Fenric
Fenric, also known as Hastur the Unspeakable or Aboo-Fenrán, was an immensely powerful sentient force that was at least as old as the universe itself and an intelligence of pure evil.
History
Origins
The being later known as Fenric was one of two forces, one good, one evil, which were present at the Dawn of Time. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
- The fate of the good force, if personified, remains unknown.
Some sources state that Fenric originated not in the beginnings of this universe but, like the other Old Ones, in a universe before this one. These accounts state that Fenric bore the name of Hastur the Unspeakable. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire) The name Fenric came from a mythic figure in Norse mythology. The myths described a monstrous wolf which would, during the final battle between gods and beasts, destroy the world at the end of time. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
Entrapment of Fenric
The Doctor's first known encounter with Fenric was in Constantinople in the middle of the 3rd century. Fenric (then known as Aboo-Fenrán) had been terrorising the area, when the prince El-Amjad tried to force him to leave. Fenric agreed, provided the prince gave him the first thing he named when he returned to his castle. El-Amjad agreed to this, but when the first thing El-Amjad named was his youngest daughter (due to the meddling of Fenric), he instead sent a chest of gold. When Fenric learned that El-Amjad would not give up his daughter, he continued to ravage the countryside.
Eventually, the Doctor arrived in the city, and agreed to help in exchange for freeing a slave called Zeleekhà. The Doctor went out to Fenric and challenged him to a game of chess. After 40 days of stalemates, the Doctor was able to convince Fenric that with one move, he would win. Fenric spent another 40 days trying to figure out what this one move was, growing weaker all the time. Eventually, he became so weak that the Doctor was able to trap Fenric in a flask and banish him to the Shadow Dimensions. (PROSE: The Curse of Fenric)
- This account was based on an Arabian myth, and may have been embellished for effect.
Imprisonment
At some stage of Fenric's imprisonment, it briefly met and played a game of chess with the Celestial Toymaker. The Toymaker wished to claim Fenric as his new toy, while Fenric wished to take possession of the Toymaker's body so he could escape his prison. However, the game ended in a stalemate, and the Toymaker departed, leaving Fenric trapped. (PROSE: Games)
Fenric's stratagem
Fenric's power was such that his influence still continued to pervade space and time. He set into motion events that would ensure his escape.
Fenric summoned the Ancient One, the last Haemovore, from the future. When Vikings stole the flask containing Fenric sometime after the 10th century, the Haemovore followed them and the flask to Northumbria and Maiden's Point. Fearing its evil influence, the Vikings buried the flask beneath St. Jude's Church, leaving a runic inscription warning that the flask was cursed. The Haemovore remained beneath the waters of Maiden's Bay, gradually recruiting new members. The Haemovores, also known as the Wolves of Fenric, awaited their master's release. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
Still imprisoned, Fenric continued to manipulate the timeline in ways that would ensure his release. As she conducted a black magic ritual, Fenric used a time storm to whisk Lady Peinforte from her native time period of 1638 to 1988 to retrieve the Nemesis statue. (TV: Silver Nemesis) He also transported Ace to Iceworld by time storm so that she could meet the Doctor and joined him on his travels. (TV: Dragonfire) As Ace bore the "curse", Fenric hoped that he could use Ace as a weapon against the Doctor. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
- The curse enabled Fenric to control the destinies of certain people in an unspecified way, so that they would make certain choices without knowing that these choices played into Fenric's plan. By implication, Fenric could only take over the bodies of people sharing in the curse.
Escape and defeat
In 1943, Maiden's Point served as a the location of a military base housing the ULTIMA, an early computer designed to decypher German code. The ULTIMA also had the secret purpose of translating the runic descriptions and so freeing Fenric. Once released, he occupied the body of Doctor Judson and had the Haemovores, already killing every human they could find, summon the Ancient One from his dormant state. Fenric later possessed Soviet Captain Sorin.
- All or most of the people at Maiden's Point at that time, including some of the Soviets, had the taint of Fenric's curse.
The Doctor attempted to trap Fenric once again using a game of chess, as before, but having taken over Sorin's body, Fenric had learned the solution to the chess puzzle. Fenric was finally defeated when the Ancient One turned on him, destroying Sorin's body and leaving Fenric without a corporeal host. (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
Triumphant Return
When he returned to the dimension of the Elder Gods, Fenric began playing a game against another Elder God called Weyland for control of Weyland's shield, an artefact which could grant omnipotence to an Elder God. As a response to this, Weyland had started to use the Doctor, Ace and Hex as pawns to track down and deliver him the shield. When Fenric became aware of this, he began tailing the TARDIS crew unbeknownst to them. (AUDIO: Gods and Monsters) However, Fenric had unintentionally made his presence known to the Doctor, when he had left a chess set in a Swiss sanatorium when the Doctor was battling the Celestial Toymaker. (AUDIO: The Magic Mousetrap)
After this discovery, the Doctor began battling the Elder Gods more frequently, in an attempt to draw more attention from them, so he could eventually discover the conspiracy that he had become involved in. He fought the Karnas'koi with Ace and Hex in Alaska, (AUDIO: Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge) and he then began travelling in a Black TARDIS with Sally Morgan and Lysandra Aristedes, who helped him fight the Mi'en Kalarash, (AUDIO: House of Blue Fire) Derleth (AUDIO: Project Nirvana) and Moloch. (AUDIO: Protect and Survive) When his activities had drawn the attention of Fenric, he stranded the Doctor in 5th century, Denmark. There, he temporarily inhabited the body of a local Norse warrior travelling with Beowulf, and transported the Doctor to another dimension. However, what Fenric didn't anticipate was the Doctor providing his companions with the necessary information to rescue him, and giving them Weyland's shield. (AUDIO: Black and White)
Using the shield guided the TARDIS crew to the pocket dimension that the Doctor had been transported to, and where they discovered that they had been pawns used by Weyland to further his masterplan. Fenric had taken the body of a Scandinavian warrior living in the 9th century, and discovered that Weyland constructed his shield at the behest of the other Elder Gods, who saw Fenric as an uncontrollable element, and attempted to manipulate him to his destruction by leading him on a quest for Weyland's shield, an artefact that would inevitably destroy him. Weyland then tried to get his pawn, Hex, to use the shield to destroy Fenric, but his plan backfired when Hex regained control and used the shield on Weyland. After the game was finished, the pocket dimension began to collapse and Fenric possessed Hex. But Hex sacrificed himself to prevent Fenric from permanently taking control and gaining power, saving the Doctor, Ace, Sally and Lysandra. When Fenric's corporeal form was destroyed by the collapsing dimension, he was left as a disembodied entity, alongside Weyland and Hex. (AUDIO: Gods and Monsters)
Behind the scenes
- Characters called the Gods of Ragnarok had appeared in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, a story from the previous season of Doctor Who. Because they did not wish to confuse the public by having the same name appear in two different contexts, the production team forbade Ian Briggs, the writer of The Curse of Fenric from using the name Ragnarok, to describe the apocalyptic time prophesied by Norse mythology when Fenrir would break free of his chains and eat Odin, the father of the gods. The writer also used the name Fenric for the great wolf, rather than the usual name. Hastur is the name of an Old One in the Lovecraft mythos.
- Fenric is mentioned in a deleted scene from The Infinite Quest, as one of the beings which ruled the universe during the Dark Times.
