The Hand of Fear Part Three

The one where the hand of fear becomes a woman of substance...

All this mention of the alien hand regenerating just makes you think about Time Lords, and wonder whether there's something Gallifreyan afoot (or ahand!). Of course, there isn't, but back in 1976, when viewers didn't know what to expect next, maybe some were expecting Eldrad to be a Time Lord, or even the Master in disguise!

As if he's read my review of episode 2, Watson decides to call in the military to take Eldrad out, and with just one emergency phone call, manages to convince Air Command to launch a nuclear strike on the complex. So that's the director of a nuclear power plant calling up the British Armed Forces and ordering a nuclear assault on a nuclear reactor with 10 minutes notice. I had no idea the people in charge of our power stations had such influence!

Of course, this is just another example of people not thinking straight in this story. We've already seen them store Eldrad's hand in a safe along with other irradiated items, despite it being an established fact that Eldrad feeds off radiation in order to grow and strengthen. And now Professor Watson has authorised a nuclear missile strike on Eldrad, without thinking that this might well be the surge in radioactive energy the alien needs to fully form. It's otherwise intelligent characters doing stupid things simply to move the story on. It would have been far better to have a blustering military figure order his own nuclear strike on Nunton against the Doctor and Watson's protestations, removing the burden of stupidity from Watson altogether.

The Doctor, Sarah and Watson get as far away from the power complex as they can in under 10 minutes, then jump out of the jeep and hide behind it in readiness for the nuclear explosion. Of course, there is no such thing - the Doctor describes it as an "unexplosion" - but the very idea of being able to shield yourself from a nuclear strike on a nuclear reactor core by peeping out from behind a Land Rover is preposterous. Mind you, writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin have form on this: remember when they had the nuclear reactor explode in The Claws of Axos, then everybody nipped back straight afterwards?

Professor Watson attempts to assassinate Eldrad with a revolver. The bullets bounce off her crystalline body, and she responds by wracking him with pain using a great little special effect. But the Doctor gets her to show her mercy by letting him live, and the last we see of Watson is him trying to compute everything he's witnessed, and wondering how he's going to explain it all to everybody else ("No one is going to believe me..."). Even Miss Jackson failed to see the sexy alien in the back of the car when the Doctor and Sarah were leaving. It's another lovely, human pause in the story delivered beautifully by Glyn Houston, showing that all this chaos and nonsense and outer space silliness has a very real effect and impact on everyday people left behind. This theme would be expanded on more in 21st century Doctor Who, but it's rare to have an example in Classic Who.

The emergence of a fully formed Eldrad from the remains of the nuclear core is splendidly shot by director Lennie Mayne, and Judith Paris looks magnificent in her figure-hugging crystalline costume. I presume Eldrad has taken an unexpectedly female form because she has tried to emulate the appearance of the people of Earth, and her first contact with them was Sarah Jane Smith. Everybody's been expecting a male Eldrad all along (there have been references to "he"), but as soon as lady Eldrad emerges, nobody questions it.

Sarah is rattled by Eldrad's appearance though, showing clear fear and dislike throughout the episode. Even after Eldrad info-dumps her back-story and joins our heroes in the TARDIS, Sarah remains distrustful and mildly antagonistic toward the alien. Perhaps it's because Eldrad is a strange alien reflection of herself, perhaps it's because of the things Eldrad's hand made her do under the influence, but either way, it's refreshing that the companion resolutely refuses to go along with the Doctor.

Judith Paris's performance as Eldrad is excellent, making the Kastrian renegade everything a three-dimensional character should be: she is vengeful but merciful, she is vulnerable but distrustful, all because of what she sees as her betrayal by the aliens who invaded her world.

Eldrad's back-story is actually quite affecting. Eldrad was a scientist who devised spatial barriers to protect the planet Kastria from the ravages of solar winds, and then invented machines to replenish the earth and atmosphere. Eldrad also came up with new crystalline silicon forms for the Kastrians to survive (echoing the way Davros came up with the Mark III Travel Machines on Skaro). "I bought Kastria to life!" says Eldrad. But then we learn that unidentified aliens invaded Kastria, destroyed the barriers and exposed it once more to the destructive solar winds. The aliens subjugated the Kastrian leaders, and Eldrad was discredited and sentenced to obliteration.

All this makes Eldrad out to be the wronged hero of her homeworld, a renegade scientist like the Doctor. Maybe that's why the Doctor feels more sorry for Eldrad than Sarah does, although it helps that Judith Paris delivers all this so convincingly. The Doctor agrees to take Eldrad back to Kastria, but in the present day, not the past from whence she came (150 million years ago).

Eldrad is unable to harm the Doctor and Sarah while inside the TARDIS due to its state of "temporal grace". "We don't exist while we're in here, so you can't hurt us," explains the Doctor, opening a whole of can of worms which echoes down the decades. If temporal grace is supposedly a "state", how can it be something that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, as if it's switch-on-and-offable? Temporal grace works wonders when it needs to, but then there the times when it doesn't work because the writers need it not to: The Invasion of Time, The Visitation, Earthshock, Attack of the Cybermen, The Parting of the Ways and Let's Kill Hitler all have examples of temporal grace failing. In that last episode, the Doctor describes temporal grace as "a clever lie".

Eldrad helps the Doctor steer the TARDIS to Kastria, after inputting the expansion factor of 7438OOOWHI12127272911E8EX4111309115 (I bet that wasn't the same on multiple takes!). Back in the Kastrian dome, where the story started, Eldrad opens the entrance to the thermal chambers beneath ground, but is apparently hit in the chest by a big rod... or something... and then it ends. The cliffhanger is a confusing one because you don't see exactly what's happened, so you're left more puzzled than shocked. Let's hope things become clearer next week...

First broadcast: October 16th, 1976

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Judith Paris looks stunning as Eldrad, and gives a powerful, rounded performance.
The Bad: Anything to do with the word "nuclear".
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 05

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: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-hand-of-fear.html

The Hand of Fear is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Hand-Fear-DVD/dp/B000FPV8KG