Behind the Sofa - The Collaborative Doctor Who Blog

Bye, Bye Sarah Jane

The Hand of Fear episode four

After the intriguing nature of the first two episodes set mostly on modern day Earth this last episode set on Kastria is a bit of a damp squib to be honest and is probably only worthy because of the last five minutes when Sarah takes her leave of the Doctor.

In fact that is really the only thing worth mentioning in this review as the previous twenty minutes were not actually all that good. Basically Eldrad is taken to a regeneration chamber and ends up turning into Stephen Thorne in a repeat of his rather shouty performance of Omega a few years previous. That’s about it really.

was a very touching moment despite Sarah looking a bit like Andy Pandy.

Now let’s move on the main point of this episode where Sarah leaves the Doctor. This was rather unexpected even though it may of seemed that the Doctor was trying to get Sarah to South Croydon at the beginning of the story and was a very touching moment despite Sarah looking a bit like Andy Pandy.

It was nice that they both seemed to at cross purposes and while Sarah was having her little rant about always ending up in horrible places and how she want her home comforts back etc.

Then because the Doctor wasn’t trying to shout her down about wanting to leave the TARDIS she goes off in a bit of a huff to pack her things, the Doctor was under the TARDIS and had not heard any of Sarah’s little tirade.

Then the Doctor gets the call from Gallifrey and he realises that he has to let Sarah go, unaware that she was packing her things at that moment thinking that he doesn’t want her around anymore. Tom Baker was great in this last scene as you notice that when he is telling Sarah that she has to leave and that he is not able to take her to Gallifrey with him that he isn’t looking at her, almost as if he can’t bare to say the words to her face, that was a nice little touch, and shows just how strong the bond between the two actually was.

Let’s hope her cash card hadn’t expired as how else would she have got home?

Also Sarah was a little taken aback I think about how cold he appeared to be when saying that she couldn’t go to Gallifrey with him. This was definitely the most emotionally charged leaving scene of a companion for a long time and showed that the original series could do emotions when it wanted to.

And the final scene where Sarah realised that she is probably not even in South Croydon is even more poignant after School Reunion where the Doctor finds out that he had in fact left her in Aberdeen, which is more than just a little bit outside of Croydon.

Let’s hope her cash card hadn’t expired as how else would she have got home?

Come, Nuclear Bomb

The Hand of Fear Part Three

In this episode only Professor Watson is still in the nuclear plant after Driscoll had gone and walked into the core of the plant. When they get there they discover that all the radiation has been absorbed and it is perfectly safe to walk around the core.

a bit like hiding under a curtain or painting the windows black, all things than can apparently repel radiation.

The Doctor advises Watson that the Eldrad creature is only going to get stronger and stronger so Watson does the only thing that he can think off and orders a nuclear strike on the plant.

This happens and we have the Doctor, Watson and Sarah hiding behind a car whilst this happens, which is obviously a safe place to hide when a nuclear explosion has happened, a bit like hiding under a curtain or painting the windows black, all things than can apparently repel radiation.

The strike happens but the plant is not destroyed. The Doctor reasoned that the creature must have absorbed the explosion so they decide to go back to the planet. The Doctor tries to leave Sarah at the gates of the plant but she is having none of it and ends up going with them where they meet the Eldrad creature now fully regenerated and taking a form similar to that of a human female.

Apparently Eldrad has modelled itself on Sarah which Sarah takes as a bit of an insult. Perhaps it would have been more interesting if this had been the cast that Elisabeth Sladen had played the Eldrad creature in this episode as that would have made a bit more sense and would have been good for Elisabeth Sladen in what would turn out to be her final story.

So what does the Doctor decide to do with this entity who absorbs radiation? He decides to take it back to where it came from. I suppose that this was probably the only thing that the Doctor could have done because, as he says, he couldn’t very well leave it on Earth.

I don’t think [Watson] is going to get home anytime soon.

Sarah is not too impressed though with this new addition to the TARDIS crew as well she might considering the fact that it had possessed her a couple of episodes earlier. Professor Watson’s assistant turns up after the Doctor leaves with Eldrad and Sarah where basically Watson is left in the shit and left to clean up and explain to the authorities what actually happened. I don’t think he is going to get home anytime soon.

We then go back to Kastria, which is not a very hospitable place, and Eldrad ends up getting shot due to a booby trap left by the people who had cast Eldrad out of Kastria in the first place, on the assumption that he/she would return someday.

