Doctor Who (1963) 14-08: The Hand of Fear, Part Four

Episode:

435

|

Serial:

87

|

Writer:

Bob Baker and Dave Martin

|

Director:

Lennie Mayne

|

Air Date:

23-Oct-1976

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm watching the final part of the Fourth Doctor serial The Hand of Fear!

The serial is notable for a couple of reasons and sadly one of them is that it was director Lennie Mayne's last story, as he was killed the following year in a boating accident in the English Channel. Lennie had directed four serials for the series, The Curse of Peladon, The Three Doctors, The Monster of Peladon and this, so it seems like he had been the show's go-to for Peladon stories.

Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin continued to write for the series, coming up with three more serials, all for the Fourth Doctor. In fact their biggest contribution to Doctor Who was still a year away, as they introduced a new companion to the TARDIS. I shouldn't really be talking about the future though.

There'll be SPOILERS here for this episode and anything leading up to it, but I'll be careful not to jump ahead in the timeline. This review should (hopefully) be safe for anyone watching through Classic Who for the first time, assuming that you're doing it in order.

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

Episode:

434

|

Serial:

87

|

Writer:

Bob Baker and Dave Martin

|

Director:

Lennie Mayne

|

Air Date:

16-Oct-1976

---

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.

Doctor Who (1963) 14-06: The Hand of Fear, Part Two

Episode:

433

|

Serial:

87

|

Writer:

Bob Baker and Dave Martin

|

Director:

Lennie Mayne

|

Air Date:

09-Oct-1976

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching the second episode of The Hand of Fear, the second serial of the Fourth Doctor's third season.

It was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who had already written four other Doctor Who serials together, including the 10th anniversary special The Three Doctors. Director Lennie Mayne was also a Doctor Who veteran, with three other serials under his belt... including The Three Doctors. So it's kind of like a reunion, except for the fact that they don't share any actors (except for Rex Robinson, who's back playing another scientist).

Okay I'm just going to go ahead and write SPOILERS for the whole episode. Though if you've seen this far you'll be fine, even if you're haven't seen any modern Doctor Who yet. As far as I'm concerned, right now it's Saturday 9th October 1976, 6:14 PM, and no one even knows what a David Tennant is. No one knows what a Darth Vader is either, how crazy is that?

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

Episode:

432

|

Serial:

87

|

Writer:

Bob Baker and Dave Martin

|

Director:

Lennie Mayne

|

Air Date:

02-Oct-1976

---

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.

Doctor Who (1963) 25-10: Silver Nemesis, Part Three

Episode:

677

|

Serial:

150

|

Writer:

Kevin Clarke

|

Director:

Chris Clough

|

Air Date:

07-Dec-1988

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the final part of the infamous Silver Nemesis. It's only a three-parter this one. You can click these links to go to PART ONE or PART TWO.

There had been other three-parter episodes earlier in the show's run, even a couple of two-parters, and a one-parter, but the Seventh Doctor era was when they really became a regular thing. It's a little surprising to me that it took them so long, as splitting up a story into a beginning, a middle, and an end seems very natural, and people love their trilogies. Three-parters also have the advantage, theoretically, of not being padded out with irrelevant scenes and dragging on too long. I'll let you know how well that worked out in this case.

This is going to be full of SPOILERS, at least up to this point in the series.

Doctor Who (1963) 25-09: Silver Nemesis, Part Two

Episode:

676

|

Serial:

150

|

Writer:

Kevin Clarke

|

Director:

Chris Clough

|

Air Date:

30-Nov-1988

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've got more Silver Nemesis for you, whether you want it or not. However you can CLICK HERE if you'd rather go back to to part one.

Silver Nemesis was writer Kevin Clarke's first serial for Doctor Who and, coincidentally, also his last. Though to be fair, at this point every serial was someone's last, as there were only five more stories left before the classic series got cancelled. Doctor Who did eventually come back, but the writers didn't (except for Rona Munro, who returned to write one of Peter Capaldi's final episodes).

