The Hand of Fear (TV story)

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The Hand of Fear was the second story of Season 14. It was perhaps most significant for being Elisabeth Sladen's final story as a member of the regular cast of Doctor Who.

The Hand of Fear was originally intended for the 1976 six-part slot that was taken by The Seeds of Doom. This was very different tale in which the hand was an advance guard, preparing the way for an alien army. However, the script was not ready and so it was delayed and later, rewritten.

Synopsis

When the TARDIS lands on Earth in a quarry, the Doctor and Sarah are caught in a mining explosion. Sarah is found clutching what appears to be a fossilised hand, buried in 150 million-year-old strata. Analysis shows the hand to be silicon-based and inert, but when Sarah begins to act as if possessed, the Doctor suspects that it may still be alive...

Plot

Part 1

Millennia ago on the planet Kastria, a traitor and criminal named Eldrad is sentenced to death for crimes including the destruction of the barriers that have kept the solar winds at bay.

Placed into a capsule and shot into space, Eldrad awaits obliteration. Conditions are deteriorating rapidly on Kastria so the capsule is detonated prematurely, despite the risk of particle survival. The remaining Kastrians await their fate on the desolate planet.

File:Handoffear part1.JPG
The Doctor examines an x-ray of the mysterious hand.

The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith arrive in the TARDIS in a modern-day quarry on Earth. Before they realise where they are, they are caught up in a quarrying explosion. The Doctor is slightly injured, and Sarah is found unconscious in the rubble clutching a fossilized hand. She is brought to a local hospital to recover.

The hand is examined and based on the strata of the rock in which it was found, it is determined to be 150 million years old. Pathologist Dr Carter dismisses these findings as ridiculous. Examining a sliver of the hand under an electron microscope, the Doctor observes a helix similar to DNA. The minuscule radiation of the microscope causes the sample to grow, and the Doctor realizes that this fossil might actually contain vestiges of life.

Sarah awakens in her hospital bed, holding a crystalline ring that had slipped from the hand. The ring begins to pulse with energy, and Sarah is possessed by a voice in her head saying Eldrad must live. She steals the hand and escapes from the hospital, knocking out Carter with a flash from the ring. She heads for the nearest nuclear reactor, the Nunton Complex. With the aid of the ring, Sarah overpowers guards and workmen and enters the reactor room. She watches as the hand absorbs radiation, regenerates its missing finger, and begins to move.

Part 2

File:Handoffear main.JPG
Sarah releases the hand of Eldrad.

The head of the complex, Professor Watson, displays great bravery in remaining at his post when the reactor goes critical, and offers the Doctor aid and advice in trying to get to Sarah. Sarah sits serene amidst the chaos and klaxons. The Doctor resolves to enter the chamber through a ventilation shaft, but is stopped by Dr Carter, now also under the hypnotic control of the ring. He attempts to kill the Doctor but falls to his death. The Doctor enters the chamber and finds that there is no radiation whatsoever; the hand is absorbing the entire output of the reactor. Sarah is removed and the hand placed in a sealed cabinet. The Doctor is able to break through Sarah's hypnosis.

The ring, however, is left behind in the chamber and is found by a technician named Driscoll who then falls under its control. He takes the hand and walks into the main core. The reactor once again nears critical.

Part 3

File:Handoffear part3.JPG
Eldrad lives.

Watkins orders an RAF strike to destroy the hand and the reactor, but the missiles' impact cause an 'unexplosion'; that and the full power of the reactor are enough to complete the full regeneration of Eldrad. Crystalline, silicon-based and female, she explains how she created the solar barriers that allowed Kastria to thrive, but in an interstellar war the barriers were destroyed and she was disgraced and condemned. She persuades the Doctor to return her to Kastria so she can save her people; he agrees on the condition that they travel to Kastria in the present, 150 million years after she left.

The planet is barren and ruined, but her ring activates some remaining instruments. Eldrad's presence, however, is detected by automatic sensors that trigger various traps set long ago in place by her rival, King Rokon, on the miniscule chance of Eldrad's return. As they enter an elevator to the subterranean levels, Eldrad is impaled by an acid-tipped spear.

Part 4

Sarah Jane walking away from the TARDIS.