Every Time We Say Goodbye

I’ve just got something in my eye. Honest.

The Hand of Fear Part 4

It’s difficult to review this final episode without just concentrating on those final five minutes. Like a lot of departure stories - whether it be companions or Doctors - ‘The Hand of Fear’ eventually becomes little more than a preamble to that lump in the throat moment. And it’s hard to think of another story in the ‘classic’ series that does it so well. Yes, Jo’s departure three years previously has its admirers and rightly so; even Adric’s fatal finale is remembered with fond memories (though that could just be a recollection of the relief at seeing Matthew Waterhouse bugger off). But Sarah’s sudden exit here is something much more profound, moving and downright real. It isn’t what’s said between her and the Doctor as they bid rushed adieus, but what isn’t.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself once again. Last time you left us with Eldrad pumped full of more acid than a Sid Barrett dinner party; and as the Doctor and Sarah struggle to get her to the regeneration chamber, avoiding several booby traps along the way, we’re somewhat reminded of the corresponding episode of ‘Pyramids of Mars’. As ‘The Hand of Fear’ becomes little more than a series of death-defying set pieces which bear hardly any relation to the preceding three parts.

It isn’t what’s said between her and the Doctor as they bid rushed adieus, but what isn’t

It’s also a lesson in setting up the companion’s departure with some none-too-subtle hints. Like some novice time traveller, Sarah’s actually a bit useless this episode, moaning constantly and achieving little more than putting herself in peril for the Doctor to get her out of. And South Croydon gets a rather shoehorned mention, just in case the pre-video viewers have actually forgotten where she comes from. The more cheesed off Sarah gets, the more convinced we become that that final strop in the TARDIS is actually for real.

So with Eldrad turning stiffer than an acting school run by Maurice Colbourne, Tom takes the opportunity to cop a feel before the silicon-based siren is apparently obliterated by her supposed saviour. And just when it seems things can’t get any worse for her, next minute she’s back up and about with one slight drawback: she’s been reincarnated as a tedious, shouty megalomaniac played by Stephen ‘Brian Blessed squeaks like a mouse in comparison’ Thorne. Talk about a fate worse than death, being brought back to life as Omega on HRT. No sooner has Omegadrad begun Mwhu, Hah, Hah-ing his way into a season of Brighton-based panto then he’s finding that - like the stellar engineer with whom he once surely took anger management classes - he is now King of a dead world, with no-one and nothing left to take his empty revenge out on.

Talk about a fate worse than death, being brought back to life as Omega on HRT

Needless to say Eldrad doesn’t take this at all well. But before he can raise his game from Window Twanky to WWF wrestler, the clumsy old silicon-and-so is tripping over the Doctor’s scarf and plunging to a death in eternity with only his own booming sonorants for company. Still, as crew members on a James Cameron film would surely testify, ‘Life’s abyss…and then you dive’.

Which just leaves us with that scene. Dry your eyes, mop those tears; Sarah-Jane will be back more than once again in this timeline - even if she does seem to draw a blank when someone asks her about ‘The Five Doctors’ - and at least she didn’t go without noticing how many times she’d been hypnotised over the past three years.

Though I’m sure that’s Aberdeen where the Doctor’s dropped her, not South Croydon.

Next Time: The Quest is the Quest, as we join the Doctor and new girl Romana in search of the first segment of the Key to Time. Haven’t they tried getting the whole boxset on Amazon instead..?

(The Bumper Book of Made-Up ‘Doctor Who’ Facts has this to say about The Hand of Fear 4: this final episode still holds the show’s record of most teardrops shed by fans in inches (3.5”))

Elementary, My Dear Watson

There now follows an important public safety announcement…

The Hand of Fear Part 3

With the whole of nuclear physics turned completely on its head, the imminent meltdown we left last time becomes an ‘un-explosion’ as Driscoll is absorbed into the core and some rather unpleasant rumbling sounds emanate from behind the locked door. As the Doctor stands serenely on Watson takes the initiative, channelling a certain Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and ordering a tactical strike from the RAF in the same way as he’d phone out for a chinese with extra prawn balls.

Of course this fails. As the Doctor and co stand around with noses pinched like someone’s just let off, the missiles find their target only for any resultant destruction to be somewhat lacking in the wizz-bang department. Still, it’s not as if Professor Watson could look too surprised; after all this is the same man who thought that hiding behind a military vehicle was going to protect him from a nuclear explosion about half a mile away. What is it with the Bristol Boys, eh? Did they miss the public information film that warned people that being in the line of a nuclear explosion did more than just give you a healthy-looking suntan? For more of this ostrich-emulating writing, check out 'The Claws of Axos'. And weep.

