In amongst generally received classics such as The Deadly Assassin, The Robots of Death and The Talons of Weng-Chiang, there is only one reason why this story stands out. The departure of Sarah Jane Smith.

Given that they were concerned about getting the departure of Sarah Jane Smith right to the extent that a set of scripts were abandoned, it’s perhaps not surprising that the rest of The Hand of Fear is a little bit lacklustre.

Bob Baker and Dave Martin’s scripts are not the best. Usually, there work can be described as high concept, but these episodes really aren’t. It’s probably the most generic set of scripts that they’ve done. We get an alien coming to earth and absorbing lots of radiation and coming back to life. Once returned to life, Eldrad is going to return to Kastria and invade the universe. It’s all a bit unoriginal and more should have been made of the hand trying to go round killing people.

Given that it’s Sarah’s final episode, it’s good that the episode focus is on her for the most part. She’s the one that is taken over by Eldrad in the beginning and Sladen’s childlike delivery makes Eldrad seem much more threatening. Eldrad then bases her look on Sarah to make sure she fits into the planet.

We then get the final scene of Hand of Fear. According to popular rumour, it was the two leads that wrote the departure and it’s a heart breaking departure. Initially, you get Sarah toying with the Doctor about pretending to leave and then the Doctor realises that she can’t take her to Gallifrey. While the new series can be argued to be more emotional, Baker and Sladen’s underplaying of the scene gives us a satisfying ending for the character.

There are three different bits of commentary for this episode. The two Baker’s are on throughout, Elisabeth Sladen is in one, two and the last part of four, Judith Paris from episode 3 onwards and Philip Hinchcliffe popping in and out throughout.

Tom Baker dominates the commentary in a surreal fashion and everyone is having a laugh watching the episodes. His relationship with Elisabeth Sladen is a delight to listen to and his flirting with Judith Paris borders on the outrageous. There’s very little factual information to be had but Bob Baker does take the credit for writing the ending, which is a little naughty.

Changing Time seems a little all encompassing given that it looks at the casting of Liz Sladen and Tom Baker and a making of The Hand of Fear. There’s some good stuff in there about Liz’s initial casting and the beginning of the relationship with Tom Baker. There’s very little about the interesting parts of the production such as the creation of ldrad, but there’s a good section about the leaving scene, the most memorable one in The Hand of Fear.

The Swap Shop item isn’t particularly deep, but is a sweet little item, while the continuities will fascinate those more interested in television history than myself. The production subtitles are detailed while the 1977 Doctor Who Annual and Radio Times items will delight other people. There’s an Easter Egg, which features Liz Sladen talking about what she’ll done when she leaves the series.

Overall, The Hand of Fear is a reasonable story presented on DVD with a fair amount of extras. It’s a good addition to the range.

top of page