Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #4 Review

 

Writer: Danny Lore

Artist: Karen S. Darboe

Colorist: Cris Peter

Letterer: Joe Sabino

Cover Artists: Karen S. Darboe & Cris Peter; Betsy Cola; David Mack; Joshua “Sway” Swaby

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: May 17, 2023

 

The teen years can be rough. But no one's life has changed more radically than Brielle's. Thankfully, her father has entered her life and explained her dhampir heritage. Can Blade help her hone her newfound powers to become a legendary monster hunter like him? Grab your wooden stakes, leap into Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #4 with me, and let’s find out!

 

Story

Who hasn’t lost someone important to them and wanted them back? In Brielle’s case, it’s a father she’s never known. Suddenly he’s there for her when she needs him most. He trains her to use her new powers and gives her presents. (Well, warrior presents). She can even hug him, and he'll hug back. Now she's got a real family like everyone else. Only she hasn't. Someone abducted her mom!

 

Blade plays the responsible dad and sends her to school the next day. Her friends Jay and Rebecca are there for her, but New Girl Whitney provokes her. Catfight! Meanwhile, Blade’s got his knives out at a cemetery. He may have more experience than Brielle, but neither fight goes according to plan in Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #4.

 

I had trouble understanding the events following Brielle and Whitney's fight. One aspect concerns Whitney. The second is how the school enforces the principal's decision. There's also a mention of cloning. Huh? Tell me more about how that works, please! Still, the biggest mystery is why Blade—a dhampir or Daywalker—wears his Sunglasses At Night.

 

What’s that? So he can keep track of the visions in his eyes? Thanks for that, Corey Hart!

 

 

 

 

Art

Karen S. Darboe certainly likes her inks. Instead of drawing fully-realized backgrounds, she often delivers black splatter. Some panels remind me of watching an inker apply inks mixed with varying amounts of water to paper at a recent convention. The effect suggests shadows, dirt, and smoke. She often centers smaller panels on pages. I found this distracting on one page, as Brielle’s black boot frames the left side of the page, and Whitney’s yellow tennis shoe stands out on the right. Still, showcasing the latter allowed her to capitalize on it in the bathroom scene.

 

Jay and Rebecca are Brielle's friends and her primary support group. Yet their features always look a little blurry to me. Likewise, Blade and Brielle's battles often blur, as if vampires and monster hunters move too fast to capture. Still, I liked how Darboe shows Brielle's emotions in the opening scenes as twinkling stars, an ellipsis, and a dragonfly. I also enjoyed how she shows Brielle's reflection in Blade's sunglasses.

 

 

 

The coloring in Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #4 is fiery, feisty, and fun. You’ll see that immediately with Brielle’s purple and pink hair. Cris Peter paints scenes and characters in appealing colors and disguises all-too-many blank backgrounds with a textured color wash that seems like a colorist's response to an artist's love of ink blotting and spattering. Perhaps the white tears on Brielle's dark face aren't realistic, but they communicate.

 

Joe Sabino’s uppercase black lettering in white dialogue balloons is easy to read and follow. He displays Brielle's thoughts in pinky-purple narrative boxes that contrast with the black lettering. I particularly enjoyed how he expresses Brielle's shock at the damaged, blood-splattered kitchen.

 

As with the story, I didn't understand the art in a few panels in Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #4. These chiefly involved Blade. I don't want to throw out any spoilers, but twice he screams (or yells—sorry, Real Vampire Hunters don't scream). I'm not sure why. Was Blade in pain or merely trying to distract Deacon Frost?

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Bloodline: Daughter of Blade #4 delivers a teen-friendly story of family, empowerment, and the supernatural in an appealing, all-ages package. With a new Blade series hitting comic shops this July, there’s never been a better time to discover the world of Marvel’s night-stalking Daywalker.

 

Rating 8/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

The Art of Vampirella

 

Lately, I've been sharing Vampirella art on Twitter. I like the ambiguity of the character. Yes, she's a vampire. Yes, she drinks blood. But she's a superhero. Like Spider-Man, she's got great power, and she uses it to go after the bad guys.

Okay, she's not Spider-Man. Forget I said that.

