Josh: Doctor Who Classic: The Daemons

Badly costumed Bok, Three and bloody Jo Grant

Doctor Who - Season 8, Story Five - The Daemons
Written between 2nd and 8th June 2012
"Fancy a dance, Brigadier?"

In the village of Devil's End people are dying without explanation though local 'witch', Olive Hawthorne claims evil is afoot and the deaths are a result of fright. Near the village, BBC Three are covering the excavation of the Devil's Hump with Professor Horner. When the dig begins at the start of the Pagan  festival; Beltane, they expect to find the treasures and tomb of a warrior chieftain. At UNIT, the Doctor and the others watch the television broadcast. Jo speculates the coming of the Age of the Aquarius and the supernatural which the Doctor scoffs at. However, as the dig starts and Olive protests and warns of danger, the Doctor believes her so he and Jo head off to Devil's End. During a sudden gust of wind, Olive is nearly struck down by a police officer under a trance as she goes to visit the vicar. It appears he has been mysteriously replaced by Mr Magister who is really the Master. The Master assures Olive nothing bad will happen but she dismisses him and goes to find someone to believe her. When the Doctor and Jo get lost and end up in a pub, a villager informs the Master of the Doctor who tells the man to prepare the ceremony. As the Doctor and Jo rush to the mound, the Master and 13 acolytes are chanting more and more frenziedly in a ritual in the Church's catacombs as the Master shouts the name of the entity; Azal, as the gargoyle Bok's eyes flash red. As the tomb is opened at the Hump,  icy winds burst out killing Horner and temporarily freezing the Doctor.
     After the village doctor notices the Doctor's two hearts and the latter starts to wake back up, Jo calls a confused Benton and Yates who agree to go to Devil's End the next morning by copter. The Master then prays as the police officer who had been in a trance falls to something gigantic which has risen. When Benton and Yates fly to Devil's End they spot massive burnt footprints on the fields. Yates contacts the Brigadier who calls himself a car to come down also. Benton finds Olive trapped in a cupboard in the Master's verger where a man called Garvin has locked her in. Garvin then appears with a rifle so Benton attempts to disarm him but seizes up on a stone the Master has marked. However, Garvin is soon engulfed in a heat wave that spreads right across the village waking up the Doctor.

Hipster Master was summoning the Devil before it was cool

     Olive and Benton venture to pub where Olive tells the Doctor of the Magister and realises he's up against the Master, again, and that she saw a large horned beast.  The Brigadier's unable to access the village due to a heat barrier as he's briefed. In the Hump, the Doctor and Jo find a small spaceship like the Hump as Bok tries to attack them. The gargoyle's own superstition drives him away when the Doctor talks in a strange language. The Master hypnotises the squire, Winstanley. The Doctor tells that all the horned gods in mythology over thousands of years have been the Daemons from Daemos who arrived 100,000 years ago. The shrinking and growing of their spaceship causes blasts of both cold and hot waves which have created a heat wave dome over the village. The Daemon the Master has summoned was small causing the cold wave but on the third summoning it will be massive causing the end of the world. The Doctor orders UNIT technician Osgood to set up a diathermic energy exchanger to break the heat shield. On the way to the barrier to explain the Doctor is attacked via the helicopter controlled by a hypnotised Tom Girton but the copter is destroyed. The Master summons Azal again who curses the Master for doing so.
     The Master wants Azal's power but he refuses to give it to him. Azal may give the Master control of Earth if he thinks him worthy after meeting the Doctor or he might destroy the planet on third summoning. After explaining the exchanger, the Doctor is captured by hypnotised villagers to be burnt alive. Olive and the Doctor convince the villagers to release him as Benton tricks them with his silenced gun and the Doctor with his remote controlled car; Bessie. Jo and Mike witness the final ritual as Jo fails to prevent it. Azal manifests himself as Jo is offered for sacrifice. The Doctor explains how psychokinetic energy of humans is used to summon the Daemons. The exchanger works so UNIT get through the barrier with it before it explodes. Bok guards the entrance to the catacombs but the exchanger weakens him so the Doctor is able to get into the ritual. As UNIT attacks Bok with all their weapons, Azal goes to kill the Doctor as the former wants humans to be left alone. However, Jo then self-sacrifices herself and the confusion turns Azal into stone before the church blows up. The Master fails to escape in Bessie which is remotely controlled to come back so the Master is arrested under maximum security as UNIT, the Doctor, Jo and Olive celebrate May Day.

