Landing an unnamed planet in E-Space The Doctor and Romana ( Not knowing they've picked up a stowaway ) enter a village that resembles one seen in the Dark Ages of Earth . The Doctor is intrigued to find anachronistic equipment hidden in the village . Do the Lords living in the near by castle have anything to do with this and why do the villagers live in fear of the Lords ?
Terrance Dicks wrote this for the Hinchcliffe era in the mid 1970s but because the BBC was producing a prestigious version of Dracula starring Frank Finlay and Louis Jordan it was decided to dump Dicks script and instead he wrote Horror Of Fang Rock to kick start season 15 . I've always considered Fang Rock to be an overlooked masterpiece and in comparison State Of Decay is an inferior work . That's not to say it's bad , it's just not exceptional and to be fair it sticks out slightly more due to its homage to horror in general and Hammer horror movies in particular . There's even a nod to the old clichéd line of " Strangers sir ? We don't get any strangers here " and all the story needs is an appearance from Michael Ripper as an inn keeper to complete the illusion
Peter Moffat is considered to be one of the very worst directors to have worked on the classic series but his ill founded reputation is down to him constantly being assigned glitzy space opera type tales something he had no understanding or empathy for . Here as in next season's The Visitation he is on top form and shows he was a natural talent for directing stories that were pseudo historical fantasy . The location filming is very effective and moody with the right amount of lighting used and the interior sets look like they've come from the grimmest historical productions at the BBC and never fail to convince . Moffat also uses a couple of directorial flourishes such as a cutting cross fade of a Lord in to a bat
The script rattles on at a superb pace and is well directed for the most part but like a few other stories from the classic show what lets things down is the final episode , especially the climax which leads one to ask did the budget suddenly run out . The model work in particular is rather poor and is something of an anti-climax for the story . Another irritant is Adric who is supposed to be both a rebel and a mathematical genius but played by Matthew Waterhouse always comes across as a not very good actor playing a big girls blouse
Terrance Dicks wrote this for the Hinchcliffe era in the mid 1970s but because the BBC was producing a prestigious version of Dracula starring Frank Finlay and Louis Jordan it was decided to dump Dicks script and instead he wrote Horror Of Fang Rock to kick start season 15 . I've always considered Fang Rock to be an overlooked masterpiece and in comparison State Of Decay is an inferior work . That's not to say it's bad , it's just not exceptional and to be fair it sticks out slightly more due to its homage to horror in general and Hammer horror movies in particular . There's even a nod to the old clichéd line of " Strangers sir ? We don't get any strangers here " and all the story needs is an appearance from Michael Ripper as an inn keeper to complete the illusion
Peter Moffat is considered to be one of the very worst directors to have worked on the classic series but his ill founded reputation is down to him constantly being assigned glitzy space opera type tales something he had no understanding or empathy for . Here as in next season's The Visitation he is on top form and shows he was a natural talent for directing stories that were pseudo historical fantasy . The location filming is very effective and moody with the right amount of lighting used and the interior sets look like they've come from the grimmest historical productions at the BBC and never fail to convince . Moffat also uses a couple of directorial flourishes such as a cutting cross fade of a Lord in to a bat
The script rattles on at a superb pace and is well directed for the most part but like a few other stories from the classic show what lets things down is the final episode , especially the climax which leads one to ask did the budget suddenly run out . The model work in particular is rather poor and is something of an anti-climax for the story . Another irritant is Adric who is supposed to be both a rebel and a mathematical genius but played by Matthew Waterhouse always comes across as a not very good actor playing a big girls blouse
