Friday 26 November 2010

Image of the Fendahl


The Fourth Doctor and Leela face a terrible being that is connected to the evolution of the human race.

Gothic horror in Doctor Who is most associated with the producership of Phillip Hinchcliffe. However, after Graham Williams took over as producer, his first season included two stories, Horror of Fang Rock and Image of the Fendahl. I would argue that these two stories are in some respects rather supeirior to much of the gothic horror of the Hinchcliffe era. Brain of Morbius, Pyramids of Mars and Robots of Death are good stories, though they have considerable faults (most notably a strongly sadistic tendency) and are very much one-trick ponies. I think the two Williams-Gothic stories manage to transcend some of the limitations of Hinchliffe-Gothic. Where Pyramids of Mars was grim and humourless, Image of the Fendahl has a terrific sense of fun. Where Brain of Morbius looked horribly cheap, Image of the Fendahl manages to minimise the impact of its cheapness. Where Robots of Death showed a sadistic delight in violence, Image of the Fendahl tones down the brutality and relies on atmosphere (though the Doctor's giving Stahl the gun to kill himself is a bit of a shock).

The strongest element of Image of the Fendahl is its tremendous sense of atmosphere. Its a perfect story to watch on a dark autumn evening. It creates such a strong sense of overwhelming cosmic terror. This is particularly enhanced by the large absence of a musical score in favour of creepy sound effects.

Image of the Fendahl is a story about a monster that is not really a monster in the conventional sense. We don't see what it is that kills the hiker. We see a sinister old skull, we see maggot-like creatures and we see a sort of goddess figure, but neither is in the fullest sense the Fendahl. The Fendahl is a kind of intangible cosmic terror. Like the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, this serial relies on a terror of something that is never fully realised and never described. The story implies that the Fendahl is really a concept, death itself. This metaphorical idea generates a sense of climate in the story does not really fit with the science fiction trappings. A more effective metaphorical evil would be used later in Curse of Fenric.


The worm-like Fendaleen are very well designed. Their maggot-like appearance makes them as much potent symbols of death as the skull. The goddess-like figure that Thea is converted into is very effective, even with the daft use of make-up to create bi eyes. Seeing Death as a woman is unexpected, but fits in with a number of mythologies. The Fendahl woman is most effective in that she does not speak and interacts little with the characters. This makes her an utterly alien and unfathomable figure. This is a considerable improvement on Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars. Gabriel Woolf was fantastic at playing Sutekh, but the fact that he talks and communicates with the Doctor removes his aloofness as a god-like figure. For all Gabriel Woolf's brilliance, Sutekh remains another masked villain. The same may be said about Azal in The Daemons. In contrast, Image of the Fendahl gives us a Quatermass-like sense of dealing with the incomprehensibly alien.

The stereotypical yokels have been criticised, but they do add a sense of fun that does not really detract from the darkness of the story as happened with The Daemons. Mrs. Tyler is hilariously fun and her grandson is a great character too. Even Ted Moss is a decent enough character, if underused, character.

Adam Colby is a great character that stands out. Usually male non-regular leads are wet and bland, but Colby is given some great witty lines. He comes across as quite a convincing smug young scientist. Wanda Ventham puts in a pretty good peformance as Thea Ransome. Fendelman and Stahl are also well played.

Louise Jameson is on top form as Leela. I am of the unusual opinion that Leela was better used in Season 15 than Season 14. After the departure of Hinchcliffe, the rather banal 'Eliza Doolittle' idea of the Doctor educating Leela seems to have been largely dropped. I feel the idea of Leela needing to be civilized rather demeans her character and does not seem true to the Doctor. I much prefer the idea that the Doctor likes having Leela around because she is funny and is useful for threatening people. In this story, Leela is wearing the dress version of her costume rather than the original leotard. I think this looks a lot better. I have mentioned before that I think it is doubtful that a primitive tribe like the Sevateem would be able to make boots of the quality that Leela wears (let alone that metal knife!). I think it would have been more likely that Leela would have gone barefoot like a female Tarzan.

Tom Baker is also great. At this stage, he was able to lead without always being the dominating centre of attention. We also get to see him being paralyzed by the power of the Fendahl skull. In later stories he would become pretty invulnerable.

This is story is one of the best of the Graham Williams era.

15 comments:

  1. The first time I watched this episode I was shocked. I didn't expect a Graham Williams era episode to be this dark and creepy. The concept of The Fendahl felt very Lovecraftian, and I've always felt that Doctor Who and Lovecraft combine quite well.

