Visit the official Doctor Who website

Visit the official Doctor Who website
Look to the future

Asylum seekers...

Asylum seekers...
Refuge of the Daleks

Doctor Who picture resource

Doctor Who picture resource
Roam the space lanes!

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website
Step back in time

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood
Armed and extremely dangerous

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures
Fearless in the face of adversity

Call on Dani’s House

Call on Dani’s House
Harmer’s a charmer

Intercept the UFO fabsite

Intercept the UFO fabsite
Defending the Earth against alien invaders!

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse
Programmable agent Echo exposed!

Hell’s belles

Hell’s belles
Naughty but nice

Love Exposure

Love Exposure
Flash photography!

Primeval portal

Primeval portal
Dressed to kill or damsels in distress?

Charmed, to be sure!

Charmed, to be sure!
The witches of San Francisco

Take on t.A.T.u.

Take on t.A.T.u.
All the way from Moscow

Proceed to the Luther website

Proceed to the Luther website
John and Jenny discuss their next move

DCI Banks is on the case

DCI Banks is on the case
You can bet on it!

On The Grid with Spooks

On The Grid with Spooks
Secret agents of Section D

Bridge to Hustle

Bridge to Hustle
Shady characters

Life on Ashes To Ashes

Life on Ashes To Ashes
Coppers with a chequered past

Claire’s no Exile

Claire’s no Exile
Goose steps

Vexed is back on the beat!

Vexed is back on the beat!
Mismatched DI Armstrong and bright fast-tracker Georgina Dixon

Medium, both super and natural

Medium, both super and natural
Open the door to your dreams

Who’s that girl? (350-picture Slideshow)

Friday 6 May 2011

Lis Lives!


At the beginning of next week, BBC Four are repeating a classic “Doctor Who” serial in memory of Elisabeth Sladen, aka investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith. Despite already owning the story, I welcome and encourage the repeat of any “Doctor Who”, especially those adventures in time and space originally broadcast between the years of 1963 and 1989, so I will of course be tuning in, as indeed should everyone with an interest in the series. There’s still something magical about watching a show on transmission, however handy and useful the various means of catch-up can be. It’s an odd custom, though, to delay until after someone’s passing the celebrations of the achievements of their life. The four episodes in question comprise Elisabeth’s last regular appearances on the show alongside the ever-irrepressible Tom Baker as the Doctor. Tremble in terror at “The Hand of Fear”!

In Part One, airing on Monday 9th May at 19:40, Sarah Jane finds a fossilised hand and places a ring from it on her finger. She is knocked unconscious by an explosion and taken to hospital.

In Part Two, also airing on Monday 9th May - immediately after the first instalment - at 20:05, the fossilised hand is now in the possession of a technician called Driscoll at Nunton power station. He places it in the reactor core, causing disaster.

In Part Three, airing on Tuesday 10th May again at 19:40, the hand has regenerated into a Kastrian called Eldrad who has modelled his form on Sarah Jane. (I bet that’s only because he likes wearing women’s underwear!) He persuades the Doctor to take him back to Kastria.

In Part Four, also airing on Tuesday 10th May - again immediately after the previous instalment - at 20:05, Eldrad reconfigures his body to its final, male form. Furious with finding his world dead, he states he will return to Earth to rule it.

The script is by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who together later created K-9 for “Doctor Who”, while Bob went on to write none other than “Wallace and Gromit”!

5 comments:

Steve said...

This is a nice memorial and a good opportunity for newer fans to tap into the long history of Who.

Old Cheeser said...

Grrrr! I spent ages writing a comment and then it vanished....Okay, here goes again....!

I have "Hand of Fear" on DVD like you, Tim. It's a very watchable story with a sightly odd structure and a decent swansong for Lis Sladen. The departure scene in the TARDIS control room is so well acted by Baker and Sladen, naturalistic and moving (apparently they improvised some of the lines). Sarah's "hissy fit" and threat to "pack her goodies and go" makes for very entertaining viewing and is then rendered ironic/sad when the Dr announces that she really DOES have to go, as he has been summoned back to Gallifrey.

Another winning aspect of the story is that it gave Lis Sladen a chance to play Sarah in a radically different way i.e. when she is taken over by the spirt of the alien Eldrad. A shame Lis S didn't get the opportunity to do this more as she plays "evil" Sarah very effectively - her sly facial expressions and mutterings of "Eldrad Must Live!" stick in the mind. I have distinct childhood memories of the scenes in the nuclear power station where Sarah stalks around zapping people with her hand. Creepy!

The character of Eldrad was an interesting one too, an alien who is not purely "evil" bur painted in various shades of grey. However Judith Paris' realisation of the character is far more effective than Stephen Thorne's hammy performance of the final episode (his portrayal of Omega in "The Three Doctors" is similarly OTT).

Other cast members such as Rex Robinson and Glyn Houston also put in effective performances here.

May tune in and watch it myself!!

TimeWarden said...

"The Hand of Fear" is certainly an ambitious story not resting in any one place for any length of time which, considering the very low budget, showed nerves of steel on the part of the writers!

However, I'm not the greatest fan of Bob Baker and Dave Martin. I might only have been twelve when their first story aired but I felt that, with "The Claws of Axos", the standard of writing declined considerably from the half dozen Pertwee's that preceded it! How do you top "The Mind of Evil"?

Old Cheeser said...

Tim, I kind of know what you mean about Baker and Martin...when I was a kid I loved "The Invisible Enemy" but it's not quite the same when viewed as an adult. They're not the most top notch of Who writers.

I've just rewatched "Hand" on DVD over the last couple of days as a tribute to the lovely Lis! (Didn't get time to see the BB4C broadcast). I actually really enjoyed it, the story may have floundered a bit in places but some of the acting was top notch and the direction is excellent at times too. Eldrad "tripping" over the Dr's scarf into the abyss isn't, however! (Watch how Stephen Thorne stops and pauses on the precipice then deliberately throws himself in).

I agree about "The Mind of Evil" - a class story! When are they going to bring that one out on DVD? Answer: probably not for a while due to the fact some episodes don't exist in colour any more...

Btw I think you wrote a reply before and it vanished as I seem to remember you saying something about my photo with Lis! Blogger playing up?

Hope you are well!

TimeWarden said...

Blogger has indeed been playing up, Simon, (when doesn't it?!!) but the comment you're thinking of is on my previous Sarah Jane post. My earlier reply on this post vanished and I didn't notice straightaway... good job I kept a copy!

Lennie Mayne's directing of "The Hand of Fear" isn't bad. There's a nice low camera angle of one character running in the quarry.

Tom Baker's diction is superlative. There's an enormous number of actors could learn from him!

You're right... the scarf is a silly way to dispose of such a supposedly formidable foe. I cringed again!

You might like to know Lis has another crack at being evil in "The Sarah Jane Adventures" story "Prisoner of the Judoon"!

"The Mind of Evil" is my favourite Pertwee and I've got the VHS but I'd rather a DVD... you know how variable tape quality is!

Hope you're in the best of health, too, and not working too hard... I know that teaching can be pretty stressful!