Image of the Fendahl Part Four

The one where the Doctor blows up another priory...

The Fendahl finally manifests in human form, using the body of poor Thea Ransome, which it decides will look even better if painted head to toe in gold. And admittedly, Wanda Ventham does look utterly stunning in gold. I didn't think it possible for Wanda to look any more beautiful than she does anyway, but as a shining gold angel of death, she is magnificent. The rise of the Fendahl from flat on its back to standing upright is done really well too.

No sooner has the Fendahl manifested, it begins to soak up more life forces by killing its own coven, beginning with wily old Ted Moss, who's turned into a fendahleen sluglet. This does not go down well with Max, who is stunned that the creature he reawakened and hoped to control has now turned on the very people who worshipped it. Max's world is in tatters, and to make matters worse, he's looked the Fendahl in the eyes, which means certain doom.

Image of the Fendahl Part Three

The one where Max begins to summon the ancient power of the Fendahl...

Leela to the rescue! For the first time this story, Leela makes it to the priory proper, and instinct tells her the Doctor is in trouble, and she finds him wracked with pain clutching Eustace the skull. She kicks the Doctor's chair from under him, making him fall on top of her in a heap on the ground. If this was Doctor Who as written by Steven Moffat, the sight of the Doctor lying nose to nose on top of his sexy, scantily-clad companion would result in some kind of distasteful, perhaps even inappropriate, lewd comment or suggestion. Thankfully, this is written by Chris Boucher, and the only allusion made is to the Doctor's weight.

The Doctor says that the skull is the Fendahl, an ancient entity which absorbs the life force of those around it. "It eats life itself." And down in the priory cellars, mad Max has poor Thea tied up and drugged, intending to use her as the physical medium through which the Fendahl will manifest. Max refers to "the ancient power of this place", suggesting the house itself has something to do with the Fendahl, but as far as I can work out, it doesn't. Fendelman's time scanner awoke the power, but that power is not "of this place" as such, is it? Either way, Max's ambition is to control the supreme power of the ancients. "I shall be a god!" he announces, all crazy-eyed. Scott Fredericks has the perfect glare for a villain.

Image of the Fendahl Part Two

The one where we find out who the real bad guy is...

I just love the liminal atmosphere of this story, the feeling that there's something terrible lurking around the corner, on the fringe of this reality and another. There's a definite supernatural feel to the story, in that there seems to be something creeping around of a nightmarish, otherworldly quality which could be explained away as ghosts. The scene where something unseen slowly squelches its way toward the kitchen door as Mitchell watches is so well done. And then the door bursts open, and you don't see a thing, until George Spenton-Foster cuts away and we soon hear Mitchell's agonised screams in the distance. When Thea and Adam find him, he is dead, the same way as the hiker - with a mysterious blister on his neck (is this ever explained?).

Thea collapses (she's good at that) but before Adam can respond, the Doctor strides in and commands: "Don't touch her!" Within micro-seconds, Tom Baker is in charge. But sadly, not for very long, because he has very little to do in this episode, and has minimal involvement with the real story. It's like a Doctor-lite episode.

Image of the Fendahl Part One

The one where an ancient Kenyan skull appears to possess a beautiful scientist...

The very first shot of this episode is a close-up of a human skull. Right from the beginning, Image of the Fendahl does not mess about, and is determined to creep the viewer out with a gloriously uneasy atmosphere which is built up expertly by director George Spenton-Foster and writer Chris Boucher. Credit must also go to the ever reliable Dick Mills for his "special sounds" which add layers of atmosphere.

Handsome scientist Adam Colby has nicknamed the skull Eustace (perhaps a nod to American paleontologist Eustace L Furlong, who had a plesiosaur named after him), but the funny thing with Eustace is that it appears to date back to a time eight million years before mankind roamed the Earth. Adam finds it hard to accept that the skull is that ancient, even though the fact has been arrived at by his beautiful colleague Thea Ransome, played by the stunning Wanda Ventham (an actress who appeared in Doctor Who every 10 years, like clockwork!).