Talk to the hand…
Part One
The Hand of Fear begins on the frozen wastes of Kastria…
Sue: Is this the planet of the anoraks?
A humanoid figure tracks a spaceship on a computer screen.
Sue: He’s playing the slowest game of Pong ever.
This cold opening, which features an asthmatic alien freezing its bollocks off, doesn’t do anything for Sue. She turns to me and frowns.
Sue: Neil?
Me: Yes, love?
Sue: What the **** is going on?
A spaceship explodes, and then the galaxy goes for a little spin.
Sue: OK, I think the acid just kicked in.
So, to sum up:
Sue: What a terrible start. I didn’t understand a single word of that. What just happened? Is it all going to be like this?
Cue contemporary Earth. The TARDIS has landed in a quarry, which this week is doubling up for a, er, quarry. This throws Sue. She believes we’re back on Kastria after the thaw.
When Sarah exits the TARDIS, Sue’s automatic retort doesn’t disappoint. But at least her supplementary follow-up is original:
Sue: She looks like Andy Pandy. You know, I had a pair of dungarees just like Sarah Jane’s, but mine had blue and cream stripes and they were a little less flared at the bottom. It’s a very cute look.
The Doctor is unperturbed by the deafening sound of sirens and he decides to hone his cricketing skills.
Sue: Well, that’s just bollocks, isn’t it? That rock wouldn’t have fallen over like that. It breaks the laws of physics. They must have used fishing wire to pull it over.
The Doctor and Sarah are distracted by a man in a hard-hat waving at them from afar.
Sue: This reminds me of a 1970s Public Information Film.
But it’s too late. The quarry explodes. Sue sits up in her chair.
Sue: Now that was good.
The Doctor searches the rubble for his friend. He finds Sarah unconscious but alive. She is clutching a petrified hand and she won’t let it go.
Sue: It’s a helping hand.
Me: Right, I’m banning all hand jokes. The next person who makes a joke about hands, arms, or appendages of any kind, will have to empty the cats’ litter trays for the rest of the week.
Sue: What about fingers? Do they count?
The Doctor and Sarah are taken to a hospital.
Sue: This could so easily have been a crossover with Casualty. Where’s Charlie when you need him?
Me: Ah, Derek Thompson, the only actor to rub the back of his neck more times than Jon Pertwee.
The Doctor has his injuries treated but, thanks to NHS bureaucracy, he has to tell the intern where he comes from.
Sue: Gallifree? Where the hell is Gallifree?
Sarah wakes up and she’s not feeling herself. She attacks a kindly doctor named Carter and runs away with the hand.
Me: I love this bit. I definitely remember playing Doctor Who in school playground the Monday after this went out, and the girls took it in turns to be Sarah; it was their job to kill me. Evil Sarah was easy to mimic: a girl just had to walk around with a glazed look on her face, a sandwich box under her arm, and a gaudy ring on her finger. I was killed hundreds of times that week. One day, we mistook some white fossilised dog poo for one of Eldrad’s missing fingers.
Carter regains consciousness…
Sue: I’m glad he’s not dead. I wouldn’t have wanted Sarah Jane to live with that on her conscience. I know it’s not her really fault but just think of the guilt.
Even Carter thinks Sarah looks like Andy Pandy…
Sue: Oh, bollocks.
Sarah strides into a nearby nuclear power station…
Sue: This is quite eerie. I like the direction – there are some interesting camera angles. It’s a bit different to what we usually get. The location is interesting, too. Pertwee would have loved this place.
The cliffhanger ending, which features the hand of Eldrad returning to life, evokes another strong childhood memory. They don’t make them like this anymore.
Sue: It’s The Addams Family meets Torchwood.
Me: Torchwood?
Sue: Don’t they end up with this hand in Torchwood?
It takes me while to work out that she’s talking about the 10th Doctor’s amputated hand.
Me: No, that isn’t the right hand.
Sue: No, it’s definitely a right hand. You can tell by looking at the thumb.
I reach for a cushion.
Sue: Still, that was a great cliffhanger. We’re off to a very good start. Apart from the scene at the beginning. What the hell was that all about?
Part Two
Sarah communicates with the spirit of Eldrad…
Sue: She really is talking to the hand, cos the face definitely ain’t listening.
