Horror of Fang Rock

Gentlemen, I've got news for you. This lighthouse is under attack and by morning, we might all be dead. Anyone interested?

It is rather ironic that the rather light and peppy Graham Williams era kicked off with possibly the darkest and most gothic horror story of Doctor Who's entire run. There has been speculation that while Philip Hinchcliff enjoyed the darker stories, he kept a restraining hand so as to not freak out the kids too badly. Graham Williams on the other hand, was much more hands off (as seen with Tom Baker's free hand in his portrayal of the Doctor in later seasons) and that allowed the gothic stories commissioned under the last part of the Hinchcliff era to go darker than he would have allowed. But that doesn't mean they aren't good.

Plot Summary

At a lighthouse off the south coast of England, a meteorite is spied crashing into the ocean by one of the keepers named Vince. He alerts the other two keepers, the head keeper Reuben and the engineer Ben, but neither see it. Shortly afterwards a thick, cold fog rolls in and the lighthouse lantern begins losing power, prompting old Reuben to bemoan the new electric lights rather than reliable oil lamps.

The Doctor and Leela arrive on the rocks outside the lighthouse, having intended to land in Brighton. The two head up to the lighthouse to dry off, especially as the Doctor has noticed the lamp having trouble and might offer assistance. Before they arrive, Ben heads down to the generator to investigate but is surprised by a creature from the meteorite and electrocuted. Subsequently, the power is restored and the lighthouse comes back on-line.

The Doctor and Leela enter and are greeted by Vince. He takes them to the keeper's room where Leela changes out of her wet clothes and into a spare set of Vince's, much to his embarrassment. The Doctor offers to go help with the generator as the light is flickering again. The power is restored before the Doctor can do anything but he does find Ben's body and his oil lamp which has been melted.

The Doctor informs Vince, who is broken up and goes to tell Reuben. The Doctor notes the lamp to Leela and she infers that he suspects a stronger and more sinister force. Reuben is suspicious of the Doctor and Leela but does not move against them. He shrouds Ben's body while Vince and the Doctor man the light, the Doctor very interested in Vince's story about the meteor he saw earlier.

Leela becomes suspicious and sneaks outside with her knife. Though she finds no one, she does discover a number of dead fish floating near the shore. At the same time, Reuben heads back up and sends Vince below to eat. Not hungry, Vince heads to the boiler room but finds Ben's body gone. Leela hears his cry of fright and runs back.

Vince sends a message up to Reuben, but Reuben is distracted by the Doctor noting an approaching yacht. Reuben sends up flares and increases the rate of the foghorn as the lighthouse is flickering out again, but he observes the yacht is traveling too fast. He alerts Vince to be ready and they all watch as the yacht crashes on the rocks.

Reuben, the Doctor and Vince rush down to rescue the passengers. They pull off Lord Palmerdale, his secretary Adelaide, Colonel Skinsale and the mate Harker. The captain of the vessel was killed in the crash. They learn that Palmerdale had driven the captain to drive the yacht full speed in order to get back to London in time to make a killing in the stock market based on insider trading information that Skinsale had given him to settle a series of debts. Harker lashes out angrily at Palmerdale, first simply refusing to set sail again in the fog and then actually attacking Palmerdale, accusing him of murdering the captain until he is pulled off.

While the passengers are being rescued, Leela observes the alien swimming below and away from the crash. She informs the Doctor who urges her to not tell anyone, but Rueben overhears. He suspects the Creature of Fang Rock, an old sea story where the lighthouse keepers were found killed or mad after a bad fog. The Doctor and Leela head out again where Leela shows the location she saw the creature along with the dead fish she found earlier. They also run into Harker, returning from securing the yacht who had pulled the body of Ben which had been dragged into the sea by the creature. The Doctor notes that Ben's body has been used by the creature to study human anatomy and it might become bolder in it's attacks.

Vince becomes frightened by Reuben's tales of the old creature, but the old keeper takes pity on him and tells him to man the light while he maintains the boiler. He heads down and stokes the fires but the whole lighthouse is alerted by the sound of his cries. Bolting down, the Doctor and Leela find Reuben missing and the door open. The Doctor and Harker do a quick search but cannot find him and close the door up.

