Looking Back: Image of the Fendahl

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN. YEAH. Whoo I'm a ghostie

Now, as a story, 'Image of the Fendahl' isn't my favourite. It was written in that badly judged period of the seventies where Tom Baker's Doctor sort of became a caricature of himself, and that just doesn't chime a place in my heart, for quite a few reasons. He didn't like Leela, so he treated her with disregard. The script turned the hitherto inspirational character into a petulant aggressor. Budgetary constraints and the producership of Graham Williams had taken hold; the stories were getting worse and the leash on the show's frontman had slackened considerably.
'Image of the Fendahl' was written by Chris Boucher, who also did 'The Robots of Death' and 'The Face of Evil'. Now, I haven't seen the 'Face of Evil' - I've heard mixed reviews and would like to - but I've seen 'The Robots of Death'. And blow me down with a feather made of cast iron and tears if that's not one of the best stories of the later Tom Baker era, if not even the best of the Fourth Doctor era in its entirety. It's beautiful, in set design, script, acting, and so intriguing and memorable and, above all, really feckin' terrifying.

But this? I don't know. It's not particularly memorable; the writing's okay and the design work's nice - it just doesn't resonate in any lasting way. It's a story to watch at Hallowe'en (might be why I'm reviewing it now), maybe sucking on one of those lollies made of two colours that start to crumble after a while - you know the ones. It's a story to watch on a cold, October night, with the moon high in the night sky and owls hooting peacefully yet warningly (dun dun dunn) in the leafless trees all around (for overseas readers, try to imagine England like you see it in Doctor Who. Good). It's the kind of a story that needs to be backed up by a few drinks and some mates to be enjoyed, so let's peer at it and maybe hug knitted blankets close and drink hot chocolate. It's all in the atmosphere, you understand.

And actually, this is what you call an opening. It is night-time. A lonely hitchhiker walks in the dark woods of England's creepy countryside, sounds of the woods and owls around him, crunching of dry undergrowth beneath his feet. In a nearby priory, tests are being undergone on an old skull, which is all wired up to seventies computer machines. The hiker looks nervous - he starts moving a little quicker, glancing around. Things are hotting up in the priory/lab (in more ways that one - I'm going to be talking about the famous sexual tension of this story). Things are colding up in the woods. It looks scary. It's dark. Then the hiker stops and screams at some unknown thing, drops his torch and falls to the ground.  Bad things are happening and it's almost like a scary film only not as scary.

I mean, alright. That's not actually the opening, I just wanted to wow you. The opening is actually two scientists pondering the skull and saying 'I can't actually believe how ancient this thing is' and being flirty, which is always nice to watch if it's done well. The man is called Adam and the woman Thea, and they're a possible thing who want to get sexy as soon as possible but shhh this is a primetime television show from 1977, we're not supposed to get that. So these guys are really really good friends who are working on this skull, which apparently shouldn't exist according to the carbon date of it, and which they got from Kenya. Then it turns into the opening I talked about, and is tense and exciting. Also, the skull sorta merges with Thea's head once Adam's left the room.

It's all nice and scary and spooky and ghouly and mysterious, and I like that. Especially at Hallowe'en - this is definitely the best time to watch this story, and I find myself enjoying it more than last time. For certain. There's a great tense atmosphere - atmosphere's the watchword. And then we had to go to the TARDIS.

I don't like... it's not my favourite how the TARDIS feels when Leela and the Doctor are in it. It's a bit of a discord, if you will. All they ever seem to do is argue, and that's the kind of thing that gets me disinterested in a story really quickly, and should be saved for Tegan and Adric. It's always about something silly too - this time whether to refer to an inanimate object (K-9) as an it or a he. Leela thinks he. Doctor thinks it. There is spat. Spat spat spat. And it's just a Season 15 thing, too. The previous year's 'The Talons of Weing-Chiang' is fantastic, as we all know, as are many other in its season. But in all honesty, this bit of the story sort of gets my goat, and the Doctor being the over-mysterious, 'I'm not going to finish this sentence' Doctor that he is at this moment in time racks up the boredom in an unpleasantly unwelcome way. This shouldn't be the Doctor/companion dynamic. You never saw Pertwee being such an arsehole to his companions (apart from at the end of 'The Claws of Axos', but that's a story for another time). Anyway, the Doctor ironically calls the TARDIS a she and then it gets dragged roughly off course to Earth, to put a stop to 'all that'.

