Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock by: Terrence Dicks

 

Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock was written by: Terrence Dicks, based on his story Horror of Fang Rock.  It was the 40^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

Horror of Fang Rock is one of those Doctor Who stories that should probably not work as well as it does.  It was written rather quickly by Terrance Dicks after the BBC requested cancellation of The Vampire Mutations.  It’s a testament to Dicks’ skill as a writer that it’s the highlight of its season and one of Tom Baker’s best serials.  Since it’s a Dicks story it was also an easy candidate for novelization, Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock being published less than six months after the television story completed.  While not the quickest turnaround time (The Five Doctors hit the shelves the day before that story was broadcast), six months does mean Dicks has little time to adjust the story before his deadline.  His prose is the usual easy to read style, leaning itself nicely into the gothic horror tone of the original story.  There is a great sense of isolation with the lighthouse setting and some slight expansions of Fang Rock and its legendary beast.

 

Dicks avoids the temptation in adding to the legend of the beast to make it a previous Rutan that somehow made it to Earth, implying in Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock that the Rutans have only just become able to change their appearances.  They have only been intergalactic recently, far less than the Sontarans.  This does create an interesting perspective when Dicks writes a few scenes from the point of view of the Rutan.  It’s basic for characterizing a gestalt entity but it makes an impression when the rest of the novelization suffers from not having sterling performances.  Terrence Dicks does adapt his script well, the characterization is there, but without the cast a lot of the lines that transfer over don’t quite hit as well.

 

Overall, Terrance Dicks clearly understood the story he was adapting when writing Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock, even if there is just a bit of the novel suffering from being a novelization.  His breezy prose is for the best, even enhancing the feeling of isolation while characterization does suffer slightly.  8/10.