Image of the Fendahl

...and some fruitcake. I love fruitcake.

Image of the Fendahl has been referred to as one of the darkest of all the classic Doctor Who stories and I can't disagree with that sentiment. The modern series has fully embraced the dark nature so that some of the darkness of this story is mitigated by that, but in context, this story is pretty grim.

Plot Summary

In the priory of a small village, a group of scientists are investigating a skull dug out of a fossilized lava bed. The chief scientist, Dr. Fendalman, and his assistant, Max Stael, power up a computer which energizes the skull in the next room. As it does, a third scientist, Thea Ransome, is hypnotized by the skull. At the same time outside the priory, a local hiker collapses in pain and dies.

The next morning the fourth scientist, Adam Colby, discovers the body, which is already beginning to deteriorate. Colby suggests they call the police but Fendalman demures not wanting to attract attention. He tells Stael to call the London office and have them send a security team to take care of things.

The Doctor and Leela are making repairs to K-9 in the TARDIS when it is rocked. The Doctor detects a hole in the time continuum and lands to investigate it. The two land outside the village and get information from a local caretaker named Ted Moss about the scientists. They go up to the priory to investigate.

Leela approaches a cottage from the rear and is nearly shot by Moss who has broken in to the house of the priory washer woman, Mrs. Tyler. Leela disarms him but is in turn threatened by Mrs. Tyler's son Jack. Jack shoves off Moss who had been looking for something Mrs. Tyler had promised him. Leela then tells Jack why she and the Doctor arrived.

At the same time the Doctor is set upon by an unknown creature who partially paralyzes him. The Doctor is able to reinvigorate himself before the creature attacks and he runs into the mist. The creature then goes back to the priory and kills the security guard Mitchell. He is almost immediately discovered by Colby and Ransome. Ransome passes out and as Colby goes to check on her, the Doctor walks in and orders him not to touch her. Her skin begins to glow and two embryonic Fendaleen appear briefly on her body before disappearing.

Fendalman appears in the kitchen and accuses the Doctor of killing Mitchell. He has the Doctor locked in a closet and sets Stahl off on an errand. Ransome goes to lie down and Fendalman begins to explain to Colby about the skull and it's properties. He believes that the skull is from a human ancestor who arrived on Earth millions of years in the past. He shows Colby an X-ray of the skull with a pentagram crack in it. He believes that the crack is a neural relay that has stored energy in the skull and he has been working to release it.

Back at the cottage as Leela finishes her tale, Mrs. Tyler returns in a state of fear and shock. She says that she encountered something hungering for her soul. Jack gets her to a chair to rest while Leela heads for the priory to find the Doctor.

Someone releases the Doctor from the closet and in wandering around the priory, he discovers Stahl talking with Moss about an occultist ceremony they are preparing for. Shortly after, Ransome comes around looking for the Doctor but finds the X-ray. She starts to go into a trance staring at it but is roused by Stahl. Stahl however chloroforms her and drags her out.

The Doctor enters the room with the skull and finds himself drawn towards it. When it begins to glow with energy, he is compelled to touch it. Locked in to a hold of the skull, Leela enters and helps free him. She takes him back to see Mrs. Tyler and he helps bring her out of her trance. In thanks, Mrs. Tyler gives each of them a rock salt charm she had prepared originally for Moss.

The Doctor and Leela use the TARDIS to go back twelve million years to find out what happened to the fifth planet and where the Fendaleen came from. The Doctor discovers that the planet had been destroyed by the Time Lords and then placed in a time loop to hide the fact. Indignant at his own people's criminality, the Doctor flies the TARDIS back to the priory.

While Dr. Fendalman demonstrates to Colby how his experiments had been proceeding, Stahl walks in and pull a gun on them. He takes them downstairs and ties them to two pillars. Ransome is also there, tied to the floor in the middle of a pentagram. Fendalman implores Stahl to stop, going so far as to note that he is of the bloodline called to search out the Fendahl. Stahl becomes annoyed at his rantings and shoots Fendalman in the head, warning Colby to be quiet or he will shoot him as well.

The ceremony begins as the Doctor and Leela return to the priory, meeting Mrs. Tyler and Jack. Mrs. Tyler, still fearful of the powers they face, ordered Jack to load the shotgun shells with rock salt instead of the regular lead shot. As they emerge from the scanner room, the group is frozen and see a Fendaleen approaching them. Only the Doctor is able to free himself and he takes the gun and shoots the Fendaleen. The rock salt kills it and the group is freed and able to retreat.

The Doctor instructs Jack and Mrs. Tyler to reload the gun with more rock salt shells while he and Leela head to the ceremony below. Ransome has been transformed into a goddess-like woman, the Fendahl core, and upon looking at the people around the circle transforms them into Fendahleen. Leela frees Colby and takes him upstairs. The Doctor tries to help Stahl but he is already infected, his plans for power having gone completely awry. He asks the Doctor for his gun and he shoots himself as the Doctor heads back upstairs.

