JohnP

I had a look at my blog and it was actually working – it had also been updated to 1.2.1
To get the update script to finish without the error (“Fatal” sounds so permanent to a beginner) I did the following:
deactivated the plugin subscribe-to-comments.php
renamed it with FTP to be sure
successfully ran wp-admin/upgrade.php
named plugin back to subscribe-to-comments.php
activated it again.
So far looks like all is well, and the lost password function is now working properly.
I tried to leave a comment on the upgrade FAQ warning people to de-activate plugins, but it looks like I’m being moderated.
Thanks for the help guys!