Monday, May 23, 2022

Doctor Who (1963) 15.01.03

Horror of Fang Rock - Part 3

Reuben returns but he is possessed. He barely mumbles a word. He locks himself in his room.

Lord Palmerdale bribes Vince to send a message via telegraph to his broker. Lord Palmerdale steps out on to the balcony. He hides there while Vince talks to the Doctor. Palmerdale sees something glowing, an alien. It electrocutes him. The Doctor and Leela later find his body on the ground near the base of the lighthouse.

The Doctor leaves Leela to try and break in to Reuben's room. She goes to check on Harker, who is tending to the boiler. She finds a large hammer in the boiler room. She takes it back up the stairs and starts to break down the door to Reuben's room. Reuben is just standing there, doing nothing.

The Doctor and Leela go to see Skinsale and Adelaide, who is spooked by the situation they are in. The telegraph is broken, thanks to Skinsale, and they are unable to message for help. Adelaide screams when she sees Lord Palmerdale's body. Leela slaps her which seems to shut Adelade up. She screams again when they find Harker's body in the boiler room. Skinsale takes her back upstairs. The Doctor and Leela go outside where they find Reuben's body. He's been dead for hours.

Thoughts

Three people died in this episode or were confirmed to be dead. There are just five people left, including the Doctor and Leela. Will any one else get killed? I don't remember but I think not.

The telegraph was there the whole time but they don't try to use it until after Skinsale breaks it? Seems kind of flimsy to me. Couldn't the Doctor get them out of there in the TARDIS. I can accept that he might not want to but shouldn't the possibility at least have occurred to Leela? There is no indication that it has.

It's good to see Leela get something to do (breakdown a door) other than ask the Doctor silly questions. Adelaide is a bit of a disappointment, nowhere near as interesting as some of the other female guest stars on Doctor Who. I'm thinking mostly of Eldrad (The Hand of Fear) and Toos (The Robots of Death).

This is not a great story. I wasn't crazy about the cliffhanger. It doesn't feel like much of a cliffhanger. The last episode in this story might be better than this one but I don't think it is going to be good enough to rescue the reputation of this episode in my opinion.

No comments:

Post a Comment