Production Code: 7M
First Transmitted
1 - 25/10/1989 19:35
2 - 01/11/1989 19:35
3 - 08/11/1989 19:35
4 - 15/11/1989 19:35
Plot
The TARDIS materialises at a secret naval base off the coast of Northumberland toward the end of the Second World War. Dr Judson, a scientist there, has created the Ultima Machine, an early computer designed to break German codes. The base's Commander Millington plans to let a Russian commando unit led by Captain Sorin steal the Machine's core, which he has booby-trapped with deadly toxin.
Judson uses the Machine to translate some ancient runes from the crypt of the nearby St Judes church and this leads to the release of Fenric, an evil entity from the dawn of time whom the Doctor trapped seventeen centuries earlier in a Chinese flask by defeating it at chess. The flask was later stolen and buried at the church by Vikings.
The base and church are attacked by Haemovores. These are humans who have been transformed into hideous vampiric creatures by the Ancient Haemovore - the last survivor of a pollution-ravaged future Earth, who has been brought back in time by Fenric. Fenric takes over Judson's body to challenge the Doctor to a rematch at chess, and Ace unwittingly helps it to win.
Fenric, now in Sorin's body, reveals that Ace, Judson, Millington, Sorin and Wainwright, the vicar of St Judes, are all 'Wolves of Fenric' - pawns in its battle against the Doctor. It now plans to release the deadly toxin but the Doctor succeeds in turning the Ancient Haemovore against it and its host body is killed by the gas.
The baby daughter of a young woman whom Ace helped to escape from the Haemovores is revealed to be her future mother.
Episode Endings
The Doctor and Ace find a Russian soldier lying dead on the beach. Suddenly they are surrounded by other Russian soldiers who aim their rifles at them.
The Ultima Machine runs out of control and Commander Millington declares: 'You're too late, Doctor!' The Doctor looks anxious.
Dr Judson rises from his wheelchair to stand behind the Doctor, his eyes glowing yellow - he is Fenric. He states: 'We play the contest again, Time Lord.' The Doctor looks worried.
Ace dives into the sea, then swims ashore and rejoins the Doctor. They see a sign on the beach warning that there are 'Dangerous Undercurrents'. Ace asks the Doctor if this is the case, and he replies that it is not anymore. They walk away together.
Roots
The Doctor comments 'As Nietzsche once said...'
There is much Viking mythology (the Well of Vergelmir, the Great Ash Tree, Fenris).
Wainwright quotes from 1 Corinthians 13.
'Fenric' alludes to vampire and zombie films and 40s film femmes fatales ('make me look like Lana Turner').
The Fog.
Alan Turing.
Chekov.
The Keep Thriller.
The Singing Detective (Janet Henfrey).
Noggin the Nog (Vikings in Arabia).
Dialogue Triumphs
The Doctor : [Reading a Norse inscription revealed on the wall of the church crypt.] "We hoped to return to the North Way, but the dark curse follows our dragon ship... The Wolves of Fenric shall return for their treasure, and then shall the dark evil rule eternally."
Ace : "I'm not a little girl anymore."
Ace : "There's a wind whipping up. I can feel it through my clothes..."
Ace : "And the half time score: Perivale, six hundred million; Rest of the Universe, nil!"
Ace : "Have to move faster than that if you want to keep up with me. Faster than light."
Squaddie : "Faster than a second hand on a watch?"
Ace : "We're hardly moving yet... Sometimes I travel so fast I don't exist."
Continuity
Fenric is the name given by Vikings to an ancient evil created at the dawn of time. Fenric's flask was carried to England by the Vikings in the Ninth Century where a survivor of their expedition, Sundvik, settled and spawned generations of 'wolves' who carried Fenric's taint [genetic instructions]. Descendant daughters of the line married into the families of Millington, Judson and Wainwright. Sorin is also a wolf through his English grandmother, as is Ace through Kathleen Dudman, her maternal grandmother and Audrey, 'the mother you hate'.