 

Anyway, Vampirella's been on my mind lately, for whatever reason. And it's fun to share great art. Twitter seems like an effective forum for that. Through the use of hashtags, people all over the world can also enjoy beautiful Vampirella art, whether or not they see the wisdom of following me at @DavidDunham_DC.

 

 

This volume from Dynamite Comics is stupendous. Weighing in at 250 pages, you get loads of Vampirella art. Plus, they throw in a little of the character's publishing history as well.

 

As Paddington would say, it's very good value indeed.

And yes, I know, Vampirella is not Paddington Bear. No hard stares, please!

Dragon Dave

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro on Adapting Our Beliefs

People once believed in protective house gods,
and Ugallu, the storm-demon,
depicted on this ancient Assyrian stone panel
in the British Museum.

In Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's novel A Flame in Byzantium, Captain Drosos of the Byzantine army puts off carrying out Emperor Justinian's orders to burn the Libraries of Alexandria for as long as long as he can. He sends back letters requesting clarification of his orders, and looking for any excuse not to destroy all this precious, accumulated knowledge. But finally he receives orders both explicit and final. He can delay no longer. He must raze these libraries, or someone else will assume command and do it for him.

With a heavy heart, Drosos follows Justinian's orders. As he watches the great libraries burn, he cannot believe that the Emperor knew the significance of his orders. In earlier discussions with Olivia, he argued that they must give the Emperor the benefit of the doubt, and trust his judgment in all things. He had been selected by God to lead all of Byzantium in the correct path to follow. He was the divine representative to humanity. How could he order such senseless destruction?

After his recall to Constantinople, he tries to suggest that Justinian misunderstood the situation, or had been ill-advised. The Emperor takes his comments for a lack of loyalty, and like General Belisarius, releases him from his command. Drosos wanders Constantinople in despair, having lost his military commission, the respect of society, and the trust of his emperor.

Drosos' life becomes a tragedy, because he steadfastly refuses to adapt his beliefs and principles in view of changing circumstances and others' actions. Like Drosos, we often clutch ideals to our chests long after the world has proven that they no longer apply to present circumstances. Refusing to release outdated beliefs can leave us irrelevant and alienated. Even if we're not vampires.

Dragon Dave

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro on the Power Books Wield

A 12th Century stain glass panel from a Church in France.
Might Satan be tempting Christ to read a novel involving vampires?
Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

In A Flame in Byzantium by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, General Belisarius' enemies in Emperor Justinian's court grow so convinced of his guilt that they contact one of his household servants. After threatening him with torture and a grisly death, he agrees to spy for them. This man, who resents his lowly position in life as a servant, let alone being castrated during childhood, goes through the General's library, and reports back on the books in his collection. A treatise on military tactics used in other lands? A book on all known breeds of horses? Books on World Geography or History? Well, Belisarius has traveled extensively, and met many foreigners. Inevitably, he has read their books, and been influenced by their teaching. If those books weren't written by Byzantine citizens, then they must surely be suspect. Who knows what dangerous philosophies, undetectable to the unwary, might lurk within those pages?

At least that's the position of the Court Censor and his staff, after hearing the report from Belisarius' slave. These advisors slowly exert their influence on the Emperor, who orders Captain Drosos, instead of his general, to command an army contingent in Alexandria. This historic city is one of the foremost of Egypt, and is known the world over for its extensive libraries. Egypt is also home to Coptic Christianity, a proponent of Monophysitism. So one day Drosos receives orders from his Emperor: he must burn the libraries, to prevent the spread of heretical teachings through seemingly innocuous scholarly works on subjects like Mathematics, Science, and History. As he believes his Emperor rules by divine right, he does so. But watching all that accumulated knowledge and art going up in flame infects him like a cancer, slowly eating away at him, until all that remains is the husk of his former self.

But then, all books hold power, nonfiction and fiction alike. Reading and studying them influence people in all sorts of unforeseen ways, hopefully for the better, but sometimes for the worse. Those books might be a textbook on Math or Biology, a graphic novel, an cozy mystery, or a story about vampires.