When Glyn (“He’s been in loads of stuff”) Houston arrives on the scene as Professor Watson, Sue quickly ends up feeling sorry for him.
Sue: He’s worried about how this ****-up is going to look when they call for the inevitable public inquiry. I bet he was days away from retirement as well.
In spite of the current emergency, Watson allows the Doctor to waltz around as if he owned the place.
Sue: He’s letting a complete stranger fiddle with the controls to his nuclear reactor. The security in this place is a disgrace.
But Sue seems to like this episode. She’s impressed with the hand effect (“For its time”), the unusual camera angles are right up her street, and Carter’s death, which involves him plummeting from a very tall height, is heaped with praise. But for Sue, the best moment occurs when Watson telephones his family to say goodbye.
Sue: That was really sad. I didn’t expect that. I actually give a shit about this character, now.
The Doctor experiments on the hand and he concludes that it is feeding on radiation.
Sarah makes a lame gag about it not being as ‘armless as it looks.
Sue: Hey! Sarah is doing hand jokes, now. That’s not fair.
The Doctor probes Sarah’s mind for information about Eldrad.
Sue: It’s a great performance from Elisabeth Sladen. She looks like she’s really enjoying this story. And so am I.
Meanwhile, a technician named Driscoll is possessed by Eldrad’s mighty ring of power…
Sue: OK, forget Torchwood, it’s The Addams Family meets Lord of the Rings.
Me: You’re mad, love.
Sue: The hand doesn’t appear to have grown very much. At this rate, we’ll be here all day waiting for it to sprout a forearm.
The episode concludes with Driscoll stepping into the reactor core. This starts a chain reaction.
Sue: This is really good. I still have no idea what the scene at the beginning has to do with anything, but that wasn’t bad at all. Oh, and Neil?
Me: What?
Sue: Eldrad must live.
Part Three
Sue: It’s all gone a bit Chernobyl. If the explosion doesn’t kill them, the radiation will. Unless they come up with a sci-fi explanation for it.
But of course they do.
Sue: OK, fair enough. But Watson should probably phone his wife back before she books a luxury cruise with the insurance.
Eldrad is trapped in the reactor core and he wants to get out.
Sue: Eldrad sounds like a whale. The hand is going to turn into a crap monster, isn’t it?
Watson requests a nuclear strike on the nuclear reactor and the RAF oblige him in less than ten minutes flat.
Me: That must have been some phone call.
Sue: This can’t be a good idea. If Eldrad eats radiation then this attack will be a takeaway snack. Blimey, it really has turned into a 1970s Public Information Film. In the event of a nuclear blast, please hide behind your nearest car. No wonder the Doctor is taking the piss. This is ridiculous.
The reactor is opened and we prepare to meet Eldrad…
Sue: Please, don’t let the monster be shit…
Eldrad emerges.
Sue: Oh, I wasn’t expecting that. Is it a lady alien? You don’t see that every day.
Sue checks her out.
Sue: Chipped mirrored tiles were all the rage in the 1970s. And he looks like one of the X-Men. Don’t ask me which one. But yeah, it works for me.
The Doctor brings Eldrad up to speed with current events: 150 million years have passed since she crashed landed on Earth.
Sue: I think they should help her out.
Me: Are you sure about that?
Sue: Yeah. She’s having a really bad time. Poor thing.
Watson has the opposite reaction and he tries to gun her down in a corridor.
Sue: Two nukes didn’t kill her so I’ll try these bullets instead. You idiot.
Eldrad retaliates and Watson is enveloped in pain.
Me: Do you still want to help her?
Sue: He just shot her six times. I’d be pissed off if I were her. And she didn’t kill him. Chill.
The Doctor, Sarah and Eldrad leave Watson to deal with the metaphorical fallout.
Sue: Somebody should take that gun off him before he shoots himself in the head. His wife might get her cruise after all.
The TARDIS arrives on Kastria…
Sue: Finally. That scene at the beginning might make sense now.
The episode concludes with Eldrad setting off a lethal booby trap that spears through her chest. It’s one of those rare occasions where a cliffhanger makes Sue gasp.
Sue: Bloody hell, I didn’t see that coming. I told you she was the goodie. You wouldn’t have a cliffhanger where the villain was in danger, would you? That would be silly.