    ReplyDelete
  2. They go very well together, and my interest in Lovecraft rekindled my earlier enthusiasm for Doctor Who.

    If you take the New Adventures as canon, a lot of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos actually exists in the Doctor Who cosmology.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The premise that the Fendahl 12 million 'human' skull was our biological ancestor was interesting. We were presumably fashioned in the Image of the Fendahl, and as Host animals would eventually be consumed by the Progenitor. However, the plot was so sketchy that it could just as easily been not unlike the Hand of Fear.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for your comment. Have you visited here before?

    Hand of Fear probably does have a tighter plot than Image of the Fendahl (the shame of it), but Image is in every way a superior production.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like your blog, the reviews are different from the norm. I agree that some of Hinchcliffe's were a bit gratuituous. However,Image of the Fendahl was very radical, and not exactly Christian! Boucher was an atheist. However, the Death concept and the Skull indicated an interesting Left Hand path idea. John Elliott.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks a lot for visiting and for leaving positive feedback.

    I am well aware that Doctor Who is mostly made by people who do not share my fundamental Christian faith. I don't expect them to always reflect the beliefs and values I share. People can appreciate the depth and intelligence of Dante's Divine Comedy without sharing his medieval Catholicism.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That's certainly different. Dr Who did use broadly Christian concepts in stories, noticably Malcolm Hulke's writing. Pertwee's Colony in Space, 1971, used Christian subtexts and was one of my favourites, also The Daemons.

    John Elliott.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The Boucher Fendahl story had the implications of Human biological destiny being that of transformation into the Fendahl creature, latent within us. In throwing the Skull into the Supernova, the Dr in effect was destroying our Fendahl God/Creator and raison-d'etre.

    John Elliott.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very subtle. I am not sure I had quite seen the story in that light.

    Does you understanding of what the writer waqs tying to convey spoil your enjoyment of Image of the Fendahl?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Celestial Fundy
    Well, I talked with Alan Stevens who actually interviewed the author Chris Boucher about his ideas. Thus it drew on Quatermass or H.P. Lovecraft, with its Left Hand Path philosophy. I found my enjoyment increased. I guess the use of the skull meant that the Fendahl influence was interpreted as Death rather than Life, which people disavowed; thus they survived such transformation. J.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Humans were genetically harbouring an ancient creature in the Fendahl, who had created us as a Host animal, as part of its breeding cycle. It sowed the genetic seeds into set individuals to bring about its own recreation as a gestalt entity, using one human (Thea - humanoid Fendahl core) and 12 acolytes as suitable material (slug Fendahleen). Once manifested, the rest of Mankind would simply be consumed by Fendahl, their whole spectrum of life energy absorbed.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Are you the same Anonymous as the last one to comment? (It is helpful if you could leave a name or nickname).

    That stuff is not terribly well explained in the serial, but it is still a great story.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yes, it's John. I have the plot on good authority from Alan Stevens. The key is Boucher's interest in Darwinian Theory of Evolution. The Fendahl to Human relationship is analogous to the life cycle of Eumenes Wasp Progenitor and Eumenes Caterpillar, like the Wirrn. The implication and revelation was, that we were the prey in a biologically interdependent relationship with an older predatory creature. The Left Hand path concept was that we owed our existence to the parasitic Fendahl, as we had only ever been created or utilised as suitable Host animals from our early genetic development,to ensure its survival. It was a gestalt organism. The Fendahl had been hibernating on Earth after the Time Lord's attempted destruction of the Fifth Planet 12 million years ago. Thea's human skull in 1977 was therefore genetically compatible and resembled the Fendahl skull, our original 'blueprint', suitable for the creature's eventual manifestation. All the 'occult' trappings of evil etc were faulty human interpretation of a hatching process that was taking place,with the 12 Fendahleen. The Doctor curtailed this by destroying the skull. The skull had a similar role to the thaesium crystal in 'The Mutants', and the seeds for the Fendahl's survival had been genetically sowed into our secondary Host Human species from the outset. The implication was, our biological heritage and reason for being was ironically destoyed with the Fendahl skull.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Someone said it was pertinent that the story was set on Lammas Eve,
    the harvest festival, because it was the harvest of the Fendahl. Creepy, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Great! Now you've got me watching this one, & you're right! I watched part 1, last night, in bed, in the creepy, rural styx where I live. Afterwards, I heard sounds outside that had never caught my attention before. I purchased this a few months back, but it was still in its wrapper!

    P.S.- I...came..here,..I came...here..via..TARDIS Newsroom, I..I MUST OBEY..OBEY!

    ReplyDelete