'Doctor Who – Horror of Fang Rock'



Long time readers of this blog (by which I mean 'since about a week ago', what?) already know that I've been a fan of Doctor Who since I was tiny. They also know that I found a whole load of Doctor Who DVDs in an Oxfam shop, in Wimbledon, and am posting about them here. Now you know as well ;o)
This week's Doctor is a bit of a favourite of mine (although not my absolute favourite, you'll meet him next week), the one and only Tom Baker. He was the first Doctor that I came across on TV, only to see him regnerate after a couple of stories (so that was pretty short lived). What this means is that there's a lot of Tom Baker's 'Doctor Who' that I've never seen, 'Horror of Fang Rock' being one of those stories. So when I saw it in Oxfam then, it pretty much bought itself and here we are...

It is the turn of the century, and the TARDIS materialises by a lighthouse on the desolate isle of Fang Rock. When the engineer dies in mysterious circumstances, the remaining crew blame the mythical Beast of Fang Rock - until the Doctor and Leela turn up...
When a small clippper runs aground on the crags of Fang Rock the lighthouse offers shelter to its desperate passengers. But the Doctor soon discovers clues that suggest that no one is safe on the tiny island. Whilst a private drama unfolds between the survivors of the wrecked clipper, another death occurs. The Doctor suspects a ruthless alien lurks in the thick unnatural fog around the island and secures the lighthouse. But has he really locked the horror out, or is it somewhere inside with them...?

I've got to say that I ended up enjoying 'Horror of Fang Rock' a lot more than I thought I would, especially after the opening scenes (of the first episode) where the Tardis looked a little much like the model it was to really pass muster. That's one of my pet peeves about the 'Tom Baker' era, by the way, but I'm going to try and stay on topic here...
So yeah, I wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised by a story that really went all out building up the tension and paranoia (among the characters) before a very well timed big reveal. Everyone was on top of their acting game and as a result, it was very easy to let the story take over and just go with it until the end. I love any Doctor Who story that can do that for me.
I've read some of the books but have never seen a Doctor Who story featuring his companion Leela so 'Horror of Fang Rock' was a bit of a first for me there as well. I loved the way that the Doctor and Leela bounce off each other, as travelling companions and I particularly liked the fact that the Doctor never belittles Leela as a tribeswoman learning about the universe for the first time. There's a real sense of mutual respect here that I could really get behind.

Yes, the Rutan scout looked like something you'd find in a used piece of tissue paper (and sounded like a Dalek for some reason...) and some of the models used really stood out in a 'this is blatantly a model' kind of way. Neither of those things got in the way of what was a really well told story. I'm very glad that I gave it a go.

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