View source for State of Decay (Doctor Who)

{{about|the Doctor Who serial|other uses|State of Decay (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2012}}
{{Infobox Doctor Who episode
| number             = 112<ref>From the ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). ''[[The Discontinuity Guide]]'', which counts the unbroadcast serial ''[[Shada (Doctor Who)|Shada]]'', lists this as story number 113. [[DVD region code#1|Region 1]] DVD [[Doctor Who DVD releases|releases]] follow ''The Discontinuity Guide'' numbering system.</ref>
| serial_name        = State of Decay
| show               = DW
| type               = serial
| image              = 
| caption            = 
| doctor             = [[Tom Baker]] – [[Fourth Doctor]]
| companions         = 
* [[Lalla Ward]] – [[Romana (Doctor Who)|Romana]]
* [[Matthew Waterhouse]] – [[Adric]]
* [[John Leeson]] – Voice of [[K9 (Doctor Who)|K9]]
| guests             = 
*[[William Lindsay (actor)|William Lindsay]] – Zargo
*[[Rachel Davies]] – Camilla
*[[Emrys James]] – Aukon
*[[Clinton Greyn]] – Ivo
*Rhoda Lewis – Marta
*Dean Allen – Karl
*[[Thane Bettany]] – Tarak
*[[Iain Rattray]] – Habris
*[[Arthur Hewlett]] – Kalmar
*Stacy Davies – Veros
*[[Stuart Fell]] – Roga
*Stuart Blake – Zoldaz
| director           = [[Peter Moffatt]]
| writer             = [[Terrance Dicks]]
| script_editor      = [[Christopher H. Bidmead]]
| producer           = [[John Nathan-Turner]]
| executive_producer = [[Barry Letts]]
| composer           = [[Paddy Kingsland]]
| production_code    = 5P
| series             = [[Doctor Who (season 18)|Season 18]]
| length             = 4 episodes, 25 minutes each
| started            = {{Start date|1980|11|22|df=yes}}
| ended              = {{End date|1980|12|13|df=yes}}
| preceding          = ''[[Full Circle (Doctor Who)|Full Circle]]''
| following          = ''[[Warriors' Gate]]''
}}
'''''State of Decay''''' is the fourth serial of the [[Doctor Who (season 18)|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 [[List of Doctor Who universe creatures and aliens (Q–Z)#Vampire|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.

==Plot==
After the events of ''[[Full Circle (Doctor Who)|Full Circle]]'', the [[Fourth Doctor]], [[Romana (Doctor Who)|Romana]], [[K9 (Doctor Who)|K9]], and TARDIS [[stowaway]] [[Adric]] arrive on a planet with a feudal society whose inhabitants live under the thrall of three lords—Zargo, Camilla, and Aukon—who dwell in a shadowy Tower. The Doctor and Romana discover evidence of advanced technology and wonder what happened to cause the planet to devolve to its current "state of decay". After being taken prisoner by the three lords, The Doctor and Romana discover that the great Tower in which the Lords dwell is a spaceship called ''Hydrax'', originally from [[Earth]]. The three lords are members of the original crew, mutated into [[Vampire|vampires]], while the subjects beneath them are the descendants of the other colonists, made dull and primitive by generations of breeding and oppression. 

A rebel called Tarak infiltrates the Tower, freeing the Doctor and Romana. The Doctor returns to the TARDIS, while Romana stays with Tarak to search for Adric. They find Adric in a state of [[trance]]. Zargo and Camilla attack them, but Aukon compels them to stop. He wants Adric as a Chosen One and Romana, a Time Lord, for sacrifice at the Arising, the first taste of revenge for their master, the "Great One."

In the TARDIS the Doctor discovers that the Great Vampires could only be defeated using specially designed ships which fired steel bolts that speared the monsters through the heart. Deep within the tower, he finds the last Great Vampire, about to be revived. The Doctor rigs one of the spaceship's old scout ships to launch and fall back toward the ground, driving itself into the heart of the subterranean Great One. With the Great One dispatched, the three vampire Lords crumble to dust. 

The Doctor finds Romana and Adric and they leave the planet, hoping it will develop once again toward its former advanced state.

==Production==
Working titles for this story included ''The Wasting'' and ''The Witch Lords''.<ref name="braxton">{{cite web |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-guide/state-of-decay/ |title=State of Decay ★★★★ |work=Radio Times |first=Mark |last=Braxton |access-date=19 April 2021}}</ref> The serial was a re-written version of a story originally entitled ''The Witch Lords'', later retitled ''The Vampire Mutations'', which Dicks had submitted to the series in 1977, but which had been pulled just before production because of fears of a possible conflict with the BBC's ''[[Count Dracula (1977)|Count Dracula]]'', a high-profile adaptation of [[Bram Stoker]]'s classic novel ''[[Dracula]]''. It was replaced by ''[[Horror of Fang Rock]]'' (1977).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3s78mDWcN9Hr7cmVl4zfPdV/the-fourth-dimension|title=BBC One - Doctor Who, Season 18, State of Decay - The Fourth Dimension|publisher=BBC}}</ref>

This serial and the following ''[[Warriors' Gate]]'' featured an improved K9 prop.

