The Daemons

At a small village called Devil's End, an archaelogist is getting set to cut open an ancient barrow called The Devil's Hump. BBC 3 is there live, broadcasting the dig across the country, and it raises the ire of not only the local white witch, Miss Olive Hawthorne, but it grabs the Doctor's attention as well. The Doctor rushes to stop the dig but is too late, and an ancient alien force is unleashed, sealing off Devil's End with a heat barrier and trapping the Doctor, Jo, Benton, Yates, and the villagers of Devil's End together - with the Master! The Hump is actually the final resting place of a spaceship belonging to Azal, last of the Daemons, and opening it has caused Azal to arise at the Master's call. Armed with the stone gargoyle Bok and hostile villagers, the Master intends to persuade Azal to hand him his power; the Daemons gave knowledge to mankind all through the ages and now view Earth as an experiment destined for the bin. The Doctor realizes that Azal will destroy the world if he does not act, but it is Jo who saves the day with an act of self scarifice, even though she doesn't die.

This is Jon Pertwee's favourite story, and I can sort of see why; it is a good example of a hidden evil and dark power in a place where you wouldn't expect it. The regular cast is at their best, Roger Delgado giving us a totally malevolant Master, which is made all the sweeter when he is finally captured and arrested by UNIT. Of course, Jay and I find all sorts of fun where normally one wouldn't; like the fight scenes between the UNIT men and the posessed villagers. The Brigadier's "date" with the woman who may one day be his wife. Azal the hairy Daemon who should by rights be at O'Grady's bear night on Fridays. We're not quite sure when Jo became an animal rights activist, running to interrupt the Master's sacrifice of a chicken to Azal. The spectacle of the villagers attempting to perform their May Day celebrations amid all the horror around them is surreal at best, especially when they turn on the Doctor and spank him with a bladder on a stick. Lucky they're superstitious though and accept Miss Hwthorne's claim of the Doctor being a wizard. "Daughter of light," Jay cackled, almost rolling off the couch. Maybe that's why she blinks so much; she likes the strobe light effect it creates. We're not sure if she can even see; she's always looking in the wrong direction when she speaks, but she's got her limited strobing sights set on Benton, appearing to ply him with booze in episode 3. "What's the witch doing behind the bar?" Jay asked. "Helping herself, it seems," I observed. Must be nice. And why, I ask, is the lightning in episode 1 timed right with the thunder? Anyone knows that is never the case. And the sound of BBC lightning... "All the same," says Jay. Not so much a thunderclap but someone waving a sheet of metal around in front of a microphone. And maybe dropping something down the stairs as well.

We've noticed something about the third Doctor. He has his own lexicon of insults and barbs. Everyone who displeases him is an idiot. A buffon. A numbskull. A nitwit. We love it. One night we're going to go to the bar and try to use all these terms, although they just seem so natural coming from such an elegant, stylish character as the Doctor; they just roll off his tongue. Again, though... "Daughter of light,"

The Daemons was actually the first adventure to be colourized for it's home video release, and it met with better success than others have. Episode 4 is still in its orginal state, so we get some perfect clarity, but the rest if downgraded from the merging of colour with black and white. This makes the shimmering edges of bluescreen effects even worse though, and the sequence of Azal materializing and growing to gargantuan size at the climax of episode 4 and opening of episode 5 suffers from it. And it's an odd length as well; 5 episodes, the only story of this length ever in the classic series. The show does succeed in the atmosphere of fear in the small village as things begin to go wrong; I was tempted to pair this with a viewing of a movie called Gargoyles just for fun, their culture melding with that of Azal. Mind you, Gargoyles is no Daemons and should apparantly "just be thrown away" according to my buddy Joe Bifolchi. (Whose name I have included in full should he ever want to Google himself and see what comes up... HI JOEY!!!)

And that's the end of season 8. The Master in custody and locked away, the Doctor and Jo dancing gaily around the May Pole with the good people of Devil's End (and I ask you - if the village was named that, how could they NOT see disaster looming). Enjoy the rest, Doctor; you're about to meet some old enemies...

NEXT EPISODE : DAY OF THE DALEKS

PS See my blog for The Chase from March 2005... it's been updated.