Doctor Who – 'The Image of the Fendahl (1977)


I never quite realised it, growing up, but one of the great things about 'Doctor Who' was that it was never just a science fiction show, it could be other things as well; the kind of things that would make you hide behind the sofa (did anyone actually do that?) I'm thinking ghost stories and I'm thinking horror too. One of the more obvious examples (to me) is 'The Curse of Fenric', a weird but very effective cross between a vampire story and 'Night of the Living Dead', but I'm also thinking about 'The Image of the Fendahl', one of the Target novelisations that I read years ago (thanks again, Library Bus!)

I never saw it play out on TV (I was only two when it aired so if I did, I can't remember it) but I did read the book and the death of the hitchhiker scared the life out of me as a kid. I saw a copy in CEX, the other day, and thought to myself, 'ooh, I need to give it a watch and see if it's as scary as the book was'. Sometimes it's that simple ;o)

So I watched 'The Image of the Fendahl', over the Bank Holiday Weekend and...

A sonic time scan draws the TARDIS to the Fetch Priory on Earth. There, the Doctor and Leela discover an impossibly old human skull that is the key to a nightmare from the Time Lords’ past.

A murderous monster stalks the priory grounds; and within, someone is intent on unleashing a malevolent creature that feeds on death itself...

Classic 'Doctor Who' never seems to age particularly well in terms of the special effects (which you can understand to be fair) and I always find that my favourite 'Doctor Who' stories are those where those special effects are dialled back in favour of the plot itself. 'The Image of the Fendahl' is one of those stories with the emphasis on the mystery of a glowing skull (which shouldn't exist, even if it wasn't glowing), the possession of Thea Ransome and a monster so terrifying that for most of the story, we only get to see people's reactions, to it, as they die noisily. Add some cultists and we're almost in Dennis Wheatley territory with a mix of the supernatural and outright horror that is handled superbly. There's a lot of build up, to the final episode, but there's also a lot of growing tension where you're absolutely sure there's something horrible round the corner... and it's always a surprise when it is.

What I really love about this story is how when the origins of the Fendahl are explained (otherworldly parasites that feed on life force, any will do) it still doesn't take away from the horror and supernatural elements of the tale. These creatures are so horrifying that it doesn't matter where they're from, they absolutely must be stopped but there's every chance that they can't be. And the build up is so long that you when you see the Fendahl, your brain does you a little favour and skips over the fact that it's another rubber suited monster from the seventies. The 'rubber-ness' of the monster actually works for it. I also loved the mixture of how it's dealt with, a liberal serving of salt and a massive explosion, and that's the other thing... You know something is really dangerous when the Doctor just wants to blow it up; no reasoning, just explosives.

The cast really throw themselves into it and the story purrs along as a result. Tom Baker's Doctor shows a hint of panic when the monster is revealed (which adds even more tension) while Louise Jameson's Leela is still getting used to the Earth of her ancestors but is more than capable of going 'full warrior woman' whenever the need arises. You'd think this would detract from the 'horror bits' of the story but it really doesn't . And I'm going to be wondering where on Earth I've seen Edward Arthur before, that is really bugging me.

'The Image of the Fendahl' is creepy tale of terror that makes me wish I'd watched more Tom Baker 'Doctor Who' growing up (I mean, I've watched a few but clearly not enough). Oh well, I'll just have to do something about that now ;o)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone’ – Zub, Scharf, Canola (Titan Comics, Heroic Signatures)

Image
It’s starting to look like this could be the week where I make a half decent dent in my ‘Comics TBR Pile’, lets see how we do... I’ve really been struggling with the ‘Savage Sword of Conan’ collection just recently (more than one reason but I want to finish the collection first before I talk about it) and I thought that I’d have to take a little step back from ‘Conan’ comics and come back when I was in a better mood for it. Until I realized that there was another ‘Conan’ comic lurking in the TBR pile and maybe I could give that a go instead. So that’s what I did. I’ve caught little glimpses of the ‘Black Stone’ storyline, in other ‘Conan’ comics, but I can’t help but feel that the event has kind of passed me by a little. That’s on me though to be fair, I’ve got the attention span of a goldfish right now and there are so many books that I just haven’t been able to focus on; I suspect a couple of them talk about a Black Stone… Oh well, I’m here now. Where better a place to catch up on ‘B...
Read more

‘Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth’ (1992)

Image
Every time Halloween comes round, I promise myself that I’ll watch more horror films and read more horror fiction; we’re halfway through the month and you can see how that’s going so far… There’s still plenty of October left though so lets see how I do from now until the end of the month ;o) First up is ‘Hellraiser 3’ which I watched last night, mostly because I love it (you can tell how this post is going to go, sorry…) but also because it was cheap on Prime and I’m still just on the wrong side of payday. Here goes… TV reporter Joey Summerskill’s life is changed forever when she witnesses the horrific death of a teenager, torn apart by bloody chains. Joey’s search for a story leads her to the Lament Configuration Box but it has already been opened, waking an old evil from its slumber… Now Pinhead walks the earth once more, creating a new army of Cenobites from the transmuted flesh of his victims; his one desire to reclaim the Box. Even with help from an unexpected source, Joey Summers...
Read more

‘Dig Me No Grave’ – Robert E. Howard

Image
  Page Count: Fourteen Pages, eight lines and two words (sorry, it has been one of those weeks) I was looking for something short and sweet, to end the week on, and came across ‘Dig Me No Grave’ courtesy of Paperback Warrior’s write-up . Having read it, I can attest to it being short (all of fourteen and a bit pages in ‘The Dead Remember’ collection) but sweet? Not at all and that is meant in the best possible way :o) ‘Dig Me No Grave’ was originally published in the February 1937 of ‘Weird Tales’ and while it has appeared in other collections since then, I read it in ‘The Dead Remember (The Dark Man Omnibus: Volume 2) and also found it in my copy of ‘The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard. If you’re an e-reading type, you can grab yourself ‘Dig Me No Grave’ over at Project Gutenberg. John Kirowan is woken, in the middle of the night, by his friend John Conrad, bearer of bad news and come to beg a favour. The occultist John Grimlan has just died and Conrad asks that Kirowan att...
Read more