a visceral, truthful reaction to the Time Lords' call. Why would she want to go back to Gallifrey after everything she's seen and done with the Doctor? It's a common refrain of many companions (once you've seen the universe, how could you possibly want to go back to the humdrum of daily life back home?) and you really feel Romana's pain.

The Doctor seems quite resigned to the fact she has to go back. In fact, he doesn't seem too bothered at all, and is quite looking forward to returning so he can see how Leela and Andred are getting on, and so that K-9 can meet his twin. Lots of little nods to continuity, stemming back as far as The Invasion of Time three seasons back, but not so heavy that they confuse the lay viewer. It's nice little mentions like that which please long-term fans (and again, are realistic things for the Doctor to say), but do not alienate everyone else.

Meglos Part Four

The one where the Doctor pretends to be Meglos pretending to be the Doctor...

It really gets my goat when characters believe everything complete strangers say, and put all their trust and faith in people who don't have any evidence of what they're claiming. This is a prime example: when Romana and Caris hurtle along the Tigellan corridor and bump into Zastor and Deedrix being taken away, it takes no time at all for the Tigellans to believe that there's an evil doppelganger called Meglos walking about who's stolen the Dodecahedron. Only Caris has ever seen Meglos, and the Doctor only suggested there was a doppelganger, but never evidenced it.

With not a whimper of doubt, both Zastor and Deedrix believe everything Romana and Caris tell them, even though they have no idea who or what Meglos is, don't ask, and nobody tells them. Soon after, they present this melange of information to Lexa, mentioning that Meglos has made off with the Gaztaks. "Is this true?" Lexa asks of Zastor, who nods sagely. And she believes him, even though she just condemned Zastor to death on the surface and doesn't know who the Gaztaks are. It's bad scripting, and very bad script editing.

Meglos Part Three

The one where Romana goes round in circles...

Those Savant wigs really are awful, aren't they? In the scene between Deedrix and Caris in the power room - in which they basically summarise the dilemma they're in yet again - Crawford Logan's wig isn't even on level, which I find quite distracting! Incidentally, Logan, as well as playing Deedrix, also provides the voice of Meglos, uncredited. I always assumed it was Christopher Owen, who played the Earthling.

This episode has a lot of nothing going on. There are three strands, and none of them get anywhere very far by the end. We've got Romana, prisoner of the Gaztaks, who promises to lead them to her spaceship, but actually all she's doing is leading them round and round in circles, wasting everybody's time (including mine). There's some amusingly silly pseudo-science guff about not being able to navigate on a planet that rotates anti-clockwise, but essentially the whole thing is pointless. Indeed, the Gaztaks have had nothing worthwhile to do since before the end of part 1.