The King's Demons

Sir Ranulf: He is said to be the best swordsman in France.
Doctor: But, fortunately we are in England.

The King's Demons is the second of the genuine two-part stories (although the last on for me as any other stories that are listed as two-episodes are extended in length). It also introduces the companion robot Kamelion who ends up never being used again until his dismissal story: Planet of Fire. This apparently was due to problems with the robot puppet and the subsequent death of it's programmer, leaving it as a blip in Doctor Who continuity.

Plot Summary

In March 1215, King John is staying at the estate of Sir Ranulf but is unhappy with his supplications. He insults the house and Sir Ranulf's son, Hugh, takes the challenge. In the morning, Hugh jousts with the King's champion, Sir Gilles. Their match is interrupted by the arrival of the TARDIS. When the Doctor and his companions emerge, the crowd reacts in terror but King John welcomes them as his demons. Uneasy, they sit with the king and watch Sir Gilles unhorse Hugh, though the Doctor intervenes to ensure that Hugh is not killed.

Later, the Doctor and Tegan converse about the unease of the situation. Turlough, exploring another part of the castle, is taken by Hugh to the dungeons, convinced that he has an evil purpose. At the same time, Sir Gilles arrives in the chamber of Sir Ranulf and his wife, Isabella, and takes her hostage. Sir Ranulf confronts the Doctor, demanding to know what evil is going on. The Doctor suspects that the king may be an imposter and asks Sir Ranulf's leave to investigate the matter.

In the dungeons, Hugh is about to put Turlough into the iron maiden when Sir Gilles arrives. Hugh protests at the treatment of his mother and Sir Gilles has him arrested as well. All three are locked in a cell together. Hugh implores Turlough to call upon the powers of hell to help them but Turlough scoffs, suggesting that Hugh's efforts in that vein would be more effective.

Outside the castle, Sir Ranulf's cousin, Sir Geoffrey, arrives having just returned from London where he was with King John taking the crusader's oath. He is met by Sir Gilles who informs him of the King's presence. When Sir Geoffrey protests that that is impossible, Sir Gilles has him arrested.

At the evening feast, Sir Gilles brings out Sir Geoffrey and plans to place him in the iron maiden for his crimes. Sir Geoffrey protests, insisting that he saw the king in London only hours before. The Doctor protests the maiden, suggesting that Sir Geoffrey should be boiled in oil instead. John agrees but the Doctor rises, stating that he was not serious and insults Sir Gilles. Sir Gilles challenges him to a duel and the Doctor accepts. They fight in the hall but when the Doctor disarms him, Sir Gilles removes his disguise, revealing himself to be the Master.

The Doctor takes the Master's tissue compression eliminator, disarming him. When the Doctor refuses to kill the Master, John orders the Master into the iron maiden. But the maiden is the Master's TARDIS and it disappears. The Doctor is installed as the king's new champion and he offers to take Sir Geoffrey to the dungeons. The king agrees and then retires to rest.

The Master rematerializes his TARDIS in the dungeons and frees Lady Isabelle and Hugh, informing them that the Doctor is evil and must be stopped. He leaves Turlough and then takes the other two to the main hall. In the main hall, the Master convinces Sir Ranulf that the Doctor is evil and will try to kill Sir Geoffrey and harm the king. Hugh is dispatched to arrest the Doctor.

The Doctor arrives in the dungeon shortly afterwards and frees Turlough and Sir Geoffrey, confirming to him that the King John at the castle is an imposter. The Doctor installs the tissue compression eliminator on the Master's TARDIS. The group then heads outside with the Doctor planning to use the TARDIS to take Sir Geoffrey to London to inform the king but find the TARDIS taken in to the castle. Turlough readies Sir Geoffrey's horse for him to ride to London while the Doctor and Tegan reenter the castle to confront the imposter king.

The Doctor and Tegan are arrested and brought to the hall but the Master is absent. He is with a guard, who shoots Sir Geoffrey with a crossbow as he rides away. He also has Turlough arrested. In the hall, Tegan manages to get in the TARDIS and disappears. The Doctor uses the confusion to run off and enter the king's room where he find a robot named Kamelion playing the lute and singing in King John's voice.

The Master arrives in the castle with Turlough and Sir Geoffrey's dying body. The Master leaves to find the Doctor while Turlough is held in the hall. Sir Geoffrey utters words as he dies about the Doctor and the king but Sir Ranulf mistakes them for the Doctor threatening the king and heads towards the king's chambers.

The Master enters the king's chambers and introduces the Doctor to Kamelion who helped him escape his last mishap and is controlled through his will. The Doctor changes Kamelion's form as well and the two Time Lords begin to psychically duel over Kamelion. As they do so, Sir Ranulf and his guards enter with Turlough to see what appears to be King John in a glowing aura. The Doctor begins to overpower the Master and he loses control as