DOCTOR WHO:  THE HAND OF FEAR

commentary by Judy Harris

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13:  THE HAND OF FEAR (4 parts)
ORIGINALLY AIRED:  10/2/76 to 10/23/76
WRITTEN BY:  Bob Baker and Dave Martin
DIRECTED BY:  Lennie Mayne
PRODUCER:  Philip Hinchcliffe	
SCRIPT EDITOR:  Robert Holmes
	

On Kastria, Eldrad the Traitor, Destroyer of the Barriers, is sentenced to obliteration. The obliteration module is on target but has to be triggered ahead of schedule, because surface operations will shortly no longer be possible. Computations indicate there is still a one in three million chance of particle survival.

On Earth, the TARDIS lands in a quarry just as workmen are about to set off an explosion. Sarah suspects the location isn't South Croydon, her home. The Doctor ignores the warning siren and practices a cricket pitch, using rocks. Sarah realizes the explosives are about to be detonated and she and the Doctor start to run.

The explosion goes off; the Doctor is OK, but Sarah is trapped under tons of rock. She revives and reaches out, encountering a stone hand with a ring, which causes her to scream. This alerts the Doctor and the quarry workmen to her location. An ambulance takes her to the hospital, still clutching the stone hand.

At the hospital, the Doctor asks such penetrating questions about Sarah, the intern there thinks he's a physician. "Where did you qualify?" he asks. "A place called Gallifrey," the Doctor replies. "I've not heard of it," the intern says, "Perhaps it's in Ireland." "Probably," the Doctor responds. Sarah is in shock; her left hand and forearm show considerable muscular contraction.

The Doctor goes to see Dr. Carter in the Path lab, where the fossilized hand has been sent. Under a microscope the molecular infrastructure of the hand is a crystalline lattice. The Doctor notes it's silicon based.

Sarah revives, clutching the ring from the stone hand, and gets dressed in pink overalls which tie at the ankles.

The Doctor gets Dr. Carter an electron microscope from the Virology lab. The hand was embedded in a stratum of blackstone dolomite (Jurassic limestone), making it 150 million years old. The Doctor returns to the quarry, looking for plastic, ceramic or metal from a spaceship that would explain the presence of the hand, but doesn't find anything.

Sarah goes to Pathology and puts the hand in what looks like Tupperware. When Carter sees her, Sarah intones, "Eldrad must live" and aims the ring at him; a ray shoots out, which knocks him unconscious.

Dr. Carter revives an hour later and notifies security to locate Sarah. The Doctor returns to find Sarah's hospital room empty.

The microscope shows by fracture lines the hand had been in an explosion; also the structure of the hand has changed since it's been in the Path lab. The Doctor feels the sample on the slide has been absorbing radiation from the electron microscope, regenerating itself.

When the Doctor hears Sarah has stolen the hand and knocked out Carter, he asks where the nearest nuclear reactor is. It's Nunton Complex (played by Oldbury nuclear power station, near Bristol); Sarah is headed there. She uses the ring to get past the guard at the front gate.

The Doctor and Carter arrive by car and set off the security alarm. Sarah penetrates the complex and zaps a worker with Eldrad's ring. She enters the outer chamber of the reactor core, which sets off another alarm. The fossilized hand becomes supple, grows back a missing finger and starts to move about on its own.

In the control center, Professor Watson, the Director, thinks Sarah may be a terrorist. He begins shutdown procedures and evacuation of the complex and surrounding area.

On the silent command of the hand, Sarah locks herself in, as the Doctor and Carter arrive. The Doctor punches up the floorplans of the building to figure out a way to get to Sarah.

The Doctor talks to Sarah on an intercom, but all he can get out of her is: "Eldrad must live." He rushes off to get to her through a cooling duct, although the temperature in there is over 200 degrees centigrade. "You'll roast, man," Professor Watson warns. "Not if I'm quick," the Doctor promises. Under Eldrad's influence due to his being zapped by the ring, Carter follows.

Sarah disables the camera so the control room can't see her. The reactor is near critical.

Enroute to the cooling duct, Carter grabs a spanner and tries to brain the Doctor, shouting, "Eldrad must live;" but falls to his death off a staircase.

Professor Watson phones home to say a poignant goodbye to his family, but can't bring himself to tell them anything's wrong.