Dragon Dave

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro on Religion Part 2

Instead of despising their former beliefs,
4th Century Roman Christians celebrated them
in artwork like this Symmachi panel
displayed in London's Victoria & Albert Museum.

In Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's novel A Flame in Byzantium, the high officials in Emperor Justinian's court may seek to protect their faith, but they hardly seem to be living up to its ideals. They see the world through a prism in which only their view of the divine--their beliefs--are true, and all others are heresy. A popular brand of Christianity, Monophysitism, is currently gaining converts in Byzantium, and threatening to infiltrate the Emperor's household. This must be protected against at all costs. So any approach that could aid in the defeat of Monophysitism, or any view of life and the world other than those they embrace, is a valid approach. 

As court officials do not trust Belisarius, they cannot rely on him to support their wise counsel to the Emperor. So they use their influence with Justinian to suggest that Belisarius might use his popularity with the army to mount a bid for Justinian's throne. The fact that he is a friend to Olivia, a woman whom they already deplore, gives them something else to work with. As he is his own man, not theirs to control, these defenders of the faith begin manufacturing evidence to incriminate him in Justinian's eyes. Even if it means besmirching the honor of a loyal servant such as Belisarius. 

But then, this is a society that uses religion to justify slavery, the castration of the children of slaves, and prevents people from rising above the caste into which they were born. No wonder Olivia refuses to adopt their ways, or for that matter, their brand of religion. 

Like Olivia, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has chosen her own unique path to religion. Instead of accepting a traditional, ready-made religion such as Christianity, hers involves channeling spirits, astral planes, karma, and philosophical concepts like monads. In order to share her spiritual experience with others, she has written a series of nonfiction books. The first, Messages From Michael, also serves as the name of her group's website. There readers of her stories (or anyone else) can gain a greater understanding of her approach to the divine. 

One of her group's central teachings is that all life is a choice. Or, to quote from the group's website:

You cannot not choose. To say "I will not choose; I will do nothing" is a choice to do nothing. Rather than regard choices as terrible burdens and impositions, you would release much of your fear if you would realize that you are making choices all the time, and the process, rather than overwhelming you, is in fact the means to freeing yourself from the bonds of fear. Of course, you may choose to deny or ignore this as well. That is as much a choice as anything else in life. 

That's a teaching that sounds perfectly valid and useful in living out my life today and planning my future. If only it didn't spring from a belief system so radically different from my own! It sounds good on the surface, but it must be suspicious. Hm...maybe it's safer to choose to reject it, and spend the next few minutes reminding myself why it has to be wrong, and her beliefs must be wrong, and...

Ever wonder why those you seek to influence refuse to accept the validity of your views on life? Some of us will probably wonder about that all our lives. But then, it's always easier to see the hypocrisy in others than inequities in our treasured beliefs, or the inconsistencies in the way we put them into practice. Who knows? They seem so different from us: they might well be vampires!

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links
www.messagesfrom.michael.com

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro on Religion Part 1

Urns to house Olivia's native soil,
courtesy of the Museum of London

In A Flame in Byzanium by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Olivia flees the chaos and destruction of Rome for the ordered and civilized world of Constantinople. She finds a world there vastly different from her expectations. One difference proves pivotal to how people in her adopted city view the world, and that is their religion.

As a vampire, Olivia has take her own approach to everlasting life. She has brought with her containers of her native soil, which somehow sustains her undead body. She acknowledges the power and validity of others' religion, but refuses to be a hypocrite, and bow to others expectations of conduct, or make untrue declarations of her beliefs. As such, the leaders of Constantinople view her as degenerate, just like the Christian laity and clergy of Rome. 

The Christian Church of the first few centuries after Christ, was far more diverse than what exists today. Yet it changed as religious leaders narrowed down what believers were allowed to read, think, and practice. Many have argued that this effort to focus Christianity on its essentials was necessary to help it survive after the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet, as in Yarbro's novel A Flame in Byzantium (and also in False Dawn), all too often belief's in one's rightness have been used as an excuse to hurt and even kill others. 

Conformity has its place in any human society. But, unlike the days of ancient Rome, civilization is no longer crumbling. Today, people expect religions to find ways to accept, celebrate, and honor the beliefs of all those who seek to love, respect, and serve others. Even if those others talk, dress, and act so differently that, at first, they seem degenerate. 

