Retro Review: The Hand of Fear
- Thread starter wamdue
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This episode brought to you by Tupperware.
even I notice the quarry joke, and that is where I would like to start my review.
Im pretty sure the 70s had two way radios, cant help but think this whole thing would have been avioded, if the quarry guys had taken some basic health & safety mesaures, such as issuing their employees with two way radios, should they want to stop the explosion for any reason.
Moving on, and im about to get myself kicked out of Doctor Who fandom for saying this, I dont see what is so specail about Tom Baker, I guess I shouldnt just the guy on half of one story, but still he didnt seem Doctorish at all, maybe he is too tall.
Some more nit-picking, Sarah Janes, wardrobe why? and why were they being escoted by security into the nuclear power plant, at least I think that is what was happening, why would security chase someone into a nuclear power plant on full alert?
I spotted the Galifrey one, hecked I said that just Whatson said it, still its nice to see where these sayings come from, to say nothing of the infamous "Eldred must live"!
Pacing as always in Classic Who, is a little slow, so im not going to make a big deal of it.
The nuclear radictor seemed very easy to get into the over sized garden gate bolts on it, seemed almost comical, same for the "Tupperware" box.
So ive mostly talked about the bad, so now the good.
Use of whatever factory they were actual using was good, obviously this being the 70s, CGI and greenscreen was not up to much, so the use of the physical location worked really well, and the explosion at the quarry was good too.
Tom Baker & Elisabeth Sladen seem to work well together.
Why is it in sci fi that whenever silicon-based lifeforms get mentioned, somebody goes "but it'd be made of stone!" - nobody every complains that carbon based life (i.e. all known life on Earth) couldn't exist because it'd be made of graphite... or diamond.
Wow, I don't think I've ever heard anyone say Baker isn't sufficiently Doctor-ish. I guess it's an age thing - although I've seen much more of the last 3 Doctors than of Tom, he's still who I think of when I think of Doctor Who. He's the Sean Connery of the role.
ive never made any claims to being a Classic Who fan, but what Classic Who I have watched, I have enjoyed Pretwee alot more, but ive really not seen alot of Tom Baker.
For me at, no surprise I see Tennant as theDoctor.
Eldrad must live! It is the law! Eldrad must live!!!!
That is all.
That is all.
but is it the Order
I love The Hand Of Fear and I just rewatched it recently, Tom Baker was spot on as the Doctor and it was the 14th season which is IMO their best ever season. The music was great, they used a real location and it showed, Stephen Thorne has a great voice and yet again it was well used just as it was for Azal and Omega. Judith Paris was pretty hot as the female version of Eldrad. And it was goodbye for Sarah Jane.
I think he's a good Doctor (Baker that is) and there is a natural alieness about him that I think only he and Smith have really had. That said I think his performances fluctuate a lot, and I don't think he incorporated many elements of other Doctors within his performance, so sometimes its harder to imagine he's the same man as Hartnell was than to imagine Davison, Colin, McCoy etc are (if that makes sense).
I think what I'm trying (very poorly) to articulate is that the Doctor became Tom Baker, rather than Tom Baker became the Doctor!
Yeah, I mean that's fair enough. I'm actually just more of a nuWho than Classic Who fan. But T Baker was the first Doctor I remember seeing, he was Doctor from I was aged about 1 until I was about 9 and the hair, the scarf and the teeth are just so iconic to me (and probably a lot of viewers of my age) that I still sort of view him as the definitive Doctor (even though I prefer the last three incarnations, Smith especially).
If I'd been born 30 years later, I'd probably feel that way about Tennant or Smith.
I think I know why it is Tom Baker is not so impressive in this story, its because the whole story is a trap, and Eldred out smarts him at every turn.
Which brings me neatly on to Eldred, an intersting character, and for me not the 2D villian he may appear to be in episode 4, episode 3 showing alot more depth, than in the 4th episode, I like to think that is partly because Eldred was lying a bit in the 3rd, not because Eldred was in the form of an attractive woman, I certainly wonder if Eldred could have been a better person than he was, maybe not half way out of the dark, but certainly if challanged maybe he could have been better.
I did think Eldred would get caught in a boobie trap, left for him, rather than tripped up with a scarf, its almost cruel setting it up so he is King of nothing.
