4/5 Classic tom baker
  by Joe from Mass
This is one of those Tom Baker episodes that tries to tie to history. Really a nice package, well worth it for Tom Baker fans
BTW: Lalla Ward's commentary is a riot!

5/5 "What are you exactly, some sort of wandering armageddon pedler?"
  by Crazy Fox (Chicago, IL USA)
Elaborately balanced between horrific and comedic, "Image of the Fendahl" comes in near the midpoint of Tom Baker's tenure as the Doctor, a justifiably classic phase of the series when those responsible for its making seem confident but not complacent that their efforts will entertain a wide segment of the BBC audience. That is, while a bit murkier and edgier than prior years, this is still "Doctor Who" as the quintessential family show--somehow working on several levels at once. On the simplest and most tangible level we have big slug-like monsters (and, this being the olden days before CGI, I think we should stop a moment and appreciate the inventive craftsmanship that endowed them with a mouthful of squirming writhing tentacles). On an equally thrilling if less visceral level, we have a finely-scripted tale of suspense and mystery. On yet more sophisticated levels yet, all of this is framed and informed by a complex and intriguingly speculative science fiction premise of astronomical scale spanning eons--which might feel overly remote if it didn't all come to a crisis within the familiar context of rural England in the 1970's. And yet all these levels cohere in harmony rather than jarring and grating with each other, which takes astounding storytelling skill if you think about it.

It seems natural to characterize this story as the last gasp of the so-called "gothic" tendency seen in the show in the mid-70's. Certainly this is apt in that for all intents and purposes "Image of the Fendahl" follows the plot logic of a good horror story (in some ways it rather reminds me of John Carpenter's 1987 film "Prince of Darkness", in fact). It also works the old reliable "Doctor Who" alchemy of reinterpreting standard horror motifs in a science fiction idiom: the pentagram is a "neural relay", the inability to move as something wicked approaches (a prototypical nightmare) is due to some sort of psychic force, a pinch of salt to ward of evil works because sodium chloride "prevents control of localized disruption of osmotic pressures" and so on. For all that, though, this story is somewhat atypical. In such beloved classics as "Pyramids of Mars" and "the Brain of Morbius" and such, the scientific technical interpretation straightforwardly replaces the supernatural one, utterly displacing and invalidating it--a well-intended nod anyway to the show's original mandate to encourage an interest in science (and history) among its younger viewers. Here things are not so simple, however. The premodern, pre-scientific, indeed pre-Christian manner of explaining these phenomena, especially as they are articulated by the local wise woman/"witch" Martha Tyler, are portrayed not as backwards, ignorant, and wrong but merely as different, as an alternate frame of reference every bit as functional when the Fendahleen are slithering towards you down the hall. You know things are getting weird when the Doctor reels off three mutually-conflicting explanations for what's happening as if all three are equally valid and equally invalid. That's surely eccentric even by the Fourth Doctor's standards. But for those of us who suspect that a little epistemological doubt is healthy, it's also rather refreshing.

Multiple levels of significance and sophistication would mean little if not for the wonderfully varied cast of characters we have here though, all of them saved from the brink of stereotype and brought to life by impeccable acting of the first order as well as a superb script sensitive to the finer points of characterization. One actually cares what happens to them, and that's the ultimate sorcery that makes or breaks a tale.

4/5 "Of course, it all could be just a coincidence"
  by Jason A. Miller (New York, New York USA)
"Image of the Fendahl" was the last of "Doctor Who"'s 1970s Gothic horror fests. Producer Phillip Hinchcliffe, who oversaw such classics as Doctor Who: Pyramids of Mars (Episode 82) and Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Episode 91), had recently left the series; script-editor Robert Holmes (who authored the two above-mentioned stories) was on his way out. New producer Graham Williams was about to lighten the tone dramatically, and the show's violence content was about to fall off.

As a swan song for a well-regarded chapter in "Doctor Who"'s long history, "Image of the Fendahl" is a notable but somewhat frustrating story. The plot is complex, involving three conflicting menaces in the English woods: A high-technology "Time Scanner" that threatens to destroy the galaxy; an ancient time rift that's turned the local village into a haven for black magic (or "the Old Religion")... and a 12 million year-old skull that's going to exploit both the Time Scanner and the time rift in order to resurrect Death personified, which will in turn destroy the Earth's population (as opposed to, say, the galaxy). Of course it's never a great idea when the story's named villain poses less of a menace than the secondary plot device.

Story writer Chris Boucher (who previously wrote the futuristic Christie-esque Doctor Who: The Robots of Death (Episode 90)) was effective at writing for small but distinctive casts. One mark of a good writer is when the characters have different levels of intelligence. One example of this, as well as of the story's dry wit, is when archaeologist Adam Colby tries to define the term "gestalt" for local villager Jack Tyler. None the wiser, all Tyler can do is gesture at the Doctor and say: "He reads a lot".

There's a lot going on story-wise, so the rest of the cast turn out to be sophisticated plot devices as well as individuals. Dr. Fendelman, the inventor of the Time Scanner, turns out to have a mystical connection to the Fendahl skull, which awkwardly manifests in the character's final 30 seconds. Thea Ransome is (for no apparent reason) turned by the skull into a golden-skinned evil goddess. Local "white witch" Granny Tyler turns out to possess just the right amount of homespun wisdom that allows her to defeat the 12 million year-old menace with a few shakers of salt.

The text commentary for this disc is a rare failure for the DVD restoration team. A story of "Fendahl"'s complexity suggests the need for a text commentary that both explains a lot of the story's more rapid-fire expository dialogue and attempts to resolve some of the story's plot holes. Instead, the commentary here is full of distracting minutiae, such as "this scene was filmed on this date" and "this tertiary character appeared in minor roles in the following 11 TV shows 30 to 40 years ago". The commentary track features four cast members but no-one from the production booth; there are lots of reminscences about the BBC's Television Centre circa 1977. The DVD release itself is one of the "light" releases, so the only noteworthy extras are a standard making-of feature, and some black-and-white film outtakes.

The best part of the extras is the highlighting of Tom Baker's own, often ad-libbed, contributions to the Doctor's on-screen presentation. Baker was compulsively watchable even in a bad story, and his Doctor's eccentricities add just the right amount of whimsy to this otherwise scary story.

1/5 beware!
  by mprof (NY)
Nothing against this story, but beware this DVD. I've bought it from amazon three times now, and each time it's arrived loose in the box and consequently scratched up. I've bought a lot of Doctor Who DVD's over the years, and it's the first time I've had this experience. Send this one back to the drawing board, or buy locally where you can shake the box to make sure it's secure.

5/5 Classic tom baker
  by Eric Walker
Thank you BBC for continuing to release the episodes from Tom Baker run on Doctor Who..I bought it the day it came out and it is just like I remembered...It's awesome Doctor Who!!