DOCTOR WHO

When The Curse of Fenric was released on video, it was one of the few Doctor Who stories released in an extended format, albeit one that retained the four episode format of the original broadcast story.

However, with the Restoration Team intended to release only the broadcast versions of stories, that extended edit was a non-starter for DVD. But, instead of merely giving us the original four-part story with the additional material presented as an extra, we've also got a new, feature-length extended episode that easily surpasses the 1991 version.

I've often said that I'm not a fan of the McCoy era, and I don't rate Sophie Aldred's Ace as one of the series' better companions. However, once season 24 was out of the way, the series had at least managed to pull itself out of its trough. Admittedly, the low budget nature is occasionally all-too-visible, and both McCoy and Aldred are capable of some dodgy acting, but McCoy's final two seasons are a world away from the lows of his first.

Like many of the 40th anniversary releases, Fenric is a 2-disc set, with the original 4-part version on disc one and the extended version on disc two, as well as a decent amount of extras spread across both discs.

Disc One

The main event here is the original 4-part BBC1 version, neatly polished up by the RT.

Even for a non-McCoy fan such as myself, Fenric is a highly enjoyable story, although it struggles to cram everything into four 25-minute episodes.

Admittedly it suffers from the Ace backstory, which I never took to, and the BBC's reluctance to aim for an audience over the age of about 12 is occasionally frustrating, but this is still one of the series' best stories from its later years.

Two alternative soundtracks are available - Mark Ayres' score on an isolated music track and a commentary featuring McCoy, Aldred and Nicholas Parsons.

This isn't too bad all. McCoy has a better recollection of his time on the show than I'd feared (having read stories that he didn't remember that much), and Aldred is good. Guest star Parsons is a bit of a mixed bag - enthusiastic, but his habit of asking what's going on or having opinions on the show's history eventually got on my nerves. Had another contributor been available, it might have been better to confine him to the three episodes (1-3) that he actually appears in.

Other features include:

the cast and crew at the Nebula '90 convention - okay, but there are too many of them on the panel so it feels like everyone only gets a couple of questions each, but it's always good to see something relatively contemporaneous included on the discs)

Take Two - a brief excerpt from an episode of the BBC1 children's show with a behind the scenes at The Wolves of Fenric (as it was called at the time).

Modelling the Dead - model markers Sue Moore and Steve Mansfield show how to create Haemovore masks, first shown as part of Galaxy's Doctor Who weekend back in September 1990.

Claws and Effects - a production recce and some visual effects tests.

There's also a clean version of the McCoy title sequences and the usual production subtitles and photo gallery.

The main event on disc two is an extended feature-length version of the story. This is much better than the extended VHS version, and generally works well, showing how the show can benefit without having to throw in a cliffhanger every 25-minutes or so.

A couple of minor quibbles. I've never really liked the McCoy title sequence and didn't think they worked particularly well here, although it would be asking a lot to expect new credits to be created just for this DVD. (And running the acting and production credits over the action wouldn't work as it simply wasn't shot with that purpose in mind.) The other point is that the cliffhanger to part three looks some dramatic impact as the action simply continues (to be fair, Mark Ayres has since commented that in retrospect he might have included an establish shot after the original cliffhanger to highten the tension more).

There are also further features on this disc - interviews with writer Ian Briggs and costume designer Ken Trew and a look at how the special edition was produced.

The extras are up to the standard we expect from Doctor Who DVDs these days, although to be honest, I doubt that I'd bother watching them too often.

However, that still leaves the story, and the two versions satisfy fans' desire to have the "proper" (i.e. televised) version as well as making the most of the deleted material.

I'm not a McCoy fan, but Fenric stands up with the best stories from the entire series, and this disc does it proud. back to the top

THE CURSE OF FENRIC

Starring SYLVESTER McCOY
and SOPHIE ALDRED

Directed by NICHOLAS MALLETT

BBC VIDEO

REGION 2 PAL (CERT: PG)

RATING: 9/10

NEXT STORY:
SURVIVAL

PREVIOUS STORY:
GHOST LIGHT