The Doctor and Romana Surrounded

After leaving Alzarius (see "Full Circle") the TARDIS materialises on another habitable world in E-Space. The Doctor, Romana and K9 are however, unaware that Adric - an Outler from Alzarius has stowed away aboard the TARDIS.

On leaving the TARDIS, The Doctor and Romana discover a medieval village. They also discover that the native villagers live in fear of ‘the Wasting’ and of ‘The Three Who Rule’.

‘The Three Who Rule’ live in a high, imposing tower overlooking the village and they demand humans, whom their guards select from the village and take to the tower never to be seen again.

King Zargo

Just outside the village The Doctor and Romana discover evidence of technology considerably more advanced than the medieval conditions in the village. With such technology just lying around, The Doctor and Romana wonder what happened in the course of the planet’s development to cause it to evolve backwards to its current rustic condition - to be in a ‘state of decay’.

They are soon to discover that it is ‘The Three Who Rule’ who have been keeping the villagers in ignorance although there is a small secret group of scientists who are struggling to rediscover, and keep alive, the knowledge of electricity and technology.

Zargo and Camilla on the Throne

‘The Three Who Rule’ are Camilla, Zargo and Aukon. They are in fact vampires and are the surviving crew of the Hydrax, a spacecraft sucked like the TARDIS into a Charged Vacuum Emboitment into in E-Space, who have become vampire servants of the Great Vampire. The Great Vampires are a race referred to in Time Lord mythology who are thought to have all been exterminated by the Time Lords.

The TARDIS has arrived just as The Great Vampire is about to be revived from its resting place deep underground beneath the Tower. The Doctor discovers that the tower is the shell of the original spacecraft in which The Lords, in their original human forms, came to E-Space.

Unbeknown to The Doctor and Romana their stowaway, Adric, has followed them to the village. He is discovered and captured by Aukon, who sees him as an alien and worthy of becoming one of the ‘chosen ones’. The Lords have also learnt of Romana and The Doctor, and Aukon sends a flock of his winged servants, bats, to menace them.

The Three Who Rule

After Romana is captured by The Lords, The Doctor and K9 return to the TARDIS to review old stories about vampires. They learn that Rassilon defeated The Great Vampires by designing and building metal bowships - fast ships that fired steel bolts that speared the monsters through the heart.

Meanwhile Aukon makes preparations for Adric to become a Chosen One and, on discovering that Romana is a Time Lord, for her to be sacrificed at The Arising and so become the first taste of revenge for their master.

With the villagers and K9 making an assault on the Tower, The Doctor climbs to the very top of the Tower – There he is able to launch one of the spaceship’s three shuttle craft. As it tries to lift off it plummets to the ground, piercing the awakening Great Vampire through the heart. Deprived of their master and with their controlling influence removed, Camilla, Zargo and Aukon crumble to dust.

With the Great Vampire dispatched, and the three vampire Lords reduced to dust, The Doctor finds Romana and Adric and they depart in the TARDIS hoping that the planet, now it is free from the corruptive effect of the vampires, will develop naturally once again.