The Dæmons

Top of the Class Jo. Top of the class.

The Daemons closed out the season of the Master with a dive into the supernatural. This story is both hailed by the folks that made it as the prototypical Third Doctor story but also is somewhat overlooked by fandom. Whenever people talk about the Third Doctor era, there a number of stories that come up as either good or great as well as a few that are derided as terrible. This one almost never makes it into either list so unlike some other stories, I went into this one with only the vaguest of impressions about it.

Plot Summary

The Doctor is working on Bessie and lightly chastising Jo for indulging in supernatural thought while she talks of the "Age of Aquarius." Captain Yates comes to collect Jo as a television program they wanted to watch is about to come on. The Doctor becomes concerned when he learns it is about something in the town of Devil's End and comes with them.

On TV, a reporter interviews Professor Horner, an archeologist who is digging in a local mound called the Devil's Hump. He intends to open it at midnight as that will coincide with the pagan festival of Beltane. The report is interrupted by a local woman, Ms. Hawthorne, a white witch who believes that opening the mound will unleash great evil. She believes this already afoot as a local man died the previous night of a heart attack she believes was induced by fear. The BBC crew shoos her off.

Her fears are partially validated as windy presence manifests itself and a local constable picks up a rock to brain her with it. However, she utters an incantation and the wind dies down with the constable coming to his senses. She heads over to see the vicar. She tries to see the old vicar but the assistant vicar reminds her that he recently left. The new vicar shows up, revealed to be the Master. He downplays her fears and even tries to hypnotize her into believing that everything is fine, but she is able to shake him off and leaves in a huff.

The Doctor is growing worried about the confluence of events and, taking Jo, drives towards Devil's End in Bessie. However the same windy presence blows the signs around, getting the Doctor and Jo lost. They arrive at a nearby pub to ask for directions shortly before midnight. They receive them, but one of the patrons slips out and informs the Master of the Doctor's presence. The Master then orders the man to gather the group and they begin a ritual to awaken Azal.

The Doctor and Jo are forced to continue the last bit on foot and they arrive at the mound just as Professor Horner opens the mound. The opening triggers an earthquake and the tunnel into the mound partially collapses due to a cave in and a huge blast of icy air hits the Doctor and Professor Horner. Jo and the camera crew dig them out to find that Professor Horner has been frozen to death and that the Doctor is also heavily frozen, but still alive.

The Master ends his ritual, having seen the statue of a gargoyle in the crypt come to life. He dismisses those involved in the ritual and waits for the appearance of Azal.

Yates and Benton, having seen the cave in on television, attempt to get in contact with authorities but have very little luck. They finally hear from Jo who calls them after having seen the Doctor off to a warm bed to recover. The two procure the Brigadier's private helicopter and fly to Devil's End. While in the air, they observe large hoof prints as if made by a creature nearly 30 ft tall.

Benton and Yates arrive and are met by Jo. Yates follows Jo to check on the Doctor but Benton leaves to investigate the hoof prints. While out, he hears cries for help and heads into the church to find Ms. Hawthorne tied up and stored in a box. He frees her but they are forced to head into the crypt to hide from her abductor, one of the Master's acolytes. They are discovered by this man and Benton attacks him. During the fight, Benton accidently steps on a painted stone in the floor and he is overcome with psychic energy. The man orders Ms. Hawthorne to help him out of the church. Once outside, they are seen by some giant creature. Benton and Ms. Hawthorne run off but the man fires his gun at it. The creature in turn burns him with a searing blast of heat.

The heat blast finishes the unfreezing of the Doctor and he jolts awake. He comes downstairs and tends to Benton, having just been brought in by Ms. Hawthorne. Ms. Hawthorne tells them that they were attacked by the Devil. The Doctor, although having been in agreement with Ms. Hawthorne prior to this, scoffs at this, though he is less dismissive of the idea of a large horned creature attacking their captor. He also discovers that Master has placed himself in the role of the Vicar. The owner of the pub slips out and calls the Master to inform him of the Doctor's discovery.

