Doctor Who (1963) 14-05: The Hand of Fear, Part One

Episode:

432

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Serial:

87

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Writer:

Bob Baker and Dave Martin

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Director:

Lennie Mayne

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Air Date:

02-Oct-1976

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This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm back to Doctor Who season 14. Not the Ncuti Gatwa season with the Space Babies. I'm going way further back to when Peter Hinchcliff was producer, Robert Holmes was script editor and Tom Baker was the Doctor, as this week I'm writing about... The Hand of Fear!

Season 14 started in 1976 and consisted of six serials. This one was the second and I've actually already covered the fourth one, The Face of Evil. Well I've covered them all really, as I gave them each a bit of a review after watching a classic Doctor Who marathon. But this time I'm going through each episode and each scene individually to give the story some proper attention. 

Hang on, The Hand of Fear, The Face of Evil... I'm spotting a bit of a pattern there. There was The Brain of Morbius and The Talons of Weng-Chiang as well, so the Fourth Doctor had a lot of evil body parts to deal with in the Hinchcliff era. This is also the second thing to be 'of Fear', as there was a Second Doctor story called The Web of Fear. That was the first appearance of the Brig if I remember right...

Anyway, I'm going to be going through each episode writing words under pictures, so if you haven't seen the story yet then there will be SPOILERS. But if you're that one person on Earth who's watching through the classic series before moving on to modern Doctor Who you don't have to worry, as this is first time viewer safe.

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The episode starts with a miniature shot, with a featureless grey spaceship flying through space.

This is the 'Obliteration Module' apparently, designed to go off beyond all solar systems in six spans and then explode. So it's a pretty advanced ship, with a faster than light engine. Must be a pretty advanced explosive as well, if they'd already ruled out 'throw its cargo into the sun' as an obliteration option.

There's also a miniature shot of a dome on a barren and windy world. They're really going all out with the visual effects here. It's just a shame that they went and spoiled it with the voices.

Though I'm not sure there even is a good way to say "ELDRAD, THE TRAITOR, DESTROYER OF THE BARRIERS! SENTENCED TO OBLITERATION! ELDRAD!"

It cuts to the inside of the dome, which looks even colder than the outside. In fact one of the two 'technic's has already frozen to death it seems.

The problem I have with this scene is that the combination of weird shouty voices, technical dialogue, alien terminology and having no context made it all fly over my head the first time around. It's the kind of scene someone would use in a clip to show how terrible and cheesy classic Doctor Who was.

I don't know why these two have to be in a freezing control room in Dome Six, as they're chatting to King Rokon over the radio just fine and surely people with FTL spaceship tech are smart enough to rig it up so they can press the obliteration button from somewhere warmer. But with the barriers falling, conditions are getting too bad to stay here, so they have to detonate the ship early. They're not happy about it though, as it means there's a one in three million chance that a particle will survive. Man, these people are really serious about the death penalty.

The spaceship miniature explodes and there's a rubbish-looking swirly galaxy effect to transition to...

...the Doctor and Sarah Jane arriving in a quarry! 

It actually is just a quarry for once and we're never led to believe otherwise. There's not even a gag about them assuming that it's an alien world. The pair were apparently aiming for South Croydon though, which gets mentioned five and a half times in this scene. 

I don't know why Sarah Jane wanted to go home, it doesn't seem like she was ready to stop travelling. All I know is that the outfit she's wearing here was weird even in 1976, and they even say in dialogue that she's dressed like Andy Pandy (a British kids show character from the '50s). I think the point was to show how detached from normality she's gotten after travelling with the Doctor for so long, but it's not very clear.

Neither character is immediately alarmed by the siren going off, they just talk louder, and wave back to the guy frantically waving at them from a distance. In fact the Doctor takes the time to do some bowling with the rocks, which is an extremely Doctory thing to do. Even more so in his fifth incarnation.

And then the cliff explodes, showering them with rocks. They actually did film a proper explosion for this and it definitely looks real. I certainly wouldn't want to get buried under all that... and Sarah Jane probably didn't either.