Part Four
Within minutes, Sue is singing from hymn sheet of the fan consensus…
Sue: This is a bit silly now.
What really annoys her is the way the Doctor and Sarah will take time out to spout exposition at each other or admire the Kastrian scenery (which Sue hates), even though they should be rushing to save Eldrad’s life. After all, Eldrad must live.
Sue: Stop blathering! Can’t you walk and talk at the same time?
Me: If they did that, they’d run out of set.
Sue: Well, the writers should know better. There are two writers as well. One of them should have spotted it.
She’s not happy with the way Sarah is being written, either.
Sue: She’s screaming a lot this week. That’s not like Sarah Jane at all.
As the Doctor and Sarah make their way through Kastria, we are shown fleeting shots of a mysterious figure shrouded in a pink blanket.
Sue: It sounds like a Dalek. It’s not a Dalek under that quilt, is it? That wouldn’t make any sense, would it?
The Doctor and Sarah are faced with a yawning abyss. We know exactly how it feels.
Sue: Are you sure this isn’t a Terry Nation script? Don’t tell me: this is so bad he had to hide behind two pseudonyms because one wasn’t enough. I’m right, aren’t I?
As Sarah crosses the chasm via a makeshift bridge, she decides to make a right meal of it.
Sue: You could drive a truck over that. This story is going downhill rapidly.
As the Doctor carries Eldrad into the regeneration room, Sue is impressed with Judith Paris’ ability to mimic a plank of wood.
Sue: You have to be really fit to stay as rigid as that. Or you could just watch this episode. It will bore you rigid. It’s a shame because I really enjoyed the first three episodes. It was on for a seven or an eight yesterday.
It seems that the Doctor and Sarah have accidentally flattened Eldrad…
Sue: Is that it? They are just going to shrug their shoulders and leave?
And then the “real” Eldrad turns up.
Sue: I like his purple hat.
Eldrad rants and raves. A lot. Sue sighs. A lot.
Sue: Ok, this is officially rubbish now. It’s heading for a four.
Sarah exclaims that they have been taken for a ride.
Sue: Tell me about it, love!
Eldrad learns that the Kastrian race banks are empty. He has what Sue describes as a “dicky fit”.
Sue: That’s pathetic. He reminds me of you the last time our Internet connection went down.
The Last King of Kastria has left Eldrad a taunting video message. Eldrad is furious.
Sue: Stop talking to it! You are trying to have a conversation with an answering machine, you moron!
Eldrad decides to turn his attention to Earth.
Sue: Eldrad definitely has a chip on his shoulder. Well, he’s got several chips, actually, but you know what I mean.
The Doctor and Sarah make a run for it. Eldrad gives chase but he trips over the Doctor’s scarf and falls into the abyss.
Sue: This is embarrassing. It’s a bloody pantomime.
The Doctor and Sarah return to the TARDIS (Sue is chuffed to bits that the secondary console room is still in use) and the Doctor suggests that Eldrad might not be dead after all.
Sue: So why throw his ****ing ring down after him? And which writer would be stupid enough to bring him back anyway? What a load of rubbish. Worst. Monster. Ever.
But it isn’t over yet…
Sue: Oh, the Doctor’s been called to Gallifree. That’s almost as exciting as being called to Gallifrey.
But then the joking stopped.
Sue: I am genuinely shocked by this. I thought Sarah would be around a lot longer than that.
When Sarah steps onto a suburban street, Sue is delighted.
Sue: Awww, what a gorgeous labrador. She looks like Buffy when she was young. That’s nice.
When the credits have faded to black, and I’m convinced that my voice won’t crack, I ask Sue to sum up.
Sue: It was a brilliant scene but I know she’s coming back, so it’s fine. If I didn’t know she’d get her own series I think I’d be more upset. It’s only upsetting now because Elisabeth Sladen is no longer with us. That scene has different layers of poignancy to it now. Especially for you. But look at Sarah Jane at the end. She’s happy.
Later that night, I decide to quiz Sue on whether she was surprised to see Sarah leave the TARDIS without K9, especially as she’s used to seeing the pair of them together.
Sue: Oh yeah. So how does that happen?
When I point out that the dog references at the end of this story are prophetic, Sue thinks it’s clever foreshadowing. So I put her straight.