There will be SPOILERS here for this episode and earlier stories. You don't have to worry about me spoiling anything that happens later though.

Doctor Who (1963) 25-08: Silver Nemesis, Part One

Episode:

675

|

Serial:

150

|

Writer:

Kevin Clarke

|

Director:

Chris Clough

|

Air Date:

23-Nov-1988

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Silver Nemesis, Part One, the first episode of Doctor Who's silver anniversary story. In fact, it's not just the show's 25th anniversary celebration, but it's also its 150th serial. The latest Doctor Who story to air, The Power of the Doctor, was the 300th story, so this is exactly halfway through!

Plus it's the 675th episode, which isn't actually significant, except for being a bloody huge number. To put that into some perspective, the 675th episode of Star Trek was the 3rd season Enterprise episode Impulse. (And the 150th Trek story was the second season TNG episode Manhunt.)

It's a bit weird though that this is the anniversary story and not Remembrance of the Daleks, which... has certain connections to a past serial. Also, this is the first anniversary story to not list the number of Doctors it contains in the title. We're up to seven now, so it's probably for the best that they don't all show up.

There will be SPOILERS here for the episode and presumably earlier stories too if it really is an anniversary special like it claims. I won't give away anything that comes later though.

Doctor Who (1963): The Five Doctors - Part 4

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the final chapter of The Five Doctors. If you want to go back and read an earlier part, click PART ONE, PART TWO or PART THREE.

This special features a ton of returning Doctor Who characters, but far from all of them. Counting only the absolutely unambiguous and indisputable companions, it's missing 13 people, and this goes up to 19 if you count the more debatable ones. I won't start listing them all, however, so you'll just have to imagine who I'm counting as ambiguous (*cough* Kamelion *cough*).

Funny thing is, if you were to look at this from a more non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint and count the number of companions from the series' future that are missing, that number would also be 19. Well, depending on who you decide to include.

You probably know this already, seeing as this is the fourth part of this review, but there will be SPOILERS beyond this point. Not for anything new though, and by 'new' I mean 'it aired during the last 40 years'.

Doctor Who (1963): The Five Doctors - Part 3

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm still writing about The Five Doctors, the epic crossover event that pulls together heroes from 1 TV series. If you want to return to an earlier part click PART ONE or PART TWO.

This special didn't quite manage to bring the full five Doctors together, but I'm struggling to think of another sci-fi TV series that managed to pack so many main protagonists into one story. I can't remember any Star Trek story that brings more than two lead captains together, and Stargate and Babylon 5 didn't do any better. One of the Star Wars shows must have done it by now though...or maybe not? Oh duh, the Arrowverse did Crisis on Infinite Earths. Still, this was the Avengers of 1983.

This review will be full of SPOILERS, but I'll not give away anything that happens later in the series.

Doctor Who (1963): The Five Doctors - Part 2

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm continuing with Doctor Who's 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors! This is going to drag on for four parts, and if you want to jump back to part 1, CLICK HERE.

The Five Doctors was the final story by the legendary Terrance Dicks, who'd been writing Doctor Who episodes since the Second Doctor's era. His contributions to the series spanned 14 years, which is a long time... though not quite as long as Russell T Davies' incredible 18 years on the show (with a 12 year break in the middle).

It was hoped that they could get Waris Hussein to direct, as he'd directed the very first serial, An Unearthly Child, 20 years earlier. Unfortunately, he was in America, so the job ultimately went to Peter Moffatt, who'd already directed Peter Davison in a few episodes of All Creatures Great and Small.

Past this point you'll be flooded with SPOILERS for the episode and maybe a few earlier stories as well. I'll not spoil anything that comes later however.

Doctor Who (1963): The Five Doctors - Part 1

Episode:

602

|

Serial:

129

|

Writer:

Terrance Dicks

|

Director:

Peter Moffatt

|

Air Date:

25-Nov-1983

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Doctor Who's 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors!

