A fourth Doctor Who adventure and actually quite entertaining to listen to. But golly there is a LOT of death. ( )

The Doctor and Leela try to stop a deadly alien stalking a lonely lighthouse. ( )

Warning: this review contains spoilers

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The Fourth Doctor and Leela end up on the English coast at the turn of the twentieth century. They had intended to go to Brighton, but instead wind up on a desolate stretch of coast featuring a treacherous rock called Fang Rock. The lighthouse crew have seen some disturbing sights -- has the Beast of Fang Rock returned? The Doctor will certainly find out.

I really enjoyed this story. It featured a creepy enemy, jokes about Sontarans, a great setting, and a surprisingly high body count. This included, much to my relief, the completely useless Adelaide, who spent her entire time in the story crying, screaming or fainting. Leela, meanwhile, was very active and useful in helping defeat the enemy. My only complaint was the part where Leela decided to borrow some clothes from the lighthouse crew and she casually stripped off, causing the crewman to gawp in surprise---because this was originally a TV episode, I suspect that scene was included as gratuitous eye candy for all the dads watching the show. It seemed even more gratuitous in print.

I recommend this if you like the Fourth Doctor and/or Leela and/or spooky alien enemies in your Doctor Who stories. ( )

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1007902.html

Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock is a case of Terrance Dicks adapting one of his own TV scripts, which gives him even more than his usual degree of confidence with the material, and he uses the opportunity to fill out the Edwardian background of the story rather satisfactorily.

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/horror-of-fang-rock-by-matthew-guerrieri-and-ter...

I don’t completely stand by that judgement now. One point where the novelisation is consistently out of step with the TV version is that the Doctor is cheerful, funny and charming, whereas Tom Baker’s portrayal on screen is moody and Olympian. Baker apparently did not like Dicks’ script, and his bad mood carries over into his performance, but it makes it all the more watchable; this is not a funny story and a funny Doctor would have been jarring. Perhaps this is Dicks, again belying his cuddly reputation, getting obscure revenge on Baker. ( )