'They protect us from the Wasting' (chakoteya.net/DoctorWho/18-4.htm)
One of the things that always confused me in 'State of Decay' was the wasting from which the Lords apparently protect the villagers. Thanks to Shannon Sullivan, I know understand: ‘departures from the original storyline included the elimination of subplots involving townsfolk turning into zombies who stalked the woods at night’
(Shannon Patrick Sullivan, A Brief History of Time (Travel), shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/5p.html).
Thing is, it's not actually difficult to deduce both that it was probably something along those lines and that it's a subplot that's been clumsily dropped. I suspect it lingered because: 1, this is Dicks and it's not the sort of loose end you'd expect of him; 2, the script really draws attention to it --
DOCTOR: [...] a chap in the village told me the Lords
protected you from the Wasting.
KALMAR: You know about the Wasting?
DOCTOR: Well, only by hearsay. What is the Wasting?
TARAK: The Wasting?
DOCTOR: Yes.
TARAK: The Wasting is
(Kalmar stops him.)
TARAK: The Wasting.
DOCTOR: Ah.
And then, writing the page on Doctor Who and the State of Decay, I realised how sour things got between Dicks and Bidmead. Is this Dicks reaching the end of his tether and leaving in incomprehensible hints to the dropped subplot to see if Bidmead spots them? Is it removing the subplot as asked but still needing some explanation for the villagers fealty and not having time to think of anything else? Certainly, the adjustment to 'They protect us-from the evil that stalks the night' in the novelisation isn't much better.
Anyway, Doctor Who and the State of Decay...
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