The situation's actually treated with a suitable amount of seriousness, with people rushing over to help... and make clear that they'll not be taking responsibility for this. They call for an ambulance and get some stock footage instead, though with this film quality it's seamless.

The Doctor's alive and mostly unscathed, though he seems a little stunned. When he sees the coat that Sarah Jane was holding he walks straight over, not even reacting to his scarf getting caught on a rock and pulled off his neck. He's certainly not cracking any jokes right now.

At this point Doctor Who was still spending the extra cash to shoot on film for its location shoots as the cameras were less awkward, and the director really took advantage of that here with some interesting shots.

Like this one of them trying to lift rocks off Sarah Jane.

She's buried, but not crushed thankfully. She reaches out to grab something, realises it's a weird fossilised hand and then screams. It's a good thing too, as it tells the others where she is.

They get her onto a stretcher and the episode cuts to a local hospital.

You can tell how jarring it is going from film to video even in static screencaps. It's not just the picture quality that's changed though, but the style of direction as well, as they couldn't do the same things with a giant mounted TV camera as they could with a film camera.

There's a bit of a gag here, with the intern shaking the Doctor's hand right after determining that it hurts. He realises that the Doctor's got some medical knowledge himself and asks him where he qualified. The Doctor replies 'Gallifrey' and when he asks if that's in Ireland, he says 'probably'. He just wants the conversation to be over really so he can check on Sarah Jane.

Sarah Jane is unconscious but not sedated, and they're a little confused about why her hand is gripping so tightly. They've already taken the stone hand away to the pathology lab for examination.

The intern is distinctive enough that it really feels he's being set up to be major character in the story. Nope, this is basically the last we see of him. Instead the role of 'man who helps the Doctor with the problem' goes to this guy:

Dr. Carter, played by Rex Robinson. That's a name designed for movie posters.

I like how the Doctor just comes in acting like an expert and Dr. Carter doesn't question it. The way Tom Baker can let "silicon-based molecular infrastructure" roll off his tongue, it would've weirder if he doubted him. He's very toned down and reasonable in this.

Carter has examined the stone hand and there's no tissue differentiation, no blood, no muscle, no indication of any living organism whatsoever. I appreciate when the writers sprinkle some science into the script to make the sinister space hand a little easier to believe.

The Three Doctors

Rex Robinson had some prior experience with Doctor Who science as he'd played Dr. Tyler in The Three Doctors three years earlier. He also played Gebek in The Monster of Peladon, but I think he was a miner, not a doctor.

Oh, here's some trivia for you. One earlier version of the Hand of Fear script involved the Brig, and had him dying at the end. They apparently thought about killing him off in Pyramids of Mars as well. I get why writers want to give characters big dramatic endings, but it seems to me that once someone has been around long enough to become beloved you should probably resist that urge. Better to let them continue to exist in the imagination of the fans, And in tie-in comics.

The Doctor gets hold of an electronic microscope and gets that set up, which has to remove all trace of doubt in Carter's mind that he knows what he's doing. At least Carter doesn't dismiss him outright when he starts talking about extraterrestrial possibilities.

They at least know that this human-looking hand was buried in limestone from 150 million years ago, and humans weren't around in the Jurassic era, so this is something worth investigating. The quarry's probably worth another look as well, so the Doctor heads out while Carter examines some samples from the hand.

Meanwhile Sarah Jane is out of bed, and she overheard the conversation from earlier so she knows exactly where the stone hand is and how to get there. Good script writing!

Damn, you can really see the camera's sensor struggling with that glare. Though to be fair their video cameras had come a long way since the black and white era.

There's less of a black halo around the areas where the highlights are clipping due to the brightness exceeding the range of the sensor.

Anyway, when you're watching a TV episode or movie and you see a close up of someone's hands while they're doing something, that's probably not the actor themselves. It's often more efficient to film those shots later and there's no need for the actor to spend their precious time pointing at things or putting a sample into a microscope if all we're seeing is their hands.

