Doctor Who (1963) 14-07: The Hand of Fear, Part Three

Episode:

434

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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:

16-Oct-1976

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It's the first of April today, which means that this is 🎉 Sci-Fi Adventures' 10th Anniversary! 🥳 The site is up to season eleven, so it has now outlasted Stargate SG-1 and is close to overtaking the DC Comics Arrowverse. I'm still a little bit short of matching classic Doctor Who's 26 season run though.

Speaking of Doctor Who and anniversaries, this serial I'm watching turns 50 years old this year and I didn't even realise that until I'd already started writing about it. So that's a lucky coincidence.

I've reached The Hand of Fear, Part Three, which is the 434th episode of Doctor Who. To put that into perspective, the 434th episode of Star Trek was the season 3 Voyager episode The Q and the Grey. Trek needed three spin-offs and a cartoon to get this far. Unfortunately, with how TV production is slowing down, there won't be many more 434th episodes in our near future. If a new series of Doctor Who comes back with 8 episode seasons and a Christmas special each year, then by my calculations I should be reviewing its 434th episode in about... 50 years time.

Alright, I'm bored of numbers now so I'm going to get into the episode. This means that there will be SPOILERS beyond this point, but I won't ruin anything that comes after this story.

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Previously, on Doctor Who:

Some people can go their whole lives without stumbling across a fossilised alien hand in a quarry, but Sarah Jane Smith managed to get possessed by one just three minutes after returning to Earth in the TARDIS. She was compelled to lock herself in the reactor core of a nuclear R&D complex so the hand could soak up the radiation, but was rescued by the Doctor and freed of Eldrad's control. Unfortunately a guy called Driscoll picked up Eldrad's ring and fell under its influence, bringing the hand back into the core. And then everything exploded!

And now, the continuation:

Good news, everything's actually fine! The sinister space hand didn't just drain all the radiation from the core, it absorbed the explosion too. Poor Driscoll's been vaporised and now there's some unknown alien creature regenerating behind that giant reactor core door, but other than that it's all fine.

The Doctor races into action and bolts the door. Not because it'll help, he just likes to be tidy. The complex's director, Professor Watson, has a plan of his own: call in a tactical nuclear strike! 

He gets on the phone to the armed forces and it's authorised immediately! It can be frustrating when authority figures don't believe the Doctor and he has to work around them, but it's somehow worse when they believe him this quickly.

"Hey we just got a call from a guy calling himself Professor Watson. He says that there's some alien hand inside his nuclear facility and it's been mind-controlling people and eating all the radiation."
"What does he want us to do about it?"
"He wants a nuclear strike on the building."
"Oh, that seems reasonable. It's isolated enough that casualties will be low. Send a plane over, two nukes should be enough".

"By God they're keen," was Watson's exact words.

The Doctor doesn't think missiles are going to work and would rather try communicating with the stone hand entity. Sarah Jane's not impressed with that plan, saying "How, use hand signals?"

But they don't really have time at this point, as the planes are on their way and they've only got ten minutes to escape to safety. I didn't know you could escape a nuclear explosion in ten minutes! They've got even less time than that actually as the Doctor hangs around for a bit, fascinated by the creature burning through the massive door.

There's a reason that the Doctor's not all that bothered and that's because it's blatantly obvious to him that the creature's just going to absorb the explosion again. He's just standing out in the open while everyone else hides behind a truck.

This is basically the same thing as he did with the microphone in part two. He waits for everyone else to finish being panicky humans as there's no point trying to argue with them, and when they're done he'll get his chance to talk, which is what they should've been doing from the start.

I think that's stock footage of a Harrier Jump Jet, but it's hard to tell. There aren't enough Harriers in Doctor Who I reckon, as a jet fighter that can hover is properly sci-fi.

The others cower with their mouths open, holding their noses, to avoid the blast wave perforating their eardrums. But nothing happens!

There isn't even any sign that the missiles hit the building, which is a bit strange. Maybe we just can't see the holes from this angle.

Hang on, they said this place was isolated and on the coast earlier, but I can see Wales in the background!

The heroes return to the complex to try older weapons like speech and diplomacy. It's rare that having a bit of a chat is enough to solve the situation in a Doctor Who episode, but it always helps to have more information.

Eldrad emerges from the core and she's a sparkly crystal lady! So that's a bit of a twist. She still has a hand of fear though, in fact she has two of them now, so the title still works.

That costume apparently wasn't much fun for the actor, for the same reasons that skin-tight superhero costumes aren't. She couldn't even eat while wearing it. It looks pretty good though!

There's a nice scene here of the Doctor returning to the nuclear complex alone, telling Sarah Jane to stay behind. Professor Watson agrees that it's best that they stay where it's safe and Sarah Jane eventually stops struggling and accepts it.