The Doctor arrives in the outer chamber of the reactor core through the cooling system, but before Sarah can zap him, he recites: "Eldrad must live." He knocks her out and she drops the ring.

The Doctor takes Sarah to the decontamination chamber; the crisis is temporarily over. She shows no signs of radioactivity and doesn't remember a thing. Eldrad absorbed all the radiation and is using it to regenerate.

Professor Watson sends Driscoll to retrieve the hand, which is "walking" around. Driscoll also picks up the ring, which takes him over. He locks the hand in a safe in the decontamination room.

The Doctor hypnotizes Sarah, just by touching her temples, to find out about Eldrad and erase his power over her.

Eldrad's hand knocks to be let out of the decontamination safe. Driscoll removes the hand and takes it back to the outer chamber of the reactor core. Even though the core's shut down, the hand could still set up a chain reaction.

Driscoll opens the reactor door, exposing the core, and enters, blowing out all the equipment in the control room and vaporizing himself. An "unexplosion" occurred; "Fusion took place but instead of the explosion going outwards, it went inwards," the Doctor explains, "Instead of energy being created from matter, matter is being created from energy; Eldrad is rebuilding himself."

Professor Watson calls for a tactical nuclear strike, which will level the nuclear complex with stand-off missiles. They have 10 minutes to get out of there. This doesn't make much sense; blowing up a nuclear complex with nuclear missiles would seem to double the problems, not end them.

They drive some distance away and everyone except the Doctor crouches down behind the truck. Professor Watson tells Sarah to hold her nose and open her mouth, so the blast doesn't perforate her eardrums. The missiles are dropped but nothing happens. Eldrad has neutralized them. The Doctor recommends trying much older weapons: speech, diplomacy, conversation.

We get our first look at Eldrad, a female in a wonderful skin tight bluish-black costume, with bits of shimmery rocks on it and on her forehead and cheeks. The stiff, jerky body movement by Judith Paris may be attributable to the tightness of the costume; she had to be sewn into it and couldn't even sit down. Her strange, asexual, alien voice was electronically created via a Vocorder. Eldrad is one of the best "man-in-a-suit" monsters on the show, and much credit for the character's effectiveness must be given to Judith Paris.

Eldrad recoils when she sees herself reflected in the wall of the reactor chamber, wondering: "Can this be the form of the creatures who have found me?"

The Doctor heads back to the complex to face Eldrad, telling Sarah to stay behind, but she follows him. "I worry about you," she explains. The Doctor also confesses, "I worry about you." Sarah replies, "So be careful." The Doctor agrees, "We'll both be careful."

Eldrad senses the Doctor is not from Earth, and asks why the Doctor tried to destroy her. The Doctor shifts his weight nervously and crosses both his hearts, saying, "We're the ones who saved you." Eldrad doesn't believe him; her eyes disappear, turning into glowing blue holes (similar to the glowing red holes of Antiman in PLANET OF EVIL); she probes his mind painfully and discovers he speaks the truth.

Eldrad tells the Doctor and Sarah she was betrayed and wants to return to Kastria to avenge herself. The Doctor tells Eldrad she's been dormant on Earth 150 million years. Eldrad probes his mind again, discovering he's a Time Lord. The Doctor keels over from this treatment.

Eldrad asks for the Doctor's help: "As a Time Lord you are pledged to uphold the laws of time and prevent alien aggression." The Doctor counters, "Only when such aggression is deemed to threaten the indigenous population--I think that's how it goes."

Eldrad tells the Doctor and Sarah she built the spatial barriers to keep out the solar winds and devised a crystalline silicon form for Kastria's physical needs, but the barriers were destroyed in a war with aliens, and she was discredited and sentenced to obliteration.

So often does Eldrad rant about obliteration and so resonant is her modulated voice, that whenever anyone else mentions the word "obliterate" or "obliteration" in future DOCTOR WHO stories, it's impossible not to think of Eldrad.

The Doctor refuses to take Eldrad back through time because it "would contravene the First Law of Time, a distortion of history; I can't do that." But he agrees to return Eldrad in the present.

