Forty of the Fourth #7: Horror of Fang Rock

This story is another one that I've got some attachment to, as it was during the viewing of it that I first conceived this idea for forty pieces of the Fourth Doctor. It's also one of my all time favorites too.

"Fang Rock" concludes a trilogy of stories featuring the Doctor and Leela being mistaken for murderers when things get hairy, the previous stories being "The Robots of Death" and "The Talons of Weng-Chiang". As a whole they probably complete the gothic horror trappings so synonymous with the era when Philip Hinchcliffe was producer, when real terror and fright seemed to rear its head in any corner of the universe. And where "Fang Rock" succeeds is that it allows the Fourth Doctor to do what he did best: figure things out one by one in an old fashioned Agatha Christie style on a limited budget (for real, I think the story used only two rooms and probably a third redressed). Although it can fall under the "base under siege" category that so many of the Second Doctor's stories fell in, what makes it different is Robert Holmes' approach to unfolding the mystery of what is killing everyone, by reaching back on his influences and weaving them with the scientific rather than the upfront supernatural. Unfortunately, the story is not one of Leela's best; the Doctor dominates from the moment he steps out of the TARDIS, leaving Leela with very little to actually do. In fact, her most notable moment is at the end of the story, when her eyes change from brown to blue (behind the scenes Louise Jameson hated wearing the red contacts that were required and made it a condition of her continuing in the series if she got rid of them). If I had to be brutally honest, Leela could have been written out of this episode, and said to have stayed behind in the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor to go on alone to solve the mystery.

Which probably does say a lot about the Fourth Doctor being one of the few Doctors who could travel alone and pick up one-time companions here and there (much like the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors).

On that end, the Rutan is one of those great one-time enemies that needs another shot in the modern era. As the long-term enemy of the Sontarans, their sole appearance here is a shame given that it is said that the Rutans are far more devious and dangerous than the Sontarans ever are (which makes the potato heads the lesser of two evils).

The piece itself wasn't easy to accomplish; I've often had this scene outlined in my head and was happy to have a backdrop with stairs so I could recreate it. The problem, and I hope it doesn't damage the actual aesthetic value of the piece, was that it was only so big and out of 175 shots this was the one that captured exactly what I wanted.

I also want to point out an interesting note about the Doctor's costume at this point. I never noticed Tom Baker had a full wardrobe at his disposal, and until the standardized outfit of Season 18, he had a unique match of hats, scarves, neckties, cravats, waistcoats, trousers, coats, and shoes. This was something that Pertwee had enjoyed in his run, and Colin Baker to an extent experienced with the variations of his waistcoat and necktie changing The light gray tweed coat, introduced in 1976's "The Android Invasion" and pictured here, was the second longest running of the Doctor's coats, appearing in 38 episodes but made the majority of its appearances in Season 13. It still had a lot of mileage, and when it was finally retired in the middle of the fifteenth season, it was THE coat in terms of merchandising and branding up to that time.

I kind of want to know the whereabouts of this coat, as it was obviously one of Tom Baker's favorites.