Tuesday, 22 July 2014

The Hand of Fear - Episode 2

After the great opening episode, I did wonder whether the remaining episodes wouldn’t be as good as I was hoping for. The effect of the hand moving that we see at the beginning of the episode is still a great effect. Even the shot later on where it appears to move on its own (via CSO) is a good effect.

Professor Watson is the leader of the nuclear base and I think that its fun that that all the employees wear a big photo of themselves. They are all smiling whereas they themselves haven’t got anything to smile about. The security of this place is a lot better than most places but it seems that once inside the base its pretty easy to get around unless spotted by someone. The sets in the nuclear base are still impressive, they are slightly undermined by the great location scenes but I still think that the setting of the nuclear base works perfectly.
The death of Doctor Cater is a sad one because Rex Robinson is very good. His death was quite spectacular and it was done well because he was possessed and this started in the previous episode so at least it was done 10 seconds before he died. I thought that Glyn Houston was a good piece of casting as Professor Watson. I liked how Watson went from being untrusting of the Doctor to pretty much giving him free reign of the base.

The phone call that Professor Watson makes to his wife and child is heart-breaking because he thinks that it’s the end. He’s even lying to his wife and its made slightly embarrassing when the moment he puts the phone down the crisis is over. Despite the episode taking place in just the nuclear base, its surprising that the story moves along as much as it does. Ok there are many sets the story uses but it is essentially the same location and its credit to Bob Baker and Dave Martin (along with Lennie Mayne) for making the story work.
Sarah is hypnotised for the third time in two stories which must be annoying for Elisabeth Sladen. After the good work she did in the previous episode it seems like she’s taken a step backwards in this episode.

The ending is a bit odd because it doesn’t feature the Doctor or Sarah in a proper way. The last shot is of Watson. That said I thought that the episode was another solid one and despite being hypnotised again, this is turning out to be a fitting end to Sarah Jane’s involvement in the show. Halfway through and it feels like it’s a million times better than ‘The Masque of Mandragora’ which isn’t exactly saying a great deal but it’s the truth.

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