Recently I’ve hired the DVD of Doctor Who‘s story arc, the “E-Space Trilogy”, where the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker on the fag end of his long tenure), K9 the robot dog, and the Second Romana accidentally pilot the TARDIS through some celestial fissure, tumbling out of the regular Universe into E-Space, and a fairly long story arc. Here’s my review of three stories:
“Full Circle” - The story arcs kicks off with the weakest and most padded story, “Full Circle”. And an annoying companion is introduced. But luckily we have K9 and Romana to soften the blow. The story centres around the Fourth Doctor, after crashing into E-Space (depicted with a green screen effect), the TARDIS materialised on a generic Earth-like planet that the TARDIS’ navigation systems assumes is Gallifrey. There is a human community living in a primitive village not far away from the crash-landed Starliner, a huge and ancient starship which came from human space. This community is ruled over by elders known as the Deciders, leaders who have the trappings of priests and scientists. What follows is a lot of walking around in circles, a lot of padding, and local troublemaker Adric sneaking around - Adric comes across as so childish and smug, he’s played with earnest woodenness by the piggy eyed Matt Waterhouse. But then spiders pop from fruit and Marshmen rise from the water to rampage around the Starliner - it is revealed the humans are not human at all, but direct descendants of the Marshmen, which is bloody stupid.
The costumes of the Marshmen look alright, but they’re certainly no Scarecrows or Autons, and as monsters seem to be more pitiful and curious than genuinely villainous, however that said there is initially a heavy sense of dread when huge cloud of heavy mist rises out of the local lake and envelopes the idyllic village and woods. All in all I give “Full Circle” a 4/10, not complete rubbish but far from great either, but I liked the sets and models depicting the mysterious Starliner and the Deciders were well played by Leonard Maguire, James Bree, and George Baker.
“State of Decay” - This is the meatiest and most entertaining story in the “E-Space Trilogy”, written by Terrance Dicks, and involving vampire lore. The TARDIS (with Adric hidden aboard) lands on another Earth like planet in E-Space, but it is a lot grimmer than the last planet, with miserable human peasants living in the shadow of a tall tower inhabited by three vampire lords, with Aukon (played by the late Emrys James) as the de-facto leader of the trio. Of course the Doctor sets about to cast off the yoke of vampire rule and it’s soon revealed that the feudal setting is artificial - the huge tower is a starship and some of the technology is still working, although it is mainly repressed/disguised Gou’ald style by the vampire rulers, with a bit of hardware illegally used by rebel peasants out in the woods. The stock footage of South American bats is used to good effect. Everything about the vampire realm seems very dreary and sleazy and heavily beaten down, with the peasants intentionally kept in grinding ignorance and poverty, manipulated to stay within the shadow of the vampire tower to avoid a made up threat known as “The Wasting”.
The vampire lords (who were originally the officers of the permanently landed starship) are planning to bring back a Great Vampire, a monstrous creature hibernating beneath the surface of the planet, presumably from the same bygone era that Satan, the Midnight Entity, Carrionites, and Racnoss came from. Adric gets kidnapped by the vampires and almost becomes one of them, not that we care, while Romana is inducted as a sacrifice in the ceremony to resurrect the Great Vampire. But of course the vampires’ plan is thwarted - the peasants attack the vampires’ human goons and storm the tower (with K-9 leading the charge), while the Doctor crawls into a derelict control room, launching a needle shaped probe from the tip of the starship/tower to impale the hulking Great Vampire (the vampire lords perish in a graphic fashion immediately afterwards). An improvement after “Full Circle”, I give “State of Decay” a hefty 8/10.
“Warrior’s Gate” - I find this story to be style over substance, with the more dynamic camera work, early CGI, and decent sets making “Warrior’s Gate” feel a little more like a movie and less like a stage play; nice window dressing for a slightly muddled plot. Now the TARDIS is almost out of E-Space finally, yet now trapped in a weird greyish white limbo, materializing beside a ruined gothic structure and a space freighter that is still occupied and properly operational. Unfortunately the crew onboard the vessel are a band of ruthless and armed human slavers led by Captain Rorvik (Clifford Rose), a nasty customer who gives Captain Janeway a run for her money in terms of pig headed stubbornness. The human slavers have a “cargo” of lion humanoids they use and abuse as the space freighter’s navigators, and one of them breaks free and wanders into the Doctor’s grounded TARDIS, then runs off and into the gothic ruins.
The Doctor’s group and slaver crew follow, both parties finding a cobwebbed gothic dining hall occupied with robot knights and a strange mirror. The Doctor and Romana, like the lion beings, can pass through the mirror, into a strange dimension resembling the grounds of a British mansion which leads to the gothic dining hall as it once was. We learn that the lion people were cruel and greedy rulers who were overthrown by robot knights; the lion people can time travel and phase in and out of timelines, passing through the mirror. The mirror proves itself to be indestructible to any weapons Rorvik and his men use, so Rorvik decides to ignite the engines of his space freighter, in a vain attempt to finally penetrate the mirror. Of course the stupid plan literally backfires, destroying the space freighter, killing all the bad guys onboard. Fortunately the lion beings onboard phase out of time and survive the destruction of the craft, with Romana deciding to stay with them as an advisor, while the Doctor, Adric, and K-9 escape E-Space in the TARDIS, but these proceedings somehow feel a little hollow.
The slaver’s ship and the slavers themselves are clearly inspired by then recent blockbusters like Star Wars: A New Hope and Alien in particular. The intimidating model used to depict the space freighter looks more impressive than the egg carton model used for the Imperial Dalek’s flagship in “Remembrance of the Daleks” over seven years later. An attractive and watchable story, but it doesn’t make enough sense to be genuinely great. A passable 6/10.
