Eldrad must live
Aug. 22nd, 2009 12:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tree_and_leafYesterday, I watched The Hand of Fear
This stuck me as a very patchy story; it is a sort of abortive revenge tragedy, in which Eldrad, an silicon-based engineer of genius and appallingly fascist views is destroyed by his people, but who survives in a very attenuated form - the eponymous hand - and, through mind control, succeeds in making Sarah-Jane introduce him to a nuclear reactor, thus regenerating him in a form which is partially based on the human female. Feminine!Eldrad, played with a voice even lower than Margaret Thatcher's, and wearing a remarkably effective costume, was one of the best things about the episode. This version of Eldrad, for all the rather horrible things their mind control had caused people to do was rather compelling, even if the constant rehearsal of grudges and anger at being betrayed, despite having brought life to a people, was rather suggestive of Jadis in The Magician's Nephew.
There are some other rather compelling elements in the episode. Despite the fact that at one point you can see how the puppet hand is being moved, the disembodied hand of Eldrad remains rather disturbing. There's an affecting scene where the director of the experimental nuclear power station, believing he's about to die, phones home to tell his wife to kiss the children for him (though this is slightly marred by the fact that he doesn't seem worried by the possibility that the nuclear blast might affect them, and the audience made satirical suggestions along the lines of "take the usual precautions, like tape over the windows" and "lie down in a bag"). Sarah Jane, in possessed mode, is rather frightening, reciting in a singsong, childish voice "Eldrad must live."
Unfortunately, that brings up one of the more unfortunate elements of the episode. Sarah-Jane, wearing some sort of awful dungaree outfit (explicitly compared by one of the characters to Andy Pandy, and with some justice), behaves like a petulant six year old almost through out, and it can't entirely be put down to the blow on the head and the mind control (equally, all the human characters are extremely trusting, to the point of gullibility, and extremely slow on the uptake. I suspect the research station belonged to Torchwood). On a less serious note, the second, masculine version of Eldrad was extremely silly and shouty; Sarah's comment "I liked her, but I couldn't stand him" might be taken as a gift to the femmeslashers out there, but was a fair comment. The first Eldard was unsettling, both repellent and attractive, and strangely sympathetic despite everything. The second... ranted a lot, and failed to get his revenge in a singularly anti-climatic manner (which in a sense was part of the point, but it would have had a good deal more punch if the response hadn't just been more ranting...) The time scales, too, were hopelessly silly - Eldrad and his enemies automated systems are still running after several hundred million years? Really?
That said, this is in essence a good story about the vanity of vengeance, and Judith Paris is superb as the female Eldrad; Glyn Houston, too, is surprisingly likable as the head of the nuclear reactor, even if he's not... spectacularly competent (apart from anything else, anyone whose reaction to a nuclear plant almost on the verge of breakdown is to allow panic to break out, then scream "Will you all shut up!" is probably not someone you want in charge, especially as he apparently has the defence codes for a nuclear strike... yes, Torchwood is the only explanation). And while Sarah Jane annoyed me throughout - a great disappointment given earlier stories, and making me wonder why fandom remembers her as the 'best' female companion, when there's competition like Liz Shaw, Zoe, Nyssa, Romana - goodness, even Leela- , and always and above all Barbara - it was heartening to see the final departure from the TARDIS. Contrary to later canon, she doesn't look like someone whose life's just been ruined, and the Doctor's inability to drop her in the right place is met merely with rueful affection.
If only she hadn't been played quite so much like Violet Elizabeth Bott.
This stuck me as a very patchy story; it is a sort of abortive revenge tragedy, in which Eldrad, an silicon-based engineer of genius and appallingly fascist views is destroyed by his people, but who survives in a very attenuated form - the eponymous hand - and, through mind control, succeeds in making Sarah-Jane introduce him to a nuclear reactor, thus regenerating him in a form which is partially based on the human female. Feminine!Eldrad, played with a voice even lower than Margaret Thatcher's, and wearing a remarkably effective costume, was one of the best things about the episode. This version of Eldrad, for all the rather horrible things their mind control had caused people to do was rather compelling, even if the constant rehearsal of grudges and anger at being betrayed, despite having brought life to a people, was rather suggestive of Jadis in The Magician's Nephew.
There are some other rather compelling elements in the episode. Despite the fact that at one point you can see how the puppet hand is being moved, the disembodied hand of Eldrad remains rather disturbing. There's an affecting scene where the director of the experimental nuclear power station, believing he's about to die, phones home to tell his wife to kiss the children for him (though this is slightly marred by the fact that he doesn't seem worried by the possibility that the nuclear blast might affect them, and the audience made satirical suggestions along the lines of "take the usual precautions, like tape over the windows" and "lie down in a bag"). Sarah Jane, in possessed mode, is rather frightening, reciting in a singsong, childish voice "Eldrad must live."
Unfortunately, that brings up one of the more unfortunate elements of the episode. Sarah-Jane, wearing some sort of awful dungaree outfit (explicitly compared by one of the characters to Andy Pandy, and with some justice), behaves like a petulant six year old almost through out, and it can't entirely be put down to the blow on the head and the mind control (equally, all the human characters are extremely trusting, to the point of gullibility, and extremely slow on the uptake. I suspect the research station belonged to Torchwood). On a less serious note, the second, masculine version of Eldrad was extremely silly and shouty; Sarah's comment "I liked her, but I couldn't stand him" might be taken as a gift to the femmeslashers out there, but was a fair comment. The first Eldard was unsettling, both repellent and attractive, and strangely sympathetic despite everything. The second... ranted a lot, and failed to get his revenge in a singularly anti-climatic manner (which in a sense was part of the point, but it would have had a good deal more punch if the response hadn't just been more ranting...) The time scales, too, were hopelessly silly - Eldrad and his enemies automated systems are still running after several hundred million years? Really?
That said, this is in essence a good story about the vanity of vengeance, and Judith Paris is superb as the female Eldrad; Glyn Houston, too, is surprisingly likable as the head of the nuclear reactor, even if he's not... spectacularly competent (apart from anything else, anyone whose reaction to a nuclear plant almost on the verge of breakdown is to allow panic to break out, then scream "Will you all shut up!" is probably not someone you want in charge, especially as he apparently has the defence codes for a nuclear strike... yes, Torchwood is the only explanation). And while Sarah Jane annoyed me throughout - a great disappointment given earlier stories, and making me wonder why fandom remembers her as the 'best' female companion, when there's competition like Liz Shaw, Zoe, Nyssa, Romana - goodness, even Leela- , and always and above all Barbara - it was heartening to see the final departure from the TARDIS. Contrary to later canon, she doesn't look like someone whose life's just been ruined, and the Doctor's inability to drop her in the right place is met merely with rueful affection.
If only she hadn't been played quite so much like Violet Elizabeth Bott.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-22 01:00 am (UTC)Absolutely. That part of later canon is rubbish; doesn't make sense at all.
I still love Sarah Jane, though. But I also love Romana, Leela, Ace, Nyssa...
(no subject)
Date: 2009-08-22 09:56 am (UTC)Totally agree. After the first Eldrad, the second was such a let-down.