Outside the town a wall of heat goes up to create a dome around the town. The Brigadier, having learned of the situation as well as Benton and Yates' use of his helicopter, arrives outside of town to see a motorist stranded when his van caught fire. He observes the heat dome and tries to find another route but all avenues to the town are cut off by this dome. He radios Yates, informing him of being trapped outside. Yates also informs the Brigadier that the Master is behind these events.

The Doctor and Jo head back up to the mound. Entering the chamber, they discover spaceship characteristics. But before the Doctor can explain, they are attacked by the gargoyle that had gone missing from the crypt. The Doctor fends him with a piece of iron that the gargoyle (named Bok) thinks is enchanted. He flees despite the Master urging him on telepathically.

The Doctor and Jo return to the pub where he explains to Jo, Yates, Benton and Ms. Hawthorne that the creature they have seen is not the Devil but an alien from the planet Dæmos who landed 100,000 years ago and set forth experiments to aid the humans in defeating the Neanderthals. Echoes of memory of this creature are reflected by the use of the horns of power associated with many ancient gods. The Doctor also explains that the large blasts of heat and cold are caused by the alien increasing and decreasing his mass and size when interacting with humanity.

The Brigadier radios through informing those in the pub that town is encased in a heat dome ten miles wide and one mile tall. He is preparing to attempt to blast through, but the Doctor dissuades him and instead offers to come to the edge and tell his men how to build a machine to create a hole in the dome. Jo comes with him while the other three wait at the pub.

The Master is informed of the Doctor's actions and he dispatches one of his acolytes to take care of him. Meanwhile the Master attempts to sway first the sexton and then the town as a whole to come to his side. They are skeptical and he begins to lose them but he summons Bok who vaporizes the sexton. The other townsfolk then submit to the Master.

The Master's acolyte steals the UNIT helicopter. Yates attempts to stop him but is knocked down. Yates then grabs a motorcycle and heads out after him, warning the Doctor of the helicopter's approach. The helicopter dives after the Doctor and Jo in Bessie, attempting to either kill them outright or drive them into the heat barrier. The Doctor drives towards the barrier at full speed, luring the helicopter after him. He then turns sharply just in front of the barrier. The helicopter fails to turn in time and crashes into the barrier. Jo is thrown from Bessie in the turn and the Doctor orders Yates to take her back to the pub in Bessie to recover from her concussion while he talks the UNIT men through the build. Yates returns with Jo and the town doctor sedates her as the concussion is causing her to talk and thrash in a semi-lucid state.

The Master returns to the crypt and summons Azal a second time, triggering an intense blast of heat through the town along with a small earthquake. Azal notes the Master is different from the humans but warns him that he is on the verge of destroying humanity as a failed experiment. He tells the Master that he wants to see the other member of his race and that he would only tolerate being summoned one more time. The Master agrees, but muses to himself afterward that he must have the full sect with him, believing that that will allow him to control Azal.

The heat blast rouses Jo who slips out into the town. Yates, coming up to check on her, finds her missing and goes after her. She slips into the crypt where Yates discovers her. However before they can leave, someone comes down and they are forced to hide in the shadows.

The Master orders another town member to kill the Doctor and he tries to shoot him as he rides back from helping UNIT on the motorcycle Yates took originally. However, he misses and the Doctor ducks into the woods on foot. Knowing that the Doctor will be coming back to the town, the Master orders the villagers to put on the May Day festival, acting as lookouts for the Doctor.

The Doctor arrives and when he attempts to pass through the dancers, he is grabbed and tied to the maypole. The dance leader accuses the Doctor of being a witch and the build a pyre around the maypole to burn him. Another dancer bursts into the pub and attacks Sargent Benton who was getting ready to help the Doctor, but Ms. Hawthorne knocks him out with a blow to the head. She then runs out, declaring the Doctor to be a great wizard.

As a demonstration of his power, the Doctor causes a lamp to burst and a weathervane to spin around. This throws the villagers, despite the fact that it is the result of Benton shooting the objects with a silenced pistol. The head dancer still tries to light the pyre but the Doctor summons Bessie using his remote control, although claiming to be calling it by a familiar spirit. Bessie runs into the head man and Benton pins him down with his gun. Ms. Hawthorne then unties the Doctor. The Doctor in turn, comes clean with the people, demonstrating that nothing is by magic but only through science, turning the people against the Master.

