Doctor Who - The Hand Of Fear (1976)
Where do I begin, or end (?) with such a fab adventure?! Eldrad must live? Millions of years ago, a space ship from the planet Kastria, containing a war criminal, is destroyed in space after being exiled by his own people. Not one particle of Eldrad must live! Obviously, Centuries later, The Doctor & Sarah land on Earth, where Eldrad conveniently crashed, arrive. Sarah is buried in a quarry (yes, I know) explosion where she gets to shake a stone hand that just happens to belong to our alien war criminal & is possessed. Naturally.
With Eldrads ring stuck on her finger she zaps all & sundry until she makes into the core of a nuclear station. The Doctor helps her, but must get Eldrad back to his his/her/its world in order for Eldrad to stop smashing Nuclear power stations! Only to discover the entire Kastrian race have committed mass suicide in fear that Eldrad will be back! (just a tad drastic, doncha' think? Seriously?!). Was King Eldrad, now, "King of nothing", that bad-ass that the whole planet commits mass suicide in case he returns, millions of years later?!.
The Kastrians are a powerful race of stone beings, so powerful that no weapon on Earth would've stopped Eldrad had it not been for The Doc's intervention, charitable as it is! One problem, a slip of the tongue by Sarah makes Eldrad want to conquer Earth as a god! With Eldrad defeated, by our hero's scarf, gee-whizz, so powerful..... We've got our ending?
Now, Eldrad must live! Seriously, am I the only one who can't stop quoting that?! We have beyond ourselves fab 70's era Who. We've got a brilliant plot with Sarah -Jane, possessed & constantly quoting that line & zapping everyone bar The Doctor with the ring (no Gollum, not that one!). After millions of years dormant, Eldrad adopts the first form it encounters, Sarah's..
Eldrad has a sex change/regeneration (sounds familiar), once returned to his/her form? And does that crawling, stone hand only spook myself?! The Doctor agrees to help Eldrad, but it must be at the present of her/his planet which is now a wasteland. Sarah slips her tongue thus implanting the idea to Eldrad that she/he.can be a god of Earth! Whoops!
The female Eldrad reminds me of the Borg Queen, the male version has a Brian Blessed complex. I LOVE the model effects of the spaceship at the beginning as of the desolate planet of Kastria. Sarah's possession by Eldrad reminds me of aspects of Star Trek TOS episode "The Lights Of Zetar". This is a genuine gem. We get Professor Watkins calling his family expecting to die in his power plant. But, I think we all know the true reason of this blog. Sarah-Jane Smith.
This is Sarah's swan song, at least until 1981 & beyond. Who cannot get choked up by Sarah's departure? The final scenes were written by Elisabeth Sladen & Tom Baker & it delivers! Sarah has an interesting wardrobe, beyond her beautiful, unique fashion sense (Andy Pandy?), what's with women & cuddly toys anyway?
Back to that ending. The Doctor receives a sudden message from the Time-lords & Sarah is not invited (despots!). The Doctor lands her back in Croydon,...or not. Sarah realising this (after he drops her off & disappears), speaks to a cute Dog of the fact (interesting premonition of K9!).
Sarah-Jane Smith is arguably the most iconic Dr Who assistant to date, so much so that she was voted number one assistant in a DWM poll. She's even got two spin-offs to her name. One in New Years of 1981-K9 & Co, which frustrating for this Whovian, wasn't up to the grade for further episodes. & years later, another that was cut tragically short. On a lighter note, if you've not seen this fab adventure, do so, just get a box of hankies on standby. This is truly a gem to enjoy, you won't forget it (?)
Borgduck alias Stewart.
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