Day 692: The Curse of Fenric Part 4

Jumping back to previously in the story of The Curse of Fenric, we have the character of the Rev. Wainwright. He's a kind hearted clergyman, who is suffering with severe doubts in his faith. It's not explicitly said, however, that it's his doubts in God that is causing problems, instead it is the far more interesting dilemma of his faith in Good.

Wainwright is confronted every day with the War, and it frightens him, because it destroys his personal belief in the idea that there is good in everyone in the world. It's the bombing that affects him in particular, in particular the idea that good British men are bombing German cities, killing innocent German children. It destroys his hope that there is inherent good in humanity, when acts of such callous evil can be performed without question, and this proves to be his ultimate downfall as he dies, killed by the Haemovores. And so we're left with a dwindling cast, as more and more characters die due to their inherent lack of belief in good.

But Ace still believes in good, in particular in the power of the Doctor. But this isn't entirely correct. The Doctor, it turns out, is just as manipulative and as dark as his opponent, Fenric. He's been secretly organising and moving events throughout the entire story, in opposition to Fenric who has also been trying to manipulate events. This all culminates in a scene where the Doctor is forced to break Ace's faith in him, openly dismissing her and stating that she is nothing special, she only existed as a tool in his master plan, just so that he can defeat Fenric once and for all.

It's a shocking moment, and one that is somewhat disappointingly not given much afterthought. The Doctor is, for a fleeting moment, allowed to be evil and to be dark, and we see him take a companion, one of his friends, to breaking point. And yet it's glossed over in the conclusion to make way for a more sentimental ending to another character arc that Ace has gone through in the episode. But it's certainly something that we'll look at later in the series, and I'm certainly looking forward to re-watching those episodes again. And, at the end of the day, The Curse of Fenric is still a monumentally brilliant episode, and one of the all-time underrated classics in Doctor Who.