Sue: So the dog stuff was just a happy coincidence?
Me: Yes.
Sue: That’s handy.
The Final Score
Sue: This is a very difficult story to mark. It was good, very good, good, shit, really shit, then excellent. I don’t know what to do. Oh sod it, it’s Sarah Jane’s last story. I’ll have to give it:
6/10
The experiment continues…
Addendum
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End of part three: not as silly as…. oh sod it, why am I bothering? It’s the first comment, and we ALL know what’s going to overshadow the referred-to cliffhanger in the very same story. Just one more Sue reaction to look forward to…
The labrador isn’t the real foreshadowing of the story, it’s the rock Sue pointed out five minutes in that refuses to obey the laws of physics properly, perfectly setting up the tone for the following 85. At least the following story is *supposed* to be making the rules up as it goes along.
I think Sue has turned into a conventional Doctor Who fan. You should have done the stories backwards. Or given her that forgetfulness drug from Torchwood
I laughed a lot at this one. Particularly
“Watson should probably phone his wife back before she books a luxury cruise with the insurance.”
“Blimey, it really has turned into a 1970s Public Information Film. In the event of a nuclear blast, please hide behind your nearest car. No wonder the Doctor is taking the piss. This is ridiculous.”
And
“Stop talking to it! You are trying to have a conversation with an answering machine, you moron!”
Even the closing “That’s handy.” Maybe I woke up giggly.
I was really on tenterhooks with the marks here. You should have published it in different parts with cliffhangers: ‘Will this stay at a 7? Or will Sue’s marking fall off a cliff?’ Oh dear. I’m not usually bothered by Sue’s marks, but now I’m feeling distinctly nervous about the next one…
Mind you, my own The Hand of Fear review isn’t very different to Sue’s opinions, for once. Just weighing the hand and the lady alien higher than the last episode’s poor carpentry, and with a lot more religion. No, no, hear me out; I reckon Season 14 is all about religion, and that might be why ex-monk Tom so visibly perks up. But I tend to go on about that pet theory, so I’ll shut up!
“Sue: Stop talking to it! You are trying to have a conversation with an answering machine, you moron!” Says she to a TV recording from 1976
Yes: I loved this story almost until the point where Eldrad goes butch, then I didn’t, then I REALLY didn’t at the very end (not because it’s not well done but because it breaks our hearts). So I’m with Sue here.
And now we’re in such an interesting time. The next four episodes are going to have me on pins and needles.
Deadly Assassin
Face of Evil
Robots of Death
Talons
It’s going to be a great series of entries indeed!
The next 4 episodes, and for me the next 4 stories!
Sigh, yes, of course I meant “stories.” Until the DVDs, for me as an American episodes and stories were the same thing.
You poor thing. Cruelly denied cliffhangers and weeks in between. Never to experience the bitter delight of delayed gratification, and having your own highly subjective memories of what the bloody hell’s going on.
Rewatching these is a bit like the guilty pleasure of binging on my favourite childhood sweets. Then, in some cases, feeling a bit sick and going right off them. I could still eat a whole Talons in one shameful slump though!
I think that’s partly why I have so much trouble with the new series — it just feels weird to me to sit down and watch a story that’s over in 45 minutes. For me every Doctor Who story was a miniature movie.
No mention of Tom groping Eldrad?
“Is this the planet of the anoraks?” and “OK, I think the acid just kicked in.” – disturbingly, both could be used to describe today’s audience…
Speaking of disturbing, Judith Paris was responsible for some of the creepiest moments of the show for me. It was the hand, moving about by itself like that, that first started it all but seeing her being speared and then practically begging to be squished like that was a little… disconcerting for a young-un watching this now comfortless show…
…Daddy wouldn’t buy me a bow-wow, eh?
This story has acquired so much more poignancy since last year…
But I adore the Tom/Lis moments, such as the “mutual worry” and of course the wonderful ending, which is just heartbreaking.
And like Sue, I was completely taken in by jittery, paranoid Lady Eldrad and was genuinely worried about her survival. As Sarah said, “I rather liked her, but couldn’t stand him!”
BTW, I hope that the Doctor went back to Earth to help Glyn Houston sort everything out with UNIT and the authorities for letting the nuclear power plant get blown up!
