Revisiting Old Doctor Who: The Horror of Fang Rock

[Broomstick]

The Horror of Fang Rock
(We finally get to see a Rutan, eternal enemy of the Sontarans)

I have no idea how Netflix chooses which Doctor Who episodes to make available for on-demand viewing from the classic series. It seems to be one story from, roughly, each year but how do they go about choosing? Not a clue.

Anyhow, “The Horror of Fang Rock” is from the Fourth Doctor era, with Leela as companion. Sorry, boys, Leela is not in her fur bikini but attired so as not to offend the tender sensibilities of the 1900's (well, not always in a dress, but at least covered up).

The basic plot is that a Rutan crashes to Earth, comes ashore at a remote lighthouse with a crew of three, later added to by the Doctor and his companion then four shipwreck survivors. The Rutan eliminates them one by one while largely keeping out of sight while attempting to fulfill other aspects of its scouting mission. The effects are tolerable BBC-cheapos from the late 1970's, from the lights-in-the-sky spaceships to the very gloopy looking Rutan. The writing is actually pretty decent, as is the pacing.

The main stand out reason for this episode being remembered is that it is the only time (so far) we have seen a Rutan on TV. Meanwhile, it's a solid story regarding the slow elimination of a group in an isolated situation – sort of like Ten Little Indians. Regrettably, only the Doctor and Leela survive, although when Adelaide is, finally, shut up for good I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. My opinion regarding her pretty much matches Leela's.

It would actually be a good story to introduce the Doctor to a new audience because it, like the lighthouse, exists largely in isolation. One need not know the backstory or greater fabric of Doctor Who to understand what's occurring action and plotwise though, of course, knowledge of those elements add to the story. Neither the Doctor nor Leela are acting particularly odd (just a little in the context of where/when they are) so the characters will be accessible to the new viewer. While it's not in my top ten it's definitely on my “like” list and I'd recommend any fan watch it, particularly if they are Tom Baker fans.

[Hillary]

I really loved this story - the contrast between Leela and Adelaide really highlights what she brings to the show. This is not a helpless screaming girly, but an action figure - brave, resourceful and intelligent, despite her lack of education. It was the first time that a female companion was portrayed like this on Who, as far as I can recall (if you don't count Sara Kingdom, which I don't).

The story was a good one - the initial setting with the three lighthouse men (the old superstitious one, the practical one and the young boy - the light in the sky - the new electrical generator - the death of the man using it), the wrecked ship arriving to add something to the second half of the story (with its slowly-revealed internal drama of blackmail, insider trading, love affair with the secretary and the anger of the captain who had wrecked his boat and lost his men) and the final escalation of the Ruton mother ship arriving - the characters all added something to the story.

This was the beginning of the end for one of the real golden eras of the show - this being the first story post-Philip Hinchcliffe.

Happy 80th birthday to Tom Baker, by the way.

[mr friendly guy]

One of my favourite Tom Baker stories along with ... well a lot of them. I am tempted to break out my DVDs to watch again, but I am currently glued to other shows at the moment.

It was a good stand alone Who story, with the horror aspect of an unknown foe stalking and killing the occupants of the lighthouse. Also as with Classical Who there are other subplots going on in the background to flesh out the characters. For example the other occupants in the lighthouse had their own conflict going on.

Adelaide I thought made a good contrast to Leela. Despite being from a technologically more advance culture than Leela's (yes I know Leela's ancestors are advanced, but they kind of reverted to primitism) Adelaide is shown to be superstitious, mentioning how her star signs said going on the trip was a bad omen. Contrast to Leela explaining how science explains things better to her. Also Adelaide whines a lot, the polar opposite to Leela. Although from memory I felt the actress playing Adelaide was stunning.

On lastly on tech notes, not that we are that interested in vs debates these days. But the Doctor modified a light house to take out an alien ship. Albeit one that had switched its shields off to conserve power and was weaken with reentry. But good god, can you imagine letting someone with the Doctor's knowledge loose on our level of technology just modifying it.