The Doctor and Sarah take the dying Eldrad to a regeneration chamber deep below the surface of Kastria. The regeneration chamber is rigged to destroy Eldrad, but a malfunction allows a full regeneration. The new form of Eldrad reveals that he had based his earlier form on Sarah, being the first human he encountered. Eldrad is now much taller, and male. He boasts that he did indeed destroy the solar barriers in a rivalry with King Rokon. They find Eldrad's ultimate goal, the Kastrian Race Bank, from which he intends to revive the dormant Kastrian people. The Bank, however, is empty. An image of Rokon appears, informing Eldrad that without the barriers, facing perpetual subterranean existence and a small possibility of his return, the Kastrian race elected to destroy both themselves and the Race Bank. Rokon mockingly salutes Eldrad from the grave, as "King of Nothing." A bitter Eldrad now decides to rule the Earth instead and demands that the Doctor return him. He refuses, stating that his obligation to Eldrad is now satisfied. Eldrad pursues the Doctor and Sarah to an abyss. Tripping over the Doctor's scarf, Eldrad falls to his apparent doom. Noting that Eldrad's fate is uncertain, as silicon-based lifeforms are difficult to kill, the Doctor drops Eldrad's ring down into the abyss as well.

The Doctor and Sarah depart in the TARDIS, and the Doctor sets about making repairs. Sarah bemoans her life in the TARDIS - bouncing around the universe, fleeing from bug-eyed monsters, and needing a bath. The Doctor is focused on his work, which infuriates her to the point that she demands to be returned home and storms off to her room to pack. While she is gone, the Doctor receives a summons to return to Gallifrey. Sarah returns with her packed things and the Doctor informs her that he must return her to Earth, as aliens are not allowed on Gallifrey. Her bluff called, Sarah is quite taken aback, especially at missing the chance to see Gallifrey. The Doctor steers the TARDIS to bring her to Hill View Road, South Croydon - Sarah's home. She asks him not to forget her; he replies likewise. Once the TARDIS dematerializes, Sarah realizes that it's not Hill View Road. In fact, it's not South Croydon at all. She remarks to a nearby dog, "He blew it." Whistling, Sarah walks off toward her new life...

Cast

Crew

References

Individuals

Gallifrey

  • The Doctor is called back to Gallifrey and says he has to leave Sarah behind, as aliens are not allowed there.

Planets

Races and species

  • Eldrad has heard of the Time Lords, saying that they are pledged to uphold the laws of time and to prevent alien aggression.
  • Eldrad says he built barriers to keep out the winds, machines to replenish the soil and atmosphere and devised a crystalline, silicon-based form for the Kastrians.
  • The entire Kastrian race commits self-genocide on the chance that Eldrad might return.

TARDISes

Weapons

Story notes

  • Working titles claimed for this story were The Hand of Death and The Hand of Time. However, the production notes on the DVD release state that there were no working titles for this story.
  • In terms of seasons, Elisabeth Sladen was the longest serving companion with any Doctor, appearing for over three seasons and surpassing Katy Manning's record as Jo Grant. In terms of years, Janet Fielding holds the record for playing Tegan Jovanka for just under three years. Frazer Hines as companion Jamie McCrimmon holds the record for the longest serving companion in terms of the number of episodes in which he appeared. These records do not take non-televised adventures into account, nor later "guest" reappearances.
  • When Sladen expressed her intention to leave the series, Sarah was originally supposed to be killed off in a pseudo-historical story involving aliens and the Foreign Legion. However Douglas Camfield, who was supposed to write the scripts, was unable to do so. This was much to Sladen's relief, as she did not want Sarah to be killed or married off. Sladen also asked that Sarah's departure not be the main focus of the story, as she felt the program was about the Doctor, not the companion.
  • The nuclear power station was originally supposed to be the Nuton Power Complex of The Claws of Axos but was renamed the Nunton Experimental Complex instead. The real-life location was the Oldbury Nuclear Power Station in Gloucestershire.
  • In the original script, Miss Jackson was a nameless male. Director Lennie Mayne built up the part, changed the gender, and cast his wife, Frances Pidgeon.
  • Eldrad's home was originally supposed to be the black hole of Omega 4.6. When Robert Holmes pointed out to Bob Baker and Dave Martin that the name Omega had already appeared in Doctor Who (in The Three Doctors; ironically this story was also written by Baker and Martin), they changed the name to Kastria.
  • The original script for the story featured an aging Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, who had been moved from UNIT to the Extraterrestrial Xenological Intelligence Taskforce to study UFO activities. He was to be killed when he steered his spaceship into an Omegan kamikaze ship to prevent that ship from crashing into Earth. This plan did not go through due to Nicholas Courtney being unavailable for filming. The original script also featured Harry Sullivan.
  • Baker and Martin intentionally did not write Sarah's departure scene. The script for that scene was rewritten by Sladen and Tom Baker from Robert Holmes's original version.
  • In the final scene, Sarah Jane whistles the tune "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow". Since Elisabeth Sladen is unable to whistle, director Lennie Mayne provided the whistling while she mimed to it.
  • Sarah's clothes make her look 'just like Andy Pandy'.
  • Elisabeth Sladen would reprise the role of Sarah Jane Smith in K9 and Company, and later appear in the 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors and the 30th Anniversary charity special Dimensions in Time. While Sladen pulled back on her acting career after the birth of her daughter Sadie in 1985, she continued to appear as Sarah in various Doctor Who-related spin-off media, including two radio dramas with Jon Pertwee (BBCR: The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space), and a series of audio dramas from Big Finish Productions (BFSJS: Sarah Jane Smith (audio series)). She returned to television in the Tenth Doctor episode DW: School Reunion (in which Sarah's departure point was revealed to be Aberdeen rather than Croydon), and her own TV spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. She later also returned to Doctor Who for the story The Stolen Earth/Journey's End and a cameo in The End of Time
  • The fly that can be seen walking across Glyn Houston's brow in one scene was swallowed by Elisabeth Sladen in an out take.