The Master rocks out in a ritual

Doctor Who is known to be purely that of science-fiction so when this serial began to deal with more supernatural themes I immediately became a fan. This serial's intelligent script is able to show the diversity between the supernatural and science and how the two can conflict on many occasions depending on the situation. This serial really alienates the Doctor as he appears to be the only person who realises it isn't demons and myths causing everything but science. This therefore just reinforces the idea that we should remember the Doctor is of much higher intelligence than any other character as well as being from a different species and this serial highlights his individualism. This serial is filmed differently and to be honest I love it. The direction excels the previous stories in this season and the many pieces of camera trickery used have worked efficiently such as shaking and obscure angles give the tone of the serial are more quirky, rough edge to it. This serial also sees an entirely different side to the Master. For the previous four stories of the season the Master has been coldly calculating and intelligently intimidating. This serial though exposed his desperation for power and the extremities of things he has to do to claim it even though his normal behaviour would usually defy it. This new side to the Master has helped develop him further as a character and so after a couple of mediocre performances, Roger Delgado is finally back on full form like he was in Terror of the Autons. Though the Master has been in each serial during this season we still haven't been able to explore his back-story and delved properly into his character. Having him arrested by UNIT as a cliffhanger leaves his story unfinished and the possibility that we can go and explore more about him. As a fan of the Master, I can honestly say Delgado's performances are fantastically acted and makes the character so very interesting.
     This has got to be season eight's most creepiest serial of them all. The supernatural rituals, unexplainable (at the time) random events, freaky weather and, though badly costumed, daunting creatures. We've had a variety of moods to this season as we've had the camp frivolity of Terror, the politics of Mind of Evil, the colonisation argument in Colony and the science of Claws and now we have the chilling supernatural of Daemons. I'd like to point out that Damaris Hayman's Olive Hawthorne takes the prize for the most annoying character for the season. Her character could have been potentially interesting if it hadn't of been for the silly over-acting and taking of the stereotype of a believer in mythology and witches but Who has taken that and given it to her and it's awful. Though this isn't a scratch on the previous season finale Inferno, I'm very glad this was the only serial of the season which didn't use any of the recurring plot devices such as group takeovers, extended gun battles. Instead we did have another capturing of Jo Grant, twice, again. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to complain about how I, let's not say hate but majorly dislike her. Jo's got to be one of the clingiest, most annoying companions that the Doctor has had. Though she doesn't meet the standards of Five's Adric, I don't find her too likable. She's supposed to be a scientist yet seems undoubtedly dim-witted and without common sense. She seems to be recycled between the same plot devices of being captured and near death every serial and yet Three isn't sick of her yet. Well, frankly, I am. I don't see why she hangs around when all she does is cause more trouble and complain about it later. Anyway...

COME AT ME BRO! (This-is-awful)

     The action sequence involving the helicopter, the motorbike and the car has got to be the most exciting action sequence of the season. It isn't overlong like all the others and is cleverly well-filmed. The special effects used in this serial are particularly jarring and not spectacular like others we have seen but are used for good effect when needed. I'd also just like to have a fan-boy moment as I spotted two of the most famous Classic Who lines; 'Reverse the polarity' and 'five rounds rapid.' I'd also like to say that its difficult to comprehend how Mike is higher up in the ranks than Benton when there's such a big age gap between them. Also, I'm happy Mike is back here and is featured heavily because as a new character to the show we haven't seen that much of him until now. I'd also like to say how I'm liking the adaption of Benton into a fighting man all of a sudden. Now, something I mentioned earlier was bad costuming. Our aliens, the Daemons, are not very well made even considering its the early Seventies, they could of been such better. Considering Azal is supposed to be this horrid Devil-like beast the voicing doesn't suit the character and I didn't find him that intimidating at all. Still, I like how Who here has tried to explore the effects of mythology on smaller, rural communities which is possibly still occurring today. Though there was a lack of sci-fi in the serial to explain certain things, the use of the supernatural made this story unique. It's humorous (remembering the Grand High Wizard - the Doctor), contains a intelligent script and delivers a visually chilling set of episodes. By far is this the best serial of the season making up for the disaster that was Colony in Space and an excellent finale. Due to it's originality and indifference to previous stories and defying Who's set conventions, Daemons deservedly earns its title as one of the more successfully popular stories of Classic Who. I definitely enjoyed this one.

Thanks, Josh.
P.S. This is my last Classic Who review until further notice, I may or may not resume sometime during the summer holidays, so, stay tuned.