Doctor Who review: The Curse of Fenric mixes gods and monsters with rich themes

The final season of Classic Doctor Who gave us some amazing stories, with The Curse of Fenric being only one of them.

Image Courtesy BBC Studios, BritBox

Mixing rich themes with many classic Doctor Who elements, The Curse of Fenric still holds up as a highlight of the Seventh Doctor’s era.

Following the extremely complex and brilliant Ghost Light, we get another much-loved Seventh Doctor story with The Curse of Fenric. It’s bitterly ironic that this serial shows that Doctor Who was on a winning streak, particularly as it’s the penultimate story broadcast of the Classic Series.

This is a story that packs in a lot. It mixes in World War 2 codebreaking; Viking curses; vampires; evil gods and some major revelations for the Doctor’s companion. It’s quite a lot, even for a four-part story.

In fact, there’s so much that there was quite a bit of footage that didn’t make it into the original broadcast version, and the story was heavily edited as a result. Fortunately, the Blu-Ray release includes two other versions of the story: extended versions of each episode, originally released on VHS, and a movie-length special edition edit previously released on DVD.

For this review, I’m basing it on the DVD special edition of The Curse of Fenric, as it feels like the story has plenty of room to breathe with the extended length. Still, considering how much I enjoy this story overall, I’ll expect I’ll watch and compare all three versions at some point. But for the moment, let’s take a look at why this story is so fondly remembered.

Exploring faith

I’ve mentioned that, plot-wise, The Curse of Fenric crams in a lot. But I think what truly stands out about the story are the themes that Ian Briggs includes in his script. Particularly the nature of faith.

Faith is important to many characters in this story. Whether it’s religious faith, faith in an idea, or faith in a close friend, the story is keen to explore faith in many different forms. Soviet Captain Sorin and his belief in the revolution is a great example of this. Sorin stands out as a wonderfully fleshed-out and extremely believable character, thanks to both Briggs’s script and a strong performance by Tomek Bork. How the story highlights how important his faith is to him helps to add so much more to his character.

However, the very best exploration of faith comes in the form of tragic character Reverend Wainwright, as played by Nicholas Parsons. In a rare example of stunt-casting by producer John Nathan-Turner that actually worked, Parsons gives a fantastic performance as a man who’s struggling with his beliefs during a time of war. Not just in God, but in basic human goodness, too. This was a bold move, as at the time, Parsons was arguably more well-known for being a presenter than his history as an actor, but it was a move that paid off.

One of my favorite episodes from Matt Smith’s era – an episode that is criminally underrated – is The God Complex. Like Fenric, it’s a story that explores the nature of faith in various forms. In some ways, it even seems to “borrow” elements from the earlier story, particularly when the Doctor has to break his companion’s faith in him. Both explorations are equally valid and work well on their own terms, but it’s hard not to see Fenric as being a clear influence on the later story.

Ace and the Doctor

On top of all this, we also have the continued exploration of Ace. Previous serial Ghost Light looked deeply into her past, and that’s even more true of The Curse of Fenric. We’re given a clear idea of what her relationship was like with her mother and how she feels about her. There’s a sense that she’s facing her past in a big way, and she’s growing as a person as a result. There’s even a hint of romance with Captain Sorin, although as you can probably guess, that romance is completely and utterly doomed.

However, it’s not just Ace that The Curse of Fenric is a key story for. Like Ghost Light, it’s another major story in terms of defining the Seventh Doctor’s character. Once again, the Doctor knows far more than he’s letting on, enhancing the sense of mystery to this incarnation. This mystery is only deepened by Fenric’s own hints regarding their previous meetings, reminding us that there’s a great deal that we don’t know about the Doctor.

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But if there’s one defining moment in terms of Seven’s character – a moment that would influence all later depictions of this particular incarnation in comics, audios and especially the novels – it’s the moment he breaks Ace’s faith in him. He does it to save her life, but he does it so cruelly and utterly that it’s still shocking to see. After this moment, fans wouldn’t look at the Seventh Doctor the same way again.

Overall, The Curse of Fenric is a real highlight of the Seventh Doctor’s era on television. No, more than that: it’s a real highlight of the Eighties. Practically the second in a row, after Ghost Light. Full of rich themes, distinctive characters, and fantastic exploration of our regulars, The Curse of Fenric is another example of how Doctor Who was proving to be stronger than it had been in years. It really is the cruelest twist that the next story of the Classic Series would turn out to be it’s last.

Are you a fan of The Curse of Fenric? Is it one of your favorite Seventh Doctor stories? Which version do you prefer: broadcast, extended VHS or the DVD special edition? Let us know in the comments below.