Horror of Fang Rock Part One

The one where the Doctor and Leela encounter murder in a lighthouse...

It's Doctor Who's fifteenth series. A new season, a new start, a new story. And Paddy Russell means business from the off, with a strange pink comet falling from the sky above a beautifully convincing model of a lighthouse. Actually, the shot of the model lighthouse on the rocks, its light blinking intermittently, looks marvellous, but is rather spoiled by the effect of the bright pink comet, which looks less convincing. We then get an idea that something is watching the lighthouse, perhaps something not of this world...

The setting is a lighthouse circa 1900, and one that has recently been converted from oil to electricity, a fact that causes some friction between the three-man crew. The small cast is a delightful bunch. We've got principal keeper Ben, second-in-command Reuben (a gruff, elderly man with some 30 years of experience under his straining belt!), and rookie Vince Hawkins, all played as a convincing "family" by Ralph Watson, Colin Douglas and the very sweet John Abbott. Ben and Vince are all for the new electric technology, whereas old Reuben prefers the traditional whale oil. It's great to have a bit of background as they discuss the pros and cons of each over supper. Writer Terrance Dicks obviously did his homework!

In Dicks' 1978 novelisation, Ben gets the surname of Travers, an irresistible fact leaped upon 37 years later by Andy Frankham-Allen in the 2015 novel Beast of Fang Rock, which saw Anne Travers (daughter of Professor Travers from The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear, and who appeared in the latter) discover that Ben was her father's uncle, and that his ghostly voice and gruesome post-mortem apparition haunted Fang Rock as late as the 1960s. I like that linking up of threads across the decades. Dicks had obviously placed that "Travers" in his 1978 book on purpose, and all those years later it became a fully-formed connection (the story was from an idea by Dicks).

The TARDIS materialises on the rocks outside the lighthouse, and the set looks magnificent. It looks so convincingly outdoors, thanks to Paddy Russell filming at Ealing, Paul Allen's wonderful set design and Bob Gell's lighting (the smoke effect overlay only adds to the perfection). These scenes are murky and dim, just as it would be if a sea fog had just rolled in, and the occasional shots of the lighthouse - especially the one from the very foot looking up - are wonderful. "You said I would like Brighton. Well I do not," states Leela. God I love this girl's honesty!

Even more convincing is the set for the lighthouse itself, which feels suitably claustrophobic and is dressed with so much care and detail (love the jar of Bovril on the dinner table; particularly appropriate as Bovril was, in part, named after a science-fiction novel). The use of Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) to depict the view from the lamp room is effective too (except when you see a still image of the sea, but that's not for long), with the swirling mist in the darkness adding lashings of atmosphere.

And then the electricity generator keeps failing. Now, I've got a "thing" for generators in basements failing, ever since I saw an edition of the ITV Schools programme Middle English in 1985 called Interference, which was about the manifestation of a ghostly crying woman on the telephone, and in the TV and radio, at a country cottage. And there was a generator in the basement which kept failing. It really, really spooked me as a nine-year-old, and ever since I've had a deep-seated fear of generators in basements. Don't mock me, just go with it...

It's not long before poor Ben is killed - electrocuted to death, it seems - by whatever it was landed in the sea, which has made its way across the rocks to the lighthouse basement. The creature's point of view as it murders Ben is very well done, utilised well again when it watches Leela from the rocks outside.

Of course, the Doctor and Leela arrive at the lighthouse just as things start to happen, which means old Reuben instantly suspects them. I had to smile when Vince asks if the Doctor had "found the trouble" with the failing generator, to which he replies: "Yes, I always find trouble." The reaction to Ben's death by both Vince and Reuben is touchingly played, as if it really matters and hurts, just as it would do. Too often characters die in Doctor Who just for the sake of it, for a cheap thrill, and nobody reacts in the way that they realistically would or should. Here, the sombreness pervades both Reuben and Vince's moods, with the elder making sure to take the young lad under his wing. Lovely little performances from Douglas and Abbott.

Tom Baker and Louise Jameson continue to display a sparky relationship on screen (still not much evidence of Tom's behind-the-scenes grumpiness), with Tom actually looking at his co-star several times (his acting style default is to not look at people when he talks to them, unless he's having a go at them). Their description of the TARDIS - "Small in some ways" ... "but big in others" - is delightful. Something else that strikes me is that this is Leela's fourth story, and in two of them she has been togged up in period clothing, which is surprising when you think Leela was introduced as "something for the dads". However, that would change... And this is also the second story in a row where the Doctor wears a period hat!

It's better when Leela changes into keeper's chunky sweater and boots (the second time a man has chosen "togs" for her in two stories!), and the scene where she begins to undress before poor Vince's eyes ("I'm no lady...") is very amusing.

There's a moment where Leela suggests that Ben's killer could be a sea creature, which is very imaginative of her, but the Doctor pooh-poohs this idea, claiming sea creatures don't open doors and would have left wet footprints. Well, what about the Sea Devils, Doctor? In some ways, I kind of wish this was a Sea Devil story, they'd fit right in.

I love the dynamic between "stubborn old mule" Reuben and the Doctor, the latter finding the gruff traditionalist somewhat amusing. Watch as the Doctor stifles a smile or a giggle as he listens to Reuben's superstitious theories about Ben's demise. The Doctor realises that Reuben will inevitably blame him and Leela for what's happened (because people always do), and you can see the Doctor humouring the old man throughout (catch the cheeky wink he gives Reuben in the lamp room). "Wireless won't bring Ben back, will it?" says Reuben. ".... No," replies the bemused Doctor. "I know what I know, and what I think," adds the old man, to which the Doctor mutters: "Incontrovertible."

As the episode draws to an eerie climax, Ben's body has gone missing ("It's Ben! He's walking!"), and a sailing ship lost in the dense fog crashes onto the craggy shore of Fang Rock. We hear screams from aboard ship as it smashes onto the rocks, lit by red flares from the lighthouse. It's a magnificently staged model shot, spoiled somewhat by the fact the ship has an impossibly clean and tidy deck, making it look that little too much like a model. But no matter, it still looks stunning!

First broadcast: September 3rd, 1977

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Paul Allen's sets for both Fang Rock and the lighthouse are stunningly realistic, almost like it's all done on location.
The Bad: Both the opening and closing model shots are marred slightly by the pink comet effect and the simplicity of the boat model, which is a shame.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 08

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/07/horror-of-fang-rock.html

Horror of Fang Rock is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Horror-Fang-Rock/dp/B0006FNXNK