You’d think they’d have learned from Pyramids of Mars that going off Earth for a romp round an alien planet in the final episode is always a bad idea. At least they pulled it around with the awesome ending. I’m looking forward to Sue trying to guess who the next companion is in the next story…
Not if it saved Robert Holmes from having to put together a new episode instead of wheeling out the Death To The Daleks tropes yet again.
And subsequent stories…
Poor Sarah, funny enough i actually used to live in a road called Hill View Road too, never saw Sarah-Jane prancing around in her dungarees though.
And there is a street in Aberdeen called “Hillview Road”!
Funny that it looks more like Gloucestershire here…
Does Sue realise that uttering the phrase “…for its time” completes her descent into Doctor Who fandom?
*sulks that his badge wasn’t chosen*
When I was at uni in the early 90s, I had a VHS copy of “The Hand of Fear” from its Superchannel repeat, a couple of generations down. I was watching it in our student house one Sunday morning, when one of the girls sharing with me (there were seven of us in there, nothing in common and we all avoided each other) came in for breakfast with the bloke she’d been entertaining after clubbing the previous night. Inevitably they started taking the piss out of my viewing choice. “Oh, is this Planet of the Duvet Monsters? Is Blanket Man waving at someone?” They shut up when episode one moved to present day earth and Tom appeared on the scene. They left the room once they’d run out of lame jokes to crack at the expense of episode one, though they managed a racial jibe about how the NHS was full of p*** doctors even in those days.
By the way – sorry to go off topic, but you must be used to that by now! A superb review and it had me on the edge of my seat too. I’m so pleased that Sue liked Dr Watson too, I think he’s a great character.
“Entertaining”? Not with her line in badinage, evidently…
Was she a student in the University of Stating the Bleedin’ Obvious? >
Ordered my new Mug, hoping to collect a complete range of ‘Is it the Master?’
Please tell me you’ll throw “K9 and Company” in between Logopolis and Castrovalva… Sue will be delighted that SJ has even more screentime, and with K9!
I think that they are going to watch K-9 and Co. I believe it’s mentioned in the Start Here bit on the front page (but I may be wrong). My one hope is that they are going to do Dimensions in Time. I actually have it on good authority that they will, but time will tell.
As to the Hand of Fear, Sue is absolutely spot on in saying that part four undoes all the hard work done by parts 1 – 3 and, the final leaving scene notwithstanding, the story would be a lot better without it, or at the very least a shorter scene set on Kastria. Still, I do think 6 is a bit harsh (7, I’d have gone with 7), but I understand her thinking behind it. Another good call, all told.
I rather like “Dimensions In Time” for a few reasons:
1. It’s the only time 6 shares screen time with the Brig.
2. The Mitchell brothers walk in on Romana having a piss in their garage.
3. It really, really annoys a certain type of fan if you say that you count it as having “really happened” (AKA “it’s in my personal canon”).
“Oi time tart! Whatcha fink you’re doin’ in our lockup, eh?”
“Goodness and hockey sticks! Sontarans! You do know that Cortina only needs a minor molecular adjustment to genuinely pass MOT…”
“Ooo’s that poof in the clown clobber then?”
“Oh Doctor! Thank goodness you’re here! Gosh (and chaps)!”
“It’s more serious than Sontaran mechanics – I’ve just been down the caff and Adam Woodyatt seems to be caught in an anti-talent loop…”
“What are we to do, Doctor?”
“It’s more serious than I thought. I played a foul objectionable pyschopath back in the 70s, but these people are out of control. Let’s head to the pub and see if Tom’s around to help us.”
“Spritzer please.”
“Giiiitahhhhahmypuuuub!!!!”
Canon indeed.
Weirdly, DiT was my first instance of watching Doctor Who without having to, if you know what I mean. Obviously, when it was on Saturday evening’s, I’d watch it then, and enjoy it, but once it was moved to Wednesday, I couldn’t watch it, as my mum would watch Corrie instead (oh woe, the days of single TV households). This is reason that Colin Baker will always be my Doctor: he was the one I watched when he was on. I wasn’t a bona fide fan at the time, but I had a friend who was, so I always enjoyed going round to his house and watching stuff on video.