But the camera zooms out to reveal that it actually was the actor's hand this time. Then the camera slides around the desk to show Sarah Jane coming in through the door behind him and putting the hand into a box. 

There's a similar shot here that starts with a close up of Sarah Jane's eyes, tilts down to the box she's picking up, and then turns to the door to watch her leave again. In 1976, editing video was more of a pain than editing film, so while we're indoors the episode is using fewer cuts. The style of direction changes to match the strengths and weaknesses of the cameras.  

Okay there are plenty of cuts when she says "ELDRAD MUST LIVE" and zaps Carter with the ring that she was secretly holding, but this was typically done live by switching between multiple cameras that were capturing the action at the same time. Even the visual effects were added live... somehow.

Honestly, that's not the worst energy beam I've seen in '70s Doctor Who. Though this is hardly the conduct I've come to expect from companions! She'll be giving younger children in the audience nightmares.

Back in the quarry, the Doctor has a bit of a look around for incongruous materials like plastics and ceramics, to see if there's any evidence of a spaceship. But there is not. 

So it's back to the pathology lab for more science. Incidentally, I don't think I really noticed until now how '70s' Dr Carter's outfit is. Anyway he's still alive, though a little more grumpy. He snaps at the Doctor, asking if he found anything at the quarry, and then catches himself, asking again a bit more calmly. It's good acting I reckon.

They can tell from the sample that the hand had been in an explosion millions of years ago, and probably millions of miles away. Hey, I remember that from the intro! It seems like the sample has been absorbing radiation from the machine and regenerating, so Sarah Jane is probably taking the hand somewhere there's lots of it.

The Doctor heads out to look for her... then immediately pops back in to ask where the nearest nuclear reactor is.

Cut to Nunton Experimental Complex. It's not actually a power plant, it does research & development, though it was played by Oldbury Nuclear Power Station in Gloucestershire. Not too far away from where they film modern Doctor Who in Cardiff.

It's about 6 miles away from where they filmed the quarry scenes, so it actually is in the same area. Plus the quarry was known for its fossils, so that part's true as well! Though the place actually flooded a long time ago and became a maritime training academy. The quarry I mean, not the nuclear power station.

Anyway, I've already talked about how the episode was directed, but this has to be the most blatant show-off shot in the story. The camera starts off looking at the power plant complex, then it pans to follow a truck, which leads us to the security gate. As the barrier rises, the camera stays with it, zooming into the STOP sign.

This means that the camera is now looking directly at the circular mirror on that post in the background.

As the mirror comes into focus we see Sarah Jane walking up to the gate with the hand in a box!

So in one shot they've set up the geography of the area and made Sarah Jane's arrival suitably creepy. I really don't give the filmmaking in classic Doctor Who enough credit sometimes.

She walks up to a security guard acting all innocent and then zaps him with her ring when he walks over. It doesn't seem like she's going to have much trouble getting inside.

Though how did she even get here? I dunno, maybe she walked a few miles, maybe she stole one of those cars parked behind her, maybe she took a bus. The important thing is, she's got a massive head start over the Doctor and Carter, who still have to drive over.

One of the things I like about watching older television and movies is seeing the old buildings, props and cars. It's the closest thing I've got to actual time travel. That's an Austin Allegro apparently, and you don't see many of them driving around any more. 

Though this road is very familiar to me, even though I've never been here. It's just so... British. In fact it's grey and raining right now as I'm writing this, I could go outside to a road with some trees alongside and get a view just like this in 2026. It's also exactly what the road to the power station looks like, so they probably just filmed there.

Oh damn, you don't see car shots like this every day. No idea how they squeezed a camera crew in there underneath Tom Baker's feet. This does seem to be filmed out on the road though, with real trees passing by outside.

I wasn't expecting Dr. Carter to be teaming up with the Doctor for the whole episode. It's building up the tension as they race to catch up to Sarah Jane.

Meanwhile she's just walking around, taking her time. The camera might be up close to the actress for maximum creepiness, but they're certainly milking this location for all that it's worth. Getting all the production value they can.