Then when Watson lets go she slips inside and catches up.

The two of them talk about how they worry about each other, with Sarah Jane saying it first. But she makes a good case that her presence is needed, seeing as she's a representative of the planet he's doing diplomacy for, and he doesn't put up much resistance.

I like how Watson is still there in the background, carrying on with what he's doing even though he's not the focus.

And then the two heroes walk right into an actual power station.

The episode's really milking this location for everything it's worth.

Inside they're startled by Eldrad creeping up behind them, and Elizabeth Sladen was so damn good at acting scared.

The Doctor promises that they're not the ones who tried to destroy her, crossing both his hearts. But Eldrad isn't feeling very trusting and uses her mind powers to get the truth.

This means we get an effect that flickers between two images from slightly different angles. It's creative, but annoying, so I'll spare you from having to look at a GIF.

Also the actress had to wear patches on her eyes for them to chromakey the effect onto and it looks kind of terrible.

They do a better job in a later scene, but it's still not great.

It turns out that Professor Watson has also returned to the building and he's gotten out his special nuclear defence pistol. I'm not sure what this for, you don't tend to see people just pull out a handgun in Britain. All I know is there's a second magazine in the box, so they were preparing for a situation where it would be used multiple times.

It looks like it's a Sig P210. Though I quickly browsed the Wikipedia page and as far as I can tell it doesn't have a stopping power in excess of two tactical nuclear missiles.

Funnily enough the Doctor and Eldrad had been talking about the humans attacking her with their primitive devices. He explained that they're stubborn and violent and sometimes try to destroy things they don't understand.

Eldrad's mind scan has revealed that the Doctor is a Time Lord. He said he would've just told her, but she has trust issues. With good reason, apparently!

We get some proper exposition here, as she explains that she was a scientist on Kastria who invented barriers to keep out the solar winds, built machines to replenish the earth and atmosphere, and even gave the occupants cool crystalline silicone bodies. But then two alien planets decided to make Kastria their battleground and ruined her world. The alien invaders put puppet leaders in charge, who discredited her and sentenced her to obliteration.

Does this match what happened at the start of episode one? The folks on Kastria called Eldrad a traitor and destroyer of the barriers. I suppose she did say that she'd been discredited.

Meanwhile Professor Watson has been sneaking around thinking he's James Bond. We don't know for sure if Sarah Jane saw him over there, but it seems likely and she still denies that there's anyone else but them in the building. Anyone else alive that is.

Time Lords are apparently pledged to prevent alien aggression when it's deemed to threaten the indigenous population. I don't remember that being a thing, but then I don't remember a lot of things from the classic show. They're also pledged to uphold the Laws of Time, so the Doctor can't take her back to her own time, but he can take her back to Kastria in the present day.

Eldrad realises that's the best deal she's going to get and agrees.

And then Watson unloads the whole magazine into Eldrad the moment she steps out of the door! Yet somehow she is unharmed. Perhaps he would've had more luck if he'd aimed it at her body instead of her shadow.

Incidentally that gun is really going off, you can see the slide go back and shell casings coming out.

Watson is determined to be as stubborn as he is violent and runs off to reload. Unfortunately most of his training has been in nuclear physics, not firearms, and he struggles to get the second magazine into the gun. So Eldrad is able to just walk over and zap him.

There's a video effect you don't see any more! They must have had the actor in front of a blue screen and chromakeyed him into the control room, the fringing gets very obvious.

The Doctor convinces her not to kill him and she decides to be merciful. Honestly, I couldn't blame her for just killing the dude at this point as he threw two nukes at her and then unloaded his pistol into her when she was leaving. She was going to leave his planet, he never needed to worry about her again, and he still tried to murder her. If he'd yelled "This is for Driscoll!" I could understand it, but the dude is being very uncivilised right now.

Okay, Eldrad did give indications of being a bit evil with all the mind control and attempted murder, but that was before she'd been regenerated. Hands don't have a brain and cannot be held responsible for crimes.

I was wondering if the heroes were going to walk all the way back to the Tardis, but no they stole Watson's car. That's a long car ride we don't get to see, which is a shame because I wanted to see Eldrad looking out of the window at the trees and getting into awkward conversations with the other two.

But we do see poor Professor Watson falling apart, utterly unable to process that his gun did nothing and that there's no evidence to back up his story. The guy's had a real arc these last two episodes! I don't think he has to worry though, as the two nukes they dropped with no associated earth-shattering kaboom are certainly evidence of alien weirdness. Plus the control centre is a mess, the core has a hole melted in it, and several people are dead, including a pathologist from a local hospital.

Then we get to see the TARDIS interior for the first time in the story and it's the nice wooden one! I'd totally forgotten.

