Lance Parkin must have been a very precocious 6 year old, watching The Horror of Fang Rock and proclaiming it cheap, shoddy and un-fun, noting the change in producer (Enlightenment 118: "A Forty Year Adventure in Time and Space."). Then again, Paddy Russell will certainly back him up with regards to the script, which she didn't think was up to scratch (apparently Tom Baker threw it across the room).Personally, with the exception of a couple of moments, Fang Rock feels exactly likes it's broken from the same mold as the rest of Hinchcliffe/Holmes (Holmes was still credited as script editor). Surely the poached green egg of a Rutan is no more embarrassing than the giant rat?
An interesting observation is made in one of the extras on the DVD: Robert Holmes was more about the moment, the rest of the story is then built around each piece. Terrance Dicks is more concerned with the structure--beginning, middle and end. It explains so much about how their stories work. When one remembers a Holmesian story, one thinks of the Doctor chasing Greel through the theatre, Litefoot and Jago escaping through the dumb waiter. With Dicks, it's harder to break down his stories to incident. It's more about the whole; everything drives the plot forward.
I always jumbled up Fang Rock in my mind with a Sunday afternoon matinee I once saw called The Light at the Edge of the World. The movie, which was set in a lighthouse and also featured a shipwreck, starred Yul Brynner, Kurt Douglas and Samantha Eggar. For years I would attribute details of one to the other. I believe they are both also collectively responsible for a recurring dream I once had involving people in vaguely Edwardian attire doing nasty things to each other by the sea.
Most of what I experienced this time around can be summed up in an Enlightenment review I did a couple years back. Here are some choice excerpts:
Dicks takes a premise that by all rights shouldn't have a heck of a lot of incident and infuses it with all kinds of little surprises. The opening shot is ominous and simply effecting. Fog and effective lighting are used again, as in Talons, to hide what creeps in the dark (as well as the production deficiencies). The scene where Leela ventures outside to investigate in episode two is quite tense with the discovery of dead fish adding a nice touch. The tried-and-true method of not showing the "creepy green thing" works well here.
As the story opens, Dicks introduces us to the lighthouse crew: Vince, young and wet-behind-the-ears; Reuben, old, crusty and protective of his younger charge; and Ben the very model of an Edwardian rationalist. Dueling working class accent and lots of local colour draw us in and make lonely, stark locale somehow warm and human. There's an obvious current of the little Englander woven throughout the story: early on Reuben mutters, "Frogs, Ruskies, Germans--can't trust any of them." Later in episode two when Skindale remarks that Leela is, "quite a looker," Adelaide's biting (and racist) response is "were you a long time in India, Colonel?"
Watching the interplay between the various characters proves very entertaining and illuminating.. Vince, although lower class, is ever the gentleman, concerned foremost with the well being of Adelaide. Adelaide is turn demonstrates her her upper-class snobbery when she asks him his name. "Vince Hawkins," he replies. "Thank you Hawkins," she replies as if he's her servant. Annette Wollett's performance ultimately outstays it's welcome though, what with all her skittish screaming, but it does lead to a rather unintentionally funny slap from Leela that evokes something Vicki Lawrence would deliver on The Carol Burnett Show.
Reuben is written as the classic Luddite, distrustful of modern technology such electricity and the telegraph. His protectiveness of Vince is quite touching and only serves to underscore the tragedy when the younger man is murdered by the creature posing as his one-time mentor. One of the eeriest moments in the whole story comes when his doppelganger flashes the creepiest grin this side of Stepford.
Tom Baker trades in his deerstalker from the previous story for a bowler and takes command of every scene he's in. The 4th Doctor is at his rudest and most alien. Witness the look on Adelaide's face when he puts his feet on the table. Or when he calls for introductions and then changes the subject when it's his turn. One can't quite decide whether Baker is exploring alternative approaches to the role or he's just bored.
Ultimately the story may fall under the shadow of it legendary predecessor, lacking it's spills and chills, but it still holds up the style and quality of season 14. Next's week's adventure on the other hand...
Original viewing date: January 8, 1984
Spirit: Green electric jello shooters!
Music: Michael Jackson's, "Thriller"
No comments:
Post a Comment