Doctor Who 14x6

Directed by Lennie Mayne

Rex Robinson as Dr. Carter • Glyn Houston as Professor Watson • Roy Boyd as Driscoll • Frances Pidgeon as Miss Jackson • John Cannon as Elgin

The Doctor and Professor Watson struggle to stop first Sarah Jane and then Driscoll from obeying the strange and dangerous orders of the stone hand, which has suddenly come to life.

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1. "Terror strikes in an advanced nuclear power station. Can the Doctor avert a holocaust?"

2. This episode was first shown on 9 October 1976.

3. It was seen by 10.2 million viewers, a little down on the week before.

4. "We can't call our alien an Omegan," Robert Holmes told the authors apropos of their first version of 'The Hand of Fear',

5. "because Omega was a sort of king of a black hole and appeared some three seasons ago."

6. So he did, in 'The Three Doctors',

7. and Bob Baker and Dave Martin wrote that script too.

8. In the draft script, the hand doesn't grow its finger back straightaway.

9. It sits there in its box, four-fingered, vibrating and issuing psychic orders.

10. But the script also called for it to move in a spider-like way,

11. so, to make the effect practical, it was decided to restore the finger as soon as it comes back to life.

12. In the script, the guards are disturbed to realise they're walking into a nuclear emergency.

13. The voice on the loudspeaker belongs to Rex Robinson - who is also on screen playing Dr Carter.

14. Sarah is "listening to the hand", says the script.

15. This episode was recorded on 6 July, the day after Part 1.

16. The flies in the studio hadn't gone away overnight.

17. Here one lands on Professor Watson's forehead,

18. but the actor carries on regardless, and the shot is saved!

19. The Nunton Director was considered to be one of the serial's two starring roles

20. Fourteen very distinguished actors were considered for the part, including several members of the Royal Shakespeare Company,

21. one of whom later became a major star on American television.

22. Top of the short-list was Glyn Houston, who accepted the role.

23. His solid, dependable demeanour meant that he was often cast as policemen.

24. He played them in films and series ranging from Tiger Bay (1959) To One Way Pendulum (1964),

25. One of his earliest appearances was as a barrow boy in The Blue Lamp (1950),

26. the film which spawned Dixon of Dock Green (in which he appeared six times between 1958 and 1974).

27. His Welsh origins gave him his first television leading role, in How Green was My Valley (1960).

28. In the 1970s he was best known as the loyal manservant Bunter in Lord Peter Wimsey (1972-5).

29. Bob Baker and Dave Martin often used the device of a repeated phrase or motto in the early episodes of their Doctor Who serials.

30. This serial's catchphrase, "Eldrad must live", later became its title when it was repackaged as a TV movie in Canada.

31. These schematics were not based on the actual layout of Oldbury.

32. Researching the original version, the authors learned that, in an emergency,

33. a reactor could be shut down in just three seconds.

34. A roentgen is a unit of exposure to radiation.

35. In normal conditions, it would take you about four years to absorb one roentgen's worth of ambient radiation.

36. The original version of 'The Hand of Fear' was abandoned in October 1975.

37. The authors were sorry to lose one character in particular:

38. The entrepreneurial Drax, "chief mechanic to the Time Lords".

39. They were eventually able to write him into their 1979 serial, 'The Armageddon Factor'.

40. On 9 February 1976, Robert Holmes sent them a two-page scene by scene outline for a new version, asking for "a fast draft".

41. He kept some of their ideas from the original 'Hand of Fear' scripts, but the story and structure were entirely new.

42. Though detailed, he explained, the outline was not "ironclad":

43. "It can be changed whenever the lightning of inspiration strikes."

44. The new storyline was structured to give each episode its own distinct identity,

45. introducing a new metamorphosis of Eldrad each week,

46. and with no character Appearing in more than two episodes.

47. The control room gauges, seen in the background here, were made by effects assistant Charlie Lumm.

48. Rex Robinson often worked with Lennie Mayne, notably on two previous Doctor Who serials.

49. In the upcoming close-up of the hand, a modified lunchbox is set on a hardboard rostrum, with the hand operator underneath.

50. His wrist disappears though the open bottom of the box.

51. Can you see the join?

52. The original plan was to engage an actor to play the hand, but in the event the task fell to a member of the visual effects team.

53. Miss Jackson's phone call is longer in the script. Eldrad "could be a person or an organisation, but probably an individual," she says.

54. "Religious or political, yes."

55. In this sequence, the hand is shot by Camera 5 against a green-screen "Colour Separation Overlay" background.

56. Meanwhile, Sarah's feet are on Camera 1.

57. The green is keyed out, Sarah keyed in, and here's the result.

58. The wrench is made of heavyweight foam rubber - hence the wobble!

59. In this part of the serial, the authors are drawing on their original idea about a nuclear emergency caused by terrorists.

60. Miss Jackson was originally written as a nameless male character, the "Control Assistant".

61. The other director, Lennie Mayne, developed the part and gave it to his wife, Frances Pidgeon.

62. She began her career as a dancer and glamour model,

63. and had recently played a nuclear terrorist in the spy series, Quiller (1975).

