The Curse of Fenric: Part One

Episode aired Oct 25, 1989
TV-Y
25m

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

702

YOUR RATING

Sylvester McCoy in The Curse of Fenric: Part One (1989)

Adventure Drama Family Sci-Fi

The Doctor and Ace travel to a naval base off the coast of Northumberland towards the end of World War II, where the Time Lord and his companion become entangled in an old Viking curse.The Doctor and Ace travel to a naval base off the coast of Northumberland towards the end of World War II, where the Time Lord and his companion become entangled in an old Viking curse.The Doctor and Ace travel to a naval base off the coast of Northumberland towards the end of World War II, where the Time Lord and his companion become entangled in an old Viking curse.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.0/10

702

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Anna Reid (Nurse Crane) would appear later as the Plasmavore vs the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant).

Goofs
The Doctor states that they are in 1943, but the Russian soldiers are equipped with semi-automatic SKS rifles, which were not developed until 1944, and did not go into testing until 1945 in Germany. The SKS was finally adopted by the Russian army in 1949. In 1943, Russian soldiers were commonly equipped with the Mosin-Nagant 1891/30 bolt-action rifle, or possibly its M44 carbine variant, which was being field tested in 1943.

Quotes
The Doctor: [translating a Norse inscription] "We hoped to return to the North Way, but the curse follows our dragon ship... the Wolves of Fenric shall return for their treasure, and then shall the dark rule eternally."

Alternate versions
The 2003 DVD release includes a remastered feature-length special edition of the story, prepared by Mark Ayres based on the notes of director 'Nicholas Mallet'. This includes nearly 12 minutes of extra footage, updated special effects and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Connections
Edited into Doctor Who: Tales of the TARDIS: The Curse of Fenric (2023)

Soundtracks
Incidental Music (1989)
Written and Performed by Mark Ayres

User reviews9

Review

Featured review

9/10

Viking curse and Soviet troops, it's a classic.

The Doctor and Ace arrive at a Wartime base, where Professor Judson is working on a thinking, computing machine. The area is full of talk of a Viking curse, and has a band of Soviet troopers on a mission.

The acting is wonderful, the late Nicholas Parsons is quite wonderful as The Vicar. Dinsdale Landen is superb as Doctor Judson, when he speaks, you listen, he has an incredibly delivery.

The music is glorious, moody and atmospheric, the production values simply cannot be faulted.

For anyone that dismisses the late eighties as the poorest area of the show, I would urge them to watch this one, not just the best of McCoy's efforts, but I would class this as a top ten story in general.

It's a terrific start.