X-rays of the skull reveal the shape of a pentagram which 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 (see The Ice Warriors).

The Mega Death to the Daleks Death Dalek #11 was the final Mega to be produced and was unreleased at the point that Eaglemoss went into administration. The scan catches the attention of the Fourth Doctor and Leela when they are pulled down to Earth by it. They set off to find it before it creates a continuum implosion and destroys the planet. They separate and Leela finds the cottage of ‘Mother’ Tyler, a local modern-day witch gifted with psychic powers. The Doctor ends up narrowly avoiding death at the hands of the creature created by the skull, which then kills the leader of a detachment of guards Fendelman has brought in after the death of the hiker, sealing everyone into the priory. Given all of this, I thought I would spend a bit of time and investigate the origins of the story further and that will be my next post. Enter the Fendahl, slowly at first, stalking hikers through the darkness of the wood at night before bursting onto the scene in the final episode. It's a complex idea of a gestalt or group monster, made up of 12 `Fendahleen' and the golden Core. Thea's transformation into the Core is a superb and quite chilling variant on an ancient myth, a golden Medusa, beautiful but evil and fatal to look upon. The `Fendahleen' are unfortunately less successful. Costs meant that only one full-size monster was built and although Mrs. Tyler memorably describes her vision of it as "hungry for my soul!" it looks more hungry for her cabbages. The DVD features and commentary describe 15 minutes of laughter when the cast first encountered it. It's not that bad, but would have been more effective if made less visible...Cult: Led by Stael to summon the Fendahl. Stael thinks it'll make him a god. His followers seem to know much more. There is a Making of featurette with the writer, special effects designer and several of the actors. Sadly Tom Baker doesn't appear in this nice overview of the production. From ‘ The Road’ – Kneale’s lost 1963 play, ‘ Fendahl’ takes the time fissure in the woods. The Kneale Play is set in mediveal England but there are unearthly sounds breaking through. If you don’t know how the play develops, I will leave you to find out for yourself and is it is worth discovering unspoilered. Let us just say that the ghosts are from the future, rather than the past. The TV story is long lost, but Toby Hadoke recently adapted it for BBC Radio and it is well worth a listen if you can find it.

Salt Solution: Salt is deadly to the Fendahl, and that effectiveness is — in-universe — the origin of the superstition that throwing salt over your shoulder wards off evil. After three hugely popular years as the doctor in stories that were full of gothic horror, tom baker's era changed. budget cuts and pressure to reduce the onscreen horror and violence left a new producer having to change things somewhat. Bucher-Jones, Simon (2016). Image of the fendahl. Place of publication not identified: Obverse Books. ISBN 978-1-909031-41-8. OCLC 945390720.

Reviewed: The Black Archive #5 – Image of the Fendahl

With dark forces lurking and horrible things happening to a hitch hiker, the fate of the world is at stake... The full frame image looks good, though not outstanding. The Restoration Team has done their magic and this show looks as good as can be expected given the age and videotape origins of the program. The color is good though not quite as intense as I would have liked. The fine detail is good but the show is a little on the soft side and the exterior scenes are a bit grainy. Aside from that this looks just fine. It’s a convincing argument. He argues that, in the face of Mary Whitehouse complaining about dolls that kill, the Doctor drowning, and Leela’s skirt being too small (as if that’s a thing), the BBC had to rein Doctor Who in. And it did so by airing one of the most chilling stories ever. “Both on television and as a book, Image is a superlatively creepy story – it creeps you out (and I’d argue that if it doesn’t, you haven’t yet understood everything it’s saying and doing),” he writes. “Indeed, I shall show that it is, implicitly, the scariest Doctor Who story, and I mean that literally – for its terror lies in its implications… If Mary Whithouse had understood Image, she might’ve found it more offensive than a few mere strangulations and a toy with a dagger.” This story had a working title of The Island of Fandor. (It didn't. This myth originated when Gordon Blows, then editor of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society magazine TARDIS, misheard the title of the story over the phone and reported it incorrectly. The Big Finish story Island of the Fendahl was set on Fandor as a nod to this.) Meanwhile, the Fourth Doctor and Leela are in the TARDIS, worrying over the damaged K9. The Doctor insists on referring to K9 as an "it", to Leela's chagrin. As the Doctor tries to repair K9, the TARDIS is affected by a Relative Continuum Displacement Zone — a hole in time. The Doctor traces it to Earth, and the TARDIS lands near the Priory the next day. The Doctor and Leela find a man called Ted Moss. He says there are strange things going on in the Priory.

Image of the Fendahl was released to DVD in the UK in April 2009 and in North America in September 2009. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. The First Doctor’s Tardis Console Model brings to life the original console that first appeared in the adventure An Unearthly Child (1963) and last appear My feelings for this serial are massively influenced by the fact that this is the first VHS story I ever bought over 25 years ago, thus reigniting my love of Doctor Who. DOCTOR: It’s a weakness in the fabric of space and time. Every haunted place has one, doesn’t it? That’s why they’re haunted. It’s a time distortion. This one must be very large. Large enough to have affected the place names round here. Like Fetchborough. Fetch. An apparition, hmm?

Myth

Given that it is a story with its roots clearly showing, it perhaps isn’t that surprising that ‘ Image of the Fendahl‘ sometimes feels like something Boucher wanted to write for another medium, without the Doctor and Leela. I don’t know if that ever was the case – I suspect not, but a lot of effort goes into sketching the characters in this world, such that they could stand own their own outside of ‘Doctor Who’. They did once. When I was about 12, had just read the Quatermass script books and the Target book of “ Image of the Fendahl‘ was a well-thumbed favourite of mine, I re-wrote the story as a school essay! I substituted the Doctor for a professor that I’d created, not a million miles from a certain professor that Chris Boucher had replaced for the Doctor in the first place. There’s rather a neat circular trail of plagiarism. My teacher’s comment – ‘ this reads an awful lot like a ‘Doctor Who’ story!’. He obviously didn’t know the works of Nigel Kneale – Kneale would have been furious! The Doctor asked me if my name was real. Don't you see? Fendelman. Man of the Fendahl. Only for this moment have the generations of my fathers lived. I have been used. You have been used. Mankind has been used."