Doctor Who Story 155 The Curse of Fenric by Nicholas Mallett (1989)
3 December 2008A mediocre adventure of the Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy. There a lot of explosions, but the bad guys are pretty lame, with bad acting, and don’t seem to scary. I do like Ace (Sophie Aldred) as a companion, and I like how this ties her whole life together, than in fact she was a part of creating her own life, but overall this is not one of the best adventures. I watched this on Netflix, and it looked OK, though not very good.
During the second world war, two dinghies filled with Russian Communist soldiers head towards Maiden’s Point on the English coast, though one gets lost in the fog. The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) dressed in period clothing arrive, and head intoa top secret Navy installation, and walk right in, and into the office of the wheelchair bound Dr. Judson (Dinsdale Landen) who is working on logic problems and a computer to translate german Ultra transmissions and both the Doctor and Ace impress him with their logic abilities, and the Doctor has forged a letter of authority which gives him access to the base. The Soviets meanwhile find the only survivor of the other dingy, who is wounded and delirious, the commander Captain Sorin (Tomek Bork) asks for their sealed orders, but gets no answer, though they are found with a picture of Judson, but the soldier is killed by something under the water. The Doctor and Ace go to a church of Reverend Wainwright (Nicholas Parsons) and see Judson who is trying to decipher some Viking inscriptions under the Church, and who plans to use the ULTIMA code machine to decipher them. Some girls from London, Jean (Joann Kenny) and Phyllis (Joane Bell) make friends with Ace, and make plans to go swimming. The Doctor and Ace discover the Soviets orders at Maiden’s point, he heads to the Church and warns Ace not to go in the water. The Doctor gets translations of the Viking inscriptions from Wainwright and takes it to Judson. Ace makes friends with one of the woman at the base, Kathleen Dudman (Cory Pulman) who plays chess, and has her baby Audrey (which Ace doesn’t like because it is the name of her hated mother) with her at the base. The Base leader Millington (Alfred Lynch) seems a little off, having his office made up like the Nazi intelligence office, and with a viking chess set, and he and Judson read the translation, while new runes appear in the crypt.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
The Doctor and Ace are found by the Russians are aret taken to Sorin, and he tells them the assault on the base to steal the ULTIMA will be suicide, and they are let go.
Judson works on deciphering the new encryptions and puts them in the ULTIMA, which he and Millington have rigged with an evil chemical weapon to kill the Soviet leadership in Moscow. The Doctor and Ace are shown the mine under the crypt where the chemical comes from, and which they want to end the war with. The Doctor tricks him to think he is on his side.
An urn falls out in the crypt, as Soldiers work to seal off the Church.
Jean and Phyllis enter the water fully clothed, and get changed with long fingers into something else, and they lure a Soviet into the water, where a creature takes him under.
Millington closes down all communication lines, as the ULTIMA decrypts the inscription which says let the chains of Fenric Shatter. Ace realizes the inscription is a logic computer and tells Judson.
The Doctor and Ace find Wainwright who is being attacked by the girls, but the Doctor is able to make a psychic shield to hold them off, as true belief does, which Wainwright couldn’t hold off because he has lost his faith. The girls are a kind of vampire now, and they and others from the water, as well as descendants of the Vikings who did the inscription who have turned into creatures are attacking the base with no defenses as Millington has lowered them to allow the Russians to steal the ULTIMA, and destroyed all methods of communication.
They realize that Ace has given them the keys the crypt with her information, and they go to stop the ULTIMA, and Millington thinks he will get ultimate power from Fenric.
The doctor explains that the Vampires are Haemovores, mutations from future Earth. Wainwright traces the names of Viking descendants who may become Haemovores. Ace finds the urn that is the treasure, and sticks it in her backpack not knowing what it is. The Haemovores attack the church, with Ace trying to escape with a ladder in her backpack, but she is saved by Sorin and Russians, who come with them. The Doctor leads them into the crypt, but Sorin goes back to his men, using his faith in Communism to save him.
The tunnel to the toxin storage is sealed, but Ace blows it with some explosives from her backpack, and she takes out the flask she found, and the doctor grabs it, realizing it is the treasure.
When they get out, Millington is there and takes the flask to the ULTIMA, to do the final inscription while, locking 2 helpful Russians to die in the crypt.
Sorin goes into the camp alone to talk to Millington, but Millington arrests him, but gets his men to retreat. The creatures meanwhile melt their way through the door to the krypt, while Ace finds Kathleen alone, having found a letter telling her that her husband died.
Ace confronts the doctor that he never tells her anything, and he explains that it is all about an ancient evil from the birth of the universe, and Fenric is just Millington’s name for it. Ace helps the Doctor release Sorin, while Wainwright is attacked by the Haemovores.
The Flask in the ULTIMA flashes and hits Judson with energy, and he arrises, telling the time lord that the contest begins anew.
Fenric tells that the Doctor had trapped him in the Shadow Dimensions for 17 Centuries, but now that he has a body he can start anew, and he teleports away. Millington orders the Doctor, Ace and Sorin be shot for treason, but Sorin’s men rescue them. Fenrci gets the Haemovores to bring the Ancient One from the water, and another version of them arrises, which is a version of humanity from the distant future, once the planet is too polluted for normal humans.
The Doctors tells Ace they need a chess set so they can beat Fenric, as he did before, and they go to Millington’s office, but it is set to explode, and they barely escape.
Fenric tells Millington about how the doctor beat him with a game of chess and banished him, while the Doctor explains to ace about the curse being passed down family names. She remembers Kathleen’s chess set and they go to get it.
A big battle occurs, and the British soldiers end up joining the Russians, because they realize Millington plans on destroying the world with the toxic. Ace meanwhile gets Kathleen and Audrey to leave and go to her grandmothers in London.
Fenric tells the Ancient One to kill the other Haemovores and to take the poison to the oceans to kill the planet, and the Haemovores all die. The Doctor sets up the chess board, for the game again, while Millington is killed by a Russian. While Fenric works on the puzzle, the Doctor tells the Ancient One that Fenric’s plan with cause the destruction of the planet, that his race will eventually live on, and not to trust Fenric.
Sorin goes to kill Fenric, but finds that he is another in the Viking line, and he is taken over, and when Ace comes in and explains the chess move, she gives the move to Fenric, and he tells her that in fact Audrey was her hated mother, and that Ace created her own future. Fenric orders the Ancient One to kill them, but Ace’s faith in the Doctor keeps it at bay, and the Doctor tells Fenric he never cared for Ace, and always knew that she was a plan by Fenric to trap the doctor, and he never liked her, and her faith is broken. The Ancient one turns to kill them, but kills Fenric and himself with the poison.
The Doctor tells Ace he didn’t really mean it, but had to break Ace’s faith to allow the Ancient One to act, and he had to save her from teh curse of Fenric.
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Enjoyable enough, though not amazing, lots of action though.
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