This one's going to be controversial.
When people say Classic Who is ropey and unintentionally hilarious, I normally disagree; it was made at a different time and by a production team struggling to make a complex programme work under limited time and resources at the mercy of a television company that didn't care much for its existence other than the money and viewership it brought in. It's a wonder it managed to last 26 years at all under those circumstances. So, when someone snarkily goes "Classic Who bad" and cites these as their reasons, I get defensive about the show and its production values.
Unless, of course, you're talking about Image Of The Fendahl. Then I'd agree with you.
Image is one of those stories that people say they love, but I question whether or not they actually do. I first watched it as a Classic Who-loving kid; I distinctly remember seeing Tom on the cover, thinking "hmmm, Tom's in it, this should be good" and asking my parents to buy it.
Having seen Blake's 7, I decided to revisit Chris Boucher's DW work to see if the level of quality was consistent in his non-B7 work, making the mistake of watching this story first.
I can confidently say that I have no clue what Boucher was trying to achieve with this: the iconography's fantastic - the glowing skull, strange serpent-like creatures and the satanic stuff are all interesting setpieces. However, I don't really think the execution and framing of these ideas really makes any sense.
However, this is also one of those stories I can watch and laugh along with; it's so unintentionally hilarious that it's actually become funny, in some inverse way. It's so bad it's good. Not Nightmare Of Eden levels of so-good-it's-bad-but-also-unironically-good, but somewhere in that region.
To put it simply, Fendahl isn't a favourite of mine, and there's a lot to dislike about it. On the same token, it's also some of the funniest television I've ever seen, so that also makes it good in my book. If you find this review hard to follow, congratulations - it's an accurate portrayal of how I felt watching this clown-car car crash in real time.
I don't love it. But I don't hate it. It's Season 15's comedic highlight, even if that wasn't the intention.