Let's not be bitter. Back in the prio-lab (priory laboratory smooth combo), Thea's a bit better and we're introduced to new characters Fendleman (a perpetually single middle-aged scientist from eastern europe who's name mysteriously sounds like Fendahl) and Max (a young scientist who seems a little odd and is). There's a lovely homely breakfast scene in which Max gets surprised that he's expected to make Thea food and Fendleman does a little exposition about the skull and what it could mean. He's a little fanatical, but his heart's in the right place. Meanwhile, suave Adam's out with his cameo dog and finds the body from last night. He worries and makes like a smooth-talking bullet back to the priory (I'll just call it the priory. Prio-lab is silly). The Doctor has landed in a field full of cows and decides to head off in search of the thing that took the TARDIS off course. Cue silly idle chat with cows.

Back at the priory, Adam's back with news of the body and shocked at Fendleman's disinclinations to report the death to the authorities - at least not until the research is finished. Max calms him down a bit because he's flustered. The two quip briefly and Max makes off for his and Fendleman's special science  room that no-one knows about because the two of them are so utterly devoted to one another and can't bear not to be together. Fendleman tells Max to dispose of the body, which is apparently decomposing way faster than usual.

That's some serious look there. Check out the way Max is staring at Fendleman. I mean, hell, this is a program for children. Way too much longing in that look. Over a line.

In other news, the Doctor's fallen asleep (why?) and Leela's captured a man with her knife and the Doctor gives him a jelly baby and sends him on his way, and the two get up and, refreshed anew with directions, resume their search for the priory. Also apparently Fendleman digs up bodies now.

In said priory, an old woman (who has the second sight, if you're into that kind of thing) is arguing with a security guard, one of many who have apparently appeared out of nowhere to protect the research going on here and are dressed like the gestapo. I mean, I'm sorry, who summoned these people? Fendleman? In that case how did he do it so quick? And he must be one crazy cat too because these SS wannabes are preventing literally anybody entering or exiting the house, including chilled Adam and troubled Thea who is in touch with the ancient skull. The old woman leaves anyway 'cos she's old and is crucial to later events in the story. It's getting dark now, very quickly - apparently hours passed between breakfast and Max and Fendleman's love scene. Science scene. It was a science scene. In any case, Adam gets pissed at the guards and seeks Fendleman, who tells him that 'Adam, Adam Adam Adam, calm yourself, sit down, nibble this digestive, what we're doing here could change archaeology forever and that THIS MACHINE HERE, the one that looks like every other machine the room, can see into the past.' Adam nods politely and gets the fuck out of there so he can tell poor Thea about Fendleman being a freak.

The Doctor and Leela, in the meantime, have found the priory through that creepy forest from earlier, and it's really dark now and looks nice (good location work, incidentally). The Doctor tells Leela to stay behind and sets off on his own, Leela gets pissed and perseveres alone into some back entrance and up onto a roof, which she sneaks along. Inside, Thea has done some sneaking of her own and made it to Fendleman's office, where she's got entranced again and has turned the bad history watching complexity machine onto maximum, which has made the skull glow and the Doctor stop in his tracks. Leela has pushed open a door and, to everybody's surprise, apparently been shot by a shotgun. The episode ends on an unsettling slow, shaky close in on the Doctor, who is stock still and staring outwards through the mist of night, lit from the side. Phew. That's one hell of a set-up episode.