I actually liked these two episodes better, the pacing was better, and I didnt spot anything I would have removed, like I did in the first episode, maybe this is like the Part 1s being a bit slow in the new series, and the 2nd parts being better. I think Classic Who would have anonyed me, if I was watching it at 1 1/2 hour episode a week.
and Sarah Jane, her exit does seem a bit strange, and rather forced, even if she is flouncing, it most have seemed very odd that her exit is simply, that she couldnt go to Galfriey.
the TARDIS, not keen, too much wood, and dare I say it too tidy and organised.
As before im not going to say too much about the poor CGI, stunts, props and FX, all 4 poor, and laughable by modern standards, but this is 1976, not 2006.
Which brings me neatly on to Eldred, an intersting character, and for me not the 2D villian he may appear to be in episode 4, episode 3 showing alot more depth, than in the 4th episode, I like to think that is partly because Eldred was lying a bit in the 3rd, not because Eldred was in the form of an attractive woman, I certainly wonder if Eldred could have been a better person than he was, maybe not half way out of the dark, but certainly if challanged maybe he could have been better.
I did think Eldred would get caught in a boobie trap, left for him, rather than tripped up with a scarf, its almost cruel setting it up so he is King of nothing.
I actually liked these two episodes better, the pacing was better, and I didnt spot anything I would have removed, like I did in the first episode, maybe this is like the Part 1s being a bit slow in the new series, and the 2nd parts being better. I think Classic Who would have anonyed me, if I was watching it at 1 1/2 hour episode a week.
and Sarah Jane, her exit does seem a bit strange, and rather forced, even if she is flouncing, it most have seemed very odd that her exit is simply, that she couldnt go to Galfriey.
the TARDIS, not keen, too much wood, and dare I say it too tidy and organised.
As before im not going to say too much about the poor CGI, stunts, props and FX, all 4 poor, and laughable by modern standards, but this is 1976, not 2006.
Really? Are you sure the Doctor doesn't know exactly what Eldrad plans? He gets this destructive power away from earth, and into the hands of his own people
I thought the acting owed a lot to the stage - as acting did back then: everything was bigger and more Dramatic (think Brian Blessed). The actual character was at least as much tragic as evil, his entire race extinct and the war long lost. Rather reminded me of "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield".
But really long scarves are cool!
Now you know why some of us prefer stories that tie up at the end of the evening. Four weeks is a long wait for your 25 minute fix.
Given how incredibly popular Sarah Jane was, they had to find a way for her to leave that wouldn't result in massive grief for either of them: she had reached a point of pining for the ordinary human things like a hot bath and he was called to Gallifrey - neither of them would go all soppy and wistful for "the lost companion". It was the best they could to do convince the audience that it was an ok break-up. Even so some of us cried inconsolably for hours.
You'd have hated the white, clinical control room, then. I thought the slightly Victorian feel was rather good.
CGI? I don't think they called it that back in '76.
that certainly is possible, but it didnt show on the screen, sure the Doctor picked up on booby traps being on the planet, maybe it felt like the Doctor was under playing it for exactly that reason.
and this is again where I have to come over all new series fan, I have no in built love for long scarves, like I do when the 11th Doctor picks up a hat.
That said I always liked K9, despite him looking rubbish.
please dont tell me they only showed 1 episode every 4 weeks?
I suppose it was better than Roses exit.
I dare say that would have just looked like a TV set to me.
fair enough they may not have called it that, but there was some in the episode, for example the disoration on the Doctors face when he gets the call from Galfiery, or the computer on the alien planet., I believe the phrase is "pixelicious"CGI? I don't think they called it that back in '76.
This is why I dont consider myself a Classic series fan.
Wam, after the Pertwee era, most stories were a standard 4 episodes 25 minutes long.
So, you got 1 episode a week, but, it was only once every 4 weeks you completed a story (And of course, there were a few 6 episode stories in Tom Baker's era, and more times per series the further back you go. War Games, Troughton's final story, was actually 10 episodes)
So, you got 1 episode a week, but, it was only once every 4 weeks you completed a story (And of course, there were a few 6 episode stories in Tom Baker's era, and more times per series the further back you go. War Games, Troughton's final story, was actually 10 episodes)
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