With tempers starting to flare and nerves on edge among the rescued party, the Doctor sends Harker to man the boiler. While down there, Reuben comes back, although acting very detached. Reuben walks slowly up the stairs and locks himself in his room, ignoring questions about his well-being from Leela. In his room, Reuben begins to glow green and transform from that state into that of the green creature.

Palmerdale, still agitated over the potential loss of money, heads up to the top to talk to Vince. He bribes Vince with £50 and promises another £50 if he will send a message on the wireless telegraph. Vince agrees with the whole conversation having been overheard by Colonel Skinsale, who followed Palmerdale. Palmerdale hears someone coming up and ducks onto the parapet when the Doctor comes up to chat with Vince.

Palmerdale waits outside for the Doctor to leave, trying to keep himself warm. He is attacked and electrocuted by the creature and falls off the lighthouse dead. The Doctor heads below and finds Leela, using a sledgehammer to knock Reuben's door down. He stops her, noting that Reuben will emerge on his own.

The Doctor heads down to check on Harker who had heard the noise of Palmerdale's body hitting. They discover him and carry his body back to the crew room. Adelaide freaks out prompting Leela to slap her. The Doctor also checks the wireless telegraph and finds it damaged. He confronts Skinsale who admits he overheard Palmerdale's plans to send a message on it and sabotaged it to save his own honor. The Doctor notes that his honor may have killed them all.

While they are all distracted, Reuben leaves his room to find Harker, having returned to the boiler room, alone. The lights dim slightly and Vince, having had a change of heart and burned Palmerdale's bribe, signals down that the boiler pressure is dropping. The Doctor and Leela head below to find Harker's dead body. In the adjoining chamber they also find Reuben's body, set with rigor mortis. The Doctor realizes that the alien disguised itself as Reuben after killing him and instead of locking the creature out, the creature is locked in with them.

The Doctor discovers a transmitter near the boiler and realizes the alien is calling a larger ship. He destroys it and decides to destroy the larger version as well. He sends Leela up to gather the remaining people and take them to the lamp room as it's the easiest to defend. She runs upstairs to the crew room while the Doctor climbs the outside of the lighthouse to the quarters where he suspects the main transmitter to be located.

The alien Reuben enters the lamp room and kills Vince. He then descends the stairs and enters the crew room where Leela has just entered. Adelaide becomes hysterical and the alien kills her. That act buys Leela time and she and Skinsale bolt out of the room and up the stairs. They run into the Doctor who tells them to lay gunpowder normally used for flares on the stairs outside the lamp room.

The Doctor waits on the stairs and confronts the alien who changes into it's normal form, a Rutan who is scouting Earth in preparation for making it a base for an attack on the Sontarans. The Doctor warns the Rutan but it pursues him up the stairs. The Doctor ignites the gunpowder which flash ignites. The heat and flash stun the Rutan and it rolls back down the stairs.

Skinsale points out a launcher used for flares and the Doctor has everyone empty their pockets and pack the device with detritus and gunpowder to make a crude mortar. The Doctor worries about the Rutan warship that the scout has signaled and Leela suggests, based on the Doctor's ramblings, to use the lighthouse to make a laser. The Doctor thinks it a good idea but they lack a focusing crystal. Skinsale recalls that Palmerdale kept a small pouch of diamonds on him as insurance. The two men then head down to retrieve them with the Doctor ordering Leela to man the mortar and only fire when the Rutan was nearly on her.

Skinsale searches Palmerdale's body and finds the bag of diamonds. The Doctor sorts through them, finds one of a good cut and size and drops the rest on the ground. The Doctor heads back up the stairs but Skinsale stays behind to scoop up the diamonds. The Rutan comes around the stairs and electrocutes Skinsale. It then pursues the Doctor. He climbs up and dives past Leela as she fires the mortar into the Rutan.

The Doctor spies the Rutan ship and sets about to create the laser. Leela comes down and gloats over the dying Rutan. She informs the Doctor of it's death but he chastises her for gloating over the fallen. With the ship approaching, he activates the beam and they run out of the lighthouse. Leela falls behind slightly to retrieve her hunting knife but they manage to get out and duck behind a rock. The Rutan ship explodes and the flash temporarily blinds Leela. She blinks a few times under orders from the Doctor and her eyesight restores but the flash altered the pigment, turning her eyes blue. They two then reenter the TARDIS and take off, leaving the abandoned lighthouse.

