Horror of Fang Rock

] [cite web
url= http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/4v.html
title= Horror of Fang Rock
publisher = A Brief History of Time Travel
last = Sullivan
first = Shannon
date = 2007-08-07
accessdate = 2008-08-30]
*"Horror of Fang Rock" was the only story of the classic series run to be made entirely outside of London. Due to engineering work at BBC Television Centre, the programme's usual production base, it was made at Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham.cite web
url = http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/4v.html
title = Horror of Fang Rock
accessdate = 2006-09-8 | date = 2004-03-21
work = A Brief History of Time (Travel)]
*Working titles for this story included "The Monster of Fang Rock" and "The Beast of Fang Rock".
*"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 canceled 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 close to when the serial would have aired. A re-written version did, however, eventually see production in 1980 as "State of Decay", part of the eighteenth season of "Doctor Who".
*The serial is the only one of the original series to have been produced at BBC studios outside of London; it is also the only 1970s story not produced at BBC Television Centre (bar "Spearhead from Space", which did not employ regular studio production at all). Engineering work meant that it was made at the Pebble Mill Studios of BBC Birmingham instead. [cite book
author=Howe, Stammer, Walker
title=Doctor Who: The Seventies
publisher=Virgin Books
date=1994]
*According to the DVD commentary supplied by Louise Jameson, John Abbott and Terrance Dicks, a scene in Part Three was crucial to the behind-the-scenes relationship between Jameson and co-star Tom Baker. In one scene, he consistently came in ahead of his cue, thereby upstaging her. On the grounds that this move was "not what they had rehearsed" she insisted on three successive retakes until he came in at the rehearsed time. This eventually won his respect. From that point forward, she claims their working relationship was much smoother.

"The Ballad of Flannan Isle"

*Many elements of the episode were based on a poem, "Flannan Isle" by Wilfred Wilson Gibson (indeed the Doctor quotes from it at the end of the story); the poem itself was inspired by the mysterious disappearance of three lighthouse keepers from the Flannan Isles in 1900. [cite web
url = http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv3/ballad.html
title = The Ballad of Fang Rock
accessdate = 2007-09-13
work = Time Space Visualiser issue 3]

=Max Headroom Intrusion Incident=

On November 22, 1987 a broadcast of "Horror of Fang Rock" by Chicago, Illinois television station WTTW was interrupted for around 90 seconds by a pirate broadcast featuring an individual disguised as television character Max Headroom. The incident made national headlines and the persons responsible were never identified.

In print

Doctorwhobook
title=Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock
series=Target novelisations
number=32
featuring=


writer=Terrance Dicks
publisher=Target Books
coverartist=Jeff Cummins
isbn=0 426 29 8
set_between=
pages=
date=30 March 1978
preceding=Doctor Who and the Face of Evil
following=Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen|A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in March 1978.

Broadcast, VHS and DVD release

*This story was released on VHS in July 1998.
*This story was released on Region 2 DVD in the United Kingdom on January 17 2005, in Australia on Region 4 DVD on April 7 2005, and in the United States on Region 1 DVD on September 6 2005.The dvd contains a commentary by writer Terrance Dicks and actors Louise Jameson and John Abbott

References

External links

*BBCCDW|id=horrorfangrock|title=Horror of Fang Rock
*Brief |id=4v | title=Horror of Fang Rock
*Doctor Who RG | id=who_4v | title=Horror of Fang Rock
* [http://winstonengle.tripod.com/chicagowho/maxhead.htm Page on the 1987 Chicago PBS station broadcast interruption]
* [http://adelaideshrine.tripod.com/id4.html A rebuttal to all who dislike Adelaide.]

Reviews

*OG review | id=4v | title=Horror of Fang Rock
*DWRG | id=horr | title=Horror of Fang Rock
* [http://www.whoniverse.org/reviews/4V.php The Whoniverse's review on "Horror of Fang Rock" DVD]

Target novelisation

*DWRG | id=horrnov | title=Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock
* [http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~ecl6nb/OnTarget/1978/horror/78horror.htm On Target — "Doctor Who and the Horror of Fang Rock"]