Image of the Fendahl (TV story)

Image of the Fendahl was the third story of Season 15 of Doctor Who.

Synopsis
The present day: just as the Fourth Doctor and Leela arrive, Fetchborough England, Professor Fendelman prepares to experiment on a fossilized skull, which according to science, should not exist. The skull is actually an artefact of the Fendahl, a god-like being that feeds on the life force of others, which has begun to awaken and kill. Worse, yet, others seek to exploit the Fendahl's dreadful power.

Part 1
The Fourth Doctor and Leela are in the TARDIS worrying over the damaged K9. Meanwhile, in Fetch Priory, scientists Thea Ransome and Adam Colby are examining a skull they have nicknamed "Eustace". The skull is twelve millions years old and they are incredulous at the evolutionary implications. Meanwhile, lead scientist Dr. Fendelman and his collaborator Maximillian Stael are commencing their nighttime experiments with a time scanner. Its generated power seems to affect the skull, which they seem unaware of. The skull in turn has some sort of effect on Thea. In the woods outside of the Priory the power is also felt, and a hiker walking by is attacked by an unseen creature. The TARDIS is affected by a Time Hole. The Doctor traces it to Earth and the TARDIS lands near the Priory the next day. The Doctor and Leela find a man called Ted Moss who says there are strange things going on in the Priory.

Adam finds the corpse of the hiker while out walking their dog, Leakey. Fendelman suggests covering this up, loathe to having media and police to interrupt their potentially groundbreaking work. Fendelman tells Stael to have armed guards posted, and to do a postmortem on the body. Thea and Adam learn of the lockdown though guard David Mitchel after a loud argument between him and an old local woman, Martha Tyler, who is a white witch and the cook at the priory. Stael reports his inability to discover the cause of the hiker's death, but that the body is decomposing rapidly. Fendelman orders him to dispose of the body The Doctor and Leela decide they must investigate the priory just as Thea switches on the time scanner. A compulsion draws her to the machine. She and the skull seem to be merging. Leela has split up from the Doctor, and as she investigates a nearby cottage, a shotgun is fired at her. Meanwhile, the Doctor feels the presence of the same unseen creature, and finds himself paralyzed, unable to run as the creature is about to consume him.

Part 2
The Doctor regains control of his legs and runs from the creature. Ted Moss reloads his shotgun and moves to the door of the Tyler cottage, where Leela overpowers him. Jack Tyler gets rid of Ted Moss and talks with Leela.

Thea is being gradually taken over by the skull, the Fendahl. The Fendahl kills Mitchell, the security guard. Embryo Fendahleen briefly appear on the unconscious Thea as The Doctor and Adam watch. Fendelman has the Doctor locked up in a storage room on suspicion of Mitchell's murder. Jack Tyler talks to Leela about his "gran" and the old religion, and being involved with "something nasty."

Adam goes to talk to Dr. Fendelman about the disconnected telephone. Fendelman thinks the skull is extraterrestrial. Fendelman shows Adam a skull x-ray; a pentagram is part of the bone structure.

Mrs. Tyler returns to the cottage, terrified. Mother Tyler says that something was after her, "hungry" for her soul.

Thea is again drawn to the room where the time scanner is kept. She sees the x-ray of the skull. Stael appears and, revealed as the leader of the local coven, proclaims she is the key to his power, the chosen one.

The Doctor enters the room where the skull is kept. He finds the skull. It begins to "power up", glowing brightly. It forces him to touch it. He yells in pain as the skull glow ever brighter.

Part 3
Leela arrives and pries the Doctor away from the skull. The Doctor tells her the skull is that of a Fendahl, a species he believed a myth. The Doctor rouses Mrs. Tyler from her state of shock and asks her about the being that attacked her. She has precognitive abilities as a result of growing up near a time fissure. She later tells Jack that the figure she saw in her mind was a woman.

Meanwhile, Stael pulls a gun on Dr. Fendelman and Adam, shackling them to pillars in the cottage's basement. The Doctor and Leela use the TARDIS to follow the Time Fissure and find the Fendahl's home planet, discovering it had been placed in a time loop—and only the Time Lords could do that. Stael assembles his cult, preparing to begin their ceremony. Fendelman realises what is happening, and that he and his ancestors have been used by the Fendahl to regain life. He desperately pleads with Stael and his followers to stop, but Stael shoots him.

Upon their return the Doctor and Leela, together with the Tylers, return to the Priory. Suddenly they find their legs cannot move. The group are all stuck as a full-grown Fendahleen bears down on them.

Part 4
The Doctor uses Jack's gun, loaded with rock salt, to kill the Fendahleen, and, with concentration, the group escape its telepathic influence. Meanwhile, the cult uses Thea's body as a host for the Fendahl core to manifest. The Fendahl turns the cult members into Fendahleen, and paralyses Stael when he catches its gaze. The Doctor and Leela sneak into the cult's room, and free Adam. Telling Leela to get Adam to safety, the Doctor tries to help Stael. He begs the Doctor to bring him his gun, and realising there is nothing he can do to help him, does so; Stael kills himself.

