Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl

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But the cast all play it totally seriously, it never slips into camp humour, and the production values whilst cheap are perfectly decent. This is a long way from being the best that the show has to offer but it's a little above average and not a bad watch at all. This is great story and deserves to have much more praise heaped on it, we have some fine actors working on it including one woman who is Benedict Cumberbatch's mother. The idea that the development of mankind has been influenced by aliens from another world is a recurring concept, both in Doctor Who and beyond. The Daemons from The Daemons and the Jagaroth in City of Death both claim to have helped humanity along the way and in The Runaway Bride it’s even suggested that the Racnoss were responsible for the formation of our planet. Of the rest, Thea is rather less well drawn, although pleasingly played by the wonderful Wanda Ventham. She starts to be possessed by the skull early in episode 1 and spends the final two episodes mute as the Fendahl core – the golden femme fatale at the centre of the horror. She is taken out of character a bit too soon, unlike say Jill in ‘ The Stone Tape‘ or Barbara Judd in ‘ Quatermass and the Pit‘. Wanda makes the most of what she does get in this and at least makes Thea memorable.

Howe, David J& Walker, Stephen James (1998). Doctor Who: The Television Companion (1sted.). London: BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-40588-7. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link) Another aspect that also sells the Fendahl as a menace is the Doctor’s reaction to them, they are built up as a horror from the Time Lord’s past. That sort of thing is ten a penny now (ancient Time Lord foes/weapons from the dark times etc.) – but at the time was quite novel and different. Even the Doctor himself seems scared, to the point of not thinking straight:After Image' is an excellent `making of' feature with a great set of contributors - Louise Jameson and Colin Mapson (Visual Effects) are especially interesting. I love the concept of evolution going up a blind alley and the destruction of the fendahl as the explanation of the asteroid belt in our solar systems. Speaks Fluent Animal: The Doctor bids a herd of cows good morning and asks them if they know where the Macguffin is. If his claims in later stories that he can understand any animal are true, they don't have anything useful to tell him. The full frame image looks good, though not outstanding. The Restoration Team has done their magic and this show looks as good as can be expected given the age and videotape origins of the program. The color is good though not quite as intense as I would have liked. The fine detail is good but the show is a little on the soft side and the exterior scenes are a bit grainy. Aside from that this looks just fine.

Still, it's The Police Box Show, where we can forgive a bad monster when there's lots to enjoy and especially with a double bill of the marvellous Who rep girl Wanda Ventham as an human character and then a priestesslike Fendahleen Core. True as the core she just flounces mystically but as Tom put it in "The Tom Baker Years" video; No year is given on-screen for the story, but in a trailer broadcast after part four of the previous adventure, The Invisible Enemy, the setting was given as "1977". In my next posts I’ll take a look at the characters inhabiting the world of ‘Image of the Fendahl’ and finally the nature of the menace itself.

The present day: just as the Fourth Doctor and Leela arrive in Fetchborough, England, Professor Fendelman prepares to experiment on a fossilized skull which science says should not exist. The skull is actually an artefact of the Fendahl, a god-like being who feeds on the life force of others. It has begun to awaken and kill. Worse yet, others seek to exploit the Fendahl's dreadful power. Dr. Fendelman: Fendel-man — man of the Fendahl! I have been used! You have been used! MANKIND HAS BEEN USED!! Written by Chris Boucher. This four-episode serial first aired from October 29 to November 19, 1977.

There are good sets, direction and some nice occult imagery. All that really lets it down is the ultimate form of the Fendahl. More than a bit snail like and less than terrifying. Phillip Hinchcliffe was out, Graham Williams was in, and Robert Holmes retained, for a while, and with stories like this - edited by Holmes and penned by his padawan learner, Chris Boucher, you'd hardly notice the difference.A Doctor Fendelman is studying a human skull which archaeologists estimate to be 12 million years old — far older than it can conceivably be — when the Doctor and Leela arrive. Fendelman is using a "Time Scanner" to study the skull, and it is this which has not only drawn the TARDIS to the lab, but also causing the skull to glow with power every time it is activated. His snarky colleagues (including Benedict Cumberbatch's mum) are stumped as to how the skull can even exist.