With two of the planned thirteen manifestations gone, the Doctor realizes they have bought some time. He orders Mrs. Tyler to run back to her cottage and bring as much salt as she has. Leela and Jack head back into the corridor to fend off any attacks and buy the Doctor time. The Doctor and Colby then set up an implosion device to destroy the priory, the Doctor expounding as they work that the skull must have landed when the fifth planet exploded. It leached information into the human race as it developed but gained the power to manifest itself through altering Ransome via Fendalman's experiments.

The Fendahl Core attacks with one of the Fendahleen. Jack is paralyzed again but Leela, squinting to avoid looking at the core, shoots the Fendahleen and drives the attack back. Mrs. Tyler returns with the salt and the Doctor instructs her and Jack to go take cover in the cottage. He orders Colby to turn on the scanner to distract the Fendahleen for two minutes and then run to the cottage as the imploder will go off three minutes after that.

Using the salt to drive off Fendahleen in their way, the Doctor and Leela head back to the basement and the Doctor collects the skull into a radiation box. Colby turns off the scanner and runs. The Doctor and Leela do the same, fighting off the Core with salt as they flee the building. In the woods, they faceplant as the priory is consumed in flames and pulled back to nothing. They return to the TARDIS where the Doctor plans to throw the skull into a supernova to destroy it. He also sets about finishing the repairs to K-9, Leela amused that he referred to K-9 as a he for the first time.

Analysis

This story was a bit disappointing as it had good potential both in a baseline story and some truly excellent cinematography. This is one of the few stories that had actual night shooting and it works very well, adding a solid element of creepiness. Many of the horror elements were played well in this, both in set up and shot execution so I would say that whatever faults this story has, direction is not one of them.

I would also not fault the acting. All the guest cast do fairly well, although there are one or two moments where someone (usually Stahl) goes a bit over the top. But it is usually reigned in quickly. Leela is quite good in this and she has a strong measure of wit and humor in her dialogue, especially in her interaction with the Doctor. Whatever faults Chris Boucher may have as a writer, he does know how to make Leela a worth companion of the Doctor.

Where the story does fall flat is predominantly in it's structure. I have often criticized Seventh Doctor stories for the impression that story elements were left on the cutting room floor, giving the story a very disjointed feel. This story is much the same. There are abrupt cuts and a distinct lack of flow throughout the story. The nature of the Fendahleen is never really explained and the back story we do get in crammed tightly into two expositional scenes, one in Episode Two between Fendalman and Colby and the second in Episode Four between the Doctor and Colby. What few other expositional scenes are given feel rushed or underdeveloped. There is no reason for the Doctor and Leela to take the whole day to go back and see the fifth planet. If you did want to keep them out, structure the scene better so it has a better flow and explains the plot more. A quick scene on the legend of the Fendahleen from the Gallifreian point of view would have inserted very nicely here.

I also have to say that I'm not feeling the Fourth Doctor as well here. I can't help but contrast this story with The Pyramids of Mars where the Doctor is very serious about the threat to Earth immediately. He comes across as callous about those that have died because he is concerned for Earth as a whole. In this story, he is almost flippant. Some flippancy is to be expected, but once he has seen the Fendahleen on Ransome's body, his demeanor should have taken a more serious tone. Little jokes would have still worked, such as requesting fruitcake with Jack's tea or offering the skull a jellybaby, but it would have helped the story if there was a more serious tone underlying those jokes in-between.

Speaking of Ransome, she is actually what I feel makes this one of the darkest stories. Most people point to the Doctor helping Stahl kill himself, but the Doctor pointed out that he was dead already and killing himself actually aided the cause of stopping the Fendahleen. Perhaps I've seen too many Tenth Doctor stories where a similar style was used. However, there is a scene in Episode Two where Ransome opens the closet where the Doctor had been held and looks for him. She whispers, pleading for help from him. That is truly the darkest moment. There are many stories where the Doctor cannot save someone but he nearly always is able to infuse some measure of hope in them or at least make an attempt to aid them. Here, she is alone. She is afraid and alone and the Doctor doesn't come to help her. She instead stumbles out, gets entranced again and then finally subdued by Stahl. It is an incredibly bleak moment in the story.

I generally give this a pass but I feel I should point out that the Fendahleen look pretty bad too. If you are going to do a snake-like slug, there should be some undulation in it. They tried to keep them in the shadows to hide the flaws, but they were forced to show enough of the monster that you couldn't help but immediately notice that it was a man standing in a constricted suit. I know there are technological limitations but if the seaweed could be made to look like it was thrashing about and menacing in Fury From the Deep, I don't see why something could be done to make the Fendahleen look somewhat more menacing. I also don't know why the Fendahl Core looked like a Greek goddess but at least that was done well.

Overall, I can't say that I would pull this one out for a rewatch. There were good moments and the acting and atmosphere were nice, but overall it was just too disjointed. I don't mind being somewhat confused by the story if it is engaging and pulls together at the end, but this didn't do either. Worth a single watch to say that you've seen it but not much beyond that.

Overall personal score: 2 out of 5