 "Image of the Fendahl" was Chris Boucher’s last Doctor Who story. After his involvement on Blake’s 7 ended, Chris Boucher continued writing and script editing on programmes such as Juliet Bravo, Bergerac and The Bill. He also created the science-fiction programme Star Cops. Chris Boucher finally returned to Doctor Who via the BBC Book’s The Past Doctors Stories novels, writing four books between 1998 and 2005 ("Last Man Running", "Corpse Marker", "Psi-ence Fiction" and "Match of the Day") all for the Fourth Doctor and Leela. He was also involved with the Magic Bullet Productions audio series "Kaldor City", which combined elements from both "The Robots of Death" and Blake’s 7.
This was also the final story that Robert Holmes was credited as being the Script Editor. Incoming Script Editor Anthony Read had also worked on this story, to help in the transition during Robert Holmes’ departure from the role. Despite this only Robert Holmes received an on-screen credit. Anthony Read would not receive his first on-screen acknowledgment until the next story in production, "Underworld"). Robert Holmes would maintain close ties with the programme contributing two more stories for Season Sixteen, and several further stories in the mid-Eighties. Robert Holmes remained a prolific writer for other programmes including: Blake’s 7, The Nightmare Man, Juliet Bravo and Bergerac. He also served as Script Editor on Armchair Thriller and Shoestring. Robert Holmes also novelised his script for the 1985 Sixth Doctor story "The Two Doctors" for the Target Books range. He passed away in May 1986, after a brief illness, partway through work on his final Doctor Who story, "The Ultimate Foe" - the concluding part of The Trial of a Time Lord season of stories.
The Doctor is seen wearing a new scarf in this story. The appearance of his new scarf and the original would alternate between the remaining stories (The new scarf also being worn in "Underworld" and "The Invasion of Time") due to them being recorded in a different order than transmitted.
This story marks the first appearance of a new version of Leela’s famous leather outfit, which is lighter in colour than her previous savage attire. The new version was created because the original was wearing out, and had caused Louise Jameson some problems due to it being a leotard (the new version was a dress to rectify this problem). Producer Graham Williams had also instructed the designer, Amy Roberts, to make Louise Jameson look sexier in the new outfit. Leela’s original costume appears briefly at the end of the fourth episode (mainly to facilitate the punchline to a joke in the first episode) and would return, for the last time, in the next story, "The Sun Makers", before the new version came back for Leela’s final two stories.
It is also revealed, by Louise Jameson in the DVD commentary for this story, that the reason why her hair is done up in this story is because a BBC hairstylist had mistakenly cut six inches off her long hair just prior to filming. Her final scene in the story was filmed some five weeks after this incident, by which time her hair had grown long enough to allow her to wear it down for a single scene.
This was the first story in which the Radio Times credited the lead character as ‘The Doctor’ rather than ‘Doctor Who’. This did not happen again until next season’s "The Power of Kroll".
There had been for some time a myth amongst some fans that this story had a working title of "The Island of Fandor". However, this title came about when news of this story was first released by the production office, the title was miss-heard over the phone by the editor of The Doctor Who Appreciation Society magazine TARDIS who then reported it incorrectly. Many fans have also believed "The Island of Fandor" to be a ‘lost’ story.
This story had been written before it was known that K9 would be joining the show on a regular basis and so K9 only appears briefly, in the opening and closing TARDIS scenes, suffering from corroded circuitry. John Leeson, who provided the voice of K9 during this season, was not recruited to voice the character as K9 had no lines of dialogue.
Location filming for this story was carried out at Stargrove Manor, East End in Hampshire. This estate had been formerly owned by Mick Jagger and was the same location which had been used during the filming of "Pyramids of Mars" two years earlier.
Plot elements of this story - including the discovering of an alien skull linked to occult symbols, alien influence of mankind’s evolution and the dormant alien influence being brought to bear in contemporary humanity - appear to be heavily influenced by both the 1959 Kurt Vonnegut novel "The Sirens of Titan" and the 1950s BBC television drama Quatermass and the Pit.
X-rays of the skull reveal the shape of a pentagram which Dr. Fendelman thinks is a form of ‘neural relay’. The Doctor says that the skull must have come to Earth, taking in Mars on the way - which he describes as dead.
The Fendahl skull was found in Kenya in volcanic sediment. Thea Ransome’s potassium-argon tests indicate it is 12 million years old (according to Colby, this is 8 million years older than it can conceivably be). However, the Fendahl was supposed to have been destroyed on the Fifth Planet, 107 million miles from Earth.
It is revealed that the Time Lords destroyed the planet (so forming the asteroid belt) and then hid its existence in a time loop to prevent any knowledge of the Fendahl leaking out. The Doctor though, knows the story as a myth from childhood and is terrified by it as it was one of the ghost stories told to him by the hermit (see "State of Decay").
Look out for the scene at the end of the second episode where The Doctor asks the Fendahl skull if it would like a jelly baby, but actually offers it a Liquorice Allsort.
The Fendahl requires twelve Fendahleen and a core to form its gestalt. The Doctor discovers that ‘sodium chloride obviously affects conductivity... and prevents control of localised disruption of osmotic pressures’. Leela simplifies The Doctors statement by saying ‘You mean, salt kills them?’. The Doctor then notes that this is probably the origin throwing salt over your shoulder.
There were two sizes of Fendahleen created for the show. Several small hand-operated versions were made for the sequence in which the Fendahl core converts her followers into the creatures, and one full sized monster was also built.
It is revealed that the TARDIS generates a low intensity telepathic field.
The Doctor explains Ma Tyler’s ‘sixth sense’ by saying that psychic ability is a common side-effect of growing up near a time fissure. The same explanation is given for another character’s clairvoyance in the 2005 Tenth Doctor story "The Unquiet Dead" though the phenomenon is referred to as a space-time rift.
According to dialogue, the events of the last episode take place on Lammas Eve (so dating this story as taking place on the 31st July).
A character name Max Stael was re-used in "Fugue State", an episode of the BBC television drama series Doctors written by Doctor Who novelist Paul Ebbs.
A novelisation of this story, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in July 1979. The book’s cover (painted by John Geary) was once voted as the worst in Doctor Who by readers of Doctor Who Bulletin magazine.
The origins of Planet 5 and its role are explored further in the BBC Book’s The Eighth Doctor Stories novel "The Taking of Planet 5", written by Simon Bucher-Jones and Mark Clapham. This novel also includes The Fendahl. The Fendahl also appear in the "Kaldor City" series of audio plays as well as in the unofficial spin-off story "Deus Le Volt" written by Jon de Burgh Miller and published, as part of their Time Hunter series, by Telos Publishing Ltd.
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The Firsts:
The first time Leela is seen wearing a new 'lighter' version of her famous leather outfit.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by George Spenton-Foster.
The first story in which the Radio Times credited the lead character as ‘The Doctor’ rather than ‘Doctor Who’.
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(Position = 58 out of 159)
(Position = 73 out of 200)
(Position = 122 out of 241)
