“The Curse of Fenric” is an adventure of the twentysixth season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired in 1989. It follows “Ghost Light” and it’s a four parts adventure written by Ian Briggs and directed by Nicholas Mallett.

The story

The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) reach a British base on the coast of Northumbria during World War II. The purpose of the installation is to intercept Nazis encrypted transmissions to decipher them with the ULTIMA computer. Dr. Judson is using ULTIMA also to decipher ancient Viking runes found in the catacombs beneath the base, that among other things mention a secret power.

A group of Soviet soldiers secretly reach the coast by sea. Their aim is to take control of the ULTIMA computer for their own purposes. Their mission is hampered from the start also from the attacks of haemovores, kind of vampires controlled a very ancient evil creature.

Extras

This DVD is rich in extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.

There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonists Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred and actor Nicholas Parsons.

Music-only Option. The option to listen to the music specially composed by Mark Ayres in an audio track isolated.

Nebula 90. A video from the Nebula 90 convention, where there was most of the cast and crew from this adventure.

Take Two. On April 19, 1989, the children’s program “Take Two” broadcast a behind the scenes on the production of this adventure.

Modelling the Dead. The TV show “Doctor Who Weekend” shows how to create the masks of the “haemovores”.

Claws & Effect. A look at the tests of some special effects used in this adventure.

Title Sequences. The opening credits with the possibility to have the original stereo sound or the 5.1 mix version.

The Curse of Fenric – Special Edition. An edition of this adventure redited according to the ideas of director Nicholas Mallett and composer Mark Ayres. Thanks also to the addition of several pieces cut in the televised version, a 104-minute movie was made in which the story flows better. This release also includes some new CGI special effects.

Shattering the Chains. An interview with writer Ian Briggs, who explains the ideas behind the story and some of its obscure elements.

Costume Design. An interview with Ken Trew about creating the costumes for this adventure.

Recutting the Runes. Mark Ayres explains the basis for the creation of the Special Edition and its music.

There are also two “Easter eggs”, one of which may be interesting because it’s about the new soundtrack of this adventure while the other just contains some announcements.

Writer Ian Briggs had suggested to script editor Andrew Cartmel a story set in the past and after talking about it they agreed to fix the period during the Second World War on the British coast. Briggs was inspired by various themes he was interest in: the first computers, the vampire legends and Norse mythology.

Because of the setting, it was decided to shoot “The Curse of Fenric” completely on location. However, there was bad weather was inclement, making the job difficult and in various scenes you can see how much mud there is on the ground. Producer John Nathan-Turner directed some scenes shot by a second unit to recover at least part of the time lost.

In the end, there was far too much footage, about twelve minutes more than necessary. To avoid cutting important scenes, it was necessary to make many small cuts here and there, sometimes breaking scenes into two parts to eliminate small parts in the middle putting with other scenes between the two parts. The plot of “The Curse of Fenric” takes time to develop but in the version broadcast on TV the editing and the cut of various details useful to understand it make that development a bit chaotic.

Also for this reason and the fact that some plot elements are actually obscure, “The Curse of Fenric” has a reputation as a complicated adventure. Director Nicholas Mallett and composer Mark Ayres wrote a series of notes describing a way to re-edit the scenes to create a version of it in movie format. Unfortunately, Mallett died in 1997 but in the end the new version thought by him too was produced for the DVD edition to offer this adventure in its full splendor.

“The Curse of Fenric” is superficially a classic “Doctor Who” story in which there are monsters that must be defeated with the help of the Doctor. In this case, however, there are elements of the plot that are definitely deeper. This adventure is set during World War II and writer Ian Briggs took inspiration from the story of the great Alan Turing and the Enigma machine but he mixed it with elements connected to the Norse mythology.

Behind the use of the ULTIMA computer there’s a lot more than you can see at the beginning and during the adventure Commander Millington’s true goals are revealed. He’s a man who ended up losing his humanity during the war and is willing to resort to extreme measures to win it.

The brutality of the war has also affected Reverend Wainright, who has lost his faith because of the terrible bombings carried out by the Brits. Faith is another theme of “The Curse of Fenric” but it shouldn’t be meant in a strictly religious because captain Sorin has faith in the Soviet revolution, Ace has faith in the Doctor and apparently the Doctor has faith in his companions.

“The Curse of Fenric” is perhaps the adventure where the Doctor shows his dark side the most and is more than ever a manipulator. In this he involves Ace again in what is the second part of a trilogy in which she deals with elements of her past. In this case, this element appears explicitly only much later in the story, giving a different meaning to the Doctor’s actions.

The beautiful locations in which “The Curse of Fenric” was filmed and especially the good performances by the cast give strength to the story. It’s a shame that to create the version shown on television they had to do some kind of butchery job in the editing phase.

In my opinion, overall “The Curse of Fenric” is a very good adventure in its original version and even better in its Special Edition. The DVD is really an excellent product that allows you to fully appreciate the story so I definitely recommend buying it.