Anyway, I digress. Dimensions in Time is fun, above all else, and it was great seeing the surviving Doctors wandering around Albert Square. At the time, I didn’t give two hoots that EastEnders wasn’t real, it just made me smile to see Pat, Frank, Pauline, Kathy et al. having fun with the Doctor and friends, of whom I recognised few. I knew who Susan was, having watched The Five Doctors ten years previously, and also my mate Ben’s encyclopedic knowledge. Peri I recognised, as I also did Mel, but I was bit shaky on who Victoria was, as well as Liz, Nyssa and Leela. Perhaps more importantly, it made me see what all the fuss was about. Yes, it isn’t to be taken seriously, but then again few things are, but I was certainly interested enough to explore my own interests in the show, so much so that when the movie came out three years later, I was suitably thrilled at the prospect, and I still think it’s a decent stab at trying to bring the show into the 90′s, while Dimensions isn’t, but that doesn’t matter. I still watch it occaisionally on YouTube, and I still get a great sense of fun and a slight tingle down the back of my neck every time. After all, it was the start of an ongoing love affair, and that’s all that matters in the long run.
There’s a lot more of the Brig and 6 that was filmed but never made it to screen thanks to Noel Edmonds. Ian Levine has reinstated these “rushes” into his ‘completed’ version.
Really? Is there anywhere where this can be watched? Or is it for Levene’s eyes only?
I think of Dimensions in Time as the Doctor Who equivalent of the Star Wars Christmas Special.
Read Tat Wood’s About Time 6 for his hilarious deconstruction of why it actually isn’t.
And I used to think “The Holiday Special” was about Thanksgiving! Always preferred “Seaside Special” myself – real holidays, sandcastles and sea and all. No idea what a “vacation” was, presumably some sort of leaving of a flat?
I think the plot ideas are good, part 4 mainly let down by execution and the blustery performances by the male Kastrians.
Neil’s comment about the childhood memory of the hand in the sandwich box chimes with me. Very scarey I think. The only other thing I remembered from this was Sarah leaving.
Has anyone noticed the newfound obsession with setting up sequels?
Not entirely newfound – don’t forget the promised return of Mr 0/10 himself.
Funny how the villains that got those sequel set-ups tended to vanish without trace, whereas ones that were supposedly firmly killed off kept on coming back, with or without creaky attempts to explain away their survival.
Indeed – we’re still waiting for Count Grendel of Gracht’s return as well. If he ever does come back though, he would have to regenerate or undergo plastic surgery…
Sarah exclaims that they have been taken for a ride.
Sue: Tell me about it, love!
———–
Agreed!
The first three episodes are an interesting buildup, very cool stuff, and Judith Paris simply steals the show in every scene she’s in.
The fourth episode was always the downer, especially the loud overacting…
Pretty sure when they showed this on PBS in my childhood they cut out the Kastria prelude bit from Ep 1. Strange how it doesn’t really matter. I’d give this a 7, maybe an 8 on a good day. I’m more forgiving of Part 4′s flaws. I like Sue’s description of it as “good, very good, good, shit, really shit, then excellent.” That sums it up nicely. I want that on a mug.
The cliffhanger to part 3 is my first memory not only of Who, but of television. I was 4 when I happened to watch this episode, I am 40 next month, and I’m still as hooked on Who as I was back then. Eldrad must live!
Tim, my earliest memory is the stones parting to reveal Eldrad’s ‘remains’, and I to turn 40 this year!
I turned 40 last year and my earliest sure memory is from exactly twelve months earlier. (The time tunnel in Pyramids. Though I think I remember the Doctor appearing out of the fog in Genesis.)
I just noticed the Recons counter has changed to a stories counter. Makes sense. But we haven’t forgotten Marco Polo!
Always loved the quarry scenes, and scary Sarah Jane. Sue is quite right, three cracking episodes destroyed effortlessly by a Bran Blessed impersonator.
I remember Judith Paris making me rigid as a teenager, but in a different way. (Feel free to censor or tell me off for that remark).
Tom said much the same, to her face, on the blissful commentary!
“three cracking episodes destroyed effortlessly by a Bran Blessed impersonator.” I was going to say something to the same effect, but you put it better.
