The 7th Doctor leaves it late in the running order to make his first proper appearance in this list1, and the story comes from his final season, widely considered his best. By this point Andrew Cartmel had come in, got a really good grip in the show and how to make it, and was producing some top notch stuff. Cartmel had his MasterPlan of what he wanted to do with the characters of The Doctor and Ace, where they would stand in the mythos of the show; it’s a massive shame that he didn’t get the chance to fulfill the plan, although the output of books like the New Adventures & early Big Finish stand as testament to how much his ideas were there to be ran with.
More than anything he was making proper solid drama. Having started off in Season 24 with a candy floss explosion in a bubblegum factory in response to the down & dirty Saward years, Cartmel toned down the camp & lightness in S25 to deliver something that was high on action and concepts, but also packed with character work. By S26, the drama is higher than it has been at any time since the Hinchcliffe years. If Cartmel uses S24 to find his bearings, by S25 he’s stretching his legs and by S26 he’s running full sprint.
The Curse of Fenric is the perfect example of that. It’s a dense, confident script from Dragonfire‘s Ian Briggs, that is full of mythology, science and WWII imagery. There’s some bold themes at play here – stuff you’d expect to find more in modern drama that at half seven on a Wednesday night after a talkshow. There’s no shying away from the horrors of war, as the ethics of using chemical weapons is discussed in full: 35 odd years before Oppenheimer Doctor Who was talking about killing thousands to save millions.
The effect that this has on normal people is also delved into: the standout performance of this story comes from the most unexpected source, light entertainer Nicholas Parsons. As a bit of JNT’s legendary stunt casting, you’d be forgiven for thinking Parsons would go Full Briers with his role, but not a bit of it. He brings out every layer of Wainwright’s despair at losing his faith and what is going on around him; he’s a peripheral character but Parsons makes him the centre of every scene he is in. I often joke that Graham Crowden & Paul Darrow deliver the greatest performances of any supporting actor in all of Doctor Who2, but realistically this as fine as you’ll ever get with a minor character. I certainly can’t think of Nicholas Parsons being better in anything else.
Brigg’s script is packed with characters like this though, who have backstories and depth that is brought to life through by their actors. From the vicious spinster Mrs Hardaker to Nurse Crane, the assistant who looks at Judson as the invalid she can man-handle around to please herself, to the Russian soldiers, there’s not a character here who isn’t fleshed out in some way that makes the story compelling. Not least Fenric, the villain of the piece, who is revealed to have been manipulating events since S24 to get to this point – it’s a bit of Steven Moffat plotting from Andrew Cartmel before Steven Moffat even knew he was Steven Moffat, and should be held in exactly the same regards as the twists we get in The Big Bang.
Of course the main character we get explored in this story is Ace – because this whole season is about her. This story is bookended by serials that take us to her past & present, and so this one makes an Ace Trilogy to follow the more Doctor heavy Battlefield that opened the season. Here we don’t just get to explore Ace’s background further as she copes with squaring the circle of saving the mother she hates, but we also get to see how much she’s grown since we first met her on IceWorld: sure, she’s still all action & slang, but as she clearly points out to us she’s not a little girl anymore. This story – and again, this season – deals with the sexuality of our characters more than has ever done before. There’s no sex in the TARDIS but you never said anything about outside, Mr Nathan-Turner…
It’s not all about Ace though, there’s the Doctor always there, pulling the strings in the background. If Fenric has been manipulating events & Ace’s life, then so has he – they are very much both different cheeks of the same arse here. The Part 3 cliffhanger, as Fenric reveals himself to the Doctor and we realise that they know each other of old, that all this has been preplanned, is one of the series best ever; likewise, the scene where The Doctor has to break Ace’s faith in him to defeat Fenric. We know what he’s doing and why, but it’s still heartbreaking to see them have to go through it. The Doctor has a lot of repair work to do with Ace after this; you can use your own headcanon or one of the many, many version of their departure out there to decide how successful there were in that.
But at least we know they do make up in the end, thanks not only to The Power of the Doctor3 but to the absolutely delightful Tales of the TARDIS which has just been release in the iPlayer – in which brand new scenes of The Doctor and Ace bookend the feature length version of this story. Which means we not only get fabulous new Slyv & Soph content, but there are now almost as many ways to enjoy The Curse of Fenric now as there are Shada: broadcast version, extended VHS version, feature length version, and now Tales of the TARDIS version. That puppet version of Shada can’t be that far away to keep it top…
The Curse of Fenric is a stone cold classic. It’s a proper grown up slice of drama that doesn’t sit too heavy on the stomach: there’s still thrills & spills & scares amongst all the character work, which is as good as you get until Rusty comes along. The Chains of Fenric can shatter all they want when it’s this good to watch.
COMING TOMORROW: “Close your eyes, my darling. Well, three of them, at least…”
- The TV Movie notwithstanding ↩︎
- Or do I? They are stupendous after all… ↩︎
- https://skiesfullofdiamonds.wordpress.com/2023/11/10/14-the-power-of-the-doctor/ ↩︎
Skies Full of Diamonds 