Who knows? Those other people might even be loving, respectful, and charitable vampires like Olivia.

Dragon Dave

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro on Cozy Horror

Count Dalek-ula says
False Dawn is nothing like A Flame in Byzantium.
Uh, hold on. Is that a werewolf?

One aspect of Agatha Christie's mysteries is how her victims are murdered, sometimes horribly. But from my limited reading experience of her work, she rarely portrays the act of violence itself. Instead, Poirot or another detective discovers the body, and then goes off to talk with his friends or the suspects in a calming, civilized fashion. In the case of Miss Marple, this may be over tea and scones. Some people have labeled her work Cozy Mysteries. Perhaps that's the secret behind her fiction's astounding longevity. I'm sure lots of other authors of her time wrote more gritty, disturbing mysteries. But readers of all ages and sensibilities can enjoy her stories, because the underlying mysteries are so compelling. 

Count Dalek-ula says, "I like Cozy novels,
but Jammie Dodgers are cozier than other sandwich cookies."
So please, Master, buy me some Jammie Dodgers.
(Or you could find your life become decidedly
less cozy!)

If A Flame in Byzantium is in any way representative of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Horror fiction, perhaps this is the secret behind that community's affection for her stories. The novel certainly stands out, with Olivia unlike any other vampire I've ever encountered in fiction. I enjoyed learning what was happening in sixth century Rome and Constantinople, two bustling centers of civilization when barbarian hordes were sweeping the globe. 

But then, I enjoy reading the occasional historical novel. Even if it's a Cozy Horror novel featuring vampires.

Dragon Dave

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro on Sedate, Cultured Society

A Roman room for entertaining visitors,
courtesy of the Museum of London, England

In Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's novel A Flame in Byzantium, one of the things that surprised me was how ordinary her protagonist Olivia seems. Becoming a vampire has granted her a long life, and she has to be careful when she visits others' homes, or attends parties, that she kindly rebuffs all attempts to offer her food or drink. So she excuses her non-indulgence with protestations as to her "delicate constitution." As a vampire, she seems to exist on blood, but this is a minor point for most of the novel. Drosos makes mention of her biting him when they make love, but as an army officer, he's stationed outside Constantinople for most of the story. She's carted boxes of her "native earth" from her villa in Rome, and she somehow draws strength from this. But really, little attention is paid to her vampirism throughout the five hundred pages of the story. More than anything, she hungers for the affection and love of Drosos, and when she realizes that the tide of public opinion is turning against her, and that she should flee Constantinope, she stays behind in the hopes of being reunited with Drosos. Aside from her affection, she regards the blood she has taken from him as a bond between them, one that she would gladly repay by sharing the rest of her life with him.

In introducing General Belisarius, and focusing on his struggle to hold Rome against the Ostrogoth invaders, I had anticipated battle scenes on the order of JRR Tolkien or Robert E Howard. Given the politics and undercurrents sweeping through Byzantine politics, I expected to find the streets of Constantinople awash in blood, as happened several times in HBO's "Rome" TV series. Yet with a few exceptions, any fighting, deaths, or tortures occurred off-the-page, and were merely remarked on later in the narrative, or by one of the characters. What Yarbro instead focuses on is the customs and protocols the characters must observe, and how people of various strata in society interact with each other. So when something terrible happens, for the most part we don't witness it. Instead of the gritty and graphic struggle-for-life I remember from False Dawn, A Flame in Byzantium gives us a sense of how these people lived out their everyday lives. We see what they eat and drink, the comforts that surround them, and those they interact with. Along the way, we witness how the actions and choices affect others, or eventually rebound against them. But aside from a few scenes, the story unfolds in a cultured and sedate manner, more like the PBS adaptation of "I Claudius" than HBO's "Rome." 

But then, we all like wise, cultured, and loving protagonists. Even if they are vampires.

Dragon Dave

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro on Defying Others' Expectations

An Italian vase in the British Museum
shows the Greek Hero Theseus
defending his home city of Athens
from an invasion of Amazons.

In Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's novel A Flame in Byzantium, Olivia might have escaped the Ostrogoth invaders by moving from Rome to Constantinople, but as a woman and a widow, she enjoys few rights in Byzantine society. She must name Belisarius as her legal guardian. While he remains in Rome, she must petition for an exception to the rules every time she wishes to procure household staff, or do anything significant involving money or people. Thankfully, she is allowed to hire workers to furnish her new home. But when her bondsman discovers that goods from her plundered Roman villa have ended up in Byzantium, she cannot charge the sellers with theft, or compel the authorities to investigate the piracy.

Nor does she make the friends there that she anticipated. Drosos visits her a few times, but as an army officer, he has no control over where he is stationed. Belisarius returns home eventually, but as he has failed to secure Rome, he now lives in disgrace. For a time, Belisarius' wife Antonina moved in elite circles, and allowed Olivia to accompany her. But after Belisarius was recalled, and the death of her friend, the Empress Theodora, she finds herself alone and lonely, with no desire to leave her house.

Constantinople had seemed her best hope for the future: a redoubt in a world that seems to no longer value culture, stability, or civilization. Yet everyone there views her with suspicion. She refuses to remarry, join the Byzantine Church, or dress and act like a typical Byzantine woman. Her Roman practices and interests cause her to be branded a licentious, unprincipled unbeliever. They invent stories about her, shun her, and implicate her in scandals. The Court Censor orders her servants to spy on her (under threat of torture and death), and plant books proscribed by the Emperor in her library. His soldiers search her villa, carry away precious furniture and heirlooms, and claim their plunder as evidence. He relentlessly pursues a legal case against her. She can not even leave Constantinople, at least not openly. She would be arrested by soldiers along the road, or those guarding the docks. 

Nevertheless, Olivia refuses to relinquish her principles, way of life, and everything she holds dear. In this way, she becomes a person we can respect and emulate. Even if she is a vampire.

Dragon Dave

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro on Financial Planning

Roman coins used in England,
courtesy of the Museum of London.

What if you could live forever? Would you want everyone else to know that you were immortal? And how would it be to watch society change, and everyone you know die, as the years pass into centuries?

These questions swirl around Olivia Clemens, a noblewoman in Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's novel A Flame in Byzantium. When she was young, her Emperor Nero was both beloved and feared. Like those before and after him, he built Rome into an architectural marvel, a city that spread its civilizing influence throughout the territories it had conquered. People of different lands embraced a shared currency, read the same literature, and exchanged goods and ideas through trade. Her relationship with the vampire St. Germaine greatly extended her life, and throughout the centuries, she has clung to the culture, traditions, and standards she values. But now she finds the Roman Empire crumbling around her, and she must flee her beloved homeland or risk slavery or death to the relentless Ostrogoth invaders. For she may be a vampire, but she can still die.

Thankfully, Olivia has somewhere to escape to: Constantinople, that other center of Christianity and culture, in a world where barbarians seem intent on destroying everything of value. Better yet, she has someone to orchestrate her safe passage there: Belisarius, one of Byzantine Emperor Justinian's most valued generals. As an unexpected bonus, she meets Drosos, one of Belisarius' men, who seems kind and attentive to her. Amid so much change, she finds herself inordinately attracted to this young army officer. So as she frees her slaves, packs up her possessions, and sets sail for her new home, she looks forward to enjoying the comforts of another fine city and the new friendships she will forge. It will serve as a refuge until Belisarius and his army can drive away the Ostrogoths, and secure Rome for the Byzantine Empire.

It's just as well that she's learned to save her money, and invest it wisely. But then, it makes sense to prepare for every contingency. Especially if you're a vampire. 

Dragon Dave

Catching Up with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Count Dalek-ula says
"Catching Up with Favorite Authors is Fun!"

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's contributions to the Horror genre have been honored in numerous ways. In 2003, she was awarded the status of Grand Master at the World Horror Convention. Two years later, the International Horror Guild named her a living legend. Last year, the World Fantasy Convention gave her a Life Achievement award. 

