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imakandiway's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
otherwyrld's review against another edition
2.0
Image of the Fendahl was a 4 part story first shown in 1977, and starred Tom Baker as the 4th Doctor with Louis Jameson as his companion Leela. As a horror story involving ancient skulls, monsters that can eat whole planets, a coven of witches and at least one mad scientist, this should have been a thrilling story. Instead, I found it so boring that I keep putting it down to read something else - it took me nearly a week to read a 110 page book!
I think that the problem with the story is that is is a bit too convoluted, with too many disparate elements to fit together well. Unusually, author Terrance Dicks fails to adequately describe what was probably a very visual story (I don't have any clear memories of watching the episodes). This was a story that needed a lot more descriptive elements to make it really stand out, and the page length just didn't run to it.
In terms of characterisation, both the Doctor and Leela are handled well here, though to be honest it would be difficult to get such a simple character as Leela wrong. All you have to do if threaten everyone with a knife, totally fail to understand anything the Doctor says, and think that everything is magic, and away you go. The guest characters are all stock stereotypes - power mad scientist, old wise witch and her country bumpkin grandson, weak willed damsel in distress that gets taken over by the monster, and so on. The pagan elements are interesting but probably work rather less well in the English countryside than they would have on, say, a remote Scottish island.
So all in all not the best Doctor Who story around.
nwhyte's review against another edition
3.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1007902.html
Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl is again a stick-closely-to-the-script effort, which makes the holes in the story a bit less easy to ignore.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3816574.html
I should concede that Dicks does (as he often did) give most of the incidental characters an introductory paragraph explaining their background and motivations, which is in fact a nice set of additions to the narrative.
Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl is again a stick-closely-to-the-script effort, which makes the holes in the story a bit less easy to ignore.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3816574.html
I should concede that Dicks does (as he often did) give most of the incidental characters an introductory paragraph explaining their background and motivations, which is in fact a nice set of additions to the narrative.
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