Watson orders a tactical strike from the RAF in the same way as he’d phone out for a chinese with extra prawn balls

Oh, and since when did RAF jets scramble on the say-so of one nuclear station director? Any road, such logical questioning is hardly appropriate seeing as Eldrad has just stepped from behind the Stars in Their Eyes curtain in all her jewel-encrusted glory. And what a becoming sight she is; blue skin, nice figure and what looks like an inverted thimble for a hat. No wonder all that radiation she’s been absorbing has left its mark. And seeing as the brief glimpse we had of her fellow Kastrians in part one revealed little more than the Hoodie element of their culture, I guess anything’s an improvement by comparison.

Back in the real world, and the Doctor tells Sarah and Watson to stay put while he adopts the Terry Waite role in affairs. Inevitably Sarah refuses, leading to some lovely banter between the two that has you going all Aaaah as they bicker good-naturedly like the best of friends. The double act continues as they confront Eldrad, who subjects the Doctor to a couple of Truth or Consequence trials as she gens up on the situation. Seems like the former Kastrian leader has one or two trust issues, no doubt because of her ‘betrayal’ at the hands of treacherous colleagues. Or at least that’s what she tries to make out to the Doctor, as Baker and Martin’s script draws less than obscure parallels with their previous megalomaniac Omega from ‘The Three Doctors’.

a hurricane-swept wasteland which Ian Scoones or Mat Irvine knocked-up in an afternoon

So like the good Time Lord that he is the Doctor agrees to take Eldrad back to Kastria before she has the RAF levelling out any more nuclear installations. Leaving Professor Watson to explain what a bad day at the office he’s had to anyone who’ll listen - while no doubt nodding understandingly before injecting him with a strong relaxant - the trio make their way back to the TARDIS; where the Doctor lays a trap for all the future continuity buffs by mentioning the ship’s temporal grace in much the way that ‘isomorphic’ had bothered them since the previous year’s ‘Pyramids of Mars’. Arriving on Kastria - a hurricane-swept wasteland which no doubt Ian Scoones or Mat Irvine knocked-up in an afternoon - Eldrad reactivates the planet’s inexhaustible energy supply before getting a taste of her own medicine at the hands of the syringe of doom; a rare case of the cliff-hanger focussing on the villain’s peril rather than that of our heroes.

Next Time: Eldrad turns male and gets a lot louder. And there’ll be tears before bedtime.

(The Bumper Book of Made-Up ‘Doctor Who’ Facts has this to say about The Hand of Fear 3: Bob Baker and Dave Martin used to frequently holiday in Chernobyl because they heard the weather was so nice there)

Going Nuclear

The Hand of Fear Part Two

In this episode we see no fewer than three people running amok saying the immortal words Eldrad Must Live! Firstly Sarah, then Dr Carter who tries to cave the Doctor's head in with a wrench and lastly, but by no means least, some bloke called Driscoll.

We are introduced to yet more characters in this episode mainly Professor Watson, the head of the nuclear facility, played by Glyn Houston and his assistant Miss Jackson (played by the directors wife Frances Pidgeon) and Driscoll.

Only Watson has any real character about him as his phone call home to his wife and children shows. Would any one really notice if the rest of the people working in the plant died? Would anybody care? Thanks to the little bit of characterisation afforded him, the audience would care if anything happened to Professor Watson.

Then just when we think everything is alright then poor old Driscoll gets possessed, knocks out one of his colleagues, and takes the hand into the core of the nuclear plant itself.

So just when Professor Watson manages to avert one possible nuclear distaster another one comes along right after, just like buses when you have been waiting at the bus stop for ages in the freezing cold (sorry I'm digressing).

Handy Pandy

The Hand of Fear Part One

Lennie Mayne is one of the unsung heroes of Doctor Who director and, apart from Douglas Camfield, was one of the finest proponents of that craft during 1970's Doctor Who.

This was his last story before his untimely death on a sailing trip and is quite possibly his best work on the series. It has to be said that his work on the location footage is better than his studio work which was often the case in Doctor Who.