64. In the script, Sarah is "in the experimental nuclear fission reactor down in Sector Four" - at ground level, or lower.

65. The Doctor is climbing upwards because he's making for the cooling duct, which vents to the sky.

66. In the script, he stops to adjust his hat and scarf.

67. Carter yanks the scarf and pitches him over the edge of the gantry. The Doctor is left hanging on by his fingertips.

68. Stunt arranger Max Faulkner did the fall in a single take.

69. "Eldrad must live," says Carter in the scripted version as he starts to prise open the Doctor's fingers, one by one.

70. "So, I'm afraid, must I," replies the Doctor as he swings one-handed away from Carter, who misses his grip and plunges to his death.

71. The emergency notices on the screens are slides made by Simon McCombie of the BBC Graphics Department.

72. They were displayed on the monitors with a telejector machine, more commonly used to make the closing credits.

73. The shot which starts the next scene was a particularly complicated one: Beginning with Sarah, the aim was

74. to pan with the action as the Doctor enters the scene, and finish with a two-shot of both characters.

75. "GOOD LUCK!" said the camera script to the cameraman.

76. Two retakes were necessary, because the visual effects smoke failed to appear.

77. The sound as the Doctor comes through the grille was dubbed on from the first, smokeless take.

78. The composition of the shot masks the Doctor's punch, which doesn't really connect with Sarah's jaw.

79. The writers originally envisaged the hand shedding its skin as it grows, like a snake.

80. In the earliest version of the scripts, the ring isn't dropped here: Sarah still has it later on.

81. Watson was scripted to doodle as he talks to his wife.

82. He draws a giant sun - suggesting the nuclear explosion he expects to engulf him at any moment.

83. When the emergency's over, he crumples up the drawing and throws it away.

84. In the draft scripts, the Director has no name; he was christened Professor Watson in pre-production.

85. One specified feature of his appearance was dropped: His beard.

86. This sequence was reshot because the actors' delivery of the lines was "too soft" the first time round.

87. In the studio, Glyn Houston didn't have far to go from the control room to decontamination.

88. The decontamination set was just on the other side of the control room doors, with a narrow end-on corridor set in between.

89. In the first 'Hand of Fear', the hand's effect on radiation was said to be "like a huge piece of radioactive-sensitive blotting paper".

90. In drafting the second version, Robert Holmes drew on sources ranging from horror films to earlier Doctor Who serials.

91. He drew particular inspiration from the Hammer film, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971).

92. At the start of the film, the Egyptian sorceress Tera is executed by her own people,

93. just like Eldrad in the previous episode.

94. Just as the solar winds engulf Kastria once the barriers are down,

95. so Tera's executioners are destroyed by a great wind.

96. Thousands of years later, the heroine of the film is given the ring for her birthday.

97. She has an uncanny resemblance to Tera, and when she puts the ring on, she is possessed by the dead witch's spirit.

98. Tera is controlling her with a view to resurrecting herself - again, just like Eldrad.

99. Watch Miss Jackson when she comes back into shot.

100. The boom mike's shadow crosses her as it moves to catch the Doctor's lines.

101. From the first, the serial only ever had one title: 'The Hand of Fear'.

102. After the event, lapses of memory got a couple of other titles into circulation: 'The Hand of Time' and 'The Hand of Death'.

103. These weren't working titles: They were mistakes!

104. In the script, the hand is feebly trying to scramble up to the lock.

105. 'The Hand of Fear' entered pre-production before the scripts were finished.

106. The first thing to be done was to book the rehearsal rooms in the BBC's Acton rehearsal block.

107. The booking was made on 16 February, only a week after Robert Holmes sent the authors the revised story breakdown.

108. It carried the usual request: "Large room preferred because of large composite sets".

109. Five different hands of fear were ordered, representing successive stages of its development,

110. but Colin Mapson managed to reduce the requirement to just three.

111. All of them were based on the same living original, the right hand of effects assistant Steve Drewett.

112. One was the fossilised hand seen in the opening episode.

113. The other pair of hands were the moving version, worn like a glove by its operator, Steve Drewett,

114. and this static, regenerated version which was cast in solid latex.

115. The hand was stolen from the studio during a lunch break, so some shots had to be deferred

116. and a replacement prop made for the second studio block a fortnight later.

117. In the draft script, Sarah uses the ring to hypnotise Driscoll.

118. The scripts were being finalised as Lennie Mayne and his team began pre-planning.

119. On Monday 10 May, designer Christine Ruscoe attended a script meeting to discuss Part 4.

120. Robert Holmes produced a revised script for that episode two days later.

121. Pre-production continued that week with planning meetings on the Wednesday and Friday

122. and a location recce at Oldbury on the Thursday.

