Horror of Fang Rock - Episode 1

Horror of Glam Rock is the first story of the fifteenth season and it’s the first with Graham Williams as producer after Philip Hinchcliffe is ‘relocated’ to another BBC show so it’s fair to say that the golden era of the show is over but at least Robert Holmes is still script editor and Horror of Fang Rock (and not Glam Rock as I have been tempted to write) is one of my favourites because it’s a base under siege story which is a type of adventure that I really love. The episode doesn’t get off to a great start with the effect used to simulate something crashing into the sea. We are introduced to the supporting characters and one of the many things that I love about this story is that it has a reduced number of people and one of them dies within ten minutes of the episode starting.

Vince is one of the supporting characters that we are suppose to like because he acts nicely towards the Doctor and Leela. Reuben is clearly there to be the exact opposite and untrustworthy. He suspects that the Doctor and Leela had something to do with Ben’s death. Death is done in quite a dark way because there is none of the humour that we have come to expect from the Doctor in recent stories.

The setting of a lighthouse might seem a bit odd to some and it wouldn’t be my first idea but the beauty of this is that it keeps people in a very tight location and yet give the chance to introduce other people when needed without it seeming contrived. The fact that it is a studio bound story is something that is forgotten until the episode ends and that is because of my love for this story means that I look past it and if it takes place inside a lighthouse your not going have much location footage.

The episode is directed rather well by Paddy Russell who uses what is available to her. I think that she manages to make the story move along at a reasonable pace which cant move too quickly because nothing can really happen until the ship crashes on the rocks at the end of the episode. It’s a great opening episode because it sets its stall out really well and gives us time to absorb the atmosphere and the setting and Terrance Dicks has written some characters that have been thought out really well and have paced it just right.