The Curse of Fenric

154[1] – The Curse of Fenric
Doctor Who serial
"Let the chains of Fenric shatter…"
Cast
Doctor Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor)
Companion Sophie Aldred (Ace)
Guest stars
Dinsdale Landen — Dr Judson Alfred Lynch — Commander Millington Stevan Rimkus — Captain Bates Marcus Hutton — Sgt Leigh Christien Anholt — Perkins Tomek Bork — Captain Sorin Peter Czajkowski — Sgt Prozorov Marek Anton — Vershinin Mark Conrad — Petrossian Nicholas Parsons — Rev Wainwright Janet Henfrey — Miss Hardaker Joann Kenny — Jean Joanne Bell — Phyllis Anne Reid — Nurse Crane Cory Pulman — Kathleen Dudman Aaron Hanley — Baby Audrey Raymond Trickitt — Ancient Haemovore
Production
Writer	Ian Briggs
Director	Nicholas Mallett John Nathan-Turner (uncredited)
Script editor	Andrew Cartmel
Producer	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)	None
Production code	7M
Series	Season 26
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	October 25–November 15, 1989
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Ghost Light Survival

The Curse of Fenric is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from October 25 to November 15, 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

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Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives at a top-secret English naval installation near Maiden's Point on the Northumbrian coast in the middle of World War II. The Doctor and Ace discover that the purpose of the base, run by Commander Millington, is to intercept German communications and to attempt to decrypt them using the ULTIMA computer stored there. However, Millington also reveals that the area around the base is a source of the primary components for a lethal nerve gas that they stockpiled, hoping to use it to end the war. Meanwhile, the wheelchair-bound Dr. Judson is attempted to study Viking relics that lie in the crypt of a nearby church, which indicate some curse that befell the Vikings after plundering some Oriental treasures. The base is unaware of small contingent of Soviet soldiers, led by Captain Sorin, with secret orders to capture ULTIMA. When the The Doctor and Ace discover the group, the Doctor warns them to wait and collect intelligence instead of a frontal assault, while Ace and Sorin become smitten with each other.

In the church, a series of Viking runes suddenly appear. Ace inadvertently gives Judson an idea of how to decrypt the inscription before the Doctor can warn her not to do so, worried about its potential consequences. Judson and Millington, using the ULTIMA machine, decodes the message as "Let the chains of Fenric shatter." Millington, who has followed the Viking legends, believes that he will be able to receive the dark power of Fenric, an ancient evil that has existed since the dawn of the universe, when the inscription is fully translated. The Doctor and Ace attempt to regroup with the Soviets to get their help to stop Millington, but are chased by vampire-like creatures, Haemovores, that have been summoned from the water's depths by the inscription and have been attacking others in the area. Making their way through the crypts, they discover one of the Oriental vases, glowing with a green light, but this is confiscated by Millington when they return to the base. Millington using the vase within ULTIMA, and Judson completes the decryption, upon which he is struck with a bolt of energy from it. The Doctor and Ace arrive too late to realise that Fenric has claimed Judson's body as his own.

The Doctor and Ace flee as Fenric uses his haemovore army to either kill or convert the members of the base. Ace is able to warn one of the WRNS, Kathleen, along with her baby Audrey, to leave the area as fast as possible before she is killed. The Doctor explains that he had faced Fenric long ago, having defeated him by besting him in a chess problem and banishing him. After finding the last remaining chess set from Kathleen, they return to the base, where Fenric awaits them in the nerve gas stockpile, having summoned the Ancient One, the haemovore that commands all the others. The Doctor sets up a chess problem which Fenric is unable to ignore, giving the Doctor and Ace more time to find a solution. Sorin, who has lost all his troops to either the English soldiers or haemovores, arrives in the chamber and attempts to shoot Fenric, but Fenric reveals that like Judson, Millington, the Ancient One, and others, they have all descended from those that carried the curse to the English shores, and they are all his "wolves of Fenric".

Ace, returning to the toxic store, finds Sorin contemplating the problem, unaware that Fenric now inhabits him, and tells him how to solve it. The Doctor arrives moments later to find Fenric has defeated his puzzle, and attempts to send the Ancient One against the Doctor. However a psychic barrier created by Ace's faith in the Doctor prevents the Ancient One from acting. The Doctor is forced to break Ace's faith by explaining that Fenric has had his hand in Ace's life as well, as he was responsible for the time storm that sent her to an alien planet and her meeting with the Doctor. Fenric gloats that Ace has perpetuated his triumph, pointing out that Kathleen's daughter will be Ace's mother whom Ace despises, the Doctor unable to tell Ace this. With Ace's faith shattered, the Ancient One is free to move, but instead of attacking the Doctor, the being drags Fenric into an isolation chamber and exposes both of them to the lethal nerve gas before the chamber explodes, killing them both.

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.^[2]
• The Seventh Doctor and Ace return to World War II in the audio play Colditz, co-starring David Tennant.

Production

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.^[6].

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 and then Ghost Light and Survival.

Casting

• 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.^[7]
• 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.

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.^[6]
• 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 originally involved Ace stabbing a haemovore, but it was not included as the director thought it was too violent.

Commercial releases

• The story 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 UK 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.
• Music from this story was released on CD in 1991.

In print

Doctor Who book
The Curse of Fenric
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	151
Writer	Ian Briggs
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	Alister Pearson
ISBN	0-426-20348-8
Release date	15 November 1990
Preceded by	Survival
Followed by	Battlefield

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.

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. ^ Doctor Who: "The Curse of Fenric", DVD Information Text. Ed. Martin Wiggins.
3. ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Curse of Fenric". Outpost Gallifrey. http://gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=7m. Retrieved 2008-08-30. 
4. ^ "The Curse of Fenric". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_7m.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-30. 
5. ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2007-08-07). "The Curse of Fenric". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/7m.html. Retrieved 2008-08-30. 
6. ^ ^{a b} The Curse of Fenric at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
7. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/curseoffenric/trivia.shtml

External links

• The Curse of Fenric at bbc.co.uk
• The Curse of Fenric at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Curse of Fenric at Outpost Gallifrey

Reviews

• The Curse of Fenric reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
• The Curse of Fenric reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
• The Curse of Fenric DVD Special Edition reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Target novelisation

• The Curse of Fenric (novelisation) reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
• On Target — The Curse of Fenric