As part of Fenric's plan, the Ancient One was 'carried back tens of thousands of years in a time storm to Transylvania'. The creature followed the flask in his search for Fenric to return him home. Earth's vampire legends are due [in part] to the Ancient One. [These vampires are very different from the ones seen in State of Decay: it is never stated that the Great Vampires came to Earth in their war with the Time Lords.] The haemovores can only be destroyed by faith and cannot be harmed by objects alone.
The Doctor says he knew of Fenric's manipulation of Ace when he saw the chessboard in Lady Peinforte's house (Silver Nemesis). Fenric responds 'Before Cybermen, since Iceworld'. It was Fenric who created the time storm that took Ace to Iceworld (Dragonfire).
Ace's Computer Studies teacher was called Miss Birkett. She says she took French (and failed Chemistry) 'O' level, and notes that she had more trouble getting into Greenford disco without a ticket than into a secret Navy base. Her relationship with her mother was poor. She also refers to her terror of the house in Ghost Light. She secures her future by sending Kathleen and Audrey to London, to be looked after by her Nan at 17 Old Street, Streatham. [Ace's paternal rather than maternal grandmother.]
The Doctor types his own letter of authorisation, and forges the signatures of the Head of the Secret Services and the P.M. He is ambidextrous, using two pens at the same time.
QV
Location
A Navy base, near Whitby, Yorkshire, towards the end of the Second World War. The Soviets carry Simonov SKS rifles, which were developed during 1942.
Future History
The Doctor describes the haemovores as the species that mankind will evolve into, when the Earth is 'rotting in chemical slime' after 'half a million years of industrial progress'. [The Ancient Haemomovore's sacrifice, stopping the gas seeping into the sea, prevents this time line from occuring. The Doctor, a traveller in alternative realities, has, however, seen this future.]
Untelevised
Fenric met the Doctor in third century Constantinople and, defeated at chess, was banished to 'a shadow dimension' while its earthly essence was imprisoned in a flask for 17 centuries. The Doctor met the Ancient One in the far future.
Trivia
Nicholas Parsons, better known as the host of Anglia TV's game show The Sale of the Century, revives his earlier acting career in the role of Mr Wainwright, vicar of St Judes.
Marek Anton, who occupied the Destroyer costume in Battlefield, is seen here in person as the Russian soldier Vershinin.
The Doctor uses his faith in his past companions to repel the Haemovores' attack on the church, reciting their names under his breath.
The baby - revealed to be Ace's mother - was in fact the son of the landlord and landlady of The Bush Hotel on Shepherd's Bush Green, a few minutes' walk from the Doctor Who office and frequently visited by the production team.
Goofs
Audrey has a Super Ted.
Commander Millington's moustache - Royal Navy officers were required to have either a full beard and moustache or else to be clean shaven.
Nobody in 1943 would know of Jane Russell.
There wouldn't be any road signs like the one indicating the way to Maiden's Point (all such signposts were taken down during the war, to hinder the enemy in the event of an invasion).
Wainwright is quoting from a modern translation of the Bible.
The Doctor cleans his muddy hand very quickly in episode four.
The Russians speak nothing but English after the first sequence, even to the point of death - what self control! And how do they expect to get away with the huge Ultima machine in their little dinghy?
The English captain is surprisingly ready to join forces with the Russians he was trying to execute only hours before.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
Ace - Sophie Aldred
Ancient Haemovore - Raymond Trickett
Baby - Aaron Hanley Also in Part Two, but uncredited
Captain Bates - Stevan Rimkus
Captain Sorin - Tomek Bork
Commander Millington - Alfred Lynch
Dr. Judson - Dinsdale Landen
Jean - Joann Kenny
Kathleen Dudman - Cory Pulman
Miss Hardaker - Janet Henfry
Nurse Crane - Anne Reid
Perkins - Christien Anholt
Petrossian - Mark Conrad
Phyllis - Joanne Bell
Sgt. Leigh - Marcus Hutton
Sgt. Prozorov - Peter Czajkowski
The Rev. Mr. Wainwright - Nicholas Parsons
Vershinin - Marek Anton
Crew
Director - Nicholas Mallett
The Curse of Fenric