Trivia / Doctor Who S14 E2 "The Hand of Fear"

• Corpsing: Eldrad starts having a Villainous Breakdown and begins Milking the Giant Cow, Chewing the Scenery, and generally foaming at the mouth to extents that are aesthetically indefensible, and when he suddenly raises his voice, Tom Baker giggles before turning it into an in-character Grin of Audacity.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen rewrote Sarah's departure together because Sladen hated the scripted departure so much she'd actually defaced her copy of it (which she eventually gave to Russell T Davies as a gift).
• Throw It In!: Sarah Jane, after being released from Eldrad's influence, says "ELDRAD MUST LIVE — just kidding!" This was a prank by Elisabeth Sladen meant to "corpse" Tom Baker, but it seemed so in-character that the director kept it in.
• Wag the Director: Elisabeth Sladen didn't want Sarah Jane to be killed off, married off, or have her departure be the focus of the story.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Anthony Ainley and Patrick Stewart were considered for Professor Watson. The former would go on to play The Master.
  • The story as it was first scripted for the previous season, was a far different beast. It was set in a dystopian, anti-technology future in the 1990s. The Doctor and Sarah Jane are split up, where the latter meets an aged Brigadier, now working for a future version of UNIT called EXIT. As Sarah tried to find the titular hand, she would discover that two aliens known as Omegans were trying to take over humanity by de-evolving them into the ape-like Trogs. Sarah would be next for this transformation, before the more violent Omegan killed the other and tried to ram their spaceship into the Earth. This was only stopped by the Brigadier pulling a Heroic Sacrifice by colliding straight into their ship. While impressed, production issues in Season 13 would cause Philip Hinchcliffe to ask for a retool of the story for next season.
  • During the troubled early stages of making this story, long-time director for Who Douglas Camfield suggested an idea that he had for a serial. Titled "The Lost Legion" and set at a French Foreign Legion outpost in North Africa, it was an alternate exit story if "Hand of Fear" didn’t go through. In its conclusion, Sarah Jane would’ve been killed by the last of an alien force, dying in the arms of the Doctor. While it was a promising replacement, troubles with that story caused it to be replaced by "Hand of Fear".
  • Drax, a character who later appeared in "The Armageddon Factor", was supposed to debut in this story. He was originally a seedy Gallifreyan mechanic who wanted to steal the TARDIS, and was meant to be a recurring character.
  • This story originally filled the six-part slot filled by "The Seeds of Doom".
• Working Title: The Hand of Time and The Hand of Death
• Written By Castmember: Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen wrote Sarah's departure themselves.

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