My previous reading experience with her was minimal, just one novel that I read thirty-five years ago. In False Dawn, two protagonists trek across a post-apocalyptic northern California, in search of a refuge, a sanctuary where they can begin again. Back in those Cold War days, all of us lived with the possibility of a nuclear war. That future seemed imminent, unavoidable. So those of us who loved Science Fiction stories looked past that, and imagined what the future might hold for humanity, once the superpowers had done their best to bomb all of us out of existence. I had fallen in love with the movie "Logan's Run," found stories like Roger Zelazny's "Damnation Alley," and was hungry for more of the same. Her novel made a strong impression on me, and led me to read it again recently.

I found False Dawn every bit as powerful as I remembered.

Yarbro's muse seemed to take her in other directions after that, most notably in Horror. Her most famous creation is the Saint Germaine cycle. These novels fuse two genres, historical and vampire stories, into one. As I've recently grown interested in learning about ancient Rome, I viewed A Flame in Byzantium as an opportunity to catch up with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. This novel, the first in a trilogy devoted to vampire heroine Atta Olivia Clemens, follows Olivia's move from Rome to Constantinople, the center of the other great civilization of her era. I found it an enjoyable novel, rich in historical detail and character development, if a little slow (at times) in pace. The novel gave me a chance to see what Yarbro had been up to during all those years we had walked separate paths (she as author, me as reader), and why the Horror community loved her so much.

But then, it's always nice to catch up with a writer whom you've not read for a long time. Even if she writes (primarily) about vampires.

Dragon Dave

Count Dalek-ula On Crucial Vampire Fiction

Recently, I vatched the Doctor Who story, "State of Decay," vith my Master. I especially enjoyed "Leaves of Blood," a special on the DVD, in vhich famous British authors list important and popular Vampire fiction of the last century. Authors polled included Peter Crowther (Darkness, Darkness), Simon Clark (Vampyrrhic), Stephen Gallagher (The Kingdom of Bones), Kim Newman (Anno Dracula), and Ramsey Campbell (The Grin of the Dark). These authors may only be Human, and therefore lack the critical assessment capabilities of a Dalek, but they have won awards, sold millions of books, and been driving forces in the Horror literary community. So I vant to share with you their List of Essential Vampire Fiction.

Essential Vampire Stories

Varney The Vampire, or The Feast of Blood 

by James Malcolm Rymer (serialized novel)

"The Vampyre" by John William Polidori (novella)

"Carmilla" by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (novella)

"The Mysterious Stranger" by Anonymous (novella)

Dracula by Bram Stoker

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon

Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Interview With A Vampire by Anne Rice

Of course, Vampires inhabit more than the printed page, and almost seem more at home on the stage, as the popularity of TV shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer attests. In another extra, pop culture historian, writer, and educator Sir Christopher John Frayling states that Bram Stoker vas involved in the theatre, and infused his novel vith as much camp as horror. 

Certainly Terrance Dicks, author of "State Of Decay," vould agree that public perception of Vampires is shaped less by the source literature than their more sensational movie and TV versions. He vrote his Doctor Who story to appeal to those who had grown up with the Hammer Horror movies, as he believed few people had actually read Bram Stoker's formative novel. 

Thor loves Hammer films!

Between Humans and Daleks, opinions may differ on any Essential Reading List. Having read over my Master's shoulder, I really enjoyed the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novels by Laurell K Hamilton. Master and I read eleven of them. If you have any thoughts on the stories listed above, or vould like to share your favorite Vampire stories with Master and other readers, please leave a comment. Even if you are a Human, I vill still take your recommendation under consideration. But then, I am a Dalek, and committed to mastering all fields of study. Ignorance must be viped out, expunged and eliminated, excoriated, exterminated...yes! That's the word I'm looking for!

Exterminated, Exter-MINATED, EXTERMINATED!!!!!!!!!

Count Dalek-ula

Doctor Who & Vampire Bats in the House of Lords

This post is Part 7 in a series on the Doctor Who story "State Of Decay" by Terrance Dicks.

Naturally, the Doctor and his companion Romana cannot stand by and allow Vampire Lords to continue to oppress their subjects. Nor can they allow their new friend Adric to become the Chosen One, and be transformed into a vampire. So the Doctor studies the history of the Time Lords in his TARDIS, to learn how the Time Lords once defeated a great race of Space Vampires. Unfortunately, the Vampire Lords capture Romana while she attempts to rescue Adric, and they decided to sacrifice her to the Great One, the last of the great Space Vampires, as it awakens from its sleep beneath the Tower. 

