Dr Who and the Hand of Fear
By Ross Forbes, Blockbuster.co.uk

After Sarah Jane becomes trapped under tons of rock in a quarry, she eventually emerges clutching a hand. What power does this hand have over her? To answer this question, the Doctor has to travel across the galaxy to a long-dead world...

Peter Hinchcliffe the new producer to Tom Baker’s run as the Doctor, wanted to make more of a ghost story in the tradition of the early horror films. This story line was at a time that the producers wanted to mix more horror with the sci-fi aspect of the series, to take it in another direction and mix the genres and The Hand of Fear was one of those story lines.

Shortly after arriving on earth, the Doctor and Sarah are caught in an explosion in a quarry, something that many viewers would have thought was inevitable considering the amount of time that the Doctor has spent walking around them over the years. As Sarah is rescued from the rubble, she grips a stone hand so tightly that doctors are unable to remove it at the scene.

Once at the hospital, Sarah soon becomes possessed by the hand, and sets about starting a chain of events that will cause mass-devastation for the human race. Sarah takes the stone hand to a local nuclear power station in order to use the nuclear power to resurrect the body of Eldrad; because as Sarah whispers - “Eldrad must live”.

The Hand of Fear is a classic story, not just for its use of cliff-hanger endings but also for its conclusion that is sure to have you craving more.

Taping into the fears of nuclear power and the cold war, The Hand of Fear uses universal themes to create a very atmospheric story line and a tense plot.

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