We’re into the 80s with Tom’s last season! For today’s choices, start by putting on your headphones for the full effect, and then turn down the lights for the most gothic Who ever got…
Year 17: 1979 to 1980 - The Peter Howell theme
It’s safe to say that for Doctor Who, the 80s, and by extension the John Nathan-Turner era, started with a bang; short of the change between the black & white and colour eras, you couldn’t really get two episodes broadcast so close together and yet so different in style than The Horns of Nimon and The Leisure Hive. (Incidentally, it will never not be weird to me that, had certain complications not ensued, the first full Doctor Who serial of the 80s would have been Shada!). And you could tell right out of the gate the difference with the opening titles, designed by Sid Sutton, and arranged by Peter Howell. As much as I love the classic Delia Derbyshire version of the theme, this one is a pretty damn good arrangement, feeling very new, and very importantly, it has a good upgrade to the opening of the end credits synthesiser sting, making sure every cliffhanger has that extra punch to it. Not much more I can add to this one really, except to say have a listen to the below restoration (incidentally, this version of the theme is very popular for remixes online), and enjoy!
Year 18: 1980 to 1981 - State of Decay
Now in an alternative timeline this would have been a Season 15 story, as Terrance Dicks was cooking it up back then, however, as at the time the BBC was cooking up a big prestige drama version of Dracula, it might have stolen its thunder a bit. (Incidentally, if you have never seen that BBC version, called Count Dracula, you really should hunt it down, as it’s not just a good version, it might be the most faithful to the original novel adaptation out there… Yes, far more than the Francis Ford Coppola one!) I think it did work out well, partially because it meant we got Horror of Fang Rock in that season instead, a damn fine story in its own right, and having the serial here adds a nice dose of variety to this season.
In a time when the show seemed to be making an effort to be a lot more hard with the sci-fi, this serial just goes “Yeah, vampires are a thing in this show now”. And what’s more it goes out of its way to establish that these aren't aliens that are like them (as the new series Vampires of Venice did), these are actual full blooded (heh heh!) vampires; undead, stakes in the heart and everything! It’s quite different to, say, The Daemon’s take on magic, but it really works here, it suggests forces older and weirder than anything else we’ve seen so far with the show. What’s more, by tying them into the history of the Time Lords, it enriches both, suggesting an age long before Gallifrey mastered time, The Dark Times, something that’s recently been explored well in the Time Lord Victorious crossover event. Mind, that’s not to say there isn’t a strong SF element in here; it fits in well with the E-Space storyline, as the Great Vampire being on the run from the Time Lords hiding out there makes a lot of sense, and there’s also the powerful visual of using an old spaceships’ systems to act as a huge blood bank. In fact, with one shot of this story, we have the most blood on screen in a Doctor Who story ever… well, unless Peter Jackson finally gets to direct that episode he once suggested, and he decides to try it in the style of his earlier films…
So whilst I was finding a few clips to illustrate this story, I found the utterly baffling continuity announcement below from a public service broadcast in the US back in the day; that narration is… a choice.
Next time, it’s into the Davison years, with two writers new to Who that I really wish had done far more, given the strength of these stories.
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