By Roy Mathur, on 2026-08-18, at 23:04:57 to 00:13:53 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
I'm sorry it's taken so long to continue with the classic Doctor Who revisits, but the final two JNT stories have been a struggle. This is because of the large gap between the rewatching and writing the shownotes, combined with exhaustion from chores and a number of long-term conditions.
NB Some of the post-main article items might be repetitious as I can't remember, nor find mention of in previous shownotes, whether I covered them before. Blame it on muddleheadedness.
Notable Cast: Seventh Doctor: Sylvester McCoy, Companion: Ace: Sophie Aldred, Dr Judson: Dinsdale Landen; General Bel Riose in BBC Radio 4's The Foundation (1973), Lovejoy's crooked mentor Jim Leonard, Commander Millington: Alfred Lynch; Boon's Geoff Kershaw, Vicar: Nicolas Parsons; actor, presenter of Sale of the Century
Director: Nicholas Mallett; ex-ballet dance, The Mysterious Planet, Paradise Towers
Writer: Ian Briggs; Dragonfire
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Location: Secret base: Crowborough Training Camp, E. Sussex, church crypt: Lillesden School, church: St. Lawrence, the Hardaker house: Roses Farm, Hawkhurst, Kent, crypt: Yew Tree Farm, Cranbrook, Kent, Maiden's Point: Lulworth Cove, Dorset, 1989
Broadcast: Story 154, serial 3, season 26, following Ghost Light (pod 609), 4 x c. 25 min, 25 Oct--15 Nov 1989
Media: Target novelization by Ian Briggs in 1990, VHS 1991, DVD 2003, 2010, Blu-ray 2020, BBC iPlayer since 1 Nov 2023
The UK no. 1 single is Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers' That's What I Like. Pah!
The Tardis arrives at a secret Navy base at Maiden's Point, Northumberland in WWII. There, Dr Judson is working on his Ultima supercomputer to decode German encryption and, in his spare time, Viking runes in the local church's crypt. Ace helps him with the computer logic and soon he translates the runes, which warn of Fenric, an ancient evil being according to the Doctor.
Ace tries to befriend a pair of evacuee girls, but can't join them in the sea due to her fear of water. The Doctor and Ace also bump into Russian special forces trying to steal Ultima. Ace is attracted to Sorin, the officer.
In the crypt, the Doctor and Ace find an odd little flask amongst Viking loot. Dr Judson puts it in Ultima and is possessed by Fenric. Fenric summons the Ancient One, a Haemovore, and he and his seemingly undead army attack the base, infecting victims with a vampiric virus. Ace warns Kathleen, a navy woman she feels drawn too, who escapes with her baby, Audrey.
Fenris tells the Ancient One to kill his haemovores telepathically and then release base's stored nerve gas to poison begin the process that will create the haemovores. The Doctor confronts the Ancient One and explains it is the ultimate far-future evolution of humanity. The Ancient One says, "I am the last. The last living creature on Earth. I watched my world dying with chemicals, and I could do nothing. My world is dead." It then was drawn to the past by Fenric via a time-storm (like Ace to Iceworld) to the flask in which Fenric was trapped by the Doctor, to Transylvania (hence the vampire myth), then Northern England when it the flask was looted by Vikings. On the voyage by longship, like Dracula on the Demeter, it fed on the Vikings, creating more haemovores, and finally the flask was buried by the survivors, and eventually unearthed by the Doctor and Ace.
Meanwhile, Fenric jumps into Sorin, another Wolf of Fenric, i.e. one who is under Fenmric's malign influence. The Doctor tries to distract Fenric with chess. Unaware, Ace helps Fenric win. Fenric reveals to Ace that she too is one of it's Wolves, destined to be manipulated to commit evil by killing baby Audrey, who is the mother she hates.
When Fenric cannot control Ace, because of her loyalty to the Doctor, it threatens to have the Ancient One kill her unless the Doctor submits. Knowing this, the Doctor ruthlessly destroys Ace's belief in him, and hence her self-worth, by saying he always knew of her evil. Instead of obeying, the Ancient One corners Fenric in the poisonous gas chamber. The Doctor and Ace escape as the building explodes.
The Doctor encourages Ace to confront her hatred for her mother and fear of water by dving into the sea before they leave.
Immediate thoughts: a cursed village, the ghostship full of monsters, and a hidden treasure in a creepy church, surely John Carpenter's The Fog (1980) is an influence.
Judson is Alan Turning and Ultima is Enigma-breaking Bombe device (about 10 minutes drive from where I'm talking to you).
I enjoyed the sunny seaside, old churches and creepy crypts, etc.; all of which I have either driven past, visited, or lived near in Who-unrelated activity.