The 10th anniversary story, The Three Doctors, was the first serial of a season that aired months before the actual anniversary date, but this time around they wanted to get it right. In fact, efforts were made to get the whole of season 20 rescheduled to air later in the year to make it line up properly. They failed, but they did win a consolation prize: Doctor Who was getting its first-ever feature-length special! There have been plenty of Christmas specials and New Year's specials since then, but The Five Doctors is still the longest episode to this day.

Though in 1995 it got George Lucasified into an even longer and even more special Special Edition, padded out with extra scenes that the director had originally cut for a good reason. Plus there's the 2023 Blu-ray edition as well, along with the version that was split into four separate episodes. I bet that has some interesting cliffhangers.

You know what, I'm going to split this article up to match the four-part edit and find out what all those cliffhangers are. I'm not sure what version I'll be getting on iPlayer, but I do know that it's going to be long, so it'll be more practical for me to tackle it in pieces.

SPOILER WARNING: I might spoil things that came before it, I won't spoil things that came after, and the episode itself is getting extremely spoiled. I'm going scene by scene to maximise spoiler coverage.

Doctor Who (1963) 10-04: The Three Doctors, Episode Four

Episode:

333

|

Serial:

65

|

Writers:

Bob Baker and Dave Martin

|

Director:

Lennie Mayne

|

Air Date:

20-Jan-1973

---

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's episode 333 of Doctor Who. That means the series was averaging 37 episodes a year up to this point, which isn't actually that ridiculous I guess, seeing as they were all 25 minutes long. Star Trek: The Original Series produced an average of 26 stories a year, each 50 minutes long, so when it came to minutes per week it was actually ahead.

Anyway, just have to write a few more words under screencaps and I'm finally done with The Three Doctors! This is part four of four, the conclusion to this anniversary event, and I'm hoping they didn't already blow through their pyrotechnics budget already with the first three parts, as my expectations have been raised. Also, I'm hoping the story's good etc. Click one of these links to jump back to an earlier episode: PART ONE, PART TWO, PART THREE.

You won't be shocked to hear that the heavily promoted season premiere which brought back Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell got the highest viewing figures for the Third Doctor's whole run, averaging 10.3 million on BBC. It had almost twice as many eyes on it as the least watched serial, Inferno. Wait, why didn't anyone watch Inferno? That one was great!

I'll be going through this whole episode scene by scene, so there will be SPOILERS below. I may find reason to mention things that happened in earlier episodes as well, but I won't spoil anything that happens later.

Doctor Who (1963) 10-03: The Three Doctors, Episode Three

Episode:

332

|

Serial:

65

|

Writers:

Bob Baker and Dave Martin

|

Director:

Lennie Mayne

|

Air Date:

13-Jan-1973

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, it's the third part of the The Three Doctors, the only serial in the entire series to feature 100% of the Doctors that had been introduced up to that point, all played by their original actors. Well, except for the entirety of the First Doctor's run, I suppose.

If you want to jump to PART ONE or PART TWO, click the appropriate link.

It looks weird if I don't pad this intro out with some trivia, so I'm going to talk about books for a moment. Each Doctor Who serial got its own novelisation, with the naming format often being "Doctor Who and [the name of the serial]". So you've got titles like Doctor Who and the Keys of Marinus and Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen etc. It's very Indiana Jones.

That title scheme didn't quite work with this story though, as you can't have 'Doctor Who and The Three Doctors', because then there'd be four Doctors and the story would be all messed up. So they just called it The Three Doctors.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm not going to spoil absolutely everything about this episode, but I feel like I could probably manage to give away at least 90% of it and I may mention one or two things that happened in previous stories as well.

