The Curse of Fenric Part One

The one where the Russians invade wartime Northumbria...

The TARDIS materialises in the grounds of a top secret naval camp in Northumbria in 1943. The Doctor and Ace are here to see Dr Judson, a mathematician charged with the task of cracking the German cyphers in World War Two. The Doctor's duffel coat makes him look a bit like Paddington Bear, while Ace's period outfit makes a refreshing change from her usual badge-scattered bomber jacket (although she still has that).

We're straight into the story, no messing about, as the Doctor and Ace waltz into the base as if they were expected all along. The Doctor even goes so far as to fake his own credentials, right in front of the ratty Dr Judson and his nurse, Crane. It's a very brief letter, with forged signatures from Prime Minister Winston Churchill and MI6 Chief Stewart Menzies (good attention to detail there by production designer David Laskey). The Doctor's gall in forging this letter before presenting it to Captain Bates with the ink still wet is highly amusing, including when Bates knocks on the door and the Doctor shouts: "Come in!" The Doctor is instantly in charge.

It's all a bit fast. There's no gentle ambling up to this story, it starts in second gear and accelerates from there. There's an awful lot to take in - people, places, motivations - but it's richly drawn, with loads of great costumes and period detail. As with Ghost Light, I get the impression the script needed another draft before it was put before the cameras. The pacing needed some thought. The TARDIS arrives in the daytime, but soon it's night-time, then it's next morning, and the rapid chopping and changing of locations means everything and everywhere sort of blends into one mush.

It's also odd that the Doctor very suddenly gets all mysterious and suspicious, without obvious reason. In the first few scenes in the camp and in Judson's office, the Doctor's his usual genial self, but when he and Ace reach the bunk room he begins to act as if he knows something. How does the Doctor know there are Russian "eyes watching" when he bumps into Perkins near the perimeter fence? He gets all mysterious very suddenly, as if he's just remembered he's supposed to be the "dark Doctor" this year.

This continues as our heroes pay Dr Judson a visit at St Jude's Church, where the cantankerous scientist is trying to translate some Viking inscriptions in the crypt. No sooner do they get there than the Doctor decides to leave, another example of Nicholas Mallett's scattergun direction, which has characters walking in and out of scenes almost at random. The Doctor and Ace go from the naval camp to the church and graveyard, then to Maidens' Point, back to the naval camp, and then back to Maidens' Point... We know that Maidens' Point is two miles away from the church because of the road sign, so all this travelling to and fro isn't very realistic.

At one point, while exploring Commander Millington's recreation of the German naval cypher room in Berlin, Ace asks: "Why is everyone round here so interested in Vikings?". The truth is, they're not. Only the Doctor is, and again it's for no discernible reason. He notes the eighth century Viking carvings in the crypt, the Sundviks' graves at St Jude's, and Millington's Viking themed chess set. After they find the discarded Russian orders at Maidens' Bay, the Doctor suddenly believes there to be a connection between Vikings and Russians ('cos they're both from "the north"?), and starts to think there's something sinister about the translated inscriptions. All this is for no obvious reason other than writer Ian Briggs wants these things to be suspicious. But can we, the viewers, have a reason please?

Take the scene where the Doctor reads the translation of the Viking runes aloud at the church. The text mentions Maidens' Bay, and the Doctor seems instantly concerned that he just left Ace there, even though the events of what he's reading happened over 1,000 years ago. Why does the Doctor connect the ancient Viking curse with the present day? What evidence is there that anything dodgy at all is going on?

The episode leaves me with so many questions. Why did Wainwright never bother to tell Dr Judson that his grandfather translated the inscriptions decades ago? It would have saved the poor invalid all the trouble and pain of traipsing down into the dark, dank crypt every day. Why do the Doctor and Ace think there are some actual Russian soldiers around somewhere just because they've found an envelope with Russian writing on? Why does the Doctor advise Ace not to go near the water, as if he already knows there are monstrous warty creatures beneath the surface? Why doesn't Ace understand Russian when the TARDIS is supposed to translate languages for her? Why does the Doctor think he'll find something to connect the Russian papers with the Viking curse on the beach?

The script is trying to tell me that the Doctor knows more than he's saying (and boy am I getting a bit sick of that motif), but there's no rhyme or reason to it. He's just being clever and mysterious for the sake of it. He's being mysterious because writer Ian Briggs wants him to be, not because he has a reason to be. I find it a bit irritating.

Not to be too negative, there are some wonderful moments in the episode:

• It's nice to have a quaint country village setting reminiscent of The Daemons, even if we don't get to see very much of it (and its geographical relationship to the naval camp is ambiguous). There's a gorgeous church and Miss Hardaker's thatched cottage (no wonder she's a 'miss', she's a right old bag!).
• Ace is so desperate to meet people of her own age and gender that she befriends Jean and Phyllis within milliseconds of meeting them, almost forcing them to meet her at Maidens' Point later on. When she does get there she's all grumpy because she thinks swimming in the sea is "silly". Ace's almost stalkerish obsession with the East End evacuees, and then sudden lack of interest, is another example of how the script needed another polish.
• I remember watching this episode on transmission, back when I was a geeky 13-year-old, and somehow correctly anticipating the next line when Judson says that in the future there will be "many more computing machines, thinking machines". Millington's "Yes, but whose thoughts will they think?" popped into my head just before he said it, weirdly. Over 30 years later and the grown-up me continues to be disturbed by and concerned about the march of AI technology and how these modern "thinking machines" might think to wipe us out eventually!
• I love the underwater filming throughout the episode (can't have been easy or cheap), including the wreck of the Viking dragon ship, the monstrous hand which grabs the melted metal, and the corpse of the murdered Russian soldier. What is the creature living beneath the surface? Is it the same creature which attacked Gayev and Petrossian?
• As with so many McCoy stories, it's really well cast. Nicholas Parsons is perfect (albeit unexpected) as the easy-going Rev Wainwright, Dinsdale Landen (a great actor, sadly forgotten today) makes for a suitably crabby Dr Judson, and Alfred Lynch a curmudgeonly Millington. Cory Pulman is particularly striking as the sweet, unassuming Kathleen Dudman. She gives the character a warmth and vulnerability that makes you feel for her when Millington dismisses her from service for having a baby on the camp. To be fair to the Commander, it is rather inappropriate.
• How rude is Ace when Kathleen tells her the baby's called Audrey? "What's the matter, don't you like it?" Dudman asks Ace, who replies: "I hate it. That's my mum's name", then hands the poor kid back. It's a sign of Ace's relative immaturity shining through, struggling to deal with the emotional resonance of what her mother and her mother's name means to her.

Everything looks splendid, and everybody's on top form. The story seems to be about an ancient Viking curse, and some Russians, but so far I'm struggling to piece it all together, and certainly not as well or as quickly as the Doctor's doing. As is the case with many McCoy stories, there's loads of ideas flying around - good, strong, solid ideas - but they're not hanging together very well just yet.

First broadcast: October 25th, 1989

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The underwater filming.
The Bad: The lack of organic storytelling. Things happen because they happen; I feel like the viewer's missing something.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Ace says "Professor": 95 - including the bit where Ace calls the Doctor "professor", he corrects her, but she says it again straightaway!

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site.

The Curse of Fenric is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Curse-Fenric-Sylvester/dp/B01I076IXW