Review of all 4 episodes:
Horror of Fang Rock two stories before this was a sort of dividing point between the sustained brilliance of the quite adult horror based series 12-14 and the more lightweight, humour based series 15 onwards. This though is a horror themed story, a final echo of that previous era before the tone changes fully to a lighter tone in the following stories of the series. Robert Holmes remained as script editor and so despite the change in producer from the great Phillip Hinchcliffe to Graham Williams, the push to move to more humorous, light themes had not yet fully taken over. This story is very much showing Holmes is still in charge and Chris Boucher who had written horror based stories in recent seasons has provided another dark and creepy adventure.
The story has a skull, seemingly human but far too old to be human, dug up and used by scientists in their experiments. The skull is actually alien and has dangerous powers. There are also followers of a mystical cult helping the alien Fendahleen to return The Doctor has to stop the alien menace.
Tom Baker and Louise Jameson continue to shine as The Doctor and Leela and the story is well acted by the whole cast. It is well scripted with intelligent and sharp dialogue and lots of suitably scary scenes and menacing atmosphere. The first episode is particularly brilliant. It is exciting, chilling and enjoyable. Episode 2 pretty much matches it and the 3rd and 4th episodes are also excellent. Although the final part of the story has a few slightly less impressive elements it is still very entertaining and very good quality.
My ratings: Parts 1 & 2 - 10/10, Part 3 - 9.5/10, Part 4 - 9/10. Overall - 9.63/10.
Horror of Fang Rock two stories before this was a sort of dividing point between the sustained brilliance of the quite adult horror based series 12-14 and the more lightweight, humour based series 15 onwards. This though is a horror themed story, a final echo of that previous era before the tone changes fully to a lighter tone in the following stories of the series. Robert Holmes remained as script editor and so despite the change in producer from the great Phillip Hinchcliffe to Graham Williams, the push to move to more humorous, light themes had not yet fully taken over. This story is very much showing Holmes is still in charge and Chris Boucher who had written horror based stories in recent seasons has provided another dark and creepy adventure.
The story has a skull, seemingly human but far too old to be human, dug up and used by scientists in their experiments. The skull is actually alien and has dangerous powers. There are also followers of a mystical cult helping the alien Fendahleen to return The Doctor has to stop the alien menace.
Tom Baker and Louise Jameson continue to shine as The Doctor and Leela and the story is well acted by the whole cast. It is well scripted with intelligent and sharp dialogue and lots of suitably scary scenes and menacing atmosphere. The first episode is particularly brilliant. It is exciting, chilling and enjoyable. Episode 2 pretty much matches it and the 3rd and 4th episodes are also excellent. Although the final part of the story has a few slightly less impressive elements it is still very entertaining and very good quality.
My ratings: Parts 1 & 2 - 10/10, Part 3 - 9.5/10, Part 4 - 9/10. Overall - 9.63/10.