(690) The Curse of Fenric - Part 2

I don’t think I pointed enough good things in yesterday’s episode. This story is made entirely on location and that lends something fresh to the show which we don’t see very often. Another thing that works well are the underwater shots from this episode and the previous episode are very impressive and I should have commented more on that in the previous episode.

There is more of the Reverend’s failing faith. His first appearance sees him deliver a lovely speech which is delivered in a superb manner by Nicholas Parsons. I think that he delivers the best performance in the entire episode. I don’t think you could use the stunt casting term with Parsons because he acts like it’s a brand new drama as opposed to a long running drama that’s been on TV for over a quarter of a century.

The scene where Millington smashes a gas bomb on some birds which kills them is a rather grim scene because it reveals that they are planning to betray the Russians. Any doubts that there were about Millington have really be dealt with in this episode because he does come across more of a baddie than a goodie and there is less vagueness in this department.

I have found the two girls living with Miss Hardaker to be annoying and they start this just as annoying in this episode but when they get ‘attacked’ in the sea it sees a dramatic change. They lure a soldier to their death after he is lured into the sea and is attacked. They then kill Miss Hardaker which seems somewhat expected. They then turn their sights onto Wainwright which leads to a great scene where Wainwright does his best to try and fend them off. Joann Kenny (Jean) and Joanne Bell (Phyllis) have really stepped up since they had to play possessed versions of their characters.

The shot of the Haemovore’s coming out of the sea is very similar to the Marshmen coming out of the water in Full Circle (1980) and it’s just as effective. I think that the Haemovore’s design is one of the key things about this story and it’s another example of fine design that appears on screen in this season. I still have the Destroyer’s design in my mind and whatever may be said about the quality of stories during the McCoy era, one thing can be said about this period and that money was spent where it mattered.

I think that the cliffhanger wasn’t as great as it could have been but I thought that the rest of episode did enough to make me like it. I don’t know why I like this story but I do. Halfway through this story and I know that the story is building up to something and I get the feeling that the really good stuff is going to come in the final two episodes.