This secondary console room was introduced in the previous story, The Masque of Mandragora, and only stuck around for one season. The console prop apparently warped due to humidity while in storage.

Eldrad is very impressed with the TARDIS and wants to know where the armaments are, which is a bit of a suspect thing to start with. The Doctor explains that they're in his head and ignores her attempt to do the glowing eye thing again, explaining that the TARDIS is in a state of temporal grace and she can't do anything. Is it true? I don't suppose it matters, because Eldrad backs down. She isn't going anywhere but her own world in this time period and he assures her that entering the wrong coordinates will be very bad. 

She asks what the 'expansion factor' is and the Doctor replies: 
"Oh, just punch up 7-4-3-8-O-O-O-W-8-I-1-2-1-2-7-2-7-2-9-1-1-E-8-E-X-4-1-1-1-3-0-9-11-5 and then see what happens." 

Uh... okay?

Man, I need to figure out the coordinates to Earth and memorise them in case I ever get lost in the universe like this. 

They arrive at Kastria and it's the planet from the start of episode one! It looks exactly as it did 150 million years ago, still ravaged by the freezing solar winds. So whoever built that dome knew what they were doing.

Unfortunately they parked the TARDIS outside so they have to walk over to the dome in the horrible weather. The Doctor keeps his scarf and gives Sarah Jane his coat again.

Eldrad presses a button and all the lights come on. Presumably the heating too, seeing as Sarah Jane gives the Doctor his coat back.

Turns out that the power comes from the planet's core and is inexhaustible. So those poor aliens at the start of part one could've just pressed one button and they would've been fine up here! They wouldn't have had to rush Eldrad's obliteration to get back to somewhere warm, and Eldrad's hand wouldn't have survived.

Eldrad believes that there are still survivors here, living a miserable existence in the thermal caves underground. And it's time for her to reclaim her kingdom.

But then she opens a door and gets an arrow to the chest.

Amazingly the part three cliffhanger is the villain being put in jeopardy! How is she going to get out of this one? To be fair, she did a bit of a face-turn halfway through the episode. The Hand of Fear is now the Hand of Friendship.


CONCLUSION

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It took a while, but they finally left the nuclear complex! The plot's getting back on track. Things are happening, we're learning things, choices are being made, nukes are being dropped. Man, that bit was nuts.

I had no idea that the RAF delivered tactical nukes quicker than most places deliver pizza, those guys don't mess around! You just call them up, say there's an evil hand in your reactor core, and they'll reply "Say no more, two Harriers are on the way. Best if you guys back up a bit, you don't want to be too close to a nuke when it goes off". It leads to the ultimate example of 'bullets won't harm it', as Eldrad is actually healed by the attack. But then they went and did the trope completely straight a few minutes later with Professor Watson thinking that he's Rambo.

The theme of the episode is trust, and Watson can always be trusted to go on the offensive, even when his opponent is actually leaving peacefully! To be fair he's been under a lot of stress and I hope the inquiry takes that into account. Meanwhile Eldrad has trust issues, which is understandable after being obliterated, but she has to trust that the Doctor will take her home and he in turn has to trust her.

The Doctor's the calm in the middle of the storm here, the grown up in the room always trying to get the best solution. I keep saying this, but Tom Baker is great in this story, playing it very straight while also throwing in the occasional subtle gag, like crossing both his hearts, and reversing the hand motions while demonstrating 'outwards' and 'inwards'. Meanwhile Sarah Jane's firmly back in companion mode this time, and Elizabeth Sladen was so good at selling the weirdness with her reactions. It's easier to believe that an actress in a rock costume is an alien when Sarah Jane looks genuinely terrified of her. Though when they stuck fake glowing eyes on her, that kind of ruined the fantasy for me.

There aren't many female villains in classic Doctor Who and it's hard to say how Eldrad compares as a: I've forgotten most of them, and b: she's not really a villain. I mean sure there was all that mind control and death in parts 1 and 2, but in her defence she was just a hand, and all she does in this episode is attack a guy in self-defence. He's gone now though, so she doesn't have to worry about him any more.

It's funny how much the cast changes in this serial. Each episode has its own characters and few of them continue on to the next part. Last time we lost everyone introduced in part one, now we've lost everyone introduced in part two. The only character who's sticking around is Eldrad, though she's currently dying so who knows how long that will last.


RATING

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Part three was better than the first two parts I reckon, because it feels like the plot's getting back on track here. So I'm going to give it...

  7/10

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NEXT EPISODE

Next on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the dramatic conclusion to The Hand of Fear.

Will the heroes find a villain to defeat? Will they be able to save Eldrad? Will Professor Watson still have a job? Come back next time for the answers to at least two of these questions. Or just watch the episode yourself, I don't want to spoil it for you.