In the crypt, the Master reunites with the full sect and summons Azal one more time. Jo rushes out of the shadows to try and stop him, but she is too late and Azal emerges once more. The Master has Jo taken away to be offered as a sacrifice while Yates is stunned, tied up and tossed out of the crypt. But Yates comes to and runs out to warn the Doctor about Jo. The people want to run in to help, but Bok appears, forcing everyone to stay back. The head dancer runs forward to be with the Master, but Bok kills him.

The Doctor radios the Brigadier and the Brigadier orders his sergeant to start the machine. It creates a hole in the dome, allowing the trucks to drive through. It also disrupts Azal's power and both he and Bok begin to thrash about. However, the machine overheats once through the dome and blows up. Knowing that it is no longer available as a weapon, the Doctor runs past the still disoriented Bok and into the crypt. Bok recovers, preventing anyone else from entering. As the Brigadier arrives, he and the other UNIT soldiers begin to fire on Bok, but with no effect.

In the crypt, the Doctor arrives to stop the sacrifice of Jo. Azal admits he has to decide whether to grant someone power over humanity or to chuck the whole thing by destroying humanity. He is impressed by the Doctor and his pleas for humanity and prepares to give the Doctor his power, but the Doctor refuses. Azal is stunned by this and the Master steps in, requesting the power instead, as he had asked several times previously. Azal agrees and decides to destroy the Doctor for refusing his gift. However, Jo steps in front of the Doctor, telling Azal to kill her instead. This creates a logical feedback loop for Azal and his power begins to rebound on himself. The whole group flees the crypt as the feedback causes Azal and the whole church to be destroyed. With Azal's power gone, Bok reverts to an inanimate stone gargoyle and Azal's ship in the burial mound also explodes.

Once outside, UNIT arrests the Master and takes him away under guard. The people, including the Doctor and Jo, celebrate with a maypole dance, although the Brigadier and Yates retreat to the pub for a pint.

Analysis

I can't say that enjoyed this one that much. It wasn't overtly bad but there also wasn't anything that really grabbed me either. I think it was about as standard a Third Doctor story as you could imagine which limped to a rather bored conclusion. The production team apparently speaks of how this story is signature of the Third Doctor era. To test this, I decided to put together a list of some of the most common tropes that run across the board of the Third Doctor era and check each one off as they came up. The overall results were rather impressive.

Third Doctor era checklist:

An alien race is threatening Earth...........................check
A powerful computer is part of the scheme The Master is involved.......................................check
The Doctor is condescending to his assistant.................check
Hypnosis is used.............................................check
UNIT is involved.............................................check
The Brigadier tries to shoot something/blow it up............check
There is a peace conference The Doctor drives Bessie.....................................check
The Doctor drives another vehicle besides Bessie.............check
The Doctor is knocked out for part of an episode.............check
The Doctor is imprisoned/captured............................check
The assistant is captured/imprisoned.........................check
A person speaks information while unconscious................check
The Doctor builds a special gadget...........................check
The Doctor says "reverse the polarity".......................check
The Doctor fights in hand to hand combat The Doctor uses science/wits to get out of a situation.......check
The Time Lords give the Doctor a mission The Doctor either eats/drinks or talks of food...............check
Color Separation Overlay is used.............................check

I'm not going to say that hitting all of these tropes is either good or bad, but I think it does validate the production team's claim. It also underscores the sense of blandness that this story gave off.

I think one of the things that hit me the most was how much I didn't care about any of the performances. I won't say that any of them were bad, but it didn't feel like there was any real passion behind any of them. I would also say that it didn't help that I openly didn't like the way many of the characters were acting. The Doctor was overly smug and condescending to Jo in this. The scene where she agrees with the Doctor about the Brigadier's penchant for violence and the Doctor verbally slapping her was particularly rude. There is also an odd disconnect between the Doctor's words and actions in this story. He is very smug about science over magic, but never really explains the science that Azal is using. He races to Devil's End expecting trouble and chastises people for not listening to Ms. Hawthorne, but he also puts down Ms. Hawthorne for basing all her beliefs on magic, despite being nominally correct, given the people can't understand Azal's science yet.

