Horror of Fang Rock Part Three

The one where Adelaide regrets not listening to Miss Nethercott...

I'm not sure whether Terrance Dicks intended Adelaide Lesage to be quite so annoying, or whether it's as a result of Annette Woollett's shrill interpretation, but either way that girl needs a slap to shut her up. She erupts into hysterics at the slightest hint of trouble, and someone needs to give her one of those bracing slaps across the face that all "delicate" Victorian ladies received from stiff-upper-lipped gentlemen in the old films. These days it's the other way around: men tend to get slapped by women, including our very own Doctor.

Adelaide regrets not listening properly to her astrologist, Miss Nethercott, who gives her a reading every month, and had last warned of tragedy in her stars. Adelaide now feels rather foolish for not listening to Miss Nethercott, and wishes they'd never left Deauville. And so the moral of the story is to listen to your astrologist!

Meanwhile, old Reuben appears to have been possessed by the creature, emerging from the coal hole like a sleepwalking zombie, and returning to his bunk room in order to stand stock still and glow green. As Terrance Dicks said in a now-famous interview, all the best monsters are green (or, as he put it, "gween"!). But the creature still likes to get out and about, and manages to leave Reuben's body in order to climb out of the window and scale the side of the lighthouse up to the lamp room balcony, where it rather satisfyingly bumps off that cad Lord Palmerdale (well, he was an utter git). Palmerdale had been busy trying to get sweet, innocent Vince to send a telegraph to London regarding his business affairs, and was willing to pay the lad up to £100. John Abbott is so lovely in this scene, the look of amazement on his face at the thought of earning so much money!

Somebody less pleased about Palmerdale's intent to use the telegraph is Skinsale, who doesn't want his "big secret" to be revealed, as it will ruin him. So he sets about wrecking the telegraph, so no messages can be sent - by anybody about anything. When the Doctor finds the contraption in bits, he solemnly states: "To protect your honour, you've put all our lives in danger."

Tom Baker continues to be utterly brilliant in this story. I feel like this is the last time he'll ever be this good again, knowing what frivolity is to come. He's mercurial but sombre, spontaneous but scheming, angry but brooding (he seems particularly crestfallen at the death of Harker). The Doctor is obviously deeply troubled by the menace they face, but still manages to find moments of randomness, such as when he points out to Leela that the criminal damage law covers lighthouses! I think Tom is just sensational in this story.

One of my favourite Tom moments is when he bellows angrily at Adelaide as she tries to climb to the lamp room. "GET BACK TO THE CREW ROOM!" he shouts, eyes aflame, and you can almost feel the tension dripping off the screen! And, as ever, there's Louise Jameson backing Tom 100% with her well-studied performance. It's in the way she places her arm to block Adelaide's path, the way she glances back at Harker when the Doctor's playing up, and of course her finest moment in the story - perhaps of her entire tenure - when she slaps Adelaide across the face! Just what was needed!

There's a lovely scene between Jameson and Rio Fanning as Harker:

HARKER: "There. That ought to do the trick, eh, miss?"
(Leela hefts a large hammer.)
LEELA: "Solid oak."
HARKER: "Hickory, more likely, miss."
LEELA: "Oh, Harker, I have a message from the Doctor. He said Reuben will not answer, so you must stay here and keep the boy pressure up."
HARKER: "Er, boiler pressure, miss?"
LEELA: "That is what I said."
HARKER: "Right you are, miss."

I love the way Jameson says "That is what I said" so sincerely, but with an undercurrent of defensiveness. But Leela and Harker make an amusing coupling, especially when they get increasingly exasperated at the Doctor's insistence on doing pointless mathematics!

Dicks is great at inserting character details quickly and easily, rounding out his characters while also progressing plot. The whole Miss Nethercott thing is a case in point, but even Leela's reaction to that (naming the astrologist as a shaman, and then pointing out that the Doctor has taught her that science is better than magic) adds to the characterisation. Skinsale stating that he gets uneasy in the company of Bonar Law (who, at this time, was only a Conservative MP in Glasgow, not Prime Minister) and Salisbury (Conservative PM at the time this story is probably set) is another case in point, as it paints a picture about the circles he moves in, and his political leanings (probably not right-wing).

Colin Douglas excels at spooky. He's aided enormously by Bob Gell's eerie lighting, but when Reuben opens his eyes to Harker and gives that childish grin, the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. The murderer that smiles just before the kill! And the little moments where he is caught standing in the gloom on the stairwell, just listening, brooding, assessing... Wonderful stuff.

The final scene is played and directed so expertly too. It comes with the news that the siren has stopped sounding, because the boiler pressure must have fallen. And there's only one person responsible for the boiler pressure. "Harker!" whispers the Doctor, surging from the room. But it's too late, isn't it? We already know what this all means. And sure enough they find poor Harker's body in the generator room, and the Doctor has a final, blood-curdling realisation. "Leela, I've made a terrible mistake. I thought I'd locked the enemy out. Instead, I've locked it in... with us!" The way Baker leaves a pause before "with us" is wonderful, milking the power in the dialogue for all it's worth.

There's no doubt about it, Horror of Fang Rock is the Doctor Who production team at the height of its powers. There's barely a single thing wrong with this serial.

First broadcast: September 17th, 1977

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Is it when the Doctor instructs Adelaide to GET BACK TO THE CREW ROOM, or is it when Leela slaps Adelaide across the face? I just cannot decide.
The Bad: The alien jellyfish shinning up the side of the lighthouse is a teensy bit silly.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★

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

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

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