Part 2 of the E-Space Trilogy with Tom Baker as the 4th Doctor is more fun. And this one has fun miniatures, evil vampires, and location shooting and with K-9 and Matthew Waterhouse as Adric is another fun adventure of the Doctor. Not an amazing one, but certainly enjoyable and worth checking out. I love the campy fun of the original Doctor Who’s, and of course Tom Baker was my first Doctor, and you never forget your first Doctor. I mean I have even dressed as him at Halloween.

The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) along with their robotic companion K-9 (John Leeson) try to find anything in E-Space, attempting to get back to normal N-Space. At a long range they find a planet, and head towards it. It seems to only have one civilization, so they head for it. It has a civilization in a feudal period, and the Doctor and Romana head out to investigate, leaving K-9 in the Tardis. Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) comes out of hiding, and is confronted by K-9, but he tricks him and manages to get out of the Tardis and follow the Doctor and Romana. The Feudal farmers of the village live to serve their 3 lords, and forced into Selections, where the best young people are taken to the castle, never to be seen again. Some are made guards, but nothing is known of what happens to the others. The leader of the Guards Habris (Iain Rattray) comes and makes the selection from the village headman Ivo (Clinton Greyn) and against his wishes his son is taken. The Doctor and Romana arrive and meet Ivo. They are then taken by two hooded figures and sneaked away. Adric shows up and Ivo’s wife Marta (Rhoda Lewis) takes him in, and wants him as his son, making him stay for the night, as it is dangerous out at night.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Doctor and Romana are taken to a secret base with hidden broken computers and other technology, they are led by a old man who is attempting to be a scientist named Kalmar (Arthur Hewlett). What they do is illegal, but they think the people should not be kept down. Romana manages to fix their computer, and it shows as a ships computer, showing 3 senior officers, whose names seem to be variations of the 3 leaders, Zargo, Camilla and Aukon..

The Doctor and Romana leave this group of villagers, and head back toward the castle, and are seen by the bats that are controlled by Aukon, and attack them. Habris gets them and takes them to the throne room in the tower. The Doctor realizes the Castle is the rocket the colonists crashed in, and that the 3 leaders, Zargo (William Linday) , Camilla (Rachel Davies) and AUkon (Emrys James) are in fact the original 3 pilots of the ship from Earth. So the ship was also pulled into E-Space like the Tardis. They meet the lords who leave them to go and feed.

Adric is taken by Habris and his men to the ship, and the lords decide to make him a special one, as they realize he is different from the normal people they have under their thrall.

The Doctor and Romana go into the bowels of the ship, and find corpses drained of blood, and that the craft’s fuel stores are in fact full of blood. They go down below the ship, and are found by Aukon.

They want them to become more of their servants, and they tell them they already have Adric. When they refuse, they are imprisoned. The doctor remembers Timelord stories of Great Vampires, a supremely powerful and dangerous race that the Timelords found in a great war with specially made weapons. He realizes one of the giant creatures must have fallen into E-Space, and pulled the ship the Hydrax in, making it’s crew into his servants.

A rebel named Tarak (Thane Bettany) who used to be a guard goes into the tower to free Romana and the Doctor. The Doctor heads to the Tardis, while Romana stays with Tarak to find Adric. They manage to awaken Adric from his trance, but awaken Zargo and Camilla. These two kill Tarak, and are going to kill Romana and Adric, but they are stopped by Aukon.

Romana and Adric are imprisoned, and argue, as Adric has willingly joined the three vampires, but he wants to stay alive. Aukon tells them that Romana will be the sacrifice to make Adric a chosen one.

THe Doctor and K-9 review the old stories about Vampires and how to kill them with metal Bowships driven into their chests. He goes to Kalamar’s base and uses the equipment to scan the tower, where he finds the Great Vampire under the ship, and realizes it is being revived.

Kalmar, Ivo and the villagers agree to fight back and with K-9 go to assault the tower, killing Habris, and letting the Doctor get to the peak of the tower. He rigs the top part to launch, so that it will go straight up, and back down, and into the underground cave, and work like a bowship to kill the Great Vampire. The rocket goes up, and just in time manages to kill the Vampire.

The 3 lords lose their power, and quickly turn to dust. The Doctor retrieves Romana and Adric, and with K-9 they leave in the Tardis, leaving the people to advance as they please.

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Another enjoyable adventure of the Doctor. I do love the quirky wit of the 4th Doctor. He is full of himself, but not at all like the 6th Doctor. So enjoyable.