Granted it came out looking more like a Blue Peter segment on how nuclear reactors work than a big budget movie, but it's definitely more impressive than the pathology lab was.

Also the further into the network of pipes and machinery she goes, the more I think the actress should've been wearing a radiation suit. Or a J.J. Abrams Star Trek uniform.

Well they're still going.

The last three minutes of the episode has been nothing but rainy roads and Sarah Jane walking around with a box in her hand, but they're almost there now!

The Doctor finally arrives, pats the recovering security guard on the head, opens the gate and... is stopped by armed guards.

They were so close!

Meanwhile Sarah Jane is still going. The inside of the research complex is lightly staffed so she's able to knock everyone out with her ring without being overly hindered by the alarm going off. Four minutes this has been going on for now.

This reminds me of the Star Trek episode Assignment: Earth, where the producers apparently believed that their shots of a NASA control centre were so interesting that they didn't need to worry about pacing any more.

I'm not really bored yet though, so I guess power plants are pretty interesting.

But they don't let actors walk right into a nuclear reactor core, so the room with "RADIOACTIVE SOURCE EXPOSED, DO NOT ENTER" on the door is clearly a set.

They've switched back to video as well, so that's a bit of a giveaway. Though to be fair they couldn't have shot on film in an actual reactor, as it's radiosensitive and it would fog up. (I learned that while doing research for my Star Trek IV review.)

Sarah Jane sits down, takes off the lid, and waits.
 

The stone hand regrows a finger and begins to move! So that's probably not the actual floor then, as they needed room for someone to stick their hand through the bottom of the box.

They did a fairly decent job here of lining up the footage of the stone hand prop with the footage of a real hand so that they could crossfade between the two. Unfortunately the box isn't exactly lined up, so it gives it away.

That's a proper cliffhanger though! Sarah Jane has been possessed, she's in a room with a scary hand, and she's already been exposed to massive amounts of deadly radiation. 


CONCLUSION

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I really didn't like how the episode started, with the aliens in the dome. At first I was wondering 'why is this space mission being controlled by two people in a frozen outpost?' and 'why are they sending someone out in a spaceship just to blow them up?' But then I got sick of listening to the voices and stopped caring.

Then it cut to the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith and it suddenly got a lot better. In fact the episode pretty much flew by for me, despite the fact that for the last five minutes it was just following Sarah Jane around a power plant. Five minutes of pipes and creepy music with the only two lines being "Stop or we fire," and "Hey, miss."

The direction helped I reckon. Though I didn't even notice how interesting it was on my first watch, so it couldn't have been too distracting. Okay that shot with the truck leaving the power plant was a bit showy, but I appreciated it. Lots of nice location filming in this.

Another thing I appreciated was how down to earth the tone was. Tom Baker can be a bit of a cartoon character in other episodes, but his performance here made it easy for me to buy that he has everyone immediately convinced that he's an expert. It seems rare for the Doctor to have a scientist as his ally, that's usually his job, but he and Carter work well together as science detectives working through a mystery without ruling anything out as ridiculous. The episode's not too bogged down in scientific terminology, but there's enough there to make me willing to go along with the fact that a 150 million year old stone hand from space is brainwashing people so it can eat more radiation.

Meanwhile Elisabeth Sladen got to play the villain for once, though all she really got to say after being possessed was "Eldrad must live". Still, she got to zap some people with her ring and walk around an actual nuclear power plant, and hopefully all that radiation she's absorbed will give her super powers in the next episode. Maybe the ability to turn green and throw car, maybe the ability to climb walls and sense danger, either would be interesting.

RATING

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The episode has some things going for it, but when you cut out the intro and the ending there's only 15 minutes of actual character interaction. In fact I wish that they had cut the intro, as for me it drags this one down to...

  6/10

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NEXT EPISODE

Next time on Doctor Who, people are getting very concerned about the strange woman in their reactor in The Hand of Fear, Part Two.

But if you'd rather discuss The Hand of Fear, Part One, I'm okay with that.