What helps with this story in particular though is the fact that is is filmed in an actual nuclear power plant and this gives the earth bound portions of this episode a realistic edge. These scenes are actually more in tune with a typical Pertwee story (and an early Pertwee story at that) than a typical Tom Baker story (if there can be such a thing).

As is per usual for a Lennie Mayne directed story Rex Robinson makes an appearance and this time he plays Doctor Carter, not unlike Doctor Tyler which he played in The Three Doctors, who it turns out is only really a bit part, as is Renu Senta whose character doesn't even warrant a name just as job title.

Actually come to think about the majority of the cast in this episode apart from Tom, Lis and Rex don't make it past this episode!

I must say that the episode is a lot more interesting from the point that the TARDIS first landed in the quarry. That was a nice little touch to have them land in an actual quarry and then assume that it must be an alien planet. I must admit I would have assumed that, as all the alien planets they had visited up to that point had looked suspiciously like quarries! A little bit of satire there from the Bristol Boys!

Then came the cliffhanger which you were kind of expecting when you saw the fossilised hand, and after the Doctor and Doctor Carter discovered that the sample was changing when in close proximity with radiated material.

The one downside of the story was Sarah's costume. What was she thinking when she chose it? Is that the sort of attire that investigative journalists normally wear? I know it was the seventies, but that was no excuse!

Next time the thing from the Addams family makes a guest appearance.

Houston, We Have a Problem

Fission chips twice, please…

The Hand of Fear Part 2

It’s a tale of three possessions as ‘The Hand of Fear’ spends episode two confined to bunker with first Sarah, then Doctor Carter and then someone who would pass for Tom Baker’s stunt double all succumbing to the allure of Eldrad’s blue ring. But while the film work at an actual nuclear power station gives events an expensive sheen, inevitably the studio-bound stuff does little to convince the viewer that not one, but two near-nuclear meltdowns take place in these twenty-five minutes.

And enter stage left station manager Professor Watson - played with effortless bluster by Welsh actor Glyn Houston - who’s convinced that Sarah is some escaped asylum lunatic who the Doctor is attempting to talk down following a particularly unsuccessful counselling session. There’s a nicely human grain to Houston’s performance here in what could have easily been a one-note cipher; for not only does he come to accept some of the fantastic events that unfold, but he also gets to make a rather touching phone-call home to his wife and daughter when it seems that Sarah’s interference is gonna see things go all Chernobyl city. ‘Kiss the children for me’ will make you either laugh or cry, depending on how cold-hearted and cynical you are.

Watson is convinced that Sarah is some lunatic who the Doctor is talking down following a particularly unsuccessful counselling session

What’s great about this episode is how very British the reaction is of the station personnel to the crisis. While Watson’s first instinct is that Sarah’s infiltration is some half-arsed political demonstration the rest of his staff run around like headless chickens, leaving the hapless Professor to man the switchboards himself until catastrophe is averted. And that’s not all to commend, for the hand effect as it lies in the sandwich box is really quite stunning, with not even a hint of how the tomfoolery was done (spoilt only slightly by the obvious CSO shot later as the hand drags itself slowly across the floor). I also just love the hand signals it makes that Sarah interprets as instructions; talk to the hand indeed…

Credit also once more to Lis Sladen, who is absolutely bonkers whilst possessed by Eldrad’s will; all fluttering eyes and sing-song voice, she’s giving even Tom a run for his money in the squirrel-shit nuttiness stakes. Speaking of whom, Baker is on effortlessly commanding form here, dismissive of Professor Watson’s ignorance one moment, compassionate and tender with Sarah the next. The word ‘otherworldly’ is often over-used when describing his performance, but now and again such an epithet is about as close to the mark in nailing the enduring popularity of the ‘definitive’ Doctor.

Lis Sladen is giving even Tom a run for his money in the squirrel-shit nuttiness stakes

But it’s not all bouquets. The possession thing is starting to look a bit stale when Driscoll - who seems to be taking his acting cues from the leading man in terms of boggle-eyed, curly-haired weirdness - become the third person to hear Eldrad’s voice in his head. And earlier on there’s arguably the worst assassination attempt on the Doctor’s life ever as Dr Carter plunges to his clumsy death whilst wielding a very rubbery looking spanner. So by the time we reach China Syndrome cliff-hanger again, things are starting to look a bit familiar; still at least it puts the efforts of Project Inferno into a better light: they only managed one nuclear meltdown per episode.

Next Time: Professor Watson’s wife gets suspicious when her husband calls a second time to say he’s gonna be late at the office.

