Horror of Fang Rock is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in four weekly parts from September 3 to September 24, 1977.

Synopsis

On the way to Brighton, the TARDIS lands on the island of Fang Rock off the coast of England. Noticing that the lighthouse isn't functioning properly, the Doctor decides to investigate, as well as ask for directions as the TARDIS seems to have gotten 'lost in the fog'. Upon arrival at the lighthouse, and after introducing themselves, the Doctor discovers the dead body of one of the keepers. The Doctor deduces an alien presence. It is a Rutan, a chameleonic life form, whose scout ship crash landed in the sea and is trying to summon its mother ship. The Rutan, trying to stay alive while waiting for rescue, systematically kills everyone at the lighthouse, including the survivors of a luxury yacht that crashed into Fang Rock as a result of the fog and the malfunctioning lighthouse--both caused by the Rutan. The Doctor and Leela finally manage to kill the Rutan, and after converting the lighthouse into a high-energy laser the Doctor destroys the Rutan mother ship.

Notes

1. Horror of Fang Rock was in fact a late replacement for the scripts Terrance Dicks had originally submitted, a vampire-based tale entitled The Witch Lords, which was cancelled close to production as it was feared it could detract from the BBC's high-profile adaptation of Bram Stoker's classic novel Count Dracula, which was due for transmission at a similar time. A re-written version did, however, eventually see production in 1980 as State of Decay, part of the eighteenth season of Doctor Who.
2. The serial is the only one of the original series to have been produced at BBC studios outside of London. Engineering work meant that it was made at the Pebble Mill Studios of BBC Birmingham instead. It was directed by Paddy Russell , and produced by Graham Williams, his first story as producer to air. The script editor was Robert Holmes.
3. A showing of the story on the Chicago PBS station WTTW-TV Channel 11 in November 1987 gained particular notoriety when the broadcast was interrupted for eighty-eight seconds by a pirate television transmitter overriding the station's transmission signal to broadcast a video of himself in a mask being spanked. This incident has subsequently gained a degree of cult myth about it.
4. Louise Jameson (Leela) stops wearing her brown contacts at the end of this serial, with the sudden change in colour being explained away as resulting from a pigment dispersal caused by looking directly into a bright explosion.

External links

• Cast and Crew list, on the BBC website
• Page on the 1987 Chicago PBS station broadcast interruption