Doctor Who (1963) 10-02: The Three Doctors, Episode Two

Episode:

331

|

Serial:

65

|

Writers:

Bob Baker and Dave Martin

|

Director:

Lennie Mayne

|

Air Date:

06-Jan-1973

---

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the second episode of The Three Doctors - Doctor Who's epic 10th anniversary saga (that actually aired around its 9th anniversary). It's a four part serial so I'll have made it halfway through after this. Though you can click this link: EPISODE ONE if you'd rather go back and read about the first quarter of the story.

You know, I'm sure that title looks slightly different than it did on part one. They must have had to add it to each episode separately instead of just reusing the footage. That's the kind of quality trivia you can expect to find in my reviews.

Here's another Doctor Who fact for you: the episode was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, the folks who get a credit whenever K-9 appears in an episode.

Bob is maybe not the most famous Baker to work on Doctor Who, but he did get there before Tom and Colin at least. Plus he co-wrote the Wallace and Gromit stories!

SPOILER WARNING: There will be spoilers here for the events leading up to, and occurring within, this particular part of this particular serial. I won't spoil anything that happens afterwards though and I definitely won't give away how the story ends as I can't remember.

Doctor Who (1963) 10-01: The Three Doctors, Episode One

Episode:

330

|

Serial:

65

|

Writers:

Bob Baker and Dave Martin

|

Director:

Lennie Mayne

|

Air Date:

30-Dec-1972

---

Doctor Who is finally returning to television this month with its 60th anniversary special. But I can't write about something that hasn't aired yet, so today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm covering the first part of the four-part 10th anniversary serial The Three Doctors!

Anniversary specials traditionally happen near an anniversary, but they decided to get an early start with this one. In fact, episode one aired at the end of 1972, almost a whole year early! This was the first episode of Jon Pertwee's fourth year in the role, which means he'd beaten Patrick Troughton's run (almost 3 seasons) and was getting close to matching William Hartnell's (a bit over 3 seasons). Pertwee still had a while to go before he matched their ridiculous episode counts though, as he was averaging 26 episodes a year compared to their 42 episode seasons. It'd take Ncuti Gatwa 15 years to match Hartnell's run and that's including Christmas specials.

I already wrote about this serial a few years back when Twitch did its marathon, but I don't actually remember what I said about it. Or what happens in it. I'm pretty sure I liked it though... unless I didn't. Anyway, this time around I'll be going through the whole story scene-by-scene and writing about it properly. This means there'll be SPOILERS for the episode and maybe a few earlier ones as well, if I can remember anything from them.

Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Era (1996)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I finally get to stop writing about that bloody Twitch Doctor Who marathon I watched over the summer. I'm all out of classic episodes now, but I do have some a few lists for you and maybe some final thoughts. Also, the 1996 TV movie wasn't actually part of the Twitch marathon or the classic TV series, but it didn't seem right to leave out the Eighth Doctor, so I'm giving you a bonus review as well! You probably guessed that already from the title though.

It's weird how the Eighth Doctor's run ended just as soon as it began, but his logo stuck around in continuous use longer than any other. This slightly modernised version of the Third Doctor's logo introduced here went on to be used for things like books, DVDs and Big Finish audios relating to the classic era for 22 years, until everything was unified under the gold Jodie Whittaker logo this year. Which is good, because to be honest this is maybe my favourite logo of all of them, classic or modern.

There will be SPOILERS beyond this point for the TV movie and I might even throw in the odd spoiler for the classic series, but I'll not spoil anything that might happen during the revival series. Not even that.

Doctor Who: The Seventh Doctor Era (1987-1989)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the end of classic Doctor Who! This is it, these 12 serials I'm writing about here were the last ones I watched during that two-month Twitch marathon I sat through. That also means that they're presumably the most vivid in my mind, dramatically increasing my chances of remembering things that happened in them!

I definitely remember how glad I was that they'd changed the bloody logo. RIP that terrible neon tube logo, 1980-1986. I get the impression this 3D rendered opening title sequence isn't many people's favourite, especially considering how dated the effects look now, but I'm just happy that it was something different (plus I like the chunky metal WHO). It was nice to get a new arrangement of the theme as well, even though it's far from being my favourite.

