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Just as with last month’s The Two Doctors, an average story becomes a highly enjoyable DVD experience thanks to the love and care that have gone into the whole package.
I’ve never raved about The Curse of Fenric but it still contains a lot of entertainment. Ian Brigg’s script is ambitious, the Haemovores are well-realised old school monsters and the period detail goes along way in creating a believable environment. The performances range from the splendid, such as Nicholas Parsons and Dinsdale Landon to the awful, such as Joann Kenny and Joanne Bell as the cock-er-neee schoolgirls. But despite looking good on paper, somehow the story never builds up the atmosphere of fear and dread that it needs. And for every two great scenes, such as Commander Millington demonstrating the poison to the Doctor or the vicar confronting the monsters, there will be a clunker such as Ace’s Ingmar Bergman approach to seduction. There are some surprisingly funny moments too. The aftermath of Sorin’s vampire staking, Fenric’s peevish complaint that he was expecting “something a bit more Aryan” or the soldier’s question “Is it marked government property?” For once though, a Special Edition lives up to its name. This is undoubtedly the best version of the story yet. Freed from the episodic format, scenes have room to breathe. Many of the apparent plot holes created by the TV edit are satisfyingly filled in and its remarkable how a bit of new editing can alter moments that seemed poorly made the first time around. One can grumble that bad planning on Nick Mallet’s part created the timing/story logic problems in the first place but at least it has been fixed now. Enhanced special effects and the sound/picture restoration are just icing on the cake. Like Mark, I would have loved a music only option on this new edition because Mark Ayres’ new score is splendid.
Another handsome set of extras: Take Two is good for completists and reminded me of my excitement in getting a sneak preview of a forthcoming story. The visual effects camcorder footage was a real find and caught the grim reality of making television drama in a similar way to last month’s studio footage. 31 Who was entertaining, with a presenter determined to show off her own knowledge as well as listening to messers Moore and Maisfield and gave us a taster for the much larger compilation of BSB material coming next month. Ian Briggs’ thoughts on his story were interesting and I learnt some new things. I had to raise an eyebrow when he commented that McCoy was good at acting anger and so he wrote that infamous "EEEEVILLL from the DAAAWNN of TIME" speech to 'take advantage of that'! Meanwhile Ken Trew was entertainingly waspish as he reviewed his costume designs. Mark Ayres contributed a great deal in Recutting the Runes and the unusually essential easter egg. In fact I hope he is interviewed for the rest of stories he was involved with, based on his performance here.
“The Curse of the Fenrics” as the guy at MVC referred to it, is another winning production from the Reconstruction Team.

I think I do. Off the top of my head, she remarks "Who cares?" after a dramatic revelation. Yes that was a good addition.
As for Ace and the guard, a bit of flirting would have been more than sufficient, nothing more that was seen in Grange Hill or Press Gang at the time. It would seem that Miss McShane was something of a fifth form poet judging from her dialogue

You're thinking of Tanith Lee, and yes her two B7 stories "Sarcophagus" and "Sand" had plenty of depth and symbolism going on in them.

I've been thinking about metaphorical moments in Doctor Who and its hard to think of metaphors that are explicitly as emotional as Ace's swim. Nevertheless metaphors have certainly been employed by many writers on the show, because they are part of the armoury.

The Cheetah People in "Survival" are certainly heavy with symolism. They represent the good and bad parts of our inner animal natures: on one hand they can appreciated the world in a rich sensuous way, they are fast and powerful, but at the same time, bestial, savage and unforgiving. As is so often, its a case of find a balance between our natures, as Ace learns at the end of the story.

"Planet of Spiders" is famously based on Buhdist ideas and the spiders are actually described as a metaphor for greed. only by freeing themselves of their spiders, both literally and conceptually, can our heroes win. Christopher Bailey drew from all kinds of philosophies for "Kinda" and "Snakedance". Some of it pretty obvious, like the apple which Evil Tegan gives to Aris and some a little more hidden, such as the kinds of children which the explorers regress into.

Slightly a metaphor, but more of a neat bit of visual storytelling is Susan's introduction. At first glance she's a teenage girl listening to a pop song. Then you notice the odd way she's dancing, the slightly distant, analytical look on her face and it gives you a hint that she is not a normal teenager but something else trying to be a 1960's human.

There's not much that's metaphorical in the forthcoming AOP story "Bloodlines" but "Stations of the Cross" (which I'm currently editing into a rough dialogue edit from the DAT tapes) has got some clever scenes with plenty of undercurrants. Even if some of the cast aren't taking them too seriously sometimes between takes

Interesting the read about your son and his mate watching Fenric, Mark. It's always good to hear what captures the interest in a younger viewer ans what stays in their minds because I forget exactly how I felt then, or rather it gets blurred with later adult perspectives. Glad to hear it went down fairly well. yes Zygons would be an excellent choice! "Remembrance" would be another one, with its school setting, more Ace and some decent action pieces and strong ideas. Or "The Time Warrior" which has a strong role for Sarah, a good monster, knights & castles and an entertaining storyline.

Gaz

Well I believe Victoria rolled around in a lot of foam in "Fury from the Deep" but sadly the evidence is now lost to us. But it's great we can appreciate the full ramifications of Leela in wet underclothes in DVD quality now.

Ahem, moving back to the metaphor thread, I must confess that as much as I love "Doctor Who" and its writing, I can see that it is a plot-driven series, rather than a character-driven one. Hence those kind of emotional symbolic scenes are relatively rare. Scripts tend to develop characters by showing us their reaction to events. For example: tough guy Scorby going to pieces during the final Krynoid attack. Or dropping in nuggets of information that become important later on. Such as Victoria's growing unhappiness with her eventful life aboard the TARDIS. Plus my favourite drama rule, people don't say what they really mean, unless in extremis.

Gaz