The Curse of Fenric [TV/1989.10.25 ~ 11.15]

★★★★☆

  Season 26 was the blueprint for the Virgin New Adventures — this is no secret. However, it sometimes surprises me on rather sparse revisits (must change that, now, shouldn't we?) that the blueprint holds up incredibly well to this day. Andrew Cartmel's masterplan was the name of the game, and the Doctor and Ace fight monsters from both the stars and within their darkest secrets.

  The Curse of Fenric remains one of the highlights of Sylvester McCoy's tenure, a shockingly mature tale that touches on the definition of faith and its meaning on a world fraught by war and hopelessness. It's also a crucial stepping stone for both the Seventh Doctor and Ace as characters, and they are fantastic in this serial. The Doctor is further developed as "not just a Time Lord", but a godlike being whose secrets must not be spoken and whose chess games are known to no one until the very last moment. Ace is revealed to be a pawn in an unthinkably big game, with preordained events such as her meeting the Doctor during the events of Dragonfire — but her strength lies in her unwillingness to give in to the most hopeless odds. She's a fighter; she may still be human, with deeply human emotions (such as when she discovers the baby she's risked it all to save turns out to be the mother she hates with all her being), but she never gives up... up until the last moment when her most trusted friend seemingly betrays and berates her for the greater good. The full effects of these cracks in their bond wouldn't be felt until the Expanded Universe revvs its gear, yes, but the dynamic we see in The Curse of Fenric is still very rich and complex. McCoy and Sophie Aldred pull their A-game here, bolstering the material even further.

  I love, love the way they deal with faith. It's usually an unspoken truth, a driving force of so many of us in our daily lives — and yet in here, it's a physical barrier that separates you from danger. Watching Captain Sorin hold the hammer and sickle pendant as a sign of faith as the Haemovores scream in pain is the kind of strong experience you'd never expect from Doctor Who, and the Doctor's recital of his past companions to lure the creatures away is an incredibly powerful way to make callbacks to the past. 

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  There's a reason Season 26 is lauded by so many: the transitional tone into the 1990s, the willingness to tackle more adult themes, a new standard for Doctor Who companions in the form of Ace, and the exploration into the Doctor's actions and their morality. The Curse of Fenric displays all of these in droves, alongside Nicholas Mallett's exciting direction and fantastic guest performances. It really is as good as they say — give the feature-length cut a go if you get the chance to.