The Hand of Fear

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith to a rock quarry. While they try to piece together where they are, an explosion buries them in rubble. Struggling under the debris, Sarah reaches out for what she believes to be the hand of someone coming to her aid. In actuality, it's the hand of Eldrad, a Kastrian criminal who had been killed in an explosion in space millions of years earlier. Later, in the hospital, Sarah wakes up under the spell of the fossilized hand. Her mission is to revive Eldrad by any means necessary. "Eldrad must live." First stop, the nearest nuclear power plant. The Hand of Fear is a fairly middle of the road serial. It's probably best remembered for being the last serial to feature Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. Sarah is often considered to have been one of the best companions from the original series. A fan favorite, for sure. At the end of the last episode, Sarah and the Doctor share a bittersweet goodbye. It seems clear that neither one of them is truly ready to part company. But part they must and so the Doctor lets Sarah out in, what he assures her is her home town, South Croydon. It's not long before Sarah realizes that the Doctor's navigation skills have failed her once again and she is, in fact, not in South Croydon.

Rating: This is intensely interesting%

Voyage of the Rock Aliens

A group of aliens, who look like discount Devo, come to Earth in a guitar-shaped spaceship to discover the source of Rock and Roll. The leader of the aliens falls for an Earth girl named Dee Dee. Dee Dee's boyfriend Frankie doesn't take too kindly to the intergalactic interloper and sics his gang/band, The Pack, on the aliens. Meanwhile, for some reason, two maniacs escape from the local mental hospital and start a killing spree. Unfortunately for the good folks of Speelburgh (yes, that's the name of the town where all this takes place), the local Sheriff, played by Ruth Gordon, is too occupied with hunting down the aliens to notice all the corpses piling up around her. And, I'm not kidding when I say this, that's not even a comprehensive account of all the weird shit in this movie. I'm brushing past the robot voiced by Peter Cullen, the Jermaine Jackson cameo, the polluted lake, the battle of the bands and the Lovecraftian tentacle monster. Voyage of the Rock Aliens feels less like a movie and more like a series of music videos cobbled together into a loose narrative. It's a fascinating thing to behold. Highly recommended for lovers of bad movies.

Rating: 52%

Fun Fact: One of the escaped maniacs in the movie was played by Michael Berryman, the poster boy for Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes.

(Image from Wikipedia)