==Broadcast and reception==
{{Episode table
 |background =
 |series = 6 |title = 20 | aux1=6 | airdate = 10 | viewers = 6 | country = UK
 |seriesT    = Episode
 |aux1T      = Run time
 |viewersR   = <ref name="AllRatings" />
 |episodes   = 
{{Episode list/sublist|State of Decay
 |EpisodeNumber      = 1
 |Title              = Part One
 |RTitle             = 
 |OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|1980|11|22|df=y}}
 |Viewers            = 5.8
 |Aux1               = 22:24
 |LineColor          = 
}}
{{Episode list/sublist|State of Decay
 |EpisodeNumber      = 2
 |Title              = Part Two
 |RTitle             = 
 |OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|1980|11|29|df=y}}
 |Viewers            = 5.3
 |Aux1               = 23:16
 |LineColor          = 
}}
{{Episode list/sublist|State of Decay
 |EpisodeNumber      = 3
 |Title              = Part Three
 |RTitle             = 
 |OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|1980|12|6|df=y}}
 |Viewers            = 4.4
 |Aux1               = 24:13
 |LineColor          = 
}}
{{Episode list/sublist|State of Decay
 |EpisodeNumber      = 4
 |Title              = Part Four
 |RTitle             = 
 |OriginalAirDate    = {{Start date|1980|12|13|df=y}}
 |Viewers            = 5.4
 |Aux1               = 24:54
 |LineColor          = 
}}
}}

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 [[Philip Hinchcliffe|Hinchcliffe]]/[[Robert Holmes (scriptwriter)|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."<ref name="braxton"/> Writing for ''[[The Guardian]]'' in 2019, [[Toby Hadoke]] described it as "a clever meld of vampire legend and science fiction".<ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/sep/03/terrance-dicks-obituary | title= Terrance Dicks obituary | work=The Guardian| first=Toby | last=Hadoke | date=3 September 2019 | access-date=19 April 2021}}</ref> 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 Film Productions|Hammer]], which, considering the Hammeresque script, seems a mistake."<ref>{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Mark |title=Doctor Who: The Complete Guide |date=2011 |publisher=Robinson Publishing |isbn=978-1849015875 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ab2eBAAAQBAJ&q=limply+directed+vampire+tale+that+doesn%27t+really+gel&pg=PT92}}</ref>

==Commercial releases==

===In print===
{{Infobox book
| name              = Doctor Who and the State of Decay
| image             = 
| caption           = 
| author            = [[Terrance Dicks]]
| cover_artist      = [[Andrew Skilleter]]
| series            = ''[[Doctor Who]]'' book:<br />[[List of Doctor Who novelisations|Target novelisations]]
| release_number    = 58
| release_date      = September 1981 (Hardback)
14 January 1982 (Paperback)
| publisher         = [[Target Books]]
| isbn              = 0-426-20133-7
| exclude_cover     = yes
}}
[[File:State of Decay (audio).jpg|thumb|left|125px|cassette cover]]
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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.millenniumeffect.co.uk/audio/stories/decay.php |title=State of Decay |publisher=millenniumeffect.co.uk |accessdate=2013-10-09 |archive-date=21 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120421071001/http://www.millenniumeffect.co.uk/audio/stories/decay.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> On 7 January 2016 the full audiobook of the Target novelisation was released read by Geoffrey Beevers and John Leeson.

===Home media===
''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.

{{clear left}}

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name="AllRatings">{{cite web|title=Ratings Guide |url=http://guide.doctorwhonews.net/info.php?detail=ratings&type=date |website=Doctor Who News |accessdate=28 May 2017}}</ref>
}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Fourth Doctor}}
*{{BBCCDW|id=stateofdecay|title=State of Decay}}

===Target novelisation===
*{{Isfdb title|id=10634|title=Doctor Who and the State of Decay}}

{{Doctor Who episodes|C18}}
{{Fourth Doctor stories|selected=Television}}
{{K9 stories|selected=Television}}

[[Category:1980 British television episodes]]
[[Category:Doctor Who serials novelised by Terrance Dicks]]
[[Category:Fourth Doctor serials]]
[[Category:Television episodes about vampires]]
[[Category:Fiction set in the 4th millennium]]