This First Law of Time is somewhat akin to STAR TREK's Federation Prime Directive about interfering with the development of indigenous lifeforms, which was only invoked when it was invariably breached. Of course, every time the Doctor helps anyone, he's interfering with history; and, as we find out in the very next story, the Time Lords don't believe in interfering at all, even to "uphold the laws of time and prevent alien aggression" unless their own selfish interests are at stake, which is one of the reasons the Doctor left Gallifrey in the first place.

Professor Watson, who has been eavesdropping on the intercom, shows up with a gun. He shoots Eldrad but the bullets ricochet off her. Eldrad chases him back to the control room and almost kills him with an extra strong dosage of her mind probe, but the Doctor intercedes and Professor Watson recovers.

Using Watson's car, the Doctor takes Sarah and Eldrad to the quarry, where the TARDIS awaits amid no sign of the rubble of the explosion which started all this.

In the TARDIS, Eldrad tries the mind probe again, but to no effect. "Your weapons won't work in here; we're in a state of temporal grace; we're multidimensional," the Doctor explains, "In a sense, you see, we don't exist while we're here, so you can't hurt us and we can't hurt you."

Like the isomorphic controls mentioned in PYRAMIDS OF MARS, this temporal grace is a one-time ability of the TARDIS, which never again appears. A Peter Davison story, ARC OF INFINITY, actually mentions it in passing, blaming its absence on the TARDIS' general state of disrepair. It's a pity because it's one more piece of TARDIS/Time Lord lore, which seems pleasingly right and internally consistent.

Sarah asks why the Doctor is helping Eldrad. The Doctor explains he's really helping Earth; he can't allow Eldrad to go on smashing nuclear power stations.

The Doctor asks Eldrad for coordinates. Eldrad asks for the expansion factor. The Doctor tells her to "punch up 7438000WHI12127272911E8EX4111309115 and then see what happens." The TARDIS dematerializes.

John Nathan Turner once complained a predecessor of his on the show allowed the phone number of the BBC DOCTOR WHO offices to be mentioned in one of the shows, and here it is: Whitehall 1-2-1-2!  Also the number of Scotland Yard and Tom Baker's old phone numbers, according to the DVD of HAND OF FEAR (2006).

The Doctor asks Eldrad to check the coordinates because, if they've been misset, "Symbolic resonance will occur in the trachoid time crystal, and if that happens, there'll be no chance of us landing anywhere, ever, ever, ever."

They land on Kastria; it is a cold, barren place with raging winds and rugged rock formations, totally devastated by the solar winds, but the atmosphere is surprisingly "near enough Earth normal."

The Doctor lends his coat to Sarah to protect her from the cold until they get into the only remaining building. With her crystal ring, Eldrad gets the power going (after 150 million years!), explaining the energy is drawn from the core of the planet.

They head for an elevator to get to the thermal chambers deep below, but the elevator door is boobytrapped. When Eldrad opens it, she is struck by an arrow containing an acid designed to neutralize her molecular bond. She developed the acid herself and knows there is no antidote, but if the Doctor can get her to the regeneration chamber on level 306 quickly, before her crystal matrix is shattered, she might survive.

The Doctor works out the levels from the elevator indicator, telling Sarah, "It's all based on roots of three." On level 306, Sarah triggers another booby trap, but is unharmed by the gas because the traps are effective only against silicon-based life forms.

Sarah asks where all the bodies of the dead Kastrians are. The Doctor tells her, "If you're made of stone, you crumble to sand; we're walking on them."

Sarah wonders why boobytraps were set for silicon-based life forms; the aliens who invaded Kastria must have been silicon also. "Yes," the Doctor concurs, "Yes, they're very rare, and it's something of a coincidence there are two of them in the same galaxy."

Sarah falls and dangles over an abyss, with the Doctor holding her up with one hand, while he supports the dying Eldrad with the other. He rescues Sarah and carries Eldrad over a narrow bridge, while Sarah crawls after them.

Suspecting more traps, the Doctor prevents Eldrad from opening the door of the regeneration chamber with her ring. He removes the ring and opens the door, then takes from his pocket a telescoping magician's stick to spring the trap.

The Doctor carries Eldrad into the room and he and Sarah position her on a large slab. The Doctor realizes the crystal in her ring carries Eldrad's genetic code, "the master print that enables her to reconstitute herself from any suitable radioactive material."

