The Curse of Fenric
by Ian Briggs
1989, Story #158
Starring
Sylvester McCoy as The Doctor
Sophie Aldred as Ace
According to the Doctor in this story, the universe was once nothing except light good and evil. Then came the beginning, the Big Bang and the two forces were shattered and spread out into the Universe as echos of good and evil. The Doctor has come to 1940’s England to battle, once again, with that evil.
Plot
WWII, somewhere on the coast of England, Russian soldiers arrive for a secret mission, so too do the Doctor and Ace.
The Doctor quickly infiltrates a top secret naval facility where a scientist is working on the Ultima machine – a German code-breaking “computing machine.†Something is amiss, people near the water are being killed. The local legends say it is the norse Curse of Fenric.
The ancient runes in the local church seem to hold the answers and while everyone else struggles to make sense of what’s going on, the Doctor knows more than he is telling.
In deciphering the runes, the British release Fenric from his 17 century imprisonment. They also unleash his “wolvesâ€, humans mutated into Hemovores. In a word: vampires.
Apparently, the Doctor is the one who imprisoned Fenric 17 centuries ago, using only a banana… no wait, sorry, that was a different Doctor. Fenric was imprisoned with a chess game. Now the game is on again and Ace manages to give the answer to Fenric, allowing him to defeat the Doctor… or does he?
Analysis
This is the second to last episode of the original Doctor Who series. I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t agree that it was time for retirement for the venerable Doctor. In particular, McCoy’s final year saw a push to make him “more mysterious†again. When he started out back in 1963, we knew nothing of him, but by the time McCoy’s years had come along, more information than you could have wanted to know about the Doctor and the Time Lords was available. By this point, I think the Time Lords were guest hosting game shows and we’d been told so much about the Doctor’s background you could figure out what color poo was in his diapers back on Gallifrey.
These efforts to make him “mysterious†again failed miserably. The Doctor would arrive somewhere and seem to know what was going on. He’d walk around amidst the chaos as if he was setting up the pieces of a game, and then, he’d pull the rabbit out of his hat at the end. (A rabbit that was obviously hidden there since the before he arrived) Crisis solved. This didn’t make the Doctor so much mysterious as it did annoying. Where’s the sense of suspense if it’s obvious the Doctor is just following a well-planned and orchestrated plot? I can tell you where the “suspense†comes from. It comes from Ace screwing things up because the Doctor hasn’t told her what’s going on. That’s just bad writing, if you have to bring along your own plot complications.
Nonetheless, this is probably McCoy’s finest episode, he has some of his finest moments as the Doctor along the way.
A few things do bear worth mentioning:
- Fenric. A variation on a Norse god name. In this case, meaning wolf. He’s bad, therefore, he’s the a Bad Wolf. Coincidence? The continuing Bad Wolf theme from Eccleston’s season was never properly resolved, just swept away like an inconvenient plot point in Parting of the Ways.
- The Doctor explicitly says good and evil existed before the universe began. Why then was the the 10th Doctor having so much difficulty that the “evil†in the Satan Pit came from before the universe began?
- The Doctor explains you gotta have faith, absolute faith, in something and you can put up a psychic barrier to drive back the hemovores. The Doctor has no difficulty putting up a faith barrier – an extremely strong one – but, what does he have faith in?
- Ace is given a lot of importance in this episode. We’re finally given an explanation for the ridiculous “time storm†that swept her from Perrivale to Iceworld and subsequently into the Doctor’s care. She’s been a pawn in Fenric’s game all along. On top of that, the Doctor appears to have known this all along.
- Far from powerless during his imprisonment, Fenric apparently can conjuring time storms and influence people’s minds. He used a time storm to place Ace in the Doctor’s path and she used one to bring a hemovore from Earth’s distant future into the past for no apparent reason exceptt to make more hemovores. Why couldn’t he escape sooner, then?
- What’s with this Earth’s future where everyone is turned into a hemovore? Hasn’t Ian Briggs seen any of the other episodes of Doctor Who? The Earth and humans always prevail. It didn’t end that way for mankind.
Bonus material on this DVD includes the re-edited “movie†version of the story, which has been enhanced in a variety of ways, and several documentary pieces, some old, some new. The one with writer Ian Briggs really reveals someone who is just a little too obsessed with sex in his writing. There’s no actual sexual activity in this episode, it’s just that the writer says it’s all about sex from the water and swimming (everybody wants to come into the water) to wheelchairs (homosexuality). Methinks somebody wants his works to be considered more “serious†than they really are.
Conclusion
If you’re going to watch just one of the currently available McCoy stories, make it this one. (Not that many are available.)
