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Altallo reviews DrWho no.5 The Hand of Fear
8 years ago
ScottishFurThe Hand of Fear
Landing in a quarry, the Fourth Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane Smith are caught up in mining detonations. By chance, Sarah finds a fossilised hand with a ring on it. Touching it, she becomes possessed by an alien intelligence which guides Sarah to a nuclear energy plant, where it absorbs the power to gain a new form; the ring contains DNA. The creature born is a crystalline woman named Eldrad. She convinces the Doctor that she tried to save her people on Kastria from destruction and asks him to take her there. The Doctor obliges, but when he arrives on Kastria, the horrible truth about Eldrad is revealed…
The Hand of Fear is an interesting story. It has a lot of good points in it and a few bad ones and sees the departure of a fan favourite companion quite abruptly. Usually companion departures have a built up for a while, but not here. Also it feels kind of like a half and half episode in quality, or more likely three quarters good one quarter bad.
First lets look at the good stuff. Easily the best thing in this episode is the female form of Eldrad. Judith Paris gives an amazing performance; she’s beautiful and feels sympathetic and even a little seductive, but at the same time there’s a hint of menace to her, an otherworldly ounce of terror in how alien she acts. Its also helped by some truly brilliant costume and design, this is some of the best make up ever in the entire history of Doctor Who. The scenes set on Earth just ooze atmosphere, especially when possessed Sarah is wandering around the nuclear facility with just a gloomy sinister thudding score in the background. It really gives the bleak industrial settings a weight to them. Elisabeth Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane, is on top form in fact, especially when she’s possessed; using mainly her eyes. Tom Baker as Doctor Number Four also great here too; the one and the only.
Doctor Four is my favourite of all the Doctors. He has that perfect balance of goofy and yet serious, has no qualms of insulting people to their face if they annoy him and yet always feels like he’ll try his best to help those in need. There’s no big pompous ‘I am the Doctor’ of the new series or any chosen one prophecies in his run, or in fact in the whole of Classic who, which is good because that stuff sucks. Yes, I’m attacking the new Doctor Who again...I really shouldn’t. Ok if I ever write a review of a New Who episode I’ll make a positive :P
Now for the bad stuff. Most of it centres around the last episode, bar the very last scene which we’ll come back to later. Kastria is such an ugly looking place, with tacky sets and clearly the budget was running low. But the biggest and most glaring problem is Eldrad’s male original form. Oh yeah spoilers, as it turns out not only is Eldrad supposed to be male (the female form is because he was in close proximity to Sarah or something) and also an evil dictator, because of course he would be. The male form of Eldrad is loud and shouty, nowhere near as interesting or as well acted as the female Eldrad and the design changes from interesting to just kind of generic, at least as far as rock people go. And then he dies by tripping over the Doctor’s scarf into a chasm. How anticlimatic. Its also not the most developed story; if this were a six parter it may have expanded on Kastria and Eldrad’s backstory. But as is its quite thin on the ground.
But the thing everyone remembers from this episode is Sarah Jane Smith’s departure.
Its not overblown and over-dramatic like some of the newer leaving scenes, especially Rose’s because Rose was honestly a pretty bad character; whiny and easily jealous. Its quite a blunt departure and a very fitting one for Sarah Jane. As some have pointed out, Sarah Jane when you get down to it isn’t as developed as some other companions; Jo Grant, despite being everyone’s go to for an example of the ‘screaming’ companion actually gets an arc and changes as a character. Can’t really say the same for Sarah. But what does win her over is that she’s loyal, feisty and full of vigour and Elisabeth Sladen is always a joy to watch, she gives it her all. And of course, now watching Hand of Fear has a tinge of sadness for classic DrWho fans since her passing in 2011 from cancer. Just another tragic loss from the 2010s. :c
Sorry for ending on a downer note.
But that was Hand of Fear. Another rather mixed story but I’d say a bit above Earthshock (sorry Davidson fans) as it has better companions and the mid 70s were just a better period in general than most of the 80s when it comes to Doctor Who.
Thank you for reading and I hope I’ve been at least a smidge entertaining.
For the next journal, here are your voting choices;
-Revelation of the Daleks; Something sinister is going on at a hospital and cemetery combined.
-The Time Monster; Atlantis, crystals, minotaurs and pigeon monsters, oh my!
-Timelash; 80s glitter nonsense.
-The Dominators; no its not what you think it is.
-The Sensorites; those Sensorites look kind of familiar…
-Destiny of the Daleks; Daleks vs Space Egyptians.
-Time and the Rani; more 80s nonsense.
-The Mind Robber; where fantasy comes to life
-The Claws of Axos; spaghetti monsters that love the colour yellow.