Eldrad's body starts to shatter, in a very nice optical accompanied by believable sound effects. The Doctor hurries to try to figure out how to work the regeneration equipment: "We'll just have to use maximum irradiation and hope."

A heavy slab comes down from the ceiling and covers Eldrad; Sarah and the Doctor think she has been destroyed. However, the regeneration worked and Eldrad now appears in his true, masculine form. Played now by Stephen Thorne, in a costume studded with even more shimmery rocks, including a beard made out of pebbles, the costume is obviously lightweight and not as effective as the one previously worn by Judith Paris, although Stephen Thorne is also excellent as the even more arrogant and megalomaniac Eldrad.

Eldrad explains his previous form was one he thought would be acceptable to the primitives on Earth, so he modeled himself on Sarah.

A communication device comes to life; it is Rokon, who was King of Kastria 150 million years ago. He now calls Eldrad a traitor. Eldrad is so incensed to hear his old enemy, he lets slip it was he who destroyed the barriers. The Doctor realizes Eldrad's story of alien invaders was a lie.

The Doctor learns Eldrad has grandiose plans of conquest. Eldrad strides off to see Rokon, but the Kastrian King crumbles to dust. The communication was a recording, triggered when the regeneration equipment was activated; all the Kastrians are dead.

Eldrad intends to reconstitute the Kastrians stored in a racebank and serve as their king, but another recording tells him the race bank was destroyed in the remote possibility Eldrad would return to wage eternal war throughout the galaxy.

Eldrad demands the Doctor return him to Earth, so he can rule there. The Doctor demurs: "Oh no, that's not in the contract; a one way ticket only. My obligation to you is over; you're in your own world now."

Eldrad demands his ring back; it is his key to eternity. The Doctor tosses it in the race bank room, as he and Sarah dash off, but what he really tossed was his magician's stick. Eldrad follows them, as Sarah and the Doctor draw the Doctor's scarf in front of the narrow bridge over the abyss. They trip Eldrad and he falls over. The Doctor puns, "Well, the gravity of the law finally caught up with him." The Doctor tosses the ring after him.

The Doctor and Sarah return to the TARDIS and leave Kastria. The TARDIS acts up a bit and the Doctor says, "Easy, old girl, easy; these temperatures must have affected her thermocouplings."

Sarah replies she knows how the TARDIS feels. She is still wearing the Doctor's coat and trying to warm up from frigid, inhospitable Kastria. The Doctor tells Sarah he's been to much colder places.

The Doctor becomes preoccupied with fixing the TARDIS; he rests on his back on the floor with his head beneath the control panel, much as a mechanic fixing a car.

The Doctor asks Sarah for the astrorectifier, multiquadgascope, mergen nut, and Ganymede driver, all of which Sarah fishes out of his coat pocket.

She's feeling sorry for herself: "I must be mad. I'm sick of being cold and wet and hypnotized left, right and center. I'm sick of being shot at, savaged by bug-eyed monsters, never knowing if I'm coming or going or been."

The Doctor interrupts to ask for a Zeus plug.

Sarah continues: "Oh, I want a bath; I want my hair washed; I just want to feel human again."

The Doctor pokes his head out: "Forget the Zeus plug; I'll have the sonic screwdriver."

Sarah hands it over, fuming: "And, boy, am I sick of that sonic screwdriver. I'm going to pack my goodies and I'm going home."

There is no reaction from the Doctor, totally absorbed in his mechanical work out of sight under the TARDIS control panel.

Sarah repeats herself and then stalks off. The Doctor finally surfaces, totally unaware of her previous monologue. "What was that?" he asks, thinking she was complaining about the trouble with the TARDIS. "I don't know why she goes on like this; there's really nothing the matter at all."

Suddenly the Doctor gets a telepathic signal from Gallifrey. He realizes he can't take Sarah there, so he must get her back home. He sets the coordinates for South Croydon.

Sarah returns with all of her belongings, including a stuffed toy owl, a tennis racket, a flower pot, and a suitcase. She slams the door and clears her throat, but the Doctor is not facing her, so doesn't realize she's packed and ready to leave.

"You're a good girl, Sarah," he says.

Sarah's still mad: "Oh, look, It's too late apologizing now; everything's packed; I've got to go."