Naturally, it's up to the Doctor to use his knowledge and wits to destroy the last Space Vampire, as well as the three Vampire Lords, before they kill Romana, or Adric joins their number.

You'd better move quick, Doctor. A vampire bat, one of the subjects of the vampire Lords, is already sucking away at Romana's neck!

According to Nicholas Pegg, who prepared the Information Text for the BBC DVD release of "State Of Decay," the way the bats bite Romana, and even the Doctor at one point, really got under some viewers' skin. Several influential organizations, including the Institute for Terrestrial Ecology and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, complained about the portrayal of bloodsucking bats to the BBC. The issue even reached the British House of Lords. On December 4, 1980, Lord Melchett asked if Her Majesty's Government would order the Nature Conservancy Council to enlighten the BBC as to the "damage likely to be done to bats in this country, if they are portrayed as harmful to human beings as they were in a recent episode of Doctor Who." As he stood in the red-upholstered chamber of the Palace of Westminster, he went on to note that "All species of British bats are beneficial to human beings, and are now known to be drastically declining in numbers." 

A Fruit Bat awakens from its slumber at
Disney's Animal Kingdom
in Orlando, Florida.

All of this seems like an over-reaction to me. I mean, it's just an innocuous, little Doctor Who story, right? Of course, the problem with being an official is that you begin to think you always have to conduct business through official channels. Instead of these environmentalists writing letters to the BBC, or making speeches in the House of Lords, what they should have done was simply ring up author Terrance Dicks, point these facts out to him, and ask him nicely not to write any more vampire stories with bats in them. Ever again. I'm sure Terrance Dicks would have taken such well-intended, constructive criticism on board. I mean, look how well he got on with Script Editor Christopher H Bidmead!

In his Information Text, Nicholas Pegg goes on to note that, as Vampire Bats only live in Central and South America, this means all kinds of European bats are harmless. With all due respect to Mr Pegg, I feel I must respectfully disagree. We should always be on guard against anything that can harm us, and all bats are not created equal. Has he never heard of the games of Rounders, British Baseball, or Cricket, all of which are played with hard, wooden bats? Has he never heard of British American Tobacco, or BAT, whose product has been deemed so hazardous to human health that the British government has banned its advertisement? I mean, really! Talk about an over-reaction!

Dragon Dave

Doctor Who On Influences and the Importance of Details

Part 6 of a series on the Doctor Who story "State Of Decay" by Terrance Dicks.

When they reach this lonely, isolated planet, the Doctor, Romana, and K-9 don't realize that they have picked up an additional companion. Only later, when they have been captured by Lord Zargo and Lady Camilla, and the rebel Tarak rescues them from their cell, do they learn that Adric stowed away aboard the TARDIS. This young boy, whom they met during their previous adventure, has fallen under the thrall of Lord Aukon, who declares him the Chosen One, and intends on making him a vampire too. So, while the Doctor rushes back to the TARDIS, where he and K-9 will study how the Time Lords battled Vampires in the past, Tarak and Romana return to the Tower, heading for the Inner Sanctum.

Romana and Tarak catch the Vampire Lords
having a bat-nap.

Tarak and Romana looked round the dank and gloomy chamber.

Zargo and Camilla lay side by side, stretched out on their backs on the central bier. Presumably they were sleeping, but they might almost have been dead. Only the very slightest rise and fall of their chests showed they were still breathing. Stretched out in their ornate robes, they looked like statues on the tomb of some ancient king and queen.

Tarak stared down at them. "We could destroy them now, while they are sleeping."

"It takes a wooden stake to kill them," said Romana practically. "We forgot to bring one."

