Island of the Fendahl written by Alan Barnes and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What’s it about: The Fendahl is the death of evolution, the horror that lies in wait at the far end of the food chain. The Fendahl is death itself. And the Fendahl is dead. The Doctor destroyed it many years ago, in another incarnation, when he encountered it in a place called Fetchborough. But if the Fendahl is dead… how can it live again, on the remote island of Fandor?

Breathless Romantic: In a moment when bad things are happening and Lucie is being facetious, the Doctor has to remind her that things are actually very serious. The Doctor shouting shut up at seagulls resonates with me because that is basically my entire life where I live. At one point the Doctor cries ‘Oh no, hippies!’ which seems a very odd for him to say given that he is the most famous space hippy in the universe.

Lucie Bleedin’ Miller: It’s amusing that Lucie presumes that Dieter is speaking in English because the TARDUS translation circuits are working when in fact he is just a foreigner who is very polite. She doesn’t want the police asking questions about the Doctor or the TARDIS because…well what on Earth would she say? What is it about poor Doctor Who companions that when they are left alone they always wind up falling over a terrible danger? Jo leaves the TARDIS in Planet of the Daleks and is attacked by invisible nasties and gets an infection, Sarah leaves the TARDIS in Death to the Daleks and is attacked by grunting savages, discovers an evil alien city and is almost sacrificed and Lucie leaves the TARDIS in Island of Fendhal and she immediately meets somebody who chloroforms her to ‘save’ her. My advice…stick with the Doctor. Saying ‘stuff your tradition’ to the locals might not be the best way of getting them on side. Why the hell would should be carrying salt on her? Only Lucie Miller could walk in the middle of cult of flame wielding cultists and start mouthing off. Like Donna, the mouthier she is, the funnier. She uses the Doctor’s cravat to staunch his bleeding because she always hated it. In an especially memorable moment, the Fendahl controlled Doctor orders Lucie to blow his head off with a shotgun. There’s an echo of Lucie’s death in this, the Fendahl sniffing out that she is already marked. This showcases Lucie far more effectively than the opener, giving her the same kind of autonomy but in a far more dramatic situation (and with much better dialogue).

Standout Performance: Unfortunately, I have been a Doctor Who fan for far too long and so I am attuned to people altering their performances to suggest that they are on the bad guys side. That’s exactly what happens with Carlyss Peer who joins the story in a very regular, authoritative way (she is a detective after all) but not long before the climax she begins delivering her dialogue in a slightly bored, slightly knowing way that suggest she is on the turn. I’m glad it didn’t take the Doctor any time at all to realise. Both Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith respond brilliantly to this script and are totally committed. McGann as the Fendahl is especially chilling.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘There’s only one Fendhal, it’s the end of evolution, the horror that ends in wait at the far end of the food chain.’
‘The Fendahl is Death. But Death cannot die.’
‘Imagine. Something so black that the Daleks called it darkness.’

Great Ideas: The opening is a re-run of Planet of the Daleks with the Doctor falling into a coma and Lucie having to cope on her on in the TARDIS in a crisis. Fandor Island is more like 1807 than 2007 (that’s a clever reference to when Lucie featured in the series, showing how the series features contemporary Earth stories at the time they are being made). The Doctor destroyed the skull of the Fendhal in Fetchborough and through that their influence over humanity. A coven of witches, 12 disciples of the Fendahl with the power of the gestalt. Power enough to conjure up a spectral Fendhaleen – a giant soul sucking caterpillar. I might have known that Mx Steal from Image of the Fe Fendahl would have had a hand in this. Even in death his legacy of ultimate control using the power of the Fendahl lives on. The black hole that featured in The Dalek Trap is where the Doctor dumped the skull from the original Fendahl story. It made the Doctor forget and all that time it remained inside the black hole clinging to its final foothold to the universe until the Daleks fell inside the black hole and it took possession of them. The Daleks called it the darkness. A vast cosmic pentagram linked by a trial of artron energy. That’s why the TARDIS refused to obey the Doctor’s instructions because he would have completed the circuit and the Fendahl could have travelled between all the worlds in between at the speed of thought.

Audio Landscape: Those sucky Fendhaleen noises still make my skin crawl. In fact, there is a whole canvas of excellent sound effects for the Big Finish team to borrow from the original story.

Isn’t it Odd: This is probably the best example of a Big Finish story with a terrific idea at its heart, great build up and then wham, it just ends. I appreciated the little coda that suggests more trouble to come but my ultimate feeling was ‘is that it?’

Standout Scene: There’s a great moment when the dialogue and pace drop away and the Doctor is alone on the island with church bells ringing and finally some suspense is allowed to creep into the story. It needs much, much more of that sort of thing. And I knew that there was more to that choice in The Dalek Trap that Lucie had to make! Everybody dies or nobody dies…Lucie made the call for everybody to live and in doing it freed the Daleks, and the Fendahl. Nice job, Lucie Miller.

Result: Doctor Who does the Wicker Man with Fendahl influences. That’s what you’re getting here and with a few laughs and moments of suspense it is certainly worth your time. It’s packed full of very interesting ideas and imagery. Unfortunately, it’s far too strong a concept to waste on an hour-long bit of fluff. This is one of those tales that deserves to be a main range adventure (which is bizarre because Barnes’ recent Alien Werewolf in London would have been much better suited to the one hour format) because you could easily sculpt a more complex, substantial four part story out of the setting, characters and concept in play here. So much atmosphere is lost because Barnes has to get to the point so quickly. The result is a story that is enjoyable to listen to but you’re not going to remember it next week beyond the fact that it is another sequel. That sums up this set rather well, actually. Agreeable, but undistinguished. What I’m saying is that with this box set you are getting exactly what it says on the tin; four fun but completely unnecessary extra Lucie Miller tales with Eddie Robson’s story unsurprisingly standing out the most (because although at the time Lucie Miller was a full time companion he was actually on par with Barnes and Briggs but nowadays the gulf between what they produce is far more pronounced), a smart script from a new female writer, a better than average Barnes and a typically unmemorable Briggs. It’s terrifically produced, directed and acted and on those terms alone it is worth picking up. But this is fluffiest fluff, digest and forget. Would I like to see more of Lucie Miller? Definitely. Would I like it to be set with a stronger over-arching story playing out across all the stories? For sure. There’s a link between the first a last stories here but it is merely a way of getting from A to B rather than anything more substantial: 7/10