The Hand of Fear
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VHS Video
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(Doctor Who Story No. 87, starring Tom Baker)
- written by Bob Baker & Dave Martin
- directed by Lennie Mayne
- produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
- music by Dudley Simpson
- 4 episodes @ 25 minutes each
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Story: After Sarah is rescued from a quarry accident,
she emerges clutching a fossilized hand, and doesn't seem
quite herself. What mysterious forces are drawing her
and the people she comes into contact with to a large
nuclear plant? In search of answers and solutions, the
Doctor finds himself en route to the ruins of a lost
civilization on the planet Kastria, and Sarah learns
she must soon leave the Doctor....
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DVD Extras include:
- Audio commentary by actors Tom Baker (The Doctor),
Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith),
Judith Paris (Eldrad),
co-writer Bob Baker,
and producer Philip Hinchcliffe.
- "Changing Time" making-of featurette (50 min.)
- Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen on "Swap Shop" (11 min.)
- Pop-up Production Note Subtitles
- Photo Gallery
- 1977 Doctor Who Annual .pdf on DVD-ROM
In-Depth Analysis Review
by Martin Izsak
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WARNING: This review contains "SPOILERS", and is intended for
those who have already seen the program. To avoid the spoilers,
read the Buyers' Guide version instead.
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The Bristol Boys writing team is back (aka Bob Baker & Dave Martin),
after missing out on seasons
eleven and thirteen, and only getting a two-part story into season
twelve. Finally sinking their teeth into a full-length story once
more, they deliver a script full of interesting sci-fi concepts and
locations, but only sparsely populated by thin characters. In fact,
there isn't a single guest actor that appears in more than two of
the total four episodes.
The story is notable for some very good location filming, where director
Lennie Mayne was quite innovative during many sequences. In addition
to the usual exteriors, we also get grand use of an actual nuclear station,
featuring the sort of interior location filming that became popular during
the Graham Williams era (seasons 15-17), not to mention many a Blake's 7
production.
The simple plot continues to escalate well throughout the story
and keep it moving, with the rebirth of Eldrad in the reactor being one of
the highlights. Choice dialogue is mixed in with poor and overused
dialogue, the worst bits being scenes of people not listening to each
other and shutting each other down - the story doesn't get told during
this kind of thing, and pretty much stops altogether and irritates
members of the audience such as myself. On the other hand, the Doctor
gets a lot of great lines, showcasing his humour, uplifting general
demeanor, and pacifist helpfulness.
Special effects for the hand itself are really well done. Once
again, the ring ray is usually just a silly blue blob superimposed
on the screen, which I find less than satisfactory. On the plus side,
this effect remains visually literate thanks to Mayne doing it carefully
each time, and the fact that the first blast of the ray has an even better
angle thrown in amidst the usual ones, showing a proper visual beam. If
only we could have had that effect each time.....
The music is important too, for although this isn't one of Dudley
Simpson's most memorable scores, he backs moments of Eldrad possessing
people so perfectly that many moments are brought to the forefront of
our attention where, without the music, such moments would surely have
been lost or confusing.
The studio sections are adequate. Kastria is particularly
demanding, as Baker and Martin keep everyone moving through new
environments without very much happening in any one particular spot.
The race-bank storage room is really nicely achieved, and the regeneration
chamber works nicely, but the chasm crossing is really blasé, by the
time one can figure out what one is looking at. After all that Eldrad
has survived, the fall into the chasm is seriously anti-climactic.
As much as I like the novelty of the secondary control room in
the TARDIS from the previous story, I was horrified to see it being
used to replace the main white control room in continuing stories.
The tiny, static console is way too boring, and the door to the
exterior looks exceedingly silly with a black backdrop behind it.
And the place is just too small and dark for my tastes. Sure,
producer Philip Hinchcliffe fought to lower lighting levels in the studio
to help wrap monsters in the unknown - all the more reason why the console
room should contrast that and remain the safe and friendly white
place it always was.
That said, "The Hand of Fear" features some of the best TARDIS
console room scenes in the Hinchcliffe era. Baker and Martin's script
is wonderful in introducing the TARDIS to Eldrad and the audience,
and showing us what the TARDIS is best for: taking us to cool places
like Kastria, and allowing travel to broaden our minds. :-)
The model work for Kastria's exterior is very well done, and this
console room does boast the best scanner effect yet, allowing us to
continue to see the surface while Eldrad talks about the planet's
history, all in the same shot. Magnificent.
Eldrad does quite rightly take a backseat to the real conclusion
of the story: Sarah's departure from the series. Lis Sladen's final scene
with Tom Baker is the best in the entire story, full of humour, drama,
and sadness, and is one of the best exits any companion has had yet.
20-20 hindsight suggests that there isn't really any reason why Sarah
couldn't have gone to Gallifrey with the Doctor, but remember, the last time
he took any of his friends there, the Timelords did their best to erase
Jamie and Zoe's memories before sending them home. Better to drop Sarah
off at home with her memory still fully intact.
Even if it wasn't meant to be one, this does still feel like a
UNIT story. A new and unusual menace to mankind makes its way through
public facilities like hospitals and nuclear plants, right under the
noses of trained scientists and officials, and the Royal Air Force
is called in to make missile strikes. Crikey, all we're missing
are the friendly faces of the Brigadier, Benton, and Harry. That would
flesh out the thin cast, and give us some good humour or relationship
development in place of some of the padding. This story doesn't really
represent a break from UNIT stories as much as it does a UNIT story without
the usual cast charm. The plant's manager, Professor Watson, has to
do the Brigadier's role instead, which seems a bit far-fetched. They
don't even bother to offer an excuse, like the Brigadier being in
Geneva again. Basically, the Hinchcliffe era is still doing UNIT,
now at its most impotent ever.
Do they need to get rid of Sarah to do stories that don't beg for
UNIT? Not really. Just focus her on an alternate motivation from the
returning home thing (an unfortunate staple of season 13), and she could
have worked marvelously in space.
Sadly, the writers didn't get it early enough.
This story is now available on DVD and VHS video:
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DVD NTSC
Region 1
in the U.S.
in Canada
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DVD PAL
Region 2
for the U.K. |
VHS Video
NTSC
A
in the U.S.
NTSC
B
in the U.S.
NTSC
in Canada
PAL
for the U.K.
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