The Hand of Fear

Starting with bang. 

It’s always a bit sad when a companion leaves, but this is the story where Sarah Jane leaves is just that little bit sadder. Bob Baker and Dave Martin deliver a script to Elizabeth Sladen that does good service to a character that had spent over three years in the role, seen a regeneration, Daleks, Cybermen, Harry Sullivan come and go, the withdrawal of UNIT as series regulars, a change in production team and move to more ‘alien’ settings with weird and wonderful planets shown such as Zeta Minor and indeed, in this story, Kastria.

Sarah is possessed!

It’s hard to know what to make of the ending, it’s a little bit ‘oh you’ve got to go now’, and thusly out of the blue. The scene itself is very well

written, touching, and movingly played by Tom Baker and Liz Sladen, but it must be heartbreaking for the character Sarah Jane to be told she can’t stick around because the Doctor has to go to Gallifrey. Then there is the presumption and indeed inference that the Doctor aint coming back for her.

A blurry Houston

Of course, in the previous season and one story  Sarah has been blinded, hypnotised (left right and centre!), tied up a LOT, thought the Doctor was dead who knows how many times, knocked out, trapped in an air lock, attacked by two fake Harrys, the list goes on. She chucks a wobbly and says she wants to go home, whilst the Doctor is too engrossed in the issues of the TARDIS to listen to her. It might just have been the perfect time for her to leave.

Indeed it really was. Three and a half years is a long time for a companion, and she’s racked up the longest stint thus far for a companion if not the most episodes – that goes to Frazer Hines as Jamie. Personally I don’t travel with companions as often as the Doctor does. I’ve had many, but sometimes solo travel allows a bit of freedom. I feel like it’s okay to be more obnoxious which is always nice when I am on my own.

It's a handy hand!

Back to the story, watching the extra features I see that a deliberate choice was made to views the story as four separate chapters, and that comes

across when you watch the four episodes. It’s thusly different and interesting narratively. Characters come and go, with no actor apart from the two leads being around for more than two episodes. There are not a lot of principal characters, meaning that the Doctor and particularly Sarah really carry a good bulk of the plot – even more than normal. We don’t see a lot of scenes featuring other characters having conversations.

Eldrad mark one.

Rex Robinson is back for his third Doctor Who adventure, after ‘The Three Doctors’ and ‘The Monster of Peladon’. It’s no surprise to see him as Lennie Mayne, director of the previous mentioned stories, is also director on ‘The Hand of Fear’. Rex gets episodes one and two, Glyn Houston is the principal support for episode two and features in episode three as the man in charge of a nuclear power station. The protagonist, Eldrad, appears as a character in episode three played by the striking and powerful Judith Paris. When Eldrad is returned to Kastria in episode four, he regenerates into Stephen Thorne, known for Omega and Azal in the Pertwee years. And his voice still hasn’t softened!

Stephen Thorne as Eldrad.

‘The Hand of Fear’ was inspired by an old B-grade horror film where a hand came to life. It certainly is very creepy and a great place to start writing, and the script is possibly Baker and Martin’s best. It’s got a different feel to it, and is very pacey. With characters dying or the story moving past them quickly, the external characters other than Eldrad don’t quite have the chance to develop, however Glyn Houston’s Professor Watson has some lovely moments, especially when he calls his wife to say he won’t be home on time from work.

Also, they actually shot this thing IN a NUCLEAR POWER PLANT. This, today, would be unthinkable. Apparently the company was more than happy for them to use it and there’s even a fall from great heights and an exploding cabinet, all done at the plant. It really adds to the authenticity of this story. The final episode on Kastria is a pretty decent warp-up of events, although Eldrad’s death as he plummets into a chasm is sadly handled rather poorly – possibly a rushed job.

'Hey you, he blew it!'

All in all though, ‘The Hand of Fear’ maintains the excellent standard of ‘Who’ under Hinchcliffe.

9/10

Planet of Evil

Opening statement – NOBODY does mad like Prentice Hancock. Great name, great performance of crazy throughout this show. The rest of it almost gets left behind and forgotten.

The Doctor and Sarah on the wonderful Zeta-Minor set.

Prentice Hancock and Liz Sladen

No no that’s not true it’s a very clever, inventive and interesting story written by Louis Marks, back his third story and third Doctor as well. But what is most amazing is the set, again the designer was Roger Murray-Leach, who was responsible for the ark/Nerva Beacon of the previous season. The benefits of working in the spacious Eeling studio for a few days are plain to see for the viewer. Film is far more atmospheric (thankfully they did use the hand-held video cameras used in ‘Robot’ and ‘The Sontaran Experiment’) and the space at Eeling allowed them to have wet ground and shoot from more angles, and give a really ‘alien’ feel to the story and world of Zeta Minor.

The studio lighting was also great, and although there is that slight ‘jarring’ effect going from film to video, I still think it’s better to have some shot on film than none. The ideas are interesting too, the idea that Zeta-Minor is the last planet in the known Universe and connected to the anti-Universe underlines the Producer, Philip Hinchcliff’s wish to push the boundaries of the programme and get it away from the confines of Earth.

Creating a creature from computer graphics was an interesting idea that didn't

The anti-creature.

quite work. The set for the space ship though was rather good, if a little square and cornered at times. Tom Baker is in fine form, not missing a beat, and Elizabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith has shown clear changes from her time with Jon Pertwee. Her character has a lot of light and dark, humour, as well as now being a seasoned traveller. Her feisty-ness is still there, but not brought out as often. This means she is calmer, although sometimes meeker and she no longer talks up women’s lib. The strong relationship with the Doctor means less questioning, more relying on him, and a sense of belonging in the TARDIS I guess. I think for the most part the character at this stage is a fantastic companion, although I don’t know is Sarah is now a stronger person (as a character).

Prentice Hancock gets mad!

Prentice Hancock appeared in ‘Spearhead from Space’ as a journalist, ‘Planet of the Daleks’ as the hot-headed Varun, and here in ‘Planet of Evil’ as Salamar, the completely bonkers, power-mad order-shouting Salamar. Compared to him you almost forget Frederick Jaeger’s performance as the luckless, lost, almost as mad Sorenson running around in dirty pyjamas for the most part. But he’s good too. As is Ewen Solon as Vishinsky, there’s a very north/eastern European sound to these characters names. Vishinsky is the only sane person aboard the ship, and a very likeable character. Finally, Michael Wisher has a small part too – I’ve lost count of how many stories he’s been in now, but I believe this was his final one.

Vishinsky helps the Doctor and Sarah

David Maloney directed ‘The Genesis of the Daleks’, and again here he proves a very strong director, mixing action, dialogue and conveying strange concepts in interesting ways to leave the audience with a great little story. The filming direction at Eeling Studios is a particular feature of his direction.

The script is slightly limiting – a lot of it is set on the space ship, with people yelling or going around in circles. This is not the ultimate classic Doctor Who story by any means, but I am always drawn to a story with interesting visuals, difficult ideas presented in an interesting way.

I also think the idea of the planet not letting the

Sorenson (Frederick Jaeger) not so taken with the TARDIS.

ship leave while part of the planet was aboard the ship is great, but it lags a bit in the last two parts, which are stuck with the ship having left Zeta-Minor but being slowly dragged back to it. The fact is that surely they would have burnt enough fuel over the time to prevent them returning to their home world.

Nevertheless, and despite some pretty poor costumes for the ship’s crew and especially Sorenson, I really enjoyed this one.

8/10