So the rest of this isn't going to be so much in detail, because that was eight paragraphs for only one episode, which is ridiculous even for my standards. In the Leela situation, it turns out that the shotgun missed (surprise surprise), and she is violently welcomed into the old lady's house, which has an old man in it who carries a shotgun. Leela soon has the shotgun and is pointing at the old man. In due course, the Doctor is freed from the force keeping him in check (why he was all still and weird), and runs to find Leela. Let's rush through this.

The thing that strikes me about 'Image of the Fendahl' is that there's a real mix of ideas introduced into it, however unsuccessfully. There's the ancient power of the Fendahl itself, transmitted from the skull into Thea, there are the saturday-night-viewing pentagrams on the floor of the cellar beneath the priory, the crazy wobbly Fendahleen. Maybe it isn't all done so well or allowed enough time to mature, but everything's sound in theory, and scary too. Seriously, a lot of spooky is going on in this story, and a lot of it isn't even children's scary - I mean, pentagrams? That's some messed up shit, as is the cult of Fendahl worshippers (of which weird Max is a member). The moment where Max is pointing the pistol at Fendleman (who comes good before he gets shot) is effortlessly disturbing - partly due to Max being so damn close up to his face with the gun before he shoots him. It's really, really not the kind of thing you expect, especially from this safety conscious era of the series. Plain, pure horror, through and through.

Actually, the character of Max is so key (and excellently played) throughout this story, and that's something I'm only realising in its entirety on my second viewing of the story. He's seriously screwed up, way past the normal. The expressions on his face (and not just the bromance ones) are downright upsetting, as are most of the things he does in the later two parts of 'Image'. He shoots Fendleman because Fendleman realises that 'humanity has been used!' (fantastic scene that explains the presence of the Fendahl and what's it done to humanity), he shoots himself when it all gets too much. It's explained on the 'making of' feature on the video that there was going to be the actual shot of him committing suicide, but it was left out as a last-minute editing decision, which was probably a wise move. Even in such a gothic world as this, there is such a thing as too far.

Meanwhile, it occurs to me that I haven't talked about the Fendahleen, the snake-like servants of the evil Fendahl, which emerge from the bodies of the deceased as the Fendahl rises in power. The Fendahleen, as monsters, are passable. They're wobbly, yes, made of rubber, and can be defeated using salt, which might make them appear weak, but aren't these things the hallmarks of a good Who baddie? Vicious and dangerous, intimidating (to an extent) and with a mythology, but also with an easily explained weakness to be exploited. Of course this format can get tired after a while, and slipping into stencil-creation wasn't always avoided by the writers on the show, but when it works it works well. Here it works well. Not fantastically, as in the case of, say, the Zygons or the Krynoid, but well enough to pose a threat to the main characters and be memorable for a time afterwards. Of course, the Fendahleen do lack that promising characteristic that is having the potential to be imitated in playgrounds, like the Cybermen, but they work in the context of the story. Yeah, that's the word. They work.

I suppose I should talk about the Doctor and Leela, but it almost feels like I've already done that. The Doctor is shouty and loud and obtrusive, Leela is quietly proud, it's all like clockwork, unfortunately. I wish Boucher might have done something more interesting with the main characters, but there you go - this wasn't the McCoy era. I mean, the two are involved in some quite nice cliffhangers, one of which involving the Doctor being incapacitated by the skull, but apart from that they just squabble and be the Doctor and Leela. I mean, the Doctor does have a couple of nice moments, but not many. It's a shame, and I almost wish Leela could've been involved in a deeper way in the story. But at this stage in the show's development that doesn't happen ever, so I'll let it go.                

