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The Curse of Fenric

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154[1] – The Curse of Fenric
Doctor Who serial
File:Curse of Fenric.jpg
Haemovore converts prepare to feast.
Cast
Guest
Production
Directed byNicholas Mallett
John Nathan-Turner (uncredited)
Written byIan Briggs
Script editorAndrew Cartmel
Produced byJohn Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)None
Music byMark Ayres
Production code7M
SeriesSeason 26
Running time4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast25 October–15 November 1989
Chronology
← Preceded by
Ghost Light 		Followed by →
Survival
List of episodes (1963–1989)

The Curse of Fenric is the third serial of the 26th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 October to 15 November 1989. Unusually, two further versions of this story exist: the 1991 video release incorporated about six minutes of extra material into the original narrative, and the 2003 DVD included a 'Special Edition' edited into a single movie-length feature, with new special effects, re-editing of some scenes, and twelve minutes of unbroadcast footage.

Plot

The Doctor and Ace arrive at a British naval installation near Maiden's Point on the Northumbrian coast during World War II. Befriending the base personnel, they learn that the base, run by Commander Millington, is being used as a listening post to intercept and translate German coded messages using the ULTIMA supercomputer, and to stockpile a supply of a lethal nerve gas. Meanwhile, wheelchair-bound Dr. Judson has also been using ULTIMA to help decipher Viking runes found in catacombs beneath the base, warning of a being called Fenric, which has attracted Millington's attention believing he can gain Fenric's power. Outside the base, the Doctor and Ace discover a covert Russian troop, led by Captain Sorin, who are seeking to capture ULTIMA for themselves; the Doctor warns them to stay low, while Ace and Sorin become smitten with each other.

The Doctor and Ace find a glowing Oriental vase, a treasure captured by the Vikings and left in the catacombs, but it is taken by Millington when they return to the base. As Millington and Judson prepare to use ULTIMA to decipher the writings on the vase, vampire-like Haemovores begin to emerge from the sea, attack and convert the English and Soviet troops and other residents into more Haemovores. When Judson runs ULTIMA with the vase, energy strikes Judson, and he becomes infused with Fenric. Fenric begins to give orders to the Ancient One, an old Haemovore in control of the other monsters, to continue to assault anyone in their path. Ace is able to warn one of the WRNS, Kathleen, in time for her to escape with her newborn child, Audrey.

The Doctor reveals he has previously faced Fenric, an ancient evil since the dawn of time, besting him by challenging him at a chess problem. Arranging another chess problem in the same room where the nerve gas has been stockpiled, the Doctor is able to delay Fenric while he runs off to seek a more permanent solution. Sorin, the last remaining member of his squad, enters the room and prepares to shoot Fenric, but Fenric reveals that Sorin is one of his "wolves", having descended from the Vikings that carried the cursed vase to the English shores, and takes over his body. When Ace returns to the room, she unwittingly helps Fenric, in Sorin's body, to solve the chess problem. The Doctor arrives too late, as Fenric can no longer be stopped. Fenric orders the Ancient One to attack the Doctor, but a psychic barrier created by Ace's trust in the Doctor prevents the Ancient One from acting. The Doctor is forced to reveal to Ace that she too is one of Fenric's pawns, as it was he that created the time storm that transported her to the alien world where she met the Doctor the first time.[2] Furthermore, by saving Kathleen and Audrey, she has assured that the cycle remains unbroken, as Audrey will grow up to become Ace's mother whom she despises. Ace's faith shatters, causing the psychic barrier to drop, but instead of attacking the Doctor, the Ancient One grabs Fenric, pulls him into a sealed chamber and releases a lethal dose of the gas. The chamber explodes, killing them both. As the Doctor and Ace recover along the shore, Ace takes a moment to contemplate why she hates her mother and to absolve her irrational fear of the water before she and the Doctor return to the TARDIS.

