Doctor Who:
Horror of Fang Rock
By Terrance Dicks
“The chameleon factor,
sometimes called lycanthropy. Leela, I've made a terrible mistake. I thought
I'd locked the enemy out. Instead, I've locked it in, with us.”
The Doctor and Leela were
hoping to arrive in Brighton but find themselves on the cold and damp rock of
an island called Fang Rock. There they
take shelter in a lighthouse where unfortunately one of the keepers in residence
Ben was found electrocuted near the generator for the lighthouses electric
light. The Doctor is examines Ben’s body and comes to
the conclusion that he wasn’t electrocuted by the generator but by other
means. He surmises that it is an alien
that has a high electrical discharge and needs the use of the generator for his
ship.
The other keeper Vince
said he saw a something fall from the sky and it looked like a fireball. This has The Doctor more convinced that they
are dealing with an alien. But things
get worse as another boat has struck the rocks. A Boat filled with rich people out on a lark and
now is stranded in the light house when now the old keeper Reuben has now been
killed. The Doctor thinks he has made a grave error as
he thought he locked the alien out and it now appears that he has locked it in
with them. What makes matters worse is
that The Doctor discovers that it is a Rutan and is on Earth to get a strategic
foothold in their war with the Sontarans.
The Doctor must find a way to stop this electrified foe and from keeping
Earth away from that age old war.
Terrance Dicks returns to
Doctor Who after a couple years absence and gives us another classic in Horror
of Fang Rock. The base under siege
story is a favorite of mine and using a lighthouse for a setting is actually pretty
clever. There isn’t much to go in a
lighthouse and the sets they used did give a big time sense of paranoia. With The Rutan creeping about and using Reuben’s
body it added to the scare factor of the story.
I liked The Rutan. Using its tentacles to kill electrocute the
people in the lighthouse was pretty good but one thing. Why did its victims just stare at it and
allow themselves to be electrocuted. As
slow as the Rutan moved and even when using Reuben it seemed you would have
plenty of time to escape except for the greedy Skinsdale who had to get the
diamonds The Doctor through on the ground which had a quite shocking end. Plus I loved how The Doctor used the
lighthouse as a weapon by using the diamond and the big light and using to
reflect the energy back at the Rutan ship.
Horror of Fang Rock is a
basic story that is really easy to follow. It’s a basic monster story but it
has a unique setting and it worked really well.
It’s a favorite of mine and it is just a great monster story where The
Doctor just barely saves the day as what doesn’t happen all the time everyone dies
except The Doctor and Leela.
Grade B +
No comments:
Post a Comment