Doctor Who: The Hand of Fear (Story 87)

The Doctor Battles The Lady Villains
The final two Doctor Who DVD releases for 2006 feature the fourth and sixth Doctors in stories first broadcast in Britain in 1976 and 1985 respectively, both starring rare examples of a female `baddie’ as the Time Lord’s adversary. The Hand of Fear is certainly an appropriate release for this year as it neatly ties in with the most recent series of new adventures aired on the BBC this past spring. The Mark of The Rani comes from the ill-fated twenty-second season of the long running show and is certainly one of the highlights of that year’s much maligned canon.The Hand of Fear was the second story of six from season fourteen, possibly the most lauded and certainly (in terms of ratings) the most consistently popular season from the show’s original twenty-six year run. It was the third to star Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor under the Production of Philip Hinchcliffe and Script Editor Robert Holmes. Joining the Doctor for the start of her fourth year in the role was Sarah-Jane Smith, the feminist journalist portrayed so brilliantly and convincingly by Elisabeth Sladen. However, Sladen only appeared in the first two stories in this season, this being her last. The script comes from Bob Baker and Dave Martin, two veteran writers on the show who generally contributed at least one script per season from 1971 to 1979. I’m not a great fan of their stories, possibly due to a personal prejudice arising from their horrendous Three Doctors script that marked the series’ tenth anniversary. But The Hand of Fear is certainly strong, but for me it’s one of the weaker efforts in such a stand-out season. What makes this story so memorable and perhaps so fondly remembered is that it features the departure of Sarah-Jane, at the time, the longest running consecutive companion.Sladen is given the key role in the early episodes of this story and plays a wonderful, possessed villainess who creates havoc in a nuclear power plant. Alas though, and she admits this herself in the commentary, when not possessed, Sladen goes completely over the top and hams it up as Sarah-Jane in the rest of the story. Perhaps due to the pressure of the situation, her performance becomes quite irritating. This is redeemed almost completely in the closing moments of episode four, when having threatened to leave the Doctor, he in turn `evicts’ her from the TARDIS. Their final farewell (largely scripted by the two actors themselves) is touching and moving and well worth the price of the DVD alone. The real villain of the story, Eldrad of Kastria, is played for almost two episodes by Judith Paris, and it has to be said that she pretty much steals the entire show, both in her performance and the quite fabulous costume and make-up.Another female baddie show’s up almost nine years later in The Mark of The Rani, the third story from Colin Baker’s first full season as the Doctor, broadcast in the spring of 1985. Kate O’Mara takes on the role of the Rani, a villainous Time Lady, interfering with the Luddite period of Earth’s history in order to carry our scientific experiments. O’Mara had worked with Baker before on the hugely popular BBC drama series The Brothers, and the chemistry between the two actors is wonderful, although alas, they spend precious little time on screen together. The supporting cast is strong in general, but alas, the two leads (Baker and Nicola Bryant) are just not suited to their characterizations, and their on screen bickering is tiresome, as is Bryant’s phoney, whiney American accent and Baker’s bullying Doctor. Also here to spoil things is the desperately hammy Anthony Ainley as the Doctor’s other Time Lord enemy, The Master; a pantomime villain who was well past his sell-by date by this time, but was contracted to appear in all Doctor Who seasons in this era. It’s a shame that the three lead performances from the regulars are so weak, as the story is certainly strong and the wonderful location filming gives the show a very much needed senses of reality. O’Mara makes up for a lot and was so successful in the role that she was invited back two years later to help kick-start Sylvester McCoy’s ill-fated run as the seventh Doctor. She plays the part with conviction and humor, and is compelling enough to forgive the weaknesses of the scripting.Both of these stories have been wonderfully restored to their original broadcast quality (or possibly even better), which in the case of The Hand of Fear is possibly not such a great thing as it now becomes a little obvious how the some of the effects with the hand are done; nuances that were missed on the lower grade video tape. The extras included on both discs are fantastic – as the Doctor Who extras always are. There are behind the scenes documentaries, interviews with the cast and crew, out-takes, deleted scenes, continuity announcements, Easter Eggs, and features from other BBC shows related to these two stories. The only minor criticism would be that the “Changing Time” documentary included with The Hand of Fear covers a lot of ground that isn’t necessarily relevant to this story and might have been better used with other releases. But it’s a great little piece regardless. The commentary from Tom Baker on this disc is completely hysterical and the actor is at his comic best, even though he recalls precious little of the actual story. He is joined by writer Bob Baker and for some episodes by Sladen, Paris and Hinchcliffe. Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Kate O’Mara provide an entertaining commentary on The Mark of The Rani. Alas, in both cases, a lot of the on screen production notes and the behind-the scenes documentaries cover a lot of the same ground, so there is much repetition.With Elizabeth Sladen returning to play Sarah-Jane Smith soon on British screens in her own TV series, following her much lauded re-appearance with David Tennant’s tenth Doctor earlier this year, her final story from her original run is a great reminder of the bridge between the two. It’s wonderful to see her in the role again and hopefully her new adventures will be as popular as her original run.

Always been a fan of Doctor Who. Great addition to my collection. Thanks.