(538) State of Decay - Episode 1

The middle story of the trilogy on the face of it should be the strongest one because it was written by Terrance Dicks but after enjoying the previous story I have to admit that I am questioning whether this is still the case. It’s always nice when a familiar name returns to the show because its been a while since Terrance Dicks was involved in Doctor Who. His last offering ‘Horror of Fang Rock’ was a really solid story and that was about three years ago and the show has changed so the sort of story that Dicks wrote may not work in this new era. The signs are good pretty much from the beginning because there is the model shot of the tower which looks impressive and that is followed by the appearance of Zargo, Camilla and Aukon who are the three who rule and if you didn’t know what was coming then you could easily tell that something isn’t quite right about them.

It’s quite a while before Adric makes an appearance and he spends the entire episode pretty much on his own and only interacts with K9 and manages to outsmart him (which isn’t too difficult) but its quite good that he gets to investigate on his own and not be introduced to the Doctor and Romana show. His scene where he tries to steal some bread and ends up with some food and a coat that is by far better than what he usually wears. Whilst I am starting to change my opinion of Adric, the one thing that will never change is my opinion of his costume which does look like pyjamas.

As far as the Doctor and Romana are concerned. It takes them an awful long time to get involved in the story. Once they do its when the story gets interesting. I think that Kalmar is an interesting character and despite being the oldest, Arthur Hewlett doesn’t allow that to get in the way of coming across as a believable leader. His group are an odd mix of living primitive surroundings and yet having a BBC computer in the base. I think that in 1980, the use of a BBC computer would have seemed quite a cutting edge piece of kit but sadly it dates the story horribly.

If I had to pick a fault with this episode is that it doesn’t feature as much of Zargo, Camilla and Aukon. What there is of them is good but I think that they are so good (Aukon especially) that I wanted them more involved in the story. I know that this will be the case but I wanted them more in the story now. The cliffhanger is quite creepy and just days after Halloween and that is why it perhaps works better than if I were watching this in mid-March. It’s an interesting opening episode but I cant say that I have been wowed by it. There are elements that I have always liked which are on screen again and with the new appreciation of Adric means that the future episodes will be fun to watch.