The Doctor turns, surprised: "What? How did you know?" He tells her, "I've had the call from Gallifrey. I can't take you with me; you've got to go."

Sarah, her bluff called, now doesn't want to leave: "Oh, come on! I can't miss Gallifrey. Look, I was only joking; I didn't mean it. Hey, you're not going to regenerate again, are you?"

The Doctor says, "I don't know what's going to happen."

Sarah asks, wistfully: "You're playing one of your jokes on me, just trying to make me stay."

The Doctor says, "No, I received a call, and as a Time Lord, I must obey."

Sarah asks, "Alone?" The Doctor replies, "Yes."

The TARDIS lands, but Sarah doesn't notice. She tries to postpone the actual parting: "And I'll give your love to Harry and the Brigadier. Oh, and I can tell Professor Watson that you're alright and..."

The Doctor interrupts gently: "We've landed, Sarah. South Croydon. Hillview Road, to be exact."

Sarah smiles faintly: "That's my home. Well, I'll be off then." She gives him back his coat and picks up her things.

Throughout most of the previous exchange, the Doctor has faced away from Sarah. It's just as hard for him to say goodbye as it is for her. Now he turns around.

Sarah says: "Don't forget me."

The Doctor replies, "Oh, Sarah! Don't you forget me."

Sarah gives a solemn shake of her head and manages a brave smile: "Bye, Doctor. You know, travel does broaden the mind."

The Doctor agrees: "Yes. Till we meet again, Sarah."

Sarah nods and exits. The TARDIS dematerializes and Sarah realizes she's not on Hillview Road and probably isn't even in South Croydon. She remarks to a puzzled dog, reclining on the sidewalk: "He blew it!" and sets off down the road whistling.

The ending is a freeze frame of her looking up, the first time the series has done this particular effect. This is simply a terrifically written and performed scene, full of emotion, but all in the subtext. It is certainly the best exit any companion has had in the series. In the past they have been most frequently married off; two were actually killed.

Unlike American show business, where performers threaten to quit as a negotiating ploy to get a bigger salary or other benefits, British performers behave in a civilized manner. In the case of DOCTOR WHO, when they decide to leave, they frequently give the producers as much as a year's notice. Therefore, it is possible to prepare scripts in advance that incorporate these departures, without disrupting the tone of the show.

Before Lis left the show, she and Tom recorded DOCTOR WHO AND THE PESCATONS, written by Victor Pemberton. This is a lurid tale of the invasion of present day Earth by creatures from the dying planet Pesca, who are half man, half shark, with skin as strong as steel. Led by Zor (voiced by Bill Mitchell), the Pescatons had lured the Doctor to their planet during the 15th century, but he escaped only to meet them again in 1976 with Sarah Jane in London. At one point the Doctor sings and tap dances to HELLO, DOLLY in order to decoy a Pescaton away from attacking Sarah; and later he discovers the means to defeat them while playing a piccolo.

Lis Sladen can also be heard on the record DOCTOR WHO AND THE GENESIS OF THE DALEKS. The only other DOCTOR WHO record made with Tom Baker is STATE OF DECAY.

After she left DOCTOR WHO, Lis Sladen made a one-hour pilot called K9 AND COMPANY, which was set on Earth in the present. In it, she again plays Sarah Jane Smith, who receives a crate from the Doctor. When she opens it, she discovers a robot dog, voiced by John Leeson, who provided the voice for K9 during most of the character's 3 years on DOCTOR WHO. Together they solve a mystery concerned with a coven of witches. Unfortunately, the pilot did not develop into a series.

Lis Sladen returned for DOCTOR WHO's 20th anniversary show, THE FIVE DOCTORS. Since Tom Baker decided not to participate in this story, she was paired with Jon Pertwee, with whom she had appeared in 5 stories prior to her 13 with Tom Baker (for a total of 3 full seasons and 2 stories of a fourth season).

She also appeared in a 2-hour BBC dramatization of GULLIVER IN LILLIPUT, in the lead role of Lady Flimnap. This has shown up in America on the Arts and Entertainment cable network . She was a regular in the comedy series TAKE MY WIFE and has also appeared on the British stage.

