Doctor Who (TV Series) The Curse of Fenric: Part Two (1989) User Reviews

The Curse of Fenric: Part Two

[Prismark10 · 9/10 · 20 October 2023]

Writer Ian Briggs wrote a very good opener. At times in the second episode, he managed to mesh Hammer House of Horror with Dennis Potter.

It has Janet Henfrey, she was a Potter regular such as a stern schoolteacher in The Singing Detective. Here she scolds Jean and Phyllis for staying out late and of course they are interested in boys. Burgeoning sexuality manifests itself as the girls are possessed when they swim in the waters at Maiden Point as a mist passes by.

As for Millington, he wants the decoding machine to be stolen. The Soviet Union are only temporary allies. He looks beyond the war. The machine has a poison which will be emitted when decrypts the word LOVE.

It is also an episode about faith. Reverend Wainwright is losing his and that places him at risk from the now vampiric Jean and Phyllis.

Then there are the inscriptions that Judson manages to solve assisted inadvertently by Ace.

There is certainly a lot going on. The script is utilised well by director Nicholas Mallett. Nicholas Parsons impresses once again as Wainwright. No mean feat given some of the actors involved.

It's a wonderful second episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 26 February 2020]

Judson continues to use the Ultima machine to translate the Viking runes, Millington looks for meaning in the words. A nasty surprise is being lined up for the Soviet visitors.

This whole story is just wonderful, and this second episode continues the trend. It is very well paced, with plenty happening, highlights include the glorious sermon by Nicholas Parsons, and the wonderful moment where the haemovores rise up out of the water.

Dinsdale Landen continues to impress as Judson, as does Alfred Lynch as the sinister Millington.

I love the tone of it, it's horror, but there's always an undertone, something's about to happen. There's also a complexity, what's going on with the chess set, and why has Millington asked for the removal of all sets?

I wish they'd ended it with the haemovores coming out of the water, that would have been more effective.

Classic. 9/10

Slightly better than Part One.

[poolandrews · 6/10 · 27 July 2008]

Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric: Part Two starts as the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) manages to convince the Russain soldiers to let him & Ace (Sophie Aldred) go free in order to get to the bottom of the ever brewing mystery. Back at the base & the Doctor learns from Commander Millington (Alfred Lynch) & Dr. Judson (Dinsdale Landen) that the Ultima Machine has been bobby trapped with a lethal poisonous gas & are counting on the Russians stealing it & taking it back with them, once there in the Kremlin the trap will triggered & poisonous gas released killing hundreds if not thousands. Meanwhile Phyllis (Joanne Bell) & Jean (Joann Kenny) have been taken over & become Vampires as the Ultima Machine back at the Naval base continues to decode the Nordic runes found at the Church crypt, then several grotesque deformed creatures begin to rise from the sea...

Episode 9 from season 26 this originally aired here in the UK during November 1989, directed by Nicholas Mallett one has to say that Part Two is an improvement on a surprisingly lacklustre Part One as the story begins to take shape. The script by Ian Briggs is a mishmash of various ideas & themes from things such as the John Carpenter horror film The Fog (1980) to the morality of war as it raises the question of whether it is right to bomb & kill innocent people just to further a war effort. It also raises the question about losing faith in face of war & where ones allegiance's truly are. Maybe I am giving The Curse of Fenric a bit too much credit since while it does go down these routes & these ideas are briefly touched upon not a great deal is made out of them & there isn't any real dramatic effect or impact here. I must admit this episode was just starting to get good with the emergence of various monsters but then the episode finished so overall while Part Two is an improvement over Part One it's not a huge improvement. I must admit I was puzzled by the scene in which Phyllis & Jean run into the sea fully clothed, why did they do that exactly? It's just not the sort of thing 'normal' people would do & at this point they were still human so I really can't think of a single reason why two young women would just run into the sea fully clothed & as a scene it just stood out as being rather random & awkward. Also if the Russian soldiers were supposed to steal the Ultima Machine how were they going to get it back to Russia? On those two small dinghy's? Look at the size of the machine it's bigger than the average fridge!

The end of this episode sees some really impressive looking monsters called the Haemovores rise from the foggy sea (the John Carpenter horror film The Fog influence there) & they do actually look really rather good, certainly from a reasonable distance anyway. Although Phyllis & Jean have apparently become Vampires they still walk around in sunlight so their not Vampires in the traditional sense. Filmed entirely on location in & around a Ministry of Defense training camp in Crowborough in East Sussex, Hawkhurst in Kent & Lulworth Cove in Dorset. Apparently the weather was rotten & extremely changeable which caused various problems.

The Curse of Fenric: Part Two is definitely better than Part One, the story is coming together although some of the moral questions asked seem a like afterthoughts & have minimal impact. Not bad but not great.