Strange events haunt the village of Fetchborough. At the old Priory, scientists led by Dr Fendelman study a skull which is millions of years older than the earliest man. In the woods, a hiker is killed by something creeping through the night. Nearby, the TARDIS arrives, drawn by the activation of a time scanner. While Leela finds reluctant allies in the form of a local wise woman and her grandson, the Doctor discovers that one of the scientists, Thea Ransome, is being groomed for a sinister ritual. If successful, it will resurrect an ancient embodiment of death -- one thought destroyed by the Time Lords long ago.

The final Doctor Who story to be made under the aegis of script editor Robert Holmes would also be the last in the Gothic tradition he had established with former producer Philip Hinchcliffe. This was Image Of The Fendahl, which was commissioned from Chris Boucher on May 2nd, 1977. Boucher had written two consecutive stories -- The Face Of Evil and The Robots Of Death -- a year earlier, and had greatly impressed Holmes. Indeed, at about the same time, he recommended Boucher as script editor for the fledgling BBC science-fiction series Blake's 7, a job that Holmes himself had declined because he wanted to return to freelance writing full-time.

For Image Of The Fendahl, Boucher was influenced by the 1967 film version of Quatermass And The Pit; it likewise involved a group of scientists discovering an ancient skull which predated humanity. He also recalled a short story he had read about aliens accelerating humanity's evolution for their own purposes. Boucher considered Image Of The Fendahl to be his opportunity to write a Doctor Who ghost story. As such, he drew upon the fetch, a creature from Irish mythology which manifested as the phantom double of a living person. The word “fetch” was incorporated into many of the adventure's place names, and presaged Thea Ransome's transformation into the sinister Fendahl Core.

Since Chris Boucher was unfamiliar with K·9, it was agreed that he would appear only fleetingly

As he worked on his scripts during the early summer, Boucher found that his new job on Blake's 7 was consuming much of his time. With Holmes leaving Doctor Who in July, this left incoming script editor Anthony Read to perform many of the final rewrites on Image Of The Fendahl, although he would not receive an on-screen credit until Underworld, the next story into production. One of Read's responsibilities was to address the last-minute decision to add K·9 to the TARDIS crew. Since Boucher was unfamiliar with the character, it was agreed that the robot dog would appear only fleetingly at the story's beginning and end, in material provided by Read. K·9 would be mute in these scenes, and so voice artist John Leeson would not be required.

Because Boucher was still a relative newcomer to scriptwriting, he had inadvertently included several night scenes in Image Of The Fendahl, without recognising the associated expense and production difficulties. Instead of asking Boucher to revise his storyline, Doctor Who producer Graham Williams decided to assign the serial to an experienced director, thereby ensuring that these sequences would be completed as efficiently as possible. This was George Spenton-Foster who, in 1973, had directed episodes of Sutherland's Law for which Williams had been the script editor.

As production on Image Of The Fendahl approached, costume designer Amy Roberts deemed Louise Jameson's Leela costume to be in need of replacement, having now been in use for almost a year since her debut in The Face Of Evil. Initially, Williams was inclined to simply have a replica constructed, but he eventually decided to proceed with a new, more form-hugging design. Unusually, it was also agreed that Jameson should wear her hair up in Image Of The Fendahl -- a decision born of necessity when the BBC stylist accidentally gave Jameson a very short trim.

Location filming for Image Of The Fendahl took place from August 1st to 4th, and saw Doctor Who return to Stargroves in East End, Hampshire, which had also appeared in 1975's Pyramids Of Mars. The manor house itself served as the Priory, while its grounds offered areas suitable for the story's other exterior settings. This included Fetch Wood, and scenes there were intended to be the focus of night shooting on August 2nd. However, work suddenly ground to a halt when the generator which powered the lighting equipment caught fire, and a replacement had to be summoned from London in the wee hours of the morning. The noise of the arriving vehicles prompted an angry complaint from one of Stargroves' neighbours, and Spenton-Foster responded with an apology the following week. Although the incident forced the director to rearrange his schedule and drop some of his planned shots, it appears that he chose not to record on August 5th, which had been kept in reserve in case of problems at Stargroves.

The remainder of Image Of The Fendahl was recorded at BBC Television Centre Studio 6 in White City, London. The first studio block took place on August 20th and 21st, which respectively concentrated on Episodes One and Two. The Episode Three scene in the Priory kitchen was also taped on the 21st. Meanwhile, concerns arose that the Fendahleen costumes were too phallic in appearance, and so ribbing was added to mute this impression. Image Of The Fendahl was completed between September 4th and 6th. The first day dealt with the last two scenes of Episode Two, as well as the majority of the third installment. Work on Episode Four was split across the last two days, divided according to whether Wanda Ventham would appear as Thea Ransome or as the Fendahl Core. The Episode Three scenes in the large cellar were also recorded on the 5th.

Image Of The Fendahl was originally planned to be the fourth story of Season Fifteen, in both recording and broadcast order. However, it was subsequently decided to position it third in the transmission schedule. This way, the spooky modern-day adventure would air between The Invisible Enemy and The Sun Makers, both of which were futuristic tales set in other parts of the solar system.

As with The Invisible Enemy, Doctor Who's timeslot was not entirely consistent during the broadcast of Image Of The Fendahl. Most episodes were scheduled for 6.10pm, but a shorter Tom And Jerry cartoon earlier in the evening of November 12th brought Episode Three forward by five minutes. Meanwhile, the serial became the inadvertent cause of one of Doctor Who's most notorious fan myths. For years after the transmission of Season Fifteen, it was believed that a story called “The Island Of Fandor” had been dropped at the last minute. In fact, Gordon Blows of the recently-formed Doctor Who Appreciation Society had misheard the title of Image Of The Fendahl during a telephone conversation. The garbled version was then printed in the pages of the DWAS publication TARDIS, from which it entered into fan lore.

• Doctor Who Magazine #197, 17th March 1993, “Archive: Image Of The Fendahl” by Andrew Pixley, Marvel Comics UK Ltd.
• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #8, 1st September 2004, “Nobody Does It Better” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #27, 2017, “Story 94: Image Of The Fendahl”, edited by John Ainsworth, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Handbook: The Fourth Doctor by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1992), Virgin Publishing.
• Doctor Who: The Seventies by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1994), Virgin Publishing.
• In·Vision #26, August 1990, “Production” edited by Justin Richards and Peter Anghelides, Cybermark Services.