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 10.5 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 10.2 million viewers
  • Part 3 - 11.1 million viewers
  • Part 4 - 12 million viewers

Myths

  • A real-life quarry explosion was filmed for the episode. Unfortunately the crew badly underestimated the power of the explosion, and a rumour persisted for many years that a camera was totally destroyed in the blast. However, in the DVD commentary it is made clear that this is just a fan myth.

Filming locations

  • Cromhall Quarry, Cromhall, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire (Quarry where the TARDIS arrives at the start of the story)
  • Oldbury Nuclear Power Station, Oldbury Naite, Thornbury, Gloucestershire (Location of the 'Nuton Experimental Complex')
  • Stokefield Close, Thornbury, Gloucestershire (Where Sarah is dropped off by the Doctor)
  • Rickmansworth Road (A412), Croxley Green, Hertfordshire (This was reused stock footage of an ambulance)

Production errors

  • When Eldrad is ranting and raving following Rokon's message, a camera can be seen in the dark doorway behind Sarah.
  • When Eldrad is telling the Doctor about the race banks, the shadow of a boom mike moves over the wall behind Sarah (and its reflection can be seen in the wall to her left).
  • When the Doctor and Sarah are setting the trap for Eldrad, the Doctor bumps a large rock to his left, causing it to wobble noticeably.
If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

Continuity

Timeline

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Hand of Fear.

Released:

Contents:

  • Commentary by Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Judith Paris, Bob Baker and Philip Hinchcliffe.
  • Changing Time - A 50-minute documentary, looking at the making of the story and the special relationship between the Doctor and Sarah.
  • Swap Shop - Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen are interviewed by Noel Edmonds and callers on the Saturday morning children's show.
  • Continuities - Rare surviving continuity announcements relating to the story.
  • Photo Gallery
  • Doctor Who Annual 1977 (PDF DVD-ROM)
  • Radio Times billings (PDF DVD-ROM)
  • Production Information Subtitles

Notes:

  • DVD Region 2 UK cover

    DVD Region 2 UK cover

  • DVD Region 4 Australian cover

    DVD Region 4 Australian cover

  • DVD Region 1 US cover

    DVD Region 1 US cover

VHS Releases

Released on VHS in February 1996. It was the final video tape to include the diamond logo on the cover artwork in the United Kingdom and the US, and was deleted along with much of the rest of the Doctor Who video range only a few weeks after its initial release, making the original tape something of a collectors' item.

  • VHS UK cover

    VHS UK cover

  • VHS Australian cover

    VHS Australian cover

  • VHS US cover

    VHS US cover

Novelisation and its audiobook

Hand of Fear novel.jpg
Main article: Doctor Who and the Hand of Fear

External links

Template:Season 14 Template:Wikipedia

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