Continuity

  • The episode appears to be set in 1943 (see the Chronology for details).
  • The Doctor chants the names of his former companions to ward off the Haemovores. Most of the names he chants are inaudible, but a few can be made out, including Susan, Barbara, Vicki and Steven.
  • Ace mentions an old house in Perivale. This was originally intended as a foreshadowing of Ghost Light; the resequencing of the broadcast schedule, however, altered it into an apparent reference to a past story.
  • Similarly, the Doctor's new wardrobe for season 26 was intended to be hidden for a large part of this story by a long coat, setting up a dramatic revelation when he removed the coat. These plans were also dashed by the rescheduling.[3]
  • The Seventh Doctor and Ace return to World War II in the audio play Colditz, co-starring David Tennant.
  • Like Ace, Luke Smith travels back in time in The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and meets his infant mother and young maternal grandmother. Their respective grandmothers dash off in automobiles to save their daughters, and both grandfathers' deaths are revealed.[citation needed]
  • When Ace dismisses Captain Sorin's admiration that she wears a Soviet star patch on her jacket, by telling him that it is a cheap copy she bought, he gives her a pin-on Red Army insignia from his own uniform to wear. That badge is still pinned to the left breast of her jacket in Survival.
  • Fenric survives to trap the Seventh Doctor in the 2012 Big Finish Productions audio story, Gods and Monsters.

Production

Template:Doctor Who episode head

Pre-production

Writer Ian Briggs based the character of Dr Judson on Alan Turing. (The "ULTIMA machine" of the story is based on the real Enigma machine.) In an interview for the DVD release of this story, Briggs said that since at that time it was not considered appropriate to depict a character's struggle with homosexuality in a family programme, he transformed Turing's frustration at being unable to express his true sexual identity into Judson's frustration at being crippled. In the same interview, Briggs stated that he intended to suggest that both Judson and Millington were gay and had a shared past, although this was not realised in the finished programme.

This story was originally going to be titled The Wolves of Fenric (and before that, Wolf-Time). Fenric does refer to his servants as his "wolves" (and wolves have a strong link to Norse mythology). However, Nathan-Turner felt that as the "wolves" connection was not revealed until quite late in the story, the title would not initially make sense to the audience.[4]

Although there are several references in the story to the Norse belief in a final battle at the end of the world, the word Ragnarok was removed from the script to avoid confusion with the Gods of Ragnarok from the previous season's The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

This story is the second in what some have called the "Ace Trilogy", a three-story arc that explores elements of Ace's past before she met the Doctor. This was not an intentional trilogy, since "Fenric" was originally intended to start the season and be followed by Battlefield, Survival and then Ghost Light.

Production

The Curse of Fenric was originally to have been shot, as with most Doctor Who serials, as a mixture of studio interiors and location exteriors. However, after reading the script, director Nicholas Mallett persuaded producer John Nathan-Turner that given the settings involved, the serial could be made more effective and realistic by shooting the entire production on location, to which Nathan-Turner eventually agreed.[4] Shooting on the serial went over-length to such a degree that consideration was briefly given to editing the story into five rather than four episodes. However, Ian Briggs strongly opposed this, feeling that the narrative flow would be badly disrupted.

The story is set either in Northumberland[5] or near Whitby, Yorkshire.[6] The scenes set in the fictional location of Maiden's Point were shot on location at Lulworth Cove in Dorset.[7]

Cast notes

  • Marek Anton, who played the Destroyer in Battlefield, is seen here in person as the Russian soldier Vershinin.
  • The infant Audrey was the son of the proprietors of the Bush Hotel on Shepherd's Bush Green, familiar to the production team as it was near the Doctor Who offices.[8]
  • This serial features guest appearances from Dinsdale Landen as Dr Judson and Nicholas Parsons as Reverend Wainwright. See also List of guest appearances in Doctor Who.
  • Two of the Haemovores in this story are played by Sylvester McCoy's sons: Sam and Joe Kent-Smith.
  • One of the Haemovores was played by Ian Collins.
  • Anne Reid returned to Doctor Who as Florence Finnegan in the Tenth Doctor episode "Smith and Jones", ironically playing an actual vampire in this story.
  • Actress Janet Henfrey was a schoolfriend of Sophie Aldred's mother. Her character of Miss Hardaker in this serial was modelled on the part she played, again as a school teacher, in two Dennis Potter dramas: Stand Up, Nigel Barton (1965) and The Singing Detective (1986).
  • Sylvia Syms, who played the character Mrs Pritchard in Ghost Light, was originally offered the part of Miss Hardaker.

