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The DÆmons

22ND MAY 1971 - 19TH JUNE 1971

(5 EPISODES)

How different might the third Doctor’s era have been if season eight would have ended with Brian Wright’s aborted serial, “The Cerebroids”? I doubt that any other story would have left the mark on viewers that “The Dæmons” did. To many Doctor Who fans, this story is the

third Doctor story – the definite article.

It was always going to be good – the season could not have ended with anything other than UNIT finally slapping the cuffs on the Master – but I do not think that even as they were

writing this story, producer Barry Letts and playwright Robert Sloman (both halves of the pseudonymous ‘Guy Leopold’) realised just how good it was going to be.

The first time that I saw this serial I was taken aback by its sense of atmosphere. You can feel the tension. Over the course of the first episode ‘Leopold’ keeps building up the suspense until the Devil’s Hump is climactically opened at the end, and from thereon in the tension only escalates.

It is not all dark, though. In fact, at times “The Dæmons” is

outright comical. Many Doctor Who stories – particularly

those blessed with the Brigadier’s presence – contain the

odd memorable one-liner, but “The Dæmons” is filled to

bursting with them. To name but a few, we have: “a rational existentialist priest indeed!”; “the costume… the wig…”;

“you know what, I sometimes wish I worked in a bank”; and

of course, “chap with the wings. Five rounds rapid.” Blame  

the Brigadier for the last two!

The actual plot is noteworthy for a number of reasons. Firstly, for its debunking of magic and mysticism. The Doctor is a Scientist, Miss Hawthorne is a witch (“white, of course”). The Doctor puts his faith in science, Miss Hawthorne puts hers in magic. Somewhat predictably, the writers ‘side with’ the Doctor in that he seems to be right – there is a scientific explanation behind everything that is happening in the village, and quite right too. That is

what the show does best. However, the masterstroke is that despite the Doctor’s smug “science, not sorcery, Miss Hawthorne” jibes, the writers still allow for the possibility that Miss Hawthorne might be right after all…

Secondly, with the Brigadier locked out of the village, Captain Yates and Sergeant Benton are allowed to take on a much more central role. Richard Franklin and John Levene are both utterly terrific here. They each handle the extensive action sequences superbly, and they

both get their fair share of the drama too. Benton had me entertained trying to spurn the advances of Miss Hawthorne, but that was as nothing compared to seeing Yates try and explain to the Brigadier that he had ‘borrowed’ his helicopter without permission and then got it blown up!

The third Doctor himself is at his zenith here; Jon Pertwee may not have been my favourite Doctor, but I certainly found him a lot more engaging when he was exiled and fed-up then when he was happily swanning around the universe being nice to all and sundry. Perhaps

the Doctor’s recent trip in the TARDIS to Uxarieus only served to emphasise his exile, rather than provide respite from it. Perhaps this time he really thinks that the Master will win. Either way, the main man gives a much more bad-tempered performance than usual and he is all the more compelling for it. He is horrible to almost everyone, especially poor old Jo. In one scene he is slagging off the Brigadier, and when Jo agrees with him he bites her head off and tells her to show the Brigadier some respect! It is quite touching that even in spite of

such shoddy treatment, Jo would still sacrifice herself for the Doctor. You have got to love

her!

As for the Master, once again Roger Delgado’s performance is impeccable. His guise of

the Reverend Victor Magister is perhaps his most overtly sinister (one possible reason for the critical backlash against this story from Mary Whitehouse’s mob of busybodies and

other like-minded do-gooders. Blowing up a Church did not help either, though I do not think that old Mary realised it was only a model… anyway, I digress). More than anything else though, “The Dæmons” is remembered by many for its moments of sheer terror. We are not talking ‘behind the sofa’, we are talking half way up the stairs! It says a lot about the Master’s statusin the eyes of the audience when the episode four cliff-hanger shows him – the principal villain – in jeopardy, the colossal figure of the Dæmon Azal looming over him. It is interesting to think that haunting images such as these will have been what Russell T Davies and many of the other new series’ writers grew up with. This is what they try and do (and arguably do even better) in the new series. Fantastic stories like “The Satan Pit” were no doubt borne out of childhood nightmares caused by this classic.

For me though, the true terror in “The Dæmons” does not come from Azal or the Master – it comes from the brainwashed villagers. Take the scene where the Doctor is tied to the Maypole, for example. The villagers are going to burn him alive and yet there are children

sat around on their bikes watching the spectacle. It is unsettling in the extreme – much more frightening than creatures and demons.

As for the eponymous Dæmons themselves, I do not see how anyone could be anything other than impressed with them. The idea that a race came to Earth a million years ago and spawned all the various cultures of Earth ‘demonic’ mythology is a fascinating enough concept in itself, but the fact that the Dæmons are amoral scientists who regard the Earth

as an experiment gone awry is sheer genius. Often stories featuring the Master fall foul of having him manipulate some alien entity or race for his own ends that turns out to be even more evil than he is, detracting from his character somewhat, but not here. It all fits together absolutely perfectly. This is the perfect ‘Master’ story.

Of course, Azal’s comment that implies that the Dæmons were responsible for the destruction of Atlantis annoyed quite a few fans as Atlantis had already been apparently destroyed in the second Doctor story “The Underwater Menace”, and it would be apparently destroyed again in the following season’s finale “The Time Monster”. Of course, it is important to remember that we do not actually see Atlantis get destroyed in either serial; in “The Underwater Menace” only the lower levels of the city are seen to be flooded, and in “The Time Monster” the Chronovore is only seen to wreck the city's temple. Furthermore, the Atlantis in “The Underwater Menace” is a couple of thousand years after and a couple of thousand miles away from the Atlantis of “The Time Monster." Besides, as Craig Hinton’s novel “The Quantum Archangel” explains, it was the Daemons who gave the Atlanteans the ability to summon the chronovore, so either way it works. And who even says that Azal

meant the Atlantis on Earth? Maybe there is one off in the Pegasus galaxy or something… it is a big universe, after all. Remind me to get around to reconciling “The Shakespeare Code” with “The Kingmaker” and “Time of the Daleks” at some point.

I really should get out more.

So are there any bad points about this story? Well I suppose Bok the gargoyle is a bit feeble, but that is all part of the charm. And the Brigadier’s absence in the early going is certainly felt, but it is more than worth it to see his triumphant return at the end. Other than

that, I have not got a bad word to say about this serial; it is absolutely first-class in every conceivable way, the perfect showcase for the Pertwee / UNIT era. Back in 1971 it not only brought season eight to a stylish and unforgettable conclusion, but also served (albeit in a roundabout sort of way) as Doctor Who’s first Christmas Special. 10.5 million viewers

turned in to the ninety-minute compilation repeat entitled “Doctor Who and the Dæmons” (two million more than tuned into the original broadcast) demonstrating the ever-increasing popularity of this timeless fan-favourite.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2008

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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