Doctor Who (TV Series) Image of the Fendahl: Part Four (1977) User Reviews

A solid conclusion.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 8/10 · 10 December 2018]

Image of the Fendahl almost feels like a classic, it has marvellous horror concepts, some truly great ideas, and some rather wonderful visuals, unfortunately, it boasts a monster which rivals the creature from the Pit as one of the silliest monsters of all time.

I can imagine hoards of kids in November in 1997 using all manner of household items to make their own Fendahleen, toilet rolls, pipe cleaners etc, trouble is, the BBC seemed to make them in the same way, it's a little hard to take this episode overly seriously. My only wish is that the lighting had been more subtle. By contrast, the golden Wanda Ventham, with that killer smile and huge eyes was a visual delight, I loved the powerful imagery of her appearing here and there.

It's a fast paced mad cap episode, it boasts some fantastic guest appearances, Daphne Heard once again is terrific, I love the gothic feel, and love the dashes of humour.

A decent conclusion to an excellent four part story, I can't help feeling three episodes would have been a better format. 8/10

Vinegar Not Required...

[Xstal · 6/10 · 5 July 2022]

If you ever encounter a Fendahl, remember to always bring salt, liberally scattered, it will leave it all battered and brought to a shuddering halt.

The eyes have it.

A highlight of season 15!

[dalekprimelol · 7/10 · 10 June 2022]

This whole story is very back to basics for the Tom Baker era and I think that's why it's so good! The Fendahl are very well designed and well executed monsters. I did find it a bit confusing at parts but that might just be me. But overall very good story.

S15: Image of Fendajl: Mostly good return to horror form

[bob the moo · 18 September 2016]

After a silly bit of Fantastic Voyaging and shrimp fighting in the previous serial, this one feels much more like the opening serial as it has a more restrained horror element. The plot doesn't totally work but the atmosphere does, and there is a good sense of a sinister manipulating force. This means the human cast get to carry it, and the performances mostly justify this, with good changes in the performances and some good 'leads' in the support. Unlike the previous serial, the design is also good, with an atmosphere to the episodes which adds to the horror element.

It is not a classic by any means. The monsters when they appear are good but a little limited – although maybe I am being too kind due to only just seeing the rat/shrimp Nucleus thing? Anyway, the creatures do have a bit of the Blue Peters about them, with their pink streamer paper mouths. I thought they still worked, not so much because of their design, but because of the darkness of the episodes – humans turned into worms, screaming as they go, and the main villain thanking the Doctor for helping him to commit suicide – these give the silly worm things more presence, and the Goddess character too.

The performances are mostly good. Baker seems more comfortable in the Gothic realm. Jameson bothered me a lot in this serial; her performance is thinner, but more worrying is that her material is too. And by material I mean her character, but also her outfits – this one looks the skimpiest to date, and it is distracting just how obvious it is. We'll see if it is an one-off, but nothing suggests it is. New 'cast' member K9 appears briefly but doesn't bring anything to the serial. Otherwise though, a solid serial even though it has its weakness; I enjoyed the Gothic sensibilities and the darker elements of the resolution.

Last echo of the horror themes from the great previous era.

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 9/10 · 13 January 2015]

Review of all 4 episodes:

Horror of Fang Rock two stories before this was a sort of dividing point between the sustained brilliance of the quite adult horror based series 12-14 and the more lightweight, humour based series 15 onwards. This though is a horror themed story, a final echo of that previous era before the tone changes fully to a lighter tone in the following stories of the series. Robert Holmes remained as script editor and so despite the change in producer from the great Phillip Hinchcliffe to Graham Williams, the push to move to more humorous, light themes had not yet fully taken over. This story is very much showing Holmes is still in charge and Chris Boucher who had written horror based stories in recent seasons has provided another dark and creepy adventure.

The story has a skull, seemingly human but far too old to be human, dug up and used by scientists in their experiments. The skull is actually alien and has dangerous powers. There are also followers of a mystical cult helping the alien Fendahleen to return The Doctor has to stop the alien menace.

Tom Baker and Louise Jameson continue to shine as The Doctor and Leela and the story is well acted by the whole cast. It is well scripted with intelligent and sharp dialogue and lots of suitably scary scenes and menacing atmosphere. The first episode is particularly brilliant. It is exciting, chilling and enjoyable. Episode 2 pretty much matches it and the 3rd and 4th episodes are also excellent. Although the final part of the story has a few slightly less impressive elements it is still very entertaining and very good quality.

My ratings: Parts 1 & 2 - 10/10, Part 3 - 9.5/10, Part 4 - 9/10. Overall - 9.63/10.