The Hand of Fear288. Dragonfire (1987)
Classic season 24, starring Sylvester McCoy (the Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel) and Sophie Aldred (Ace).
Pointy-hatted supermarket manager-cum supervillain Kane keeps an ice statue of his late girlfriend in his freezer. I reckon that's a red flag.
In truth, there is some really good work here. Of particular note is the effects work. The images of the planet in space with its vast icy spired city are lovely, and the brief shot of antagonist Kane's face melting off is suitably horrific. Ian Briggs gives his cast some nice lines and Dominic Glynn's music is nice. I also like Glitz's appropriately grotty ship, complete with fuzzy dice. And Andrew Cartmel's scripted final scene writing out Mel and bringing on Ace is great.
Unfortunately those brighter aspects are overwhelmed by the actual studio lighting that works against the apparent intentions of the script. The dragon itself is shown in far too much underwhelming detail. It's clear that with the 'bug-hunt', Briggs is going for an Alien-type vibe. In execution however, the action set pieces, such as they are, have all the excitement of an episode of Keeping Up Appearances.
Then you have elements such as THAT nonsensical literal cliffhanger, and the fact that only Sylvester McCoy appears to be putting any effort into selling this plasticky set as a slippery icescape. And I'm not entirely what to make of Patricia Quinn's performance, but it's not subtle.
Inanimate Carbon God