Analysis

Horror of Fang Rock is a wonderfully atmospheric story. It's a marvel of storytelling, directing and lighting. The acting is pretty good too. But it is also dark and exceptionally grim. It's one of the only stories that I can think of where the Doctor and companion leave and everyone has died. Almost all the time there is at least one survivor to tell the tale. Not here.

If I had to pick a single character who was a bit off in this story, it would be the Doctor. The acting was quite good and Tom Baker was in excellent form, but his character was a bit off. I think it was because he needed to be a bit slow and that seems very odd for his Doctor. The lighthouse was such a confined space and with only so much room for the Rutan to maneuver that it seems he should have figured out the enemy quicker. As it is, once he figured it was a Rutan, he dispatched it very quickly with the fire attack and then the mortar. Given that, it would have been nice to see the Doctor pick up things a little quicker and then perhaps have the Rutan put up a bit of a stronger fight.

Leela was quite good in this. This also is close to the end as he becoming educated. Leela is given a bit of a sixth sense, which I head cannon as a tuned "hunter's instinct", and that gives her an interesting edge. She also clearly is learning and retaining things from earlier. A Leela from an earlier story would not have thought to create a laser to destroy the Rutan ship. But you also see the savage elements still on full display as she is fully prepared to gut Lord Palmerdale if he disobeys and she gloats over the Rutan as it is dying. Frankly, I don't see either of these qualities as detriments. The detriment came in future stories when these became her dominant traits rather than the educated individual we see emerging in The Robots of Death and The Talons of Weng-Chiang. But here, she is quite enjoyable.

The guest cast is mostly enjoyable too. I have no qualms about any of the actors and if a character bothered me, it was due to the traits of the character, not the portrayal (Adelaide). Even the characters you are clearly not meant to like, such as Palmerdale, are enjoyable in that rougish way, especially as you know you will appreciate it when they are killed off.

I do though wish at least one of the likeable characters would have survived. Obviously Ben wasn't as he was the first victim and I think you could sense that the old salt Reuben would have to be killed off, but I was hoping that Vince could have survived. Or, if not him, Harker. That would have been rather amusing as the posh upper class are all killed while the working man survives on his wits.

Even though he was a bit of an ass, I wouldn't have even minded if Skinsale had survived. As an old army man, you could tell that he was a survivor and would do unethical things to keep himself alive. That gave him a touch of the anti-hero and would have done well to be the last man standing. But he is undone by greed, which is even dumber when you think that he knew about the mortar and could have come back for the diamonds after the Rutan was dead.

The sets and atmosphere of this story were excellent. They added a natural curvature and built everything close quarters so you get that tight, rounded feel from a lighthouse that you would expect. The lighting is dim and the whole thing is suffused with a dark atmosphere. You are even aware that there is no background music for several key scenes and that only the foghorn provides any ambience to the scene. It's very well done.

There are still a few limitations to the set. You can see some CSO fringing around the heads of folks when they are in the lamp room as they filled in the windows with CSO fog and that provides an odd look. The model work, both with the TARDIS and the yacht is also a bit suspect. I'm not sure how that could have been improved, but they are clearly models and that does detract, especially at the end of Episode One when the yacht crashes. It's hard to imagine how the captain could have been killed when the boat came in in that manner. But those are fairly small niggles.

The Rutan did pretty well, even if it is basically a green beach ball with a light and a few streamers added. Is it the scariest thing in the world? No, but it still works pretty well for an alien. But I can also see why they kept Rueben is as the alien for a full episode as it made their jobs so much easier.

Overall, this is an excellent story. It's probably a touch darker than it needs to be. Either having one other character survive or adding a couple of lines of humor here and there would have gone a long way to rounding the story one last little bit. But it is overall so well acted and put together that I doubt anyone could object to watching this thing several times over. This was my second time around with this story and I'd happily sit down to watch it a third time, especially with someone who hadn't seen it.

Overall personal score: 4.5 out of 5