Image of the Fendahl

094 – Image of the Fendahl
Doctor Who serial
The Fendahl Core rises.
Cast
Doctor Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)
Companion Louise Jameson (Leela)
Others Denis Lill — Dr. Fendelman Scott Fredericks — Max Stael Wanda Ventham — Thea Ransome Edward Arthur — Adam Colby Daphne Heard — Martha Tyler Geoffrey Hinsliff — Jack Tyler Edward Evans — Ted Moss Derek Martin — David Mitchell Graham Simpson — Hiker
Production
Directed by	George Spenton-Foster
Written by	Chris Boucher
Script editor	Robert Holmes
Produced by	Graham Williams
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Dudley Simpson
Production code	4X
Series	Season 15
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	29 October – 19 November 1977
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Invisible Enemy The Sun Makers
List of Doctor Who serials

Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl

Author	Terrance Dicks
Cover artist	John Geary
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	34
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	26 July 1979
ISBN

Image of the Fendahl is the third serial of the 15th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 29 October to 19 November 1977.

In a priory near the village of Fetchborough, four scientists, Adam Colby, Max Stael, Thea Ransome and Dr. Fendelman, are doing tests on a human skull they found in Kenya, apparently twelve million years old. When Dr. Fendelman starts using a sonic time scan, trying to get an image of the owner of the skull, the skull itself seems to react, locking onto Thea and releasing something in the priory grounds that kills a passing hiker, who eventually totally disintegrates.

The scan catches the attention of the Doctor and Leela when they are pulled down to Earth by it. The Doctor and Leela set off to find it before it creates a continuum implosion and destroys the planet. They separate and Leela finds the cottage of Ma 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.

Ma Tyler then encounters the creature, but survives and is saved from going into psychic shock by the Doctor, who by this time has worked out that the thing is a Fendahleen, a creature from his planet's mythology, supposedly destroyed when the Fifth Planet broke up. He makes his way into the priory and finds the skull, which tries to kill him. Leela saves him and they go off to the Fifth Planet, only to find that the Time Lords sealed the planet in a Time Loop, making all proper records invisible even to them.

Thea, meanwhile, has been gradually converted into the new core of the Fendahl, a creature that feeds off life energy and leaves nothing behind. Stael, leader of the local black magic cult, recognises this and believes he can control the Fendahl and use it to dominate. He and his followers capture Colby, kill Fendelman, who was actually influenced through his genetics by the Fendahl to bring this about, and set up the Sonic Time scanner to power the skull and Thea's final transformation.

The Doctor, Leela, Ma Tyler and her grandson Jack head for the priory only to find the Fendahl core has formed and is converting the cult members into Fendahleen, to form the full circle. The Doctor frees Colby and helps Stael shoot himself after killing one of the new Fendahleen, in turn finding out that the Fendahleen are fatally allergic to salt, leaving the Fendahl core two short of the twelve it needs to be complete and form a . The Doctor rigs the scanner to implode upon itself and grabs the now dormant skull, leaving with the others only just before the priory is destroyed, along with the Fendahl core and the remaining Fendahleen. The Doctor and Leela then leave and plan to dump the skull near a supernova, thus ending the Fendahl race forever.