--from the novelization Doctor Who and the State of Decay

While Nicholas Pegg, who wrote the Information Text for the BBC DVD release of "State Of Decay," suggests that Script Editor Christopher H Bidmead didn't substantially change Terrance Dicks' story, Dicks and Director Peter Moffatt disagree. The Inner Sanctum, or the Sleeping Vault as Pegg calls it, proved to be a crucial point of contention for Moffatt. Pegg offers this description of the Vampires' sleeping chamber from Bidmead's revised script: "A simple womb-like chamber containing two astronaut-type sleeping cocoons. The white-walled chamber is lit with sinister infra-red lighting--a kind of sterile hell." According to Pegg, this left Moffatt with the impression that the vampires were hatching from eggs.

On the DVD commentary, Peter Moffatt clarifies his position. He tells of receiving Terrance Dicks' draft script, and really enjoying the whole "Gothic thing." But when he showed up for work, and was handed the revised script, he found that Bidmead had "filled it up with high-tech." And "instead of a castle, there was this egg-thing." 

A possible inspiration for Christopher H Bidmead:
The Nostromo's sleeping chamber
in Ridley Scott's 1979 movie "Alien."

Perhaps Bidmead didn't substantially change the narrative and dialogue in Terrance Dicks' story. But it's amazing how much the little details can influence or (in Moffatt's case) confuse us. In a documentary on the making of "State Of Decay," Bidmead likens his story sessions with Dicks to battles in which each opponent faced the other "with daggers drawn." He suggests that such tension and differences of opinion between writers can improve a story. While Terrance Dicks may not look back fondly on his partnership with Bidmead, he gives the Script Editor credit for making one change that improved the story. In Dicks' original version, the castle was just that, a brick and mortar building. Bidmead suggested that the Tower should actually be the Earth spaceship Hydrax, which landed on the planet a thousand years ago. Of course, it seems clear that Bidmead believed the interiors of the Tower should reflect the original infrastructure of the spaceship, Moffatt sided with Dicks in believing that the interior should look like an old, decaying castle. So, in the finished story, nearly all of the original instrumentation and infrastructure has been stripped out, and discarded outside the town that grew up around the Hydrax, and the rebels secreted their headquarters within the dump. The townspeople, no doubt pressed into service, then rebuilt and decorated the interior of the spacecraft in a regal fashion as dictated by their Lords.

Bidmead's primary focus on Doctor Who seemed to be on hard science, technology, and the implications of current societal trends on the future. Terrance Dicks had originally written "State Of Decay" three years previously, for Producer Philip Hinchcliffe and Script Editor Robert Holmes. The latter two drew inspiration for Doctor Who from the popular and influential stories from previous centuries. No wonder Bidmead and Dicks quarreled, when one doctored incoming scripts with a gaze affixed on humanity's future, while the other peered back into the past as he wrote his story. 

If I were forced to name my ten favorite stories from the Classic Doctor Who era (featuring the First through Seventh Doctors), I'm not sure that "State Of Decay" would make the list. But consider this. In three of the seven stories that comprise the twenty-eight half-hour episodes of Doctor Who Season 18 (which were broadcast from August 1980 to March 1981), a significant portion of the action takes place on spaceships. Additionally, the first story , "The Leisure Hive," takes place in the futuristic corridors and rooms of a base on an uninhabitable world. Had "State Of Decay" featured Bidmead's vision of futuristic spaceship interiors, this would have made the story blend in better with the season. As it stands, "State Of Decay" not only differs from the other stories in Season 18, but also from most of the other stories in Doctor Who's classic era. Sometimes it's nice if a individual story is allowed to stand out, and be a little different from the rest of its companions in a series, don't you think?

So, to sum up, I'm happy with "State Of Decay" as it is. Still, I often wish there was some sort of invention, or device, that could show me the stories that should have been made, but weren't. You know, the movies that the filmmakers intended to make, but ultimately couldn't for any number of reasons. Perhaps there's an alternate world out there, where Peter Moffatt loved Christopher H Bidmead's revised script for "State Of Decay," and filmed it in all its futuristic, high-tech glory. Perhaps I'd better build a TARDIS so I can travel to that alternative world, and pick up a DVD of "State Of Decay." Then I could return home and play it on my Region-Free DVD Player. That's assuming, of course, that this alternate world has invented DVDs, and isn't still using VHS Videotapes. 

Gosh, that'd be horrible.

Dragon Dave