123. In the draft script, he calls the ring a crystal "thingummy".

124. In the script, Driscoll's inner voice can be heard saying "Eldrad must live" as he leaves.

125. In an earlier version, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to hypnotise Sarah.

126. No wonder she's upset: This is the third time she's been hypnotised in two consecutive serials.

127. The team paid a second planning visit to Oldbury on 8 June, the week before filming.

128. This time, fight arranger Max Faulkner was in attendance, to plan the stunt fall.

129. Production began on Monday 14 June.

130. The film unit, including the cast, numbered 44 people.

131. The extras and one speaking actor, Robin Hargrave, were locals.

132. Most of the others stayed at the Newport Towers Hotel near Berkeley during the five-day shoot.

133. Filming was generally scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Each morning,

134. which meant that the actors had to be made up and in costume, ready to leave the hotel at 8.30.

135. They were bussed together to the location, and scheduled to work until 5.30 p.m. Each day.

136. In practice, filming overran on each of the first four days.

137. This exchange was worked out by the actors in rehearsal.

138. In the script, the Doctor asks Sarah who Eldrad is, and she doesn't know.

139. After spending the first two days filming at the quarry, the unit moved on to the power station.

140. For security reasons, a special parking area was set aside for use by the BBC coach and other unit vehicles.

141. The Wednesday was spent filming outside the power station,

142. including Dr Carter's Allegro on the road.

143. Then, on the Thursday, it was into Oldbury Nuclear Power Station itself for a very long day's work.

144. The unit wasn't ready to leave until 8.30 that evening.

145. There were further Oldbury interiors to be shot on the Friday morning, wrapping at 2 p.m.,

146. followed by 90 minutes in a Thornbury cul-de-sac filming Part 4's suburban street scenes.

147. Filming was completed on schedule at 3.30, and the unit returned to London.

148. The cast then had four days off

149. Before assembling at Acton for the first day of rehearsals, 23 June.

150. Steve Drewett's arm, covered in black material, is in the back at right angles to the false wrist.

151. The doors feature panels of wired Georgian safety glass.

152. The BBC was safety-conscious about using glass in sets,

153. so Christine Ruscoe had to get special permission, and observe special procedures.

154. The glass had to be brought to the studio in its own crate, separately from the rest of the sets,

155. and was fitted to the doors by the studio's standby carpenter.

156. He also had to remove it afterwards before the rest of the sets could be struck.

157. Driscoll is wearing a wig. (The actor had it fitted on 11 June, the Friday before filming.)

158. In the script, the guards open fire before Driscoll "zizzes" them.

159. The sound supervisor originally assigned to this serial was Ray Angel,

160. a very experienced sound man who had worked for the BBC since the 1960s,

161. with credits including seven Doctor Who serials (1964-8) And five Shakespeare plays (1980-4).

162. Early in pre-production, his availability changed, and Brian Hiles took over.

163. In the draft script, the blast hits a steel girder, not a cabinet.

164. Rehearsals began with a full-cast read-through of the draft scripts for all four episodes.

165. After that, there were eight rehearsal days leading up to each block of studio recording: 24 June to 3 July and 9 to 17 July.

166. The first few days of each rehearsal period was spent on "blocking" the script

167. For the next three days they worked the scenes, leading up to a complete run on the Thursday.

168. Three more full runs followed: A technical run on the Friday morning,

169. a performance for the producer that afternoon,

170. and a final run-through on the Saturday, ready for studio on the Monday.

171. In the draft script, Driscoll locks himself in,

172. and the Doctor uses the sonic screwdriver to open the door.

173. This shot took four takes to get right: Driscoll was cued too early the first three times.

174. Here's the episode ending as it was first written: "The Doctor watches, appalled and powerless,

175. "as Driscoll walks into the glowing cauldron of the pile."

176. Also seen in this episode were:

177. Michael de Wilde, Barry Summerford, Robert Lee

178. Paul Nicholson, Robert Tucker

179. Peter Bush, David Cleeve, Keith Simmons

180. Julia Burnett, Bruce Guest

181. Mark Holmes, Rosemary Jolliffe, Kenneth Thomas

182. Douglas Auchterlonie, Margaret Pilleau

183. Driscoll!

184. Driscoll!

185. Driscoll!

186. - Hello, Professor Watson? - Yes, Doctor, everything all right?

187. Shh. Listen, listen, listen! Driscoll's got the hand.

188. I'm going down after him. Get out every available man you've got.

189. And send someone down here. There's a guard unconscious.

190. Right away.

191. Driscoll, stop!

192. Driscoll, stop!

193. Doctor!

194. - You all right? - Yes, I'm fine.

195. - Where'd he go? - He's going to the core. Where else?

196. - But why? It's all shut down. - It doesn't make any difference.

197. That hand could set off a chain reaction.

198. You two get back to the control room. I'm going on inside.

199. All of you, get out as fast as you can.

200. Come on, get going.

201. Attention, all staff. Attention, all staff.

202. Evacuate the complex immediately.

203. This is an emergency.

204. Evacuate the complex immediately.

205. This is not an exercise.

206. This is an emergency.

207. - Evacuate the complex immediately. - Quick, get down.

208. Emergency. Emergency. This is not an exercise.

209. Evacuate the complex immediately.

210. This is not an exercise.

211. Evacuate the complex immediately.