Doctor Who/The Curse of Fenric

The Curse of Fenric
Season 26, Serial 3
Airdate	October 25, 1989 - November 15, 1989
Production Number	7M
by	Ian Briggs
Directed by	Nicholas Mallett
← 26x02 Ghost Light	26x04 → Survival
Doctor Who — Season Twenty-Six

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The Curse of Fenric is the third serial of the twenty-sixth season of Doctor Who, and the one-hundred and fifty-eighth serial overall.

Part One: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Dinsdale Landen (Dr Judson), Alfred Lynch (Commander Millington), Nicholas Parsons (The Rev. Mr. Wainwright), Janet Henfrey (Miss Hardaker), Tomek Bork (Captain Sorin), Peter Czajkowski (Sgt Prozorov), Marek Anton (Vershinin), Mark Conrad (Petrossian), Joann Kenny (Jean), Joanne Bell (Phyllis), Anne Reid (Nurse Crane), Cory Pulman (Kathleen Dudman), Aaron Hanley (Baby), Stevan Rimkus (Captain Bates), Marcus Hutton (Sgt. Leigh), Christien Anholt (Perkins)

Part Two: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Dinsdale Landen (Dr Judson), Alfred Lynch (Commander Millington), Nicholas Parsons (The Rev. Mr. Wainwright), Janet Henfrey (Miss Hardaker), Tomek Bork (Captain Sorin), Peter Czajkowski (Sgt Prozorov), Marek Anton (Vershinin), Joann Kenny (Jean), Joanne Bell (Phyllis), Stevan Rimkus (Captain Bates), Marcus Hutton (Sgt. Leigh), Cory Pulman (Kathleen Dudman), Anne Reid (Nurse Crane), Christien Anholt (Perkins), Tip Tipping (Stunt Arranger)

Part Three: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Dinsdale Landen (Dr Judson), Alfred Lynch (Commander Millington), Nicholas Parsons (The Rev. Mr. Wainwright), Tomek Bork (Captain Sorin), Peter Czajkowski (Sgt Prozorov), Marek Anton (Vershinin), Joann Kenny (Jean), Joanne Bell (Phyllis), Stevan Rimkus (Captain Bates), Marcus Hutton (Sgt. Leigh), Christien Anholt (Perkins), Cory Pulman (Kathleen Dudman), Anne Reid (Nurse Crane), Aaron Hanley (Baby)

Part Four: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Dinsdale Landen (Dr Judson), Alfred Lynch (Commander Millington), Tomek Bork (Captain Sorin), Marek Anton (Vershinin), Joann Kenny (Jean), Joanne Bell (Phyllis), Stevan Rimkus (Captain Bates), Marcus Hutton (Sgt. Leigh), Cory Pulman (Kathleen Dudman), Anne Reid (Nurse Crane), Raymond Trickett (Ancient Haemovore), Aaron Hanley (Baby)

Plot Overview

At a secret naval base in Northumberland on May 1943, Commander Millington and Dr Judson crack German cipher codes. Russian special forces have been sent to capture Judson's Ultima machine, their orders oddly similar to Viking runes carved beneath the local church. What is in the ancient flask? That lurks beneath the sea to lure swimmers to their deaths? What will happen when the Ultima machine decodes the Viking inscriptions? And will the Doctor defeat his ancient enemy Fenric once more in the game of traps?

Arc Advancement

Characters

The Doctor

• The Doctor forges the signature of the Prime Minister and Head of the Secret Service - with a pen in each hand. He recognises Viking runes as ninth century, and can translate Russian sealed orders.

• When Kathleen Dudman, one of the bas personnel, asks him if he has any family, the Doctor replies: "I don't know."

• Fenric says of the Doctor: "For 17 centuries I was trapped in the Shadow Dimensions because of him. He pulled bones from the desert sands and carved them into chess pieces. He challenged me to solve his puzzle. I failed."

Ace

• When she learns that the baby daughter of Kathleen Dudman has the same name as her mother - Audrey - Ace hands it back. But despite her name, Ace goes back to ensure the baby is all right. She sends the escaping Kathleen to her nan's house - 17 Old Terrace, Streatham - to escape the Haemovores. She later learns from Fenric that Kathleen Dudman is her nan, and Fenric tells her, "In 30 years the baby will be grown. She will have a daughter - that daughter will be you. You have just created your own future. The baby is your mother, the mother you hate."

• Ace's faith in the Doctor is so strong that it holds back the Ancient One, stopping him from destroying Fenric. The Doctor is forced to undermine this faith by telling Ace she is a social misfit - an emotional cripple he only took with him because he knew she was somehow infected by Fenric.

Trivia

The Show

• McCoy was born the year the story is set.

Behind the Scenes

• This was intended to be shown as the season premiere, before Ghost Light, so that Ace telling Kathleen about "the old house in Perivale" would have been foreshadowing for that story. But John Nathan-Turner wanted The Curse of Fenric to air around Halloween, meaning it ran after Ghost Light had already gone out. It also had the side effect of removing what was supposed to be a major turning point that season: the Doctor is wearing a duffel coat for most of part one and removes it later on to reveal his new costume with a darker jacket with the intention being to surprise the viewer with the reveal of the new costume, which was ruined by the fact that this story was no longer running first. The aforementioned duffel coat was originally to keep Sylvester McCoy warm on cold location filming days, but it eventually became part of the Doctor's wardrobe during Season 26.

• Future Doctors Christopher Eccleston and Peter Capaldi were considered for the role of the Reverend Mr Wainwright.

• The serial was intended to end with an implication that Fenric had found a way to escape, with a shot inside the chamber showing the Ancient Haemovore's remains, but nothing of Fenric. Unfortunately, the videotape with this and other close-up shots was accidentally erased and reused during filming and the missing material could not be remounted in time.

• 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.

• McCoy enjoyed a visit from his wife, Agnes, and their sons, Sam and Joe Kent-Smith. As McCoy was busy and couldn't spend much time with the boys, John Nathan-Turner offered the boys the chance to play Haemovores in the mine shaft sequences. Their scenes were cut from the transmitted version of part four, but were reinstated for the extended BBC Video version and the Special Edition movie-length version included on BBC Worldwide's DVD release of the broadcast version.

Missing Scenes

• The sequence where Ace is rescued from the Haemovores on the roof of the church originally ended with Sorin's soldiers driving stakes through the Haemovores to kill them. This scene was removed because it was felt that it was too strong for the intended audience.

• The DVD version of the episode includes a recut and remastered version with several scenes lengthened or added. 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 as he felt that the narrative flow would be badly disrupted. As it turned out, there was never enough material to warrant a fifth episode.

Quotes

• Commander Millington: I can't take any more risks. I want all radio transmitters and outside telephone lines disabling... And if there are any chess sets in the camp, I want them burned.