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Doctor Who: The Hand of Fear (parts one and two)
There's a lot to like about "The Hand of Fear." Since Tom Baker's Doctor didn't spend as much time on contemporary Earth as Pertwee did, it's kind of nice to see him interacting with everyday people in 1976. There's a lot of ordinary, everyday locations in this one: a quarry, a hospital, and a power plant. The Doctor doesn't drive around in his old yellow roadster; instead he's a passenger in somebody's old Datsun or something. There is a lot of good location filming in the first half of this story, and the sets and even the choice of furniture – dig those awful plastic chairs! – make this feel more "real" than "The Android Invasion" or "The Seeds of Doom," which were both allegedly contemporary Earth stories, did.
"The Hand of Fear" is a four-parter that was first shown in 1976. It was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, and was the last serial directed by Lennie Mayne, who sadly died in a boating accident a few months later. Mayne cast one of his reliable go-to actors, Rex Robinson, for the third time, and it also has a terrific guest appearance by Glyn Houston, perhaps best known as Bunter in three of the BBC's Lord Peter Wimsey adaptations, as the director of the power plant.
Everybody comments on how unusual and how real it is that Houston's character gets a moment to himself, completely away from the drama of the story, to phone home and tell his wife goodbye when he thinks the nuclear plant will have a meltdown and explode soon. I think this was a great decision for the scriptwriters because part two of this story is incredibly repetitive, and it breaks up all the running up and down lots of corridors. Television adventure drama rarely takes the time to give minor characters little human moments like this. There never is time, because everything that happens needs to either serve the plot or serve the stars. It may be less than a minute of the episode, but somehow it works just perfectly and really elevates the story.
I doubt our son noticed. He seemed to enjoy this one. It wasn't very scary, although the memorable visual of the hand coming to life gave him the creeps, as it should. That one shot of the hand in the box at the cliffhanger is a remarkably good effect. The other bits where it's crawling along the floor are the standard yellow-or-green-screen chromakey, but when the hand first moves, it's so darn good you're forced to question how they did it.
While I saw the runaround and repetition of part two a little wearying, he got into it. The director tried to make the story seem urgent and desperate, and it really worked with him. Part two ends with everything exploding as the disembodied hand gets carried into the reactor core and he was excited. He says that he's kind of scared about what's going to happen, "because this is a very creepy one," but he didn't hide behind the sofa this morning, either.
Filed under doctor who
Tagged as bob baker, dave martin, doctor who, elisabeth sladen, glyn houston, lennie mayne, rex robinson, tom baker