Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl
Novel by Terrance Dicks. Read by Louise Jameson
BBC - 2020
Audio Download - Unabridged
The Image of the Fendahl was a 1977 television story in four weekly parts, starring Tom Baker as The Doctor and with Louise Jameson as Leela. I have memories of watching it at the time. It’s a spooky Hammer Horror, alien monster kind of a thing with “mad” scientists, spooky night-time woods and satanic rituals in the Priory cellar .
I picked up the Target novelisation when it came out in mid-1979 because that was the only way to relive it, or so I thought. I deeply disliked the cover art, but that really is no reason to judge a good book harshly.
Doctor Who Weekly started a few short months after that with its many features, story synopsis and interviews. So, I got to read all about it and study some great pictures over the years
And then technology made good business sense of old television shows and I got to watch it again around about 10 years later. I watched it first on my brother’s video cassette and then several years after that on my own DVD… repeatedly, and with a whole load of extras. Who would have ever imagined!
The last time I watched it was December 2022 following the death of its author; script writer and editor Chris Boucher. I’m not sure it’s often held up as one of the classic Who stories but it’s certainly one of the ones I have returned to in many formats over the years. It’s a lovely example of Tom as the 4th Doctor, a good example of 70s TV drama and a great big duvet of comfort viewing for when you need some alone time from the modern world.
My thoughts from that most recent viewing was that it’s still all of the above but with a nagging feeling that it was missing a few transitional scenes and moody background shots. Not literally, but from a story telling point of view and with the desire to really crank up the tension of it all. On reflection this was probably being fed by the fact that I have been watching and listening to a lot of M.R James adaptions lately and while the two things are different genres, they definitely shared a Gothic language. It needed a bit of fixing.
Which brings me - the long way round - to my latest big listen of the year, which is the audio reading of the novelisation of the television story as read by Leela herself, actress Louise Jameson. And boy does this do the job!
Firstly, there are some lovely little details dropped into the story by the great Terrance Dicks that flesh out the characters and their motivations. There are snippets of trivia such as why Adam Colby’s dog is called Leakey, which just add extra colour. And then there are some key scenes describing things we just never got to see on screen but which help transitions of action - So that’s how the Doctor escaped that locked room!
Dicks was a great script editor and a great writer of novelisations, his final polish on this story addresses quite a few of my recent viewing niggles. But on top of that there’s Jameson’s narration, with its great distinction of character voices, as well as her seemingly effortless ability raise the tension through tone and intonation. I can’t think of a more perfect person for the job. And then, like a cherry to top of all of that all, there’s a smattering of voice distorts and other sound effects that just raise it to that higher unsettling level. It really is lovely new way to revisit the story and if I’m going to be controversial I might say it almost feels like the final perfect edition.
There’s more I could write about the Fendahl as Doctor Who monsters, and I will but not here or just yet. I’ve encountered them sparingly through the years, in book and audio tales spinning out from the main show but I won’t name them all as in many cases their appearance is an unpublicised surprise. That said, I’ve a taste for a little more of their gestalty goodness so I am off in pursuit of a few previously unchecked sightings and will report back in future posts.
Steve
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