The Future
Good news: I ordered Web Planet, Inferno and Ghost Light (2 out of 3 ain’t bad) and they should arrive on Wednesday.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Review
Nicholas Parsons deserves a mention! He’s superb in this.
The big problem is, as ever in these later stories: too much going on. Ace (who I think is a great companion) gets a nice coming of age story. There’s a promising Bletchley Park type setup. Russian soldiers on a top secret mission. An eerie crypt and an agnostic vicar. So do we really need the time travelling wolf beast? (Sorry, but I just don’t see why we can’t have purely historicals anymore). And the whole manipulating-the-back story thing is just irritating and unnecessary.
Still I think it showed the potential in the series even as it limped to the end: it was getting better and with some sterner script editing and a bigger budget it could have been very good.
Nicholas Parsons deserves a mention! He’s superb in this.
The big problem is, as ever in these later stories: too much going on. Ace (who I think is a great companion) gets a nice coming of age story. There’s a promising Bletchley Park type setup. Russian soldiers on a top secret mission. An eerie crypt and an agnostic vicar. So do we really need the time travelling wolf beast? (Sorry, but I just don’t see why we can’t have purely historicals anymore). And the whole manipulating-the-back story thing is just irritating and unnecessary.
Still I think it showed the potential in the series even as it limped to the end: it was getting better and with some sterner script editing and a bigger budget it could have been very good.
PS. After you mentioned you were going to review Inferno at the end of your Revalation review I rented it from Amazon. I’ve watched it. Now I’m waiting for your verdict (no pressure or anything 😉 )
PS. After you mentioned you were going to review Inferno at the end of your Revalation review I rented it from Amazon. I’ve watched it. Now I’m waiting for your verdict (no pressure or anything 😉 )
You are right, Nicholas Parsons did deserve a comment. I had a couple more paragraphs written out that I wasn’t satisfied with (the writing) and I cut them planning to re-write them, then one of the kids exploded or something and I forgot to add them back in. Sometimes the kids make for incoherent writing.
Parsons did a nice, credible turn as the village vicar. One of the reasons I didn’t mention too much about him is that he’s not well known in the US. I know him from some of his appearances on Benny Hill, but don’t believe I’ve ever seen him in anything else.
Ah, Nicholas Parsons. A bit of a figure of fun, but always good natured about it; this is how he has chaired legendary radio panel game Just a Minute for 39 years. If you’ve never heard it, listen to the lasest edition here where Paul Merton is usual quite vicious to him.
He’s most often on panel games (famously Sale of the Century). He appeared in The Comic Strip Presents: Mr Jolly Lives Next Door (I haven’t seen it but would love to). My favourite Nicholas Parsons appearance is in A Bit of Fry & Laurie when he simply sat silently in a chair while Hugh Laurie seranaded him with Love Me Tender on the acoustic guitar.
Ah, Nicholas Parsons. A bit of a figure of fun, but always good natured about it; this is how he has chaired legendary radio panel game Just a Minute for 39 years. If you’ve never heard it, listen to the lasest edition here where Paul Merton is usual quite vicious to him.
He’s most often on panel games (famously Sale of the Century). He appeared in The Comic Strip Presents: Mr Jolly Lives Next Door (I haven’t seen it but would love to). My favourite Nicholas Parsons appearance is in A Bit of Fry & Laurie when he simply sat silently in a chair while Hugh Laurie seranaded him with Love Me Tender on the acoustic guitar.
My, name is Mico Phive, and unlike the rest of you, I am a huge fan of the greatest doctor in the series{sylvester Mccoy.} he brought back mre than mystery, You know he is the Doctor, but what you don’t know is that he was not arrogant,or mean,or old fashion, he loved to teach,even though he had a great job of saving the earth,and the universe. Yep, he is the world’s greatest doctor.
My, name is Mico Phive, and unlike the rest of you, I am a huge fan of the greatest doctor in the series{sylvester Mccoy.} he brought back mre than mystery, You know he is the Doctor, but what you don’t know is that he was not arrogant,or mean,or old fashion, he loved to teach,even though he had a great job of saving the earth,and the universe. Yep, he is the world’s greatest doctor.
Hi Mico. I am well aware of the qualities of Sylvester McCoy. He was the greatest doctor (bar Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant) in the TV series, poorly though he was served by the writing of this era.
But I feel you have to recognise just how how much the redoubtable Nicholas Parsons brings to this particular serial.
Hi Mico. I am well aware of the qualities of Sylvester McCoy. He was the greatest doctor (bar Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant) in the TV series, poorly though he was served by the writing of this era.
But I feel you have to recognise just how how much the redoubtable Nicholas Parsons brings to this particular serial.