(The Bumper Book of Made-Up ‘Doctor Who’ Facts has this to say about The Hand of Fear 2: the actor playing Driscoll was once hired in 1977 to open a garden fete in Tom Baker’s absence)

You Are the Quarry

Talk to the hand…’cos the silicon-based life-form ain’t listening

The Hand of Fear Part 1

Bob Baker and Dave Martin - perhaps the only double-act of note to ever come out of Bristol. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the Bristol Boys certainly had their fair share of significant stories during their Who careers: this, ‘The Three Doctors’, ‘The Armageddon Factor’, um, ‘The Claws of Axos’ (well, spaghetti monsters never were quite the same after that). And this one’s no exception, though I won’t spoil it for those who really are as ignorant as Clayton Hickman claims to be whilst sat on somebody’s sofa for The Time Team.

Nice prologue to start. On the planet of the hoodies, where everyone shouts as though the only elocution teachers are Brian Blessed and Stephen Thorne, the case of Eldrad has been heard and this hitherto unseen criminal (not that you actually see anyone here under all the space duvets they’re wearing) has been banished in an obliteration capsule in lieu of some hi-tech version of capital punishment. With global catastrophe affecting his executioners, Eldrad’s ship is detonated early and before we know it, we’re in the present day, some one hundred and fifty million years later.

everyone shouts as though the only elocution teachers are Brian Blessed and Stephen Thorne

Here, the TARDIS deposits the Doctor and Sarah on what seems to be just another alien planet, until the pair realise that they’re in an actual Earth quarry; and one scheduled for demolition in just a few seconds. With Steve Coogan apparently in charge there’s no time for the pair to escape, as the same effect that destroyed Irongron’s castle brings a sea of rubble down on their heads. The Doctor fortunately avoids all the debris, but Sarah’s not so lucky: not only being buried under more stones than one of Mick Jagger’s groupies but also clutching a fossilised hand that has clearly taken a fancy to her.

Despatched to the nearby hospital, the Doctor gets a swift examination from one of the 1970s’ token attempts to portray ethnic backgrounds in a positive light, while Sarah looks very cute and cuddly all tucked up in a hospital bed. Before you can have someone thinking that Gallifrey is in Ireland, the Doctor is running the show; showing up the local experts for the two-bit boffins they really are and leading the investigation into the mysterious hand that Sarah was hanging onto like a favourite toy. Left alone to scratch his head, Dr Carter (played by Lennie Mayne-regular Rex Robinson) gets zapped by Sarah’s ring when she comes to reclaim her handy while dressed like Andy Pandy. Yes, she’s possessed again, but for once Lis Sladen is given the chance to act more than vacant and drugged, giving this particular take on enthrallment a very sinister and curiously sexy spin. And like the simplest of good acting, it’s all in the eyes too.

On a giving a shit level, it seems that the Antipodean is registering a nine at least

When the Doctor gets back from chatting with Steve Coogan about limestone and shit, he finds Dr Carter coming around from a nasty case of blue-ring, mumbling about how someone called 'Eldrad' must live before coming over all funny to a tinkle on the ivories from Dudley Simpson. Deducing that the hand needs Sarah to help it regenerate, the Doctor and Carter rush for the nearest nuclear power station (well, this is a BB & DM script after all) in the Professor’s Austin Allegro. On which note, it’s time to pause and mention what an effective piece of direction this episode sees from Lennie Mayne. Not only do his POV shots of Sarah instil a very creepy air to her possession, but he even takes the time to squeeze himself into the foot compartment of Carter’s car in order to bring urgency to proceedings. On a giving a shit level, it seems that the Antipodean is registering a nine at least.

Back to the story, and the Doctor and Carter are too late to stop Sarah from getting to the nuclear station first. With the place about to go kablooey, she’s locked herself inside the reactor and opened up a lunchbox containing the severed hand (which outside of Jeffrey Dahmer’s works canteen would look odd to anyone). And when that hand grows its missing digit and wiggles around like it’s auditioning for The Addams Family, it’s about as iconic a cliff-hanger as you can get; completing one of the best opening episodes I can currently remember.

Next Time: Give the man a hand, as one by one the station personnel chorus the story’s mantra of ‘Eldrad must live!’

(The Bumper Book of Made-Up ‘Doctor Who’ Facts has this to say about The Hand of Fear 1: Steve Coogan still denies his involvement in this story, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary)