Torchwood review: Night of the Fendahl is a dark and shocking story for the Doctor Who spin-off

An old Doctor Who monster is given a darker and more adult take in the new Torchwood story, Night of the Fendahl.

This year’s run of monthly Torchwood releases begins with something very special. For the next few months, we’ll be getting stories of the Torchwood team encountering some of the iconic monsters from Doctor Who, both of the Classic and the New Series.

Be warned, however. If Night of the Fendahl is anything to go by, these stories aren’t going to be any more family friendly because of the monsters they feature. If anything, Night of the Fendahl is an incredibly dark and shocking story, even by Torchwood standards.

For those of you unaware of the original story, Image of the Fendahl originally featured the Fourth Doctor and Leela. And that in itself was a horror story with a pretty dark tone, at least by Doctor Who standards.

But Night of the Fendahl takes that dark and horrific tone and turns it up to eleven. Taking place at the same priory that featured in the original story, the story focuses on a team making a film inspired by Image‘s events. This isn’t just any horror film that they’re making, though. They make films with a very selective audience. Films in which awful things happen to women…

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Unpleasant characters

There’s no question that Night of the Fendahl is a rather grim story, with some extremely unlikable characters. Gavin Swift is delightfully slimy as the film’s director Derek. Gerald Tyler plays the film’s producer Marco, who may know more about what’s going on.

But the most interesting character of the story is Phil, particularly as he seems to enjoy the work the least. He doesn’t want to go through with this, but he’s still as much of a part of this horror as anyone else. Bradley Freegard plays this character just right, making Phil surprisingly sympathetic at times, despite the terrible things he does.

Eve Myles is also given something very different to do as Gwen in this story. From the very beginning, we know that something’s off with our regular character. But what? And why is she really involved in the film? It’s refreshing to hear Myles play more of an antagonist in a story like this, and she definitely gets more than her fair share of creepy moments throughout.

Night of the Fendahl gets this year’s monthly Torchwood audios off to a strong start. Be warned, this is definitely not for the faint of heart. Even by Torchwood standards, this is a very dark and adult horror story. But, if you’re a fan of strong horror, then this story is definitely for you. An excellent new take on a classic Doctor Who monster.

Have you seen the original story, Image of the Fendahl? What are your memories of the story? Do you think the Fendahl is a perfect monster for the Torchwood universe? Let us know in the comments below.