Landing in a quarry, the Fourth Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane Smith are caught up in mining detonations. By chance, Sarah finds a fossilised hand with a ring on it. Touching it, she becomes possessed by an alien intelligence which guides Sarah to a nuclear energy plant, where it absorbs the power to gain a new form; the ring contains DNA. The creature born is a crystalline woman named Eldrad. She convinces the Doctor that she tried to save her people on Kastria from destruction and asks him to take her there. The Doctor obliges, but when he arrives on Kastria, the horrible truth about Eldrad is revealed…
The Hand of Fear is an interesting story. It has a lot of good points in it and a few bad ones and sees the departure of a fan favourite companion quite abruptly. Usually companion departures have a built up for a while, but not here. Also it feels kind of like a half and half episode in quality, or more likely three quarters good one quarter bad.
First lets look at the good stuff. Easily the best thing in this episode is the female form of Eldrad. Judith Paris gives an amazing performance; she’s beautiful and feels sympathetic and even a little seductive, but at the same time there’s a hint of menace to her, an otherworldly ounce of terror in how alien she acts. Its also helped by some truly brilliant costume and design, this is some of the best make up ever in the entire history of Doctor Who. The scenes set on Earth just ooze atmosphere, especially when possessed Sarah is wandering around the nuclear facility with just a gloomy sinister thudding score in the background. It really gives the bleak industrial settings a weight to them. Elisabeth Sladen, who plays Sarah Jane, is on top form in fact, especially when she’s possessed; using mainly her eyes. Tom Baker as Doctor Number Four also great here too; the one and the only.
Doctor Four is my favourite of all the Doctors. He has that perfect balance of goofy and yet serious, has no qualms of insulting people to their face if they annoy him and yet always feels like he’ll try his best to help those in need. There’s no big pompous ‘I am the Doctor’ of the new series or any chosen one prophecies in his run, or in fact in the whole of Classic who, which is good because that stuff sucks. Yes, I’m attacking the new Doctor Who again...I really shouldn’t. Ok if I ever write a review of a New Who episode I’ll make a positive :P
Now for the bad stuff. Most of it centres around the last episode, bar the very last scene which we’ll come back to later. Kastria is such an ugly looking place, with tacky sets and clearly the budget was running low. But the biggest and most glaring problem is Eldrad’s male original form. Oh yeah spoilers, as it turns out not only is Eldrad supposed to be male (the female form is because he was in close proximity to Sarah or something) and also an evil dictator, because of course he would be. The male form of Eldrad is loud and shouty, nowhere near as interesting or as well acted as the female Eldrad and the design changes from interesting to just kind of generic, at least as far as rock people go. And then he dies by tripping over the Doctor’s scarf into a chasm. How anticlimatic. Its also not the most developed story; if this were a six parter it may have expanded on Kastria and Eldrad’s backstory. But as is its quite thin on the ground.
But the thing everyone remembers from this episode is Sarah Jane Smith’s departure.
Its not overblown and over-dramatic like some of the newer leaving scenes, especially Rose’s because Rose was honestly a pretty bad character; whiny and easily jealous. Its quite a blunt departure and a very fitting one for Sarah Jane. As some have pointed out, Sarah Jane when you get down to it isn’t as developed as some other companions; Jo Grant, despite being everyone’s go to for an example of the ‘screaming’ companion actually gets an arc and changes as a character. Can’t really say the same for Sarah. But what does win her over is that she’s loyal, feisty and full of vigour and Elisabeth Sladen is always a joy to watch, she gives it her all. And of course, now watching Hand of Fear has a tinge of sadness for classic DrWho fans since her passing in 2011 from cancer. Just another tragic loss from the 2010s. :c
Sorry for ending on a downer note.
But that was Hand of Fear. Another rather mixed story but I’d say a bit above Earthshock (sorry Davidson fans) as it has better companions and the mid 70s were just a better period in general than most of the 80s when it comes to Doctor Who.
Thank you for reading and I hope I’ve been at least a smidge entertaining.
For the next journal, here are your voting choices;
-Revelation of the Daleks; Something sinister is going on at a hospital and cemetery combined.
-The Time Monster; Atlantis, crystals, minotaurs and pigeon monsters, oh my!
-Timelash; 80s glitter nonsense.
-The Dominators; no its not what you think it is.
-The Sensorites; those Sensorites look kind of familiar…
-Destiny of the Daleks; Daleks vs Space Egyptians.
-Time and the Rani; more 80s nonsense.
-The Mind Robber; where fantasy comes to life
-The Claws of Axos; spaghetti monsters that love the colour yellow.
Planet of the Daleks is....meh. Its basically the first ever Dalek story redone but with the Thals as soldiers and not pacifists. :o
And I shall convert you to the religion of Who :O YOU SHALL BE ONE OF US! :p