Conferring with the others, the Doctor realises that the Fendahl requires thirteen Fendahleen, so they may become an incredibly powerful gestalt entity, but with Stael and a Fendahleen dead, the creature is incomplete. While the Doctor is working on the time scanner, he theorises that the Fendahl may have guided human evolution, possibly explaining mankind's darker nature. Leela and Jack are attacked by the Fendahl's forces and kill one of the Fendahleen. The Doctor rigs the scanner to destroy the entire cottage, and Leela and he enter the basement and take the skull. The Fendahl core attempts to stop them, but in its weakened state, they avoid its paralytic effects. Without the skull, the core is rendered powerless, and is destroyed in the explosion.

Departing in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Leela find a star about to go supernova and drop the Fendahl skull into it. The Doctor then calls K9 a "him" saying that he can if he wants - after all, K9 is his dog.

Cast

 * The Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * Adam Colby - Edward Arthur
 * David Mitchell - Derek Martin
 * Dr. Fendelman - Denis Lill
 * Hiker - Graham Simpson
 * Jack Tyler - Geoffrey Hinsliff
 * Martha Tyler - Daphne Heard
 * Maximillian Stael - Scott Fredericks
 * Ted Moss - Edward Evans
 * Thea Ransome - Wanda Ventham
 * Voice of K9- John Leeson

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Karilyn Collier
 * Costumes - Amy Roberts
 * Designer - Anna Ridley
 * Film Cameraman - Elmer Cossey
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Pauline Cox
 * Producer - Graham Williams
 * Production Assistant - Prue Saenger
 * Production Unit Manager - John Nathan-Turner
 * Script Editor - Robert Holmes, Anthony Read (uncredited)
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Jim Purdie
 * Studio Sound - Alan Fogg
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Colin Mapson

Astronomical objects

 * The Time Lords destroyed the fifth planet of the Sol system (possibly forming the asteroid belt) and then hid its existence in a time loop to prevent any knowledge of the Fendahl leaking out. The Doctor knows the story as a myth from childhood and is terrified by it.
 * After causing the priory's implosion, the Doctor intends to cast the skull into a supernova in the constellation of Canthares.

Locations

 * The Fendahl skull was found in Kenya in volcanic sediment.

Foods and beverages from the real world

 * The Doctor discovers that "sodium chloride obviously affects conductivity... and prevents control of localised disruption of osmotic pressures." "Salt kills it." clarifies Leela.
 * The Doctor declares a love of fruitcake.

Species

 * The Fendahl requires twelve Fendahleen and a core to form its gestalt.
 * The Doctor asked some cattle if they knew anything about a Time scanner.

TARDIS

 * The TARDIS generates a low intensity telepathic field.

Story notes

 * This story introduced a new version of Leela's famous leather outfit. It was noticeably lighter in colour than the last. The new version was created because the original was wearing out. Furthermore, it had caused Louise Jameson some problems because it was a leotard.  The new version, by contrast, was actually a dress. Producer Graham Williams had also instructed the designer, Amy Roberts, to make Louise look sexier in the new outfit. The original leotard appears briefly at the end of Episode 4 (mainly to facilitate the punchline to a joke in episode 1) and would return in the next story, DW: The Sun Makers, before the new version came back for Leela's final two outings.
 * K9 appears only briefly, in the opening and closing TARDIS scenes; he is suffering from circuitry corrosion and stays in the TARDIS. Image of the Fendahl had been written before it was known that K9 would be joining the series on a regular basis. John Leeson was not recruited to voice the character, who had no lines of dialogue.
 * According to the 2009 DVD release documentary After Image, Anthony Read was brought on as script editor to help in the transition during Robert Holmes' departure from the role. Only Holmes received screen credit.
 * Louise Jameson claims the reason why her hair is done up in this episode is because a BBC hairstylist had mistakenly cut six inches off her hair just prior to filming. Her final scene in the story was filmed some five weeks after this incident, by which time her hair had grown long enough to allow her to wear it down for a single scene. (DCOM: Image of the Fendahl)
 * Tom Baker was credited as The Doctor in Radio Times, as opposed to the usual Dr. Who.

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 6.7 million viewers
 * Part 2 - 7.5 million viewers
 * Part 3 - 7.9 million viewers
 * Part 4 - 9.1 million viewers

Myths

 * This story had a working title of The Island of Fandor. (It didn't. This myth originated when Gordon Blows, then editor of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society magazine TARDIS, misheard the title of the story over the phone and reported it incorrectly.)

Filming locations

 * Stargrove Manor, East End, Hampshire
 * BBC Television Centre (TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors
to be added

Continuity
to be added

Timeline

 * This story occurs after VD: Crimson Dawn
 * This story occurs before DW: The Sun Makers

DVD releases

 * Image of the Fendahl was released to DVD in the UK in April 2009 and in North America in September 2009.
 * Remastering for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.
 * Bonus features:
 * After Image - making-of featurette with Louise Jameson, Edward Arthur, Wanda Ventham, Anthony Read (uncredited script editor), and visual effects designer Colin Mapson.
 * Deleted and extended scenes.
 * Audio commentary by Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Wanda Ventham and Edward Arthur.
 * BBC One trailer.
 * Photo gallery
 * Easter Egg: Louise Jameson discussing the 12-inch Leela doll manufactured by Denys Fisher. To access this hidden feature, press left at Trailer on the Special Features menu.
 * PDF material: Radio Times listings
 * Production note subtitles.