The E-Space stories are mixed bag to me, E-Space itself seemed to be a winding diversion as interesting as the diversion was in places, and by then Tom Baker was beginning to outstay his welcome.
“Full Circle” - The story arcs kicks off with the weakest and most padded story, “Full Circle”. And an annoying companion is introduced. But luckily we have K9 and Romana to soften the blow. The story centres around the Fourth Doctor, after crashing into E-Space (depicted with a green screen effect), the TARDIS materialised on a generic Earth-like planet that the TARDIS’ navigation systems assumes is Gallifrey. There is a human community living in a primitive village not far away from the crash-landed Starliner, a huge and ancient starship which came from human space. This community is ruled over by elders known as the Deciders, leaders who have the trappings of priests and scientists. What follows is a lot of walking around in circles, a lot of padding, and local troublemaker Adric sneaking around - Adric comes across as so childish and smug, he’s played with earnest woodenness by the piggy eyed Matt Waterhouse. But then spiders pop from fruit and Marshmen rise from the water to rampage around the Starliner - it is revealed the humans are not human at all, but direct descendants of the Marshmen, which is bloody stupid.
The costumes of the Marshmen look alright, but they’re certainly no Scarecrows or Autons, and as monsters seem to be more pitiful and curious than genuinely villainous, however that said there is initially a heavy sense of dread when huge cloud of heavy mist rises out of the local lake and envelopes the idyllic village and woods. All in all I give “Full Circle” a 4/10, not complete rubbish but far from great either, but I liked the sets and models depicting the mysterious Starliner and the Deciders were well played by Leonard Maguire, James Bree, and George Baker.
“State of Decay” - This is the meatiest and most entertaining story in the “E-Space Trilogy”, written by Terrance Dicks, and involving vampire lore. The TARDIS (with Adric hidden aboard) lands on another Earth like planet in E-Space, but it is a lot grimmer than the last planet, with miserable human peasants living in the shadow of a tall tower inhabited by three vampire lords, with Aukon (played by the late Emrys James) as the de-facto leader of the trio. Of course the Doctor sets about to cast off the yoke of vampire rule and it’s soon revealed that the feudal setting is artificial - the huge tower is a starship and some of the technology is still working, although it is mainly repressed/disguised Gou’ald style by the vampire rulers, with a bit of hardware illegally used by rebel peasants out in the woods. The stock footage of South American bats is used to good effect. Everything about the vampire realm seems very dreary and sleazy and heavily beaten down, with the peasants intentionally kept in grinding ignorance and poverty, manipulated to stay within the shadow of the vampire tower to avoid a made up threat known as “The Wasting”.
The vampire lords (who were originally the officers of the permanently landed starship) are planning to bring back a Great Vampire, a monstrous creature hibernating beneath the surface of the planet, presumably from the same bygone era that Satan, the Midnight Entity, Carrionites, and Racnoss came from. Adric gets kidnapped by the vampires and almost becomes one of them, not that we care, while Romana is inducted as a sacrifice in the ceremony to resurrect the Great Vampire. But of course the vampires’ plan is thwarted - the peasants attack the vampires’ human goons and storm the tower (with K-9 leading the charge), while the Doctor crawls into a derelict control room, launching a needle shaped probe from the tip of the starship/tower to impale the hulking Great Vampire (the vampire lords perish in a graphic fashion immediately afterwards). An improvement after “Full Circle”, I give “State of Decay” a hefty 8/10.
“Warrior’s Gate” - I find this story to be style over substance, with the more dynamic camera work, early CGI, and decent sets making “Warrior’s Gate” feel a little more like a movie and less like a stage play; nice window dressing for a slightly muddled plot. Now the TARDIS is almost out of E-Space finally, yet now trapped in a weird greyish white limbo, materializing beside a ruined gothic structure and a space freighter that is still occupied and properly operational. Unfortunately the crew onboard the vessel are a band of ruthless and armed human slavers led by Captain Rorvik (Clifford Rose), a nasty customer who gives Captain Janeway a run for her money in terms of pig headed stubbornness. The human slavers have a “cargo” of lion humanoids they use and abuse as the space freighter’s navigators, and one of them breaks free and wanders into the Doctor’s grounded TARDIS, then runs off and into the gothic ruins.
The Doctor’s group and slaver crew follow, both parties finding a cobwebbed gothic dining hall occupied with robot knights and a strange mirror. The Doctor and Romana, like the lion beings, can pass through the mirror, into a strange dimension resembling the grounds of a British mansion which leads to the gothic dining hall as it once was. We learn that the lion people were cruel and greedy rulers who were overthrown by robot knights; the lion people can time travel and phase in and out of timelines, passing through the mirror. The mirror proves itself to be indestructible to any weapons Rorvik and his men use, so Rorvik decides to ignite the engines of his space freighter, in a vain attempt to finally penetrate the mirror. Of course the stupid plan literally backfires, destroying the space freighter, killing all the bad guys onboard. Fortunately the lion beings onboard phase out of time and survive the destruction of the craft, with Romana deciding to stay with them as an advisor, while the Doctor, Adric, and K-9 escape E-Space in the TARDIS, but these proceedings somehow feel a little hollow.
The slaver’s ship and the slavers themselves are clearly inspired by then recent blockbusters like Star Wars: A New Hope and Alien in particular. The intimidating model used to depict the space freighter looks more impressive than the egg carton model used for the Imperial Dalek’s flagship in “Remembrance of the Daleks” over seven years later. An attractive and watchable story, but it doesn’t make enough sense to be genuinely great. A passable 6/10.
The E-Space stories are mixed bag to me, E-Space itself seemed to be a winding diversion as interesting as the diversion was in places, and by then Tom Baker was beginning to outstay his welcome.
