each being ten years apart: 1967, 1977 and 1987. Ventham had in fact auditioned for the James Bond film Goldfinger, but lost out to Shirley Eaton and therefore was excited to be painted gold in this serial, as would have been the case in Goldfinger. She also had to wear a dark wig as the human Thea, as Spenton-Foster thought that her natural blonde hair would lose credibility as a scientist. Denis Lill, cast as Fendelman, was the production team's second choice after actor Anthony Bate became unavailable. Lill would subsequently appear in The Awakening and was Ventham's husband in the sitcom Only Fools and Horses. Scott Fredericks had played Boaz in Day of the Daleks and was later cast by Spenton-Foster in the Blake's 7 episode "Weapon" alongside Graham Simpson who also appears in this story. Derek Martin had appeared a number of times in Doctor Who as an extra, going back to 1965 and subsequently as a stuntman with the HAVOC group, who had taken part in a number of early serials featuring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. This was his first and only work on the series as an actor. Louise Jameson regards this as one of her best stories due to it being written by Chris Boucher, who had created Leela. It was, however, during the making of this serial that she decided to leave at the end of the series. Broadcast and reception Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote in The Discontinuity Guide (1995) that Image of the Fendahl was "one of the best stabs at outright horror in Doctor Who'''s history". They said it was "possibly one episode too long... but the verve of the production more than makes up for this." In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker felt that the scripts were "a little vague when it comes to certain details about the Fendahleen" and the Fendahl was "something of a disappointment", but they praised the supporting characters, in particular Daphne Heard's performance, who "plays the role to perfection and is largely responsible for conveying the sense of high tension and anticipation in the latter episodes". They considered Image of the Fendahl to be "one of the last truly frightening Doctor Who stories". Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times awarded it four stars out of five. He considered Chris Boucher's scripts "his strongest for the series"