There will be SPOILERS below, so if you don't want episodes ruined by a stream of spoilery opinions you'd best leave the article alone for now. Though I'll only ever be spoiling backwards, never forwards, so I'm going to resist the temptation to bring up Asylum of the Daleks or The Magician's Apprentice while writing about Remembrance of the Daleks.

Doctor Who: The Sixth Doctor Era (1984-1986)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I've reached the Sixth Doctor era of Doctor Who. Yay!

I can't believe that this logo's lasted for three Doctors now. Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker all had two logos and two opening credit sequences each, but this terrible looking neon tube logo just won't die! They did give it a bit of a glow though, plus they swapped in Colin Baker's face and threw in some colourful weirdness for the camera to fly through, seeing as he was the gaudy Doctor.

Underneath this SPOILER warning you'll find reviews for all 11 Sixth Doctor stories and inside those reviews you'll find spoilers. But only for what you've been reading so far, I won't say a word about future stories. Except for in the next paragraph where I'll mention something entirely innocuous about Army of Ghosts.

Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor Era (1982-1984)

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm reviewing things again! I watched (almost) all of classic Doctor Who a few weeks back and I watched it wrong, racing through the whole thing in two months instead of spacing the episodes out, thanks to the marathon that Twitch showed a few months ago. I've already written about the first four Doctors and now I'm up to Doctor #5.

New Doctor, same logo, same music, and same opening titles pretty much as well. I'm guessing that they recreated the title sequence from scratch as all the stars and lens flares are different, but giant Peter Davison face aside you'd have to watch them side by side to really notice. I guess they wanted to reassure viewers that they were still watching the same show.

Contained within this very article you have on your screen right are 20 individual reviews covering all three of the Fifth Doctor's seasons and the Five Doctors anniversary special! But not The Twin Dilemma, I'm saving that for next time. There's also a lot of SPOILERS beyond this point, but only for stories that had already aired at the time of the review you're reading. So I may mention something about how a companion came on board, for instance, but I'll not even hint at how they're ultimately going to leave until they're gone.

Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Era (1974-1981) - Part 3

Today on Sci-Fi Adventures I'm still reviewing all those stories I watched during Twitch's classic Doctor Who marathon. I've reached the 80s at last, the classic series' final decade and I'm writing about Tom Baker's final season as the Fourth Doctor. That's The Leisure Hive to Logopolis for everyone who hasn't memorised an episode guide.

1980 was the point that John Nathan-Turner took over as producer and he remained in the role for 10 years until its cancellation, when he was finally freed. It was also the point where Christopher H. Bidmead become the script editor, but he only stuck around for the one season. The two of them brought a few changes to the show, but the one I feel like talking about right now is that bloody logo up there. Apparently, the designer thought that a neon sign was the ideal style to make the logo look fresh and modern, and maybe it was really trendy in 1980, I wasn't born yet, I wouldn't know. But right now it looks like it should be hanging up on a shop wall. Plus it's not even an illuminated sign, it's just glass! I hate it so much!

This era also got a new arrangement of the theme music, which was kind of a big change seeing as the original theme had been around in slightly different variations for 17 years. And I don't hate it! In fact, it really grew on me over the next few seasons. I think I still prefer the original theme better though and I'm definitely not so keen on the slit-scan tunnel being replaced with the cheesy starfield. Nathan-Turner thought that the old opening title sequence looked dated and needed an update, but I think the kaleidoscopic time vortex has actually aged better. Making new a title sequence for every season is something I can definitely endorse though, so it's a shame I reckon that they stuck with variations of this one for the next 7 years.

There'll be SPOILERS beyond this point, but not for future episodes. Only past and present ones, relative to the story you're reading. So I won't be sharing my first impressions of Jodie Whittaker's Tardis console room halfway through my review of The Keeper of Traken.