Which is the best of the E-Space trilogy?

[mott1]

Please vote for any 1 of these, and give your reasons and views on these very diverse and interesting season 18 stories.

[burrunjor]

State of Decay and it's not even close.

State of Decay is significant in Doctor Who history as it marks the first time we deal with a paranormal creature, but leave it open ended. It could just be an advanced alien, or the real deal. Other stories would dabble with this, Kinda, Battlefield, even from the revival, Satan Pit/Beast Below, etc. It allowed Doctor Who to dabble in science fantasy, but never stray completely from sci fi.

It's also an important story in the history of Vampire fiction. I'm doing a project about Vampires and I realised that State of Decay was decades ahead of its time in regards to Vampire fiction.

A lot of Vampire fiction from the 90s onwards revolves around Vampires being created by an ancient Demon God who was imprisoned, or beaten centuries ago and created Vampires solely as a way of freeing himself from his prison.

Examples of this include Buffy with the Old Ones, ancient Demon gods who were sealed away in a hell dimension but before the last were locked up, it created Vampires to try and free it.

The Great Vampire in this who similarly created the lesser Vamps as a way of escaping back into space is the first "Father of the Vampires" type monster in all of fiction that the old ones in Buffy, the Dark Ones in Evil Dead, Lucifer in Supernatural etc all follow on from. The creation of Vampires often wasn't explored in most fiction before then.

Also the way the Vampires rule over humanity is again something that we didn't see in Vampire stories before then. They were often just lone creatures, hiding in old castles etc.

In State however we see the type of society Vampires could rule over. Humans are mass produced and strung up like cattle, there are willing collaborators in the Vampire ranks, people who are willing collaborators, and society isn't destroyed, but it just stops. The Vampires know that if they were to lock up every human, then we would rebel. Instead they allow most people to live, but only prey on a few, which causes most people to be okay with it.

Sadly that's probably what would happen. Hell look at all the horrible things we are okay with, like sweat shops because it doesn't bother us personally? I could imagine most people being happy to live in a Vampire ruled world, where several thousand people are eaten every month as long as they get some kind of immunity from the Vampires.

Again so many other series will play around with this. Buffy, Being Human, Blade etc, they all have Vampire collaborators, humans being kept in cages and slowly bled like cattle etc.

At the same time however State of Decay also has a lot of nice throwbacks to classic Vampire films too, like both the Hammer and Universal Dracula's. It's quite an interesting transition point between the more low key, creepy, gothic Vampires of the Hammer and Universal era's and the more modern high tech, Demon god worshipping, world conquering Vampire horde of modern works like Buffy and Blade.

The only thing against it is that the Vampires are a bit too hammy. I like the performances for the most part, but at certain moments like when Camilla practically does the Thriller dance when she is supposed to be attacking it ruins any menace.

[Brian MK.II]

Decay is great but Full Circle is excellent as well and one of the most avant garde episodes of the classic series.
Warriors Gate is good enough but I've lost affection for it over the past few years. It's atmosphere is great and the guest performances are good but Tom's clearly starting to grow bored here, Lalla Ward looks like a deer in headlights and Matthew Waterhouse is well, Matthew Waterhouse

[The Cryptic Fox]

State of Decay by far and for all the reasons burrunjor just said and some really cool stock footage and atmosphere.

[iank]

Decay by miles.

[mott1]

Poor old Full Circle. I came damn close to voting for it! Love Tom ranting at the scientists and the general atmosphere. I think all 3 stories excel in that department.

It's a shame Varsh didn't become the full-time companion, perhaps.

[Bernard Marx]

Mar 7, 2021 9:35:03 GMT mott1 said:

Poor old Full Circle. I came damn close to voting for it! Love Tom ranting at the scientists and the general atmosphere. I think all 3 stories excel in that department.

It's a shame Varsh didn't become the full-time companion, perhaps.

Full Circle is massively under-appreciated. It's still staggering that a script with world-building, allusions and ideas as good as that was penned by an 18 year old newcomer.

That said, the E-Space trilogy in general is very impressive, and indeed varied. State of Decay harkens back to earlier eras whilst continuing to retain Bidmead's signature scientific streak, whilst Warriors' Gate signifies something very different altogether, owing a debt to Cocteau and other poet filmmakers. It's safe to say that all three have grown on me substantially over the years.