I like the concept of Eldrad being recreated as a male. If only they’d cast someone else–like Michael Spice (voice of Morbius, Magnus Greel), or Gabriel Woolf (Sutekh), or Christopher Gable (Sharaz Jek)–actors who can give a good, nuanced performance as a megalomaniac, even when you can’t see any of their face.
We’re all on tenterhooks waiting to see whether Sue uses her catchphrase in the next story. (I’m guessing that she won’t.)
“What a load of rubbish. Worst. Monster. Ever.”
Wait till Sue sees the Nucleus of the Swarm, or the Myrka… I think Eldrad (in his Judith Paris form, at least) is a decent enough foe for the Doctor, but the story does become very pedestrian in the final episode – until that lovely underplayed leaving scene, anyway. At least on this occasion Baker and Martin’s imaginative flights of fancy are largely kept in check, and the production values don’t suffer too much as a result. The use of a real power station also helps the story to feel more authentic.
Sad as Sarah’s departure is, I think Lis Sladen was right to leave when she did, as by this time the scriptwriters had largely lost interest in Sarah as a character in her own right and were just content to treat her as a plucky sidekick. I also think her exit has something of a liberating effect on Hinchcliffe and Holmes for the remainder of this season, as with Sarah gone all links to the Pertwee/UNIT era are finally broken, and the production team really do spread their creative wings, as evidenced by the next story. It will certainly be fascinating to see Sue’s views on that one…
Sarah always worked best with Harry anyway. At least Moffat gets that with Amy plus Rory.
I’m glad that Baker and Martin didn’t get to kill off the Brig as they originally wrote. That didn’t happen until that McCoy “Death Comes To Time”, n’est ce pas?
Sue’s comments are as funny as ever, but I think it’s Neil that nails the problem with this story: great idea, some great scenes, some great direction but the writers really, REALLY struggle with exposition, and how to fit that exposition into the action. Admittedly, a common flaw in SF on screen.
Also Eldrad in part 4 is no worse than a lot of other DW monsters and villains; it’s just that following Judith Paris was mission impossible.
I can’t remember seeing this story as a kid, which considering I remember Mandragora and the Deadly Assassin, I’m sure that I would have watched it. So have I just blanked out the memory? Not sure…
Having seen this years later, I don’t really rate the story at all and a 6/10 from Sue is pretty generous really. Judith Paris is good as was Glyn (in everything) Houston, but I think overall it was a disappointing story for Sarah to finish on.
If split-screen technology and studio time had allowed… imagine Lis Sladen playing Eldrad (after all, Eldrad based his new body on Sarah’s pattern). That would’ve been something to see, and a nice swansong (Troughton got his wish of playing a “monster”, albeit not an unrecognisable one – it’d have been nice if Lis had got play a villain, not just a possessed/hypnotised/brainwashed Sarah for once).
All that said, the self-scripted two-hander farewell scene is so good that I can forgive the rest of this story. You can really see that the actors have a better handle on their characters – and their characters’ pasts – than even the script editor.
Oh yeah, and in 1976, at the age of 8, this story gave me my first taste of “loss” in drama, after my dad in real life. So, go Lis.
But please come back…
Frankymole,
That’s a fab point – if Eldrad, taking on human form, imprinted on Sarah completely… (though given how many people touched Eldrad’s rocky hand, the end result was still effective, but your idea rocks…)
I forgot the farewell scene stuff was self-scripted. Thanks for the reminder!
Agreed.
I rewatched it, and Sarah – especially in later episodes – does become a needless screamer, and it was annoying.
I remember reading that Douglas Camfield wrote an ultimately abandoned story called The Lost Legion, which would have seen Sarah get killed off. Imagine the impact that would have had! I’m glad they didn’t do it though…
I like Stephen Thorne as Azel. I like him as Omega. Then it all goes seriously wrong with the booming ranty Eldrad, thrown into even sharper focus after Judith Paris playing it all detached calm and icy rage.
Male Eldrad isn’t very much in touch with his female side. Which is ironic.
Wake up and smell the coffee people – this story is sheer and utter b****cks. Only Lis Sladen’s departure raises it above the sub-normal.
Bye Sarah Jane, we’ll miss you for some time……
“You wouldn’t have a cliffhanger where the villain was in danger, would you? That would be silly.”
Am I right in thinking that one of the cliffhangers in “The Daemons” threatens the Master?