The Doctor meets the infamous villains of the Time Lords - Vampires!

I find it so unbelievably bizarre that the Doctor and Romana don't realise that there's a new companion until like halfway through the story. Unfortunately, I can see that Tom is really not enjoying his time on the show anymore - he's aggressive and brash, and he's really taking a distaste to saying his lines, there's one moment where he just says "ADRIC." really violently for no reason, it's such a shame. However, I like the Doctor's disgust when K-9 mentions Dracula, because he and Romana met Dracula in the audio "The Labyrinth of Buda Castle." The dialogue is sparkling and witty, with just little moments providing a lot of humour and charm to these characters, like the way the Doctor takes a moment to just look at Romana and call her wonderful, and just little exchanges like that which make our core cast feel a lot more realistic - he's taken a real liking to Romana, and it's going to be a difficult goodbye. The Doctor and Romana are having a lot of fun together, like one last hurrah, but when she's on her own, she doesn't get too much to do, which is rather disappointing. Adric is still kinda boring and he's nowhere near companion material - he even sides with the vampires!

The vampire lore is built up slowly and interestingly, and the performances of the three characters are really well played. I love the idea with them being the truth behind the myth, which exists on every planet, giving them a little weight and making them an iconic villain - and their war with the Time Lords is really fascinating, and it's great that we see more of it in expanded media. However, I'm a little confused as to what the Great One actually is, and why they serve it, and how it got defeated - the rocket just suddenly turned around? Also, it's a little disappointing that the Vampires travelling and landing on a planet with the Hydrax is very similar to the previous episode. Despite this, their unrelenting evil, censorship and tyranny over the planets is a great contrast to the unstoppable force of good that the Doctor, and as the Time Lords claimed to be, are - and both come from N-Space! Overall, they're threatening, they're creepy, and really strong villains.

I love the gothic horror feel of this episode! The sets and on-location shoots look superb, the world-building is excellent and the tone of the story is dark and creepy, especially when the Doctor and Romana are attacked by the bats. This is such a visually interesting episode, so many things to remark upon, with the common vampire tropes taking on their own Doctor Who flair to them.

The culture of the peasants was a great one to explore - I love to see how different species work in different universes and planets, however this time it didn't engage my interest for long enough. However, their oppression from the Vampires and the way they dealt with it was really exciting to watch, with a decent conclusion.

This is another strong outing for the E-Space Trilogy - I didn't enjoy it as much as Full Circle, but it's still one I'll definitely come back to. This vampire-centric episode mixes the genre in such an excellent way with the Doctor Who formula - another home run for Uncle Terry!