4 Episodes
Aired between 29th October 1977 and 19th November 1977
Written by Chris Boucher
Produced by Graham Williams
Directed by George Spenton-Foster
Synopsis
In a stately old house, four scientists investigate the existence of a fossilised human skull believed to have been around for twelve million years which means that it's far older than what it should actually be.
The group are led by Professor Fendelman, a rich and eccentric academic who - along with his colleague, Max Stael - are undertaking secret experiments with a time scanner.
The scanner is somehow affected by the presence of the skull and whilst its running, the skull begins to glow and affect the mind of Thea Ransome, one of the scientists.
The Doctor is alerted to the danger when the waves of the Time Scanner affect the TARDIS. They travel to Earth and begin searching for the source, leaving K9 in the TARDIS as he was halfway through being re-wired. The Doctor fears that if they don't find the Time Scanner quickly, it will implode and that would be bad.
Fendelman realises that the Time Scanner somehow caused a mans death the previous night, and in fear of his work being interrupted, he convinces the others not to report it to the Police and he hires private security to stop further intruders.
As night falls again, the Doctor and Leela investigate the priory. Leela ends up finding an old woman called Ma Tyler and her grandson, Jack.
Ma Tyler is very superstitious and thinks bad things are going on. Indeed they are, as the Doctor immediately knows that the priory is the hunting grounds to the Fendaleen, a creature of myth.
Adam Colby, another one of the scientists is terrified now that more people have turned up dead and goes to call the Police but soon finds that the line is dead. Colby confronts Fendleman about it who takes him to the Time Scanner and reveals that the machine was built by him and it somehow led him to find the skull. The more he uses it, the more information he gains.
After getting locked up and escaping again, the Doctor finally finds the skull, but underestimates its power as it starts to drain him.
Luckily, Leela turns up and frees him from it. They go back to Ma Tylers house and the Doctor explains that the skull is linked to the Fendahl, a mythical creature from Gallifreyan lore that existed on "the fifth planet" before it was destroyed. He goes with Leela to try and locate the fifth planet and figure out how it came to earth.
Back at the priory, Max Stael turns on Fendleman and Colby, revealing that he is a satanist and he used Fendleman to gain the skull, a powerful occult artefact.
The Doctor finds that the fifth planet is inaccessible as it's in a time loop and is mad at the Time Lords for it. They obviously tried to stop the Fendahl and failed so covered it up.
The Doctor takes the TARDIS back to Ma Tyler's house.
Max Stael takes all the scientists to the basement of the priory and uses Thea Ransom as a host for the Fendahl. He and his cultists begin a ritual that transforms her into a medusa type host.
The Doctor, Leela, Ma Tyler and Jack all head to the priory to stop the Fendahl and manage to kill the fledgling Fendaleen with rock salt in their shotgun shells.
They eventually come up with a plan to grab the skull and use the Time Scanner to set off a localised explosion that will destroy the Fendahl, it's children and the priory itself.
The cultists are overrun as they underestimated the Fendahl's power and Max is forced to kill himself rather than be consumed by the creature. Colby is the only scientist survivor, and he sets the machine to blow up, running to Ma Tyler's cottage where he takes cover with her and Jack as the priory is destroyed.
The Doctor and Leela just make it out and go to drop the skull off in the centre of a supernova.
Trivia
- Chris Boucher wrote the story. It would be the last Doctor Who TV script that he would do, as he was appointed Script Editor on Terry Nation's new show - Blake's 7. Boucher did return to the universe however by writing a novel - a sequel to the Robots of Death, and also developed a series of unofficial audio dramas in the same universe, called Kaldor City (see Robots of Death).
- This was the last story Robert Holmes commissioned as a Script Editor for Doctor Who. He'd had enough and was looking at moving on. His replacement was a guy called Antony Read.
- The keen eyed of you will have noticed Leela's new uniform (well, it was addressed in the show too I guess). This was supposed to have been made to be more comfortable for Louise Jameson and plus the old one was wearing out a bit. Oddly enough though, this one seems far more, ahem, revealing than the original.
- And that's not the only thing to have changed with Leela. Her hair is up in this story because a hairstylist mistakenly cut six inches from her hair before filming. The final scene where she has it down was done six weeks after the rest had been filmed
- Here's an interesting fact for you. Wanda Ventham, the lady who plays Thea Ransome, got her role in this story just after coming back from having a baby. That baby was none other than future star, Benedict Cumberbatch!
The Review
At the risk of sounding a little bit dim, I had a problem understanding this story. Chris Boucher struck gold with his other two stories (Face of Evil and Robots of Death), both of which had decent developed worlds and comparatively fleshed out characters. Image of the Fendahl has complexity to it too, but I feel that half the time it's unnecessary and the other half it's sort of left vague. It's like a shop where you know beyond the windows are a whole host of amazing sights, but the glass is too frosted to see any of it.
In part the vagueness works but ultimately, I found myself concentrating more on that aspect than any of the other bits, which is a shame. To be sure, there's lots of great things about this story. Anyone who has followed this blog for a while will see that I really enjoy the more Lovecraftian aspects of Doctor Who, and this story is perhaps the pinnacle of it. The old Priory, the mysterious skull, the occult rituals that leave the Satanists woefully outclassed, the foul creatures lurking in the darkness and the old lady who knows more than any man should. All of this is superb, and I'll come back to this point in a moment.
The acting is also pretty great which is weird to say. In more historical settings like Victorian London, you can get away with characters talking a bit more formally or out of the norm. This is supposed to be a modern day story, but many of the characters are melodramatic to the point where you expect "Tales of the Unexpected" music to start up at any moment! Thing is though, their melodrama does work. Colby's sarcastic wit works, Max's facial expressions work, and Ma Tyler's odd dialect just adds to the fact that she is an old woman who's steeped in the tradition of the old ways.
In some respects, this story would work far far better without the Doctor sticking his oar in. The tone of this story is very very right, and on the same lines of grimness as the Seeds of Doom and Pyramids of Mars, but it just falls down at the point where you have to explain all of it. The Fendahl and the Fendahleen, the nuances of the time scanner. I think I got it by the end, but it felt like the story got there in a very haphazard way.
Overall, this is the penultimate, great show of gothic horror during Tom Baker's reign and it's good, if a little marred by trying to be too much of a smarty pants.
Rating
8 out of 10
Rewatchability Factor
7 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- The Long Game (Doctor Who, Series 1)
- The Power of Three (Doctor Who, Series 7)
No comments:
Post a Comment