The Fendahl, however, coming to mention it, is great. Basically it's just a woman (Thea) who is painted gold and wears a dress and has scary eyes painted on her eyelids which you can't look at or you die. That's why Max kills himself, by the way - he looks at the eyes, and you're not meant to do that. Anyway, the Fendahl is some ancient enemy-of-the-Time-Lords evil power which crashed to Earth after escaping a time loop imposed upon it and lay in the outer crust for millions of years influencing society (just like Scaroth) and waiting for the day Fendleman would arrive to give it power again. It's a nice idea, and I like that the Fendahl has its own cult (Max's crazy one. You know. With the chanting and the cloaks). I even quite enjoy watching the Fendahl core (Thea) trolling around the priory and appearing and being translucent - it seems to give her a power higher than the Doctor's. Which it doesn't, obviously. The Doctor blows it up. Cough-unimaginative-cough.

Anyway. I think we all know what happens by now. Fendleman is shot, Thea is converted into the Fendahl, camp Adam is freed as fanatical Max shoots himself through the head, helped by the Doctor. The old woman offers her help in the form of salt to kill the Fendahleen, Leela teams up with the old woman's son, who fills his shotgun with more salt and goes on a spree. I think that's cool, it's badass and salty, but not when the Doctor uses the gun. That just seems a little wrong, if you ask me, seeing as it's the Doctor. Then there's teleportation Thea. Theaportation, if you will. No, don't. That's an awful word.

But that's sort of it. The Doctor and co. escape the priory and blow it up with the time danger scanner, and the ancient evil powerful destroyer exploding rar of the Fendahl is apparently killed. Which seems impossibly easy, if you ask me. I mean, come on, this thing was an enemy of the Time Lords! The Time Lords who used to be infinitely powerful! If this is all the Time Lords have been boasting about, then I'm not surprised that the inevitable debut of their society in 'The Deadly Assassin' was such a reality shock. The Fendahl's less than it's cracked up to be. All they do is blow it up. Perhaps it's because they blow it up with a time machine viewer bad danger thing. Perhaps.

Anyway, the end of the story is stupid. I'm sorry, it is. Leela and the Doctor get back into the TARDIS to throw the skull into a supernova. He calls K-9 a him. Leela laughs at him. He says 'I can do whatever I want because I'm Tom Baker'. K-9 nods jerkily. The credits roll. It's just... silly and underwhelming for the story that it is. This kind of 'haha that was close' reaction to all the gothic horror and terror and death that's being going on all the way through seems to be so wrong, and jarring in retrospect to events like Max and Fendleman's death. Ugh.

Last words?

Egh. Maybe I shouldn't be too harsh.

This story is never going to be in any top tens. That's a given - the script, the direction, the editing; none of these are really up to scratch enough for that.
But I'll say that this is darker than I gave it credit for.
All the way through, but especially later on, adult themes seem to echo and bounce off dark walls and glowing skulls, with pentagrams and possession rife in Boucher's script. Is it as good as 'The Robots of Death?' No. Of course not. 'Image of the Fendahl' is a foray into a weird path that Doctor Who didn't have very much experience of, and it shows that Boucher ended up a little out of his depth with some of the themes. There are fantastic, gleaming moments of genius (such as the revelation of the pentagram on the Fendahl skull and Max's death), and some genuinely, legitimately chilling moments (the Fendahl's smile), but something about the story as a whole just doesn't cut it with me. It is scary, though, and perfect, arguably, for Hallowe'en. So lemme leave you with it this cold October night - happy Hallowe'en everyone.

(Just as an afterthought, I'd like to voice my massive affection for the tiny owl in the old woman's house. It's why I watch this story. I know it's wrong, and I tried to hold myself back, but I couldn't. I just couldn't. It's the best thing ever. It just sits there in the corner of the room, benignly surprised at events going on around it. Watching Leela force an elderly man to the ground and point a rifle at his face, it shuffles a bit and widens its eyes. It really is the best thing I've ever seen ever on television. I love it. Look for it and treasure its happy glances from the bottom of the screen. It's what makes 'Image of the Fendahl'. Seriously. Also I added the picture below because I think it's great)