In print

Template:Doctor Who book A novelisation of this serial, written by Ian Briggs, was published by Target Books in November 1990. The novel features additional character information absent from the serial and an epilogue featuring an older Ace after she has left the Doctor. This formed part of the basis for Ace's departure in Kate Orman's Virgin New Adventures novel Set Piece, where she chooses to stay in Paris to monitor a time rift and at some point has a relationship with one of Captain Sorin's ancestors.

VHS, DVD and CD releases

The Curse of Fenric was released on VHS in 1991. The release included about six minutes worth of the extra scenes. This story was released on DVD in the United Kingdom in October 2003 in a two-disc set as part of the Doctor Who 40th Anniversary Celebration releases. This consisted of the original four broadcast episodes, plus a 'Special Edition' edited into one movie-length adventure including twelve minutes of unbroadcast material. This version has reworked special effects and music arranged by Mark Ayres based on notes written up by himself and the late Nicholas Mallett; it also sees several scenes re-edited to produce a more coherent narrative.

Soundtrack release

Untitled

Mark Ayres's music from this story was released on CD in 1991 by Silva Screen Records.[9][10][11]

Track listing

  1. Introduction: "Doctor Who"
  2. The Boats
  3. Beach-Head and Rat-Trap
  4. Sealed Orders
  5. Eyes Watching
  6. Commander Milligan
  7. Viking Graves
  8. Maiden's Point
  9. The Translations
  10. Audrey and Milligan's Office
  11. The Curse of Fenric
  12. High Stakes
  13. The Crypt
  14. The Ambush
  15. The Well of Vergelmir
  16. The Ultima Machine
  17. Dangerous Undercurrents
  18. The Seduction of Prozorov
  19. Half-Time Score
  20. Exit Miss Hardaker/The Vicar and the Vampires
  21. Sopt the Machine!
  22. The Haemovores
  23. The Battle for St. Jude's
  24. The Mineshaft
  25. Sealing the Hatch
  26. House Guests
  27. The Telegram
  28. Evil from the Dawn of Time
  29. The Storm Breaks
  30. Ancient Enemies
  31. Shadow Dimensions
  32. Chemical Grenade
  33. The Great Serpent
  34. Pawns in the Game
  35. Kathleen's Escape
  36. The Wolves of Fenric
  37. Black Wins, Time Lord!
  38. The Final Battle
  39. Epilogue: "Doctor Who"

References

  1. ^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the four segments of The Trial of a Time Lord as four separate stories and also counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this story as number 158. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.
  2. ^ Dragonfire
  3. ^ Doctor Who: "The Curse of Fenric", DVD Information Text. Ed. Martin Wiggins.
  4. ^ a b Template:Brief
  5. ^ Howe, David J.; Walker, Stephen James (1998). "The Curse of Fenric". Doctor Who: The Television Companion. London: BBC Worldwide. p. 532. ISBN 0-563-40588-0. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Cornell, Paul; Day, Martin; Topping, Keith (1995). "158 'The Curse of Fenric'". Doctor Who: The Discontinuity Guide. London: Doctor Who Books. p. 355. ISBN 0-426-20442-5. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Howe, David J.; Walker, Stephen James (1998). "The Curse of Fenric (7M)". Doctor Who The Handbook - The Seventh Doctor. London: Doctor Who Books. p. 101. ISBN 0-426-20527-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  8. ^ BBC - Doctor Who - New Years Day
  9. ^ Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric (Media notes). Silva Screen. 1991. {{cite AV media notes}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |publisherid= ignored (help)
  10. ^ Ayres, Mark. "Mark Ayres - Doctor Who Incidental Music". Retrieved 5 October 2008. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) [dead link]
  11. ^ "Millenium Effect". Retrieved 5 October 2008. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Seventh Doctor.

Reviews

Target novelisation

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