For many, including myself, Sarah Jane was the best companion ever. Although she required rescuing from time to time and was known to scream when confronted by monsters, she was brave and intelligent and a conversational match for the Doctor. Your interest in the show didn't flag when he was off screen, as long as she was center stage. Whatever appeal Tom Baker brought to his portrayal of the Doctor was enhanced by having Sarah to interact with, and her contribution to the success of Tom Baker's first couple of years cannot be overlooked.

Writing in her posthumously-published autobiography (Aurum 2011), Elisabeth Sladen noted, "Actually, there was talk of killing [the character of Sarah Jane] off, but I didn't want that---I don't think it's fair on kids who've grown up with a character to see her die.  ... I really didn't want to see Sarah married off; that would have undone all the 'strong woman' messages we'd delivered over the years."

"It was quite a big deal when they blew the rocks up---it doesn't matter how often you see them, dynamite and explosives always catch the eye.  But then yours truly had to be buried underneath."  The rocks "weren't huge, they weren't going to crush me to death.  But it was terrifying and I felt every single one hit my body.  I desperately covered my head with my hands for protection, but even though I could stop the rocks hitting my face, I couldn't do anything about the dust.  I could feel it coating my lungs with every breath.  I'd never known claustrophobia before, but another minute and I would have, I'm convinced."

About shooting at Oldbury Power Station, Lis writes, "It was only afterwards that I thought about how we were swept down with Geiger counters on the way out every day as a precaution.  It sounds naive, but I had no idea that place was radioactive.  ... Apart from the exposure to the radioactivity, the power station proved a challenging location in other ways.  There were so many platforms and ladders running all over the place that it would have been remiss  not to incorporate them, but during the final chase scene I thought my legs were going to drop off.  I was going up and down, up and down this bloody metal ladder, literally quivering with exhaustion by the end of it. ... The next day I could barely walk, my quads were screaming in agony."

Lis reveals her Andy Pandy costume was purchased by costume girl, Barbie Lane, at Bus Stop on Kensington High Street, and then decorated with stars sewn into the front.

"Filming a scene on the planet Kastria, Tom and I had to climb up this craggy surface.  He was carrying Eldrad, played by Judith Paris, who was covered in an unwieldy rock costume.  All I had to do was get myself up, but I slipped.  I don't know if it was the tension releasing, but as soon as my foot slid from under me, I couldn't help laughing.  Then Tom slipped and we both started giggling."  This happened repeatedly.  "Poor old Judith, she was being thrown around like a sack of potatoes, and I think she got pretty pissed off. ... [The laughter] was quite uncontrollable.  And you know what, I'm glad we couldn't [stop laughing].  If I have to remember anything of my time on WHO, it would be just having a blast with Tom.  Me and him, Doctor and companion---us against the universe."

The scene where Sarah and the Doctor part was written by Lis and Tom Baker, with the blessings of Robert Holmes and Philip Hinchcliffe.  "Tom and I put a lot of thought into this.  It was terribly liberating.  ... The cameras rolled and we delivered the most heartfelt lines of our careers.  It was two whole pages---a lot, bearing in mind we filmed about eight or nine a day normally. ... Despite the pressure on Tom and me to complete such an impassioned scene, it went very smoothly.  In fact, it was great to do.  Sometimes you're in a swirl, like a wave, and you just do it and it works.  There's noting I'd change---we did what we set out to."

Glyn Houston, who plays Professor Watson, also appears as Colonel Wolsey in the Davison story THE AWAKENING' he is brother to actor Donald Houston..

Stephen Thorne, who plays the ultimate form of Eldrad, played Azal in THE DAEMONS, an Ogron in FRONTIER IN SPACE and Omega in THE THREE DOCTORS, all Pertwee stories.

Rex Robinson, who plays Dr. Carter, played Gebek in THE MONSTER OF PELADON and Dr. Tyler in THE THREE DOCTORS, both Pertwee stories.

Roy Skelton, who plays Rokon, has played 14 other roles, including Chedaki in the Tom Baker story THE ANDROID INVASION and voices of a Cyberman, Dalek and Monoid, among other roles.

Roy Pattison, who plays Zazzka, played a Draconian Pirate in the Pertwee story FRONTIER IN SPACE.

John Cannon, who plays Elgin, plays a Guard in a future Tom Baker story THE ARMAGEDDON FACTOR.