Jo wasn't great either in this story. Granted, being put down by the Doctor all the time didn't help, but she mostly stood around. The few times she did try to get involved, she got knocked out or captured. Still, her performance was consistent which is better than some others. Any fault with her lies in the script.

Likewise, the Master was okay but he seemed like the wrong villain for this story. Delving into the realm of magic just didn't seem right for the Master. I got the impression that Roger Delgado was also a bit unsure of his role her as well. He played with the same relish as always, but there wasn't much conspiracy for him here and the normal subterfuge of the Master was squandered. Even his pseudonym was so obvious, the Doctor knew it was the Master without even seeing him until the very end.

The main secondary characters were all fairly non-descript. Yates and Benton were fine as was the Brigadier, but they didn't have anything outside their normal duties. None of the townsfolk were particularly memorable, although I didn't feel they did poorly either. Ms. Hawthorne I found a bit annoying, but I think that was just her voice. There was nothing in her character or it's portrayal that I found problematic, I just didn't care for her voice and it's cadence.

I had some problems with the dæmons as well. Bok wasn't bad, although I kept wanted to reach through the screen to push his tongue back into his mouth. But as a henchman, he worked fairly well. My problem was more with Azal. His costume and design were ok for the most part, although I think the makeup for his face wasn't great. It looked a bit too painted rather than the menacing they were going for. But my problem was more in his voice portrayal. There is no subtlety in it. It is just loud and echo-y with an almost over-the-top malice in it. If Azal is supposed to be this imparter of knowledge, why isn't there any level of understanding in his voice. Even when he wants to hear the Doctor out, he just shouts and sounds angry. Nor is ever explained as to how as a logical being, Azal is supposed to be held, controlled or impressed by the shedding of blood whether chicken or Jo's. Azal just seemed like a rather poorly though out and poorly portrayed villain.

Perhaps most frustrating is how the story began and it's descent to it's end. In the first episode, there is some interesting set up and tension as the Doctor races to the town while mystical forces seem to conspire against them. The Master is there in his wily and manipulative ways to also add to the tension. The next two episodes are also interesting as they raise the stakes and create barriers for the heroes. There are also some fun little action sequences, although they don't put Yates or Benton in the best light. Still, by this point I was thinking the story was a decent middle of the road story and could be convinced that it might be worthy of a higher rank if things picked up in the last two episodes.

But they didn't. Things officially went down the tubes when the dancers came on the screen. I actually liked the dancers themselves, but the Doctor was captured so easily without a fight and the townsfolk seemed so disinterested. Making matters worse, the resolution to free the Doctor just felt like a total farce. There was never any real threat of danger and the townsfolk are convinced by a such a simple trick. It doesn't help that Benton, who hadn't been shown to be able to hit the broad side of a barn, is now an expert marksman with a silencer so efficient, that no one hears the hiss or sees any bit of muzzle flash. I also find it hard to believe that there wouldn't be a resounding bit of noise by shooting the weathercock that might have triggered their suspicions. If Benton had somehow had the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, that would have made a lot more sense. It also would have validated what he was saying after he was freed about how something that appeared to be magic was actually advanced science in action.

The overall ending was also a big letdown. Azal's motivations and orientation of his actions are never particularly clear but then to have everything go to pot because Jo offered herself just makes no sense. His power was set in a feedback loop of illogic because of self-sacrifice? What's more, there is no other failsafe out of that? Humans have been willing to be self-sacrificing for a long time. Azal should have been well aware of this phenomena and had some sort of guard against it. Instead, he blows up because it's time for the story to end. It is woefully unsatisfying and the joke about the Doctor recapturing the Master when he tries to steal Bessie is just another odd bit that took all the seriousness out of this story that it alluded to in the first couple of episodes. I just found it overly disappointing.

There are some nice visuals in this one and the stunts are pretty good. That's about all I can really say on the positive side. I just didn't find anything to really like about this story and a whole lot to underscore my disappointment with it. It probably would be a fun little story for younger kids, although they might be a bit freaked out by a thirty-foot devil, but unless you've got a nostalgia bent for this one, I can't see any reason to revisit it. Not horribly awful, but not worth spending time on either.

Overall personal score: 1.5 out of 5