N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
I almost watched The Curse of Fenric when it was first broadcast.
My Mum was flicking channels (probably trying to find Coronation Street) and landed briefly on BBC One just, insomuch as how I recollect it now, as Sylvester McCoy burst threw a door. I remember my interest being piqued, but those being the days where you didn’t carry a TV screen in your pocket at all times, I didn’t watch it (and my Mum probably did watch Corrie!).
“Things always look different when you’re a child.
Ace, The Curse of Fenric: Part Two
After The King’s Demons that glimpse of The Curse of Fenric was the closest I came to watching any other Doctor Who in the 80’s. At least it was nearer than my being in the next room as had been the case with The Caves of Androzani.
Of course, it was only when I watched it on VHS a couple of years later that I realised it was The Curse of Fenric that I’d nearly seen. Even on that first VHS viewing, I thought that it was something special; it is an opinion that repeat viewings, included this most recent one, have only cemented.
It’s another complex, multi-layered story, part rumination on the ethics of war, part vampire tale — with a liberal dose of Ace angst and another battle against an evil from the dawn of time. It ties together elements of Ace’s and the Seventh Doctor’s story from their meeting on Iceworld through the encounter with Lady Peinforte in Silver Nemesis. Ace even describes to Kathleen what we know to be Gabriel Chase — ‘an old, empty house full of noises’. Had they broadcast this season in production order this scene would have been foreshadowing events to come in Ghost Light. As it is, it plays almost as though Ace has come to terms with her terror of it.
“We play the contest again, Time Lord.”
Judson, The Curse of Fenric: Part Three
The Doctor swans in, signs his own authorisation papers flagrantly in front of Dr Judson and Nurse Crane and makes himself at home!
He’s a manipulative b*stard, mind — yet again putting Ace through the emotional ringer on her journey to catharsis, but that’s the Seventh Doctor we’ve come to know and love. And it has to be said that Sylvester McCoy is once again superb throughout with Sophie Aldred too arguably at her best ever. (There’s even a bit of dodgy flirting!)
I can’t praise The Curse of Fenric highly enough. It’s an absolutely terrific tale from start to finish and proof that not only was Doctor Who on belting form in season twenty-six, but that I was right to be intrigued that autumn evening in 1989.
