Image of the Fendahl (TV story)

"Alas, poor skull..."

- The Doctor

Synopsis
An anachronistic twelve-million-year-old human skull has been discovered by archaeologists and is now being used by Professor Fendelman in his time scanner experiments at Fetch Priory in contemporary England. The skull is actually an artifact of the Fendahl, an ancient creature that feeds on the life force of others.

Drawn by the operation of the scanner, the Doctor and Leela arrive as the experiments reach a peak. The skull is exerting an influence over the mind of Thea Ransome, one of the scientists in Fendelman's team, and glowing with power each time the scanner is activated. Thea is eventually transformed into the Fendahl core, and a group of acolytes assembled by Maximillian Stael - another of Fendelman's team, who is trying to harness the creature's power for his own ends - are converted into snake-like Fendahleen.

The Doctor shows the remaining scientist, Adam Colby, and two locals, Martha Tyler and her son Jack, how to defend themselves against the Fendahleen using rock salt. By activating the scanner once more, he triggers an implosion that destroys both the Priory and the Fendahl core.

Part 1
The Doctor and Leela are in the Tardis and arguing whether they can call K9 a "him" seeing as he is a robot. Meanwhile a Skull has been found and is in a lab that two palaeontologists Thea Ransome and Adam Colby are examing it. As Colby walks out she suddenly becomes engrossed by the skull. Dr. Fendelman the man in charge of the project says that the skull is over twelve millions years old which Adam thinks is wrong as humans where supposed to have evolved 4 million years before that. In the forest there is a man walking and an unseen creature follows him and begins to consume him. All of a sudden the Tardis is affected by a Time Hole. The Doctor traces it to Earth and the Tardis lands at the Priory. Thea is still being controlled by the power of the skull then faints. The next morning she wakes up to find that Adam has gone to walk the dog. Meanwhile the Doctor and Leela find a man called Ted Moss who says there are strange things going on in the Priory. Adam finds the body of the Hitchhiker dead which and tells all the people at the Priory. This leads to Dr Fendelman saying he must cover it all up as he does not want to attract media and police. Dr Fendelman gets his co worker Maximillian Stael to do a post mortem on the body. Dr. Fendalmen organises an secruirity team to cover the base. And a guard called David Mitchel gets into a disagrement with an old local woman Martha Tyler who is a white witch and the cook at the priory. The Doctor and Leela decide they must investigate the priory just as Thea switches on the time scanner, she then begings to merge with the skull agian. Leela and the Doctor have split up their search. As Leela goes into a country cottage, a gun goes off. Meanwhile, the Doctor is walking in the woods, presumably towards the Priory when he looses the power in his legs and begins to stop moving.

Part 2
The Doctor regains control of his legs. Ted Moss, reloads his shotgun and starts to walk out of the Tyler cottage, when 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 secuiry guard. An unconscious Thea briefly transforms into a group of embryo Fendahleen. Doctor Fendahlman has the Doctor locked up in a storage room. Jack Tyler talks to Leela about his "gran" and the old religion, and being involved with "something nasty" Leela tells him that she thinks the Doctor can help. Thea and Adam go to talk to Dr. Fendahlman about the disconnected telephone. Fendahlman explains that he thinks the skull is extraterrestrial. Mrs. Tyler returns to the cottage, terrified. Max Stael is secretly the leader of a local coven. Fendahlman shows Adam the skull x-ray.

There is a pattern of a pentagram on surface of the skull. Mother Tyler says that something was after her, "hungry" for her soul. Thea enters the room where the time scanner is kept. She sees the x-ray of the skull. Max shows up and says that 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 to be a myth. The Doctor asks Mother Tyler about the being that attacked her, learning that she has precognitive abilities, as a result of growing up near a time fissure. Meanwhile, Stael pulls a gun on Dr. Fendahlman 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 that it had been placed in a time loop by the Time Lords. Stael assembles his cult, preparing to begin their ceremony. Fendelman reveals that his forefathers were also part of the Fandahl's followers, but realised that they were being used. He desperately warns Stael to stop. Stael shoots him in response, calling him a "blundering lunatic". When the Doctor Leela return to the cottage, hoping to get everyone out, they find their legs cannot move. The group are all stuck, as a full-grown Fendahleem bears down on them.

Part 4

The Doctor uses Jack's gun, which had been loaded with rock salt, to wound the Fendahleen, and, with concentration, the group are able to escape it's telepathic influence. Meanwhile, the cult uses Thea's body as a host for the Fendahl to manifest it's core. The Fendahl then turns the cult members into Fendahleen, and paralyses Stael when he catches it's gaze. The Doctor and Leela sneak into the cult's room, and free Adam. Telling Leela to get Adam to safety, the Doctor steps forward. Stael begs the Doctor to bring him his gun, shooting himself when he gets it, and the Doctor quickly departs. Conferring with the others, the Doctor realises that the Fendahl requires thirteen Fendahleen, so that they may become an incredibly powerful gestalt entity, and the group make plans to stop it from acheiving it's goal. 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 manage to kill one of the Fendahleen. The Doctor rigs the scanner to destroy the entire cottage, leaving them enough to capture the skull, leaving the Fendahl powerless. The Doctor and Leela enter the basement, Leela distracting the Fendahleen long enough for the Doctor to get the skull. The Fendahl core attempts to stop them, but they manage to escape by closing their eyes and walking right past it. 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 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
 * K-9-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

Story Notes

 * This story marks the first appearance of a new version of Leela's famous leather outfit, which is lighter in colour than the last. The new version was created because the original was wearing out, and had caused Louise Jameson some problems due to it being a leotard (the new version was a dress to rectify the problem). 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, 'The Sun Makers', before the new edition came back for Leela's final two outings.
 * K9 appears only briefly, in the opening and closing TARDIS scenes. 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.
 * Also on the DVD, Louise Jameson says the reason why her hair is done up in this episode is because a BBC hairstylist had mistakenly cut 6 inches off her long 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.

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

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * In episode four the Doctor says that the Fendahl killed the hiker and Mitchell, but he cannot possibly know their occupations or names. (There are several opportunities for him to have learned that information from characters off-screen.)
 * How does the Doctor get out of the locked cupboard in episode two? (He had been using the sonic screwdriver on it in the previous scene.)
 * Why did the Time Lords take such an extreme measure of time-looping the 'fifth planet' in order to contain the Fendahl but did not take similar precautions with the Sutekh (See Pyramids of Mars), who was surely no less of a potential threat to the cosmos? By the time the Time Lords did time-loop the fifth planet the Fendahl had already destroyed all life there, so there was no harm in doing it, whereas there were millions of people living on Earth at the time of Sutekh's imprisonment and it would have meant condemning the entire human race to eternal imprisonment.

Continuity

 * The origins of Planet 5 and its role are explored further in EDA: The Taking of Planet 5.

Timeline

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

DVD, Video and Other Releases

 * Image of 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.
 * PDF material: Radio Times listings
 * Production note subtitles.

Novelisation

 * Main article: Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl


 * Novelised as Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl by Terrance Dicks in 1979.