Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8433 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-07-24
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Doctor Who fans must take the bittersweet with the suspenseful in this four-part story arc from 1976, which pits the Doctor (Tom Baker) and companion Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) against the fossilized hand of an alien criminal which possesses a hideous will to live again. Discovered by the Doctor and Sarah during a trip to Earth that puts them in the middle of a mining blast, the hand belongs to Eldrad, a fugitive criminal from the planet Kastria who desires to regain his bodily form and return to his home. To do so, he possesses Sarah and the staff of a nearby nuclear reactor in order to use its power to regenerate, which leads to several eerie scenes with the reanimated hand that nicely evoke British horror features from the '60s and '70s. Well-liked by Baker-era fans, The Hand of Fear is best remembered as Sladen's final turn as Sarah (though she has frequently returned to the role on both radio and TV), and her final scenes with Baker (largely written by the two actors) have an endearing sort of wistfulness.

As with all Doctor Who DVD releases, The Hand of Fear features a number of well-produced extras that flesh out the production history of the episodes. The commentary by Baker, Sladen, co-star Judith Paris (who plays the reconfigured Eldrad in an early female form), co-author Bob Baker, and producer Phillip Hinchcliffe is an excellent place to start for first-time viewers and longtime fans; all except Paris are also featured in an informative 50-minute featurette titled "Changing Time," which illuminates the warm working relationship between Baker and Sladen, as well as her reasons for departing the series. An 11-minute videotape clip from the U.K. children's show Swap Shop featuring Baker and Sladen before the broadcast of The Hand of Fear is also included, as well as the now-standard photo gallery, text-only commentary, and PDF of the 1977 Doctor Who Annual and Radio Times. --Paul Gaita

Synopsis
After Sarah Jane becomes trapped under tons of rock in a quarry, she eventually emerges clutching a mysterious fossilized hand. What supernatural hold does this strange appendage have over her… and what of the alien creature it becomes?

Customer Reviews

Eldrad MUST live!
Back in the mid 1970's when I was just a nipper, I would skip gaily home from the newsagents in my little shorts with some penny chews and a lurid red string of liquorice packed with E numbers to watch Saturday's instalment of Doctor Who. I count myself lucky to have experienced the Baker/Sladen partnership first time round. It is the best ensemble acting the show has ever produced. Week in week out, I would be enthralled by the brave, kind and just a little bit unsettling Doctor and the pretty, spunky Sarah-Jane as they battled Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen and Zygons in a crazed-out monsterfest which was compulsory viewing for any child in Great Britain who grew up in that magical era. Then it all came to an end with the Hand of Fear and I wrote a rude letter to the BBC (which my Mum helped me to write), which they never replied to.

The story is not outstanding, but contains a popular template still retained by the series, namely setting the initial story on Earth in recognisable surroundings (yes, it's THAT quarry again), before shifting the action to outer space. One interesting fact is that Sarah is given a chance to be mean as she is possessed by the power of Eldrad's ring. The highlight is of course her leaving scene, made all the more poignant by being underplayed by both actors.

Elisabeth Sladen is the best actor or actress ever to have played the Doctor's companion, and struck just the right degree of balance between vulnerability and independence, while all the while creating a likeable and entirely believable character. There has not been a companion like her since (although I have to say I was very impressed with Billie Piper). This was her swansong.

Happy days.

Eldrad lives again on DVD!
The first thing that strikes me on viewing this story again is Lennie Mayne's impressive directorial flourishes. Doctor Who often suffers from it's studio-bound nature and an inability of many directors to be able to do anything interesting with the camera rather than just point and shoot. But with The Hand of Fear, Mayne nicely utilizes the location shooting in particular, with the opening scenes of the quarry and the later nuclear plant being very well shot and the high and low angles help to add an extra dimension to the proceedings. As for the story itself, hand is well realised and helped by some strong performances from the central cast. Elizabeth Sladen is brilliant, very eerie when possessed by Eldrad and both her and Tom are particularly excellent in the stories famous closing scenes, they really underplay it to perfection. Judith Paris and Glyn Houston also turn in great performances for two characters that could have been quite uninteresting in the hands of less skilled actors. The Hand itself, although a simple effect is nicely achieved, the female Eldrad's costume looks great and there is some good model work too. Overall the story is always entertaining, but falls apart a little towards the end and just seems to come to a juddering halt rather than a satisfactory conclusion and this is a shame considering the absorbing and atmospheric first three episodes. But this is made up for with Sarah's superb leaving scene ( one of the best any companion has received on the show) and all in all this is an immensely satisfying adventure that comes highly recommended.

Sadly the extra features don't quite live up to their potential and prove something of a disappointment.
There is precious little to get through here, the bulk of the extras being a 50 minute documentary supposedly focusing on the Doctor and Sarah's "special relationship". But despite some amusing anecdotes and interesting titbits, on the whole it falls flat and suffers terribly from a general lack of focus, at first concerning actors careers then the story then something else, it's all done in a bit of a muddle. Despite the long running time, it feels like there is much left uncovered and you find out precious little if anything of this story's history and Bob Baker in particular should have had much more to contribute. Even the relationship between Sarah and the Doctor is not satisfactorily explored and the last straw is some bizarre attempt to liven up proceedings by having interviewees occasionally appear in the background shuffling around whilst the person in the foreground is talking and then suddenly zooming in on the other persons face. The technique is pointless and disorientating and they seem to give up on it quite quickly anyway making it all the more infuriating as to why they bothered in the first place. I strongly feel that it would have been much wiser to present two separate documentaries here, maybe a twenty minute feature purely concerning the story itself and a thirty minute one on The Doctor and Sarah. Overall it`s not up to scratch,, there is so much left unsaid and for a companion as popular as Sarah's last story, there seems to be a remarkable lack of material on Liz or the character. As for the other "extra" the Swap Shop feature is short and mildly interesting if forgettable. Tom Baker does his best with an incredibly irritating Noel Edmonds, whilst Liz Sladen gets very little to do except look stunningly beautiful. Nice to have it on the disc but nothing more. Beyond that your left with the commentary which is thankfully far superior to the other features on display. It benefits greatly from Tom Baker's presence, who is of course hilarious and a joy to listen to, in fact this is one of the best commentaries yet and let's hope Tom makes many more appearances on future releases. Lastly I'd again like to praise the RT for the amazing restoration work done on the sound and picture quality, which is so good it almost makes up for this disc's generally lacklustre features. Almost but not quite. Despite the superb commentary, one feels severe displeasure with the extra's here, which pale in comparison to recent releases such as Inferno or The Beginning. There just isn't enough to peruse through and this disc could have benefited greatly from even a few more brief easter egg type segments. I sincerely hope this isn't a sign of what we can expect from future pared down releases. As a full package The Hand of Fear is still worth owning for the fantastic story and commentary alone, but overall one cannot help feeling deeply let-down, this could have been so much more.

Talk to the Hand
It is not surprising that this classic four-parter is coming out on DVD soon, what with the recently aired 'School Reunion' episode. It gives the BBC a chance to cash in on the younger fans who want to know more about Sarah's departure.

This is written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who also penned the excellent 'The Sontaran Experiment', and it is set on modern day Earth, where the Tardis lands in a quarry where controlled explosions are taking place. The Doctor and Sarah get trapped underneath the rubble where Sarah comes across a fossilized hand. Sarah then gets taken to the local hospital for observation and becomes more and more hypnotised by the hand. Sarah, clutching the hand, travels to the nuclear research and development complex where the hand soaks up the radiation from the reactor core to then evolve into a female Alien lifeforce etc.

The extras on this DVD include: a commentary featuring Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Judith Paris (Eldrad), Bob Baker (co-writer), and Philip Hinchcliffe (Producer), and a 50 minute documentary about the changing relationship of the Doctor and Sarah.

This is good solid entertainment, that is gripping and full of tension. Thoroughly recommended.