The chess game is like the one between the knight and Death in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal.
The creature design of the ordinary haemovores is good, but even better ia the impressive Ancient. It's bulbous, wrinkly, suckery and grey, like something very old, powerful, and malevolent. The suit actor, Ray Trickitt, delivers his lines with substantial power and menace.
The decayed, ancient, sunken viking longship/ghostship in the mist is creepy and the big explosion at the end is effective, but then I'm biased about DW models, props, FX and pyrotechnics, etc.
There is a nice bit of social history looking at city evacuees, modern city girls, trying to adapt to the countryside's old-fashioned cultural mores. The scene in which an eyebrow pencil line is drawn on the back of the leg to fake scarce nylon stockings (alternative Japanese silk was obviously unavailable too) because nylon was needed for parachutes is something I know about given my age. I wonder if this is lost on younger viewers, but it least it's a multi-generational talking point. DW is, after-all, educational.
Aces throws the grandfather (ok, grandmother/mother, but...) paradox into dissary by helping the baby, her mother, survive, thereby proving the Doctor's further ruse (false cruel jibes about Ace meant to distract Fenric) wrong. We also see her hatred for her mother and phobia of water dissipate when she makes peace with her mother and swims at the end.
Other than the core story, the wider convoluted plot was not easy to follow, and difficult to recall to write these notes. Possibly, this was partly due to the "muddleheadedness fog" I mention at top of notes, but also because it tries to do too much and tie in too many past stories. I.e. it was me (Fenric) all along and Ace was one of my wolves. When the Doctor says, "...The chess set in Lady Peinforte's study? I knew.", Sorin/Fenric replies, "...Before Cybermen, ever since Ice World, where you first met the girl." Sure, Briggs wrote Dragonfire too, but it's no excuse. It reminds me of Clara's equally irritating Impossible Girl arc. I'm not fond of that trite way of tidying up loose ends.
It's not bad, not great, but there's action, creatures, a ghostship, a spooky crypt, scenery, a bit about Ace, social history, WWII with no Nazis for change, and an explosion at the end.
In Howe, Walker, and Stammer's Handbook: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Production of Doctor Who, on p. 714, Sylvester McCoy says he liked it because, "...there weren't too many holes in it." Yeah, because the script was bloated and unbelievable! He also says, "There was a great moment...where Sophie and I ran out of a hut and could literally feel the heat of an explosion set off by the visual effects guys...I enjoyed that!" This, I can agree with.
This item was supposed to have gone out in a pod weeks ago, but thanks to my own podding hiatus and accidentally wiping my shownotes, it's old news known to most Whovians by now, unless you've been chained for millions of years in the Satan pit.
The Christmas Special was cancelled, RTD lied about writing a script, the Bad Wolf partnership was dissolved, and the Beeb are looking for another poduction compnay to work with.
The BBC said, "...the BBC will put Doctor Who out to competitive tender this year. Doctor Who remains an important part of the BBC and this tender underpins the BBC’s continued commitment to Doctor Who...After careful consideration, the BBC, Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf have collectively decided not to go ahead with the previously announced Doctor Who Christmas episode."
RTD said on Instagram, "...GOODBYE from me to Doctor Who...there won't be a Christmas Special---we only cooked that up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen...You'll have to wait a bit longer for new Doctor Who...there was no script, I never wrote it, and no actor was ever approached to play the next Doctor."
What a total Beeb, RTD, and Bad Wolf cockup and it looks like it will be a while, though hopefully not too long (it's a money-spinner after-all), until DW returns; not a result I was looking for or agree with. I read somewhere something about JMS wanting to dip his toe in, but much as I like B5 creator's work, Doctor Who has a distinctly British flavour. (What about Canadian creator Sidney Newman and director Indian-born Waris Hussein, Roy?). I also read somewhere Kerblam and The War Between the Land and the Sea writer, Pete McTighe, expressed an interest, but that's all I know.
I attended all three days (May 29--31) and hopefully garnered a few new listeners. The promo keyrings I made were mostly accepted and I had a few nice conversations, until the last day, when a very hostile, unpleasant, and blanked-faced show official not only refused to take one, but when, taken aback, I asked asked why, they complained loudly and angrily about me to their supervisor! What a nut.
I left hot and exhausted, waving at many bikers on the A422 (no idea where they were heading; I still don't despite numerous investigations), refuelled myself and watched more Spider-Noir.
The Doc parks the Tardis at I.M. Foreman's Totter's Yard, 76 Totter's Lane, Shoreditch, London in An Unearthly Child.
A totter is a rag'n'bone man, which I learned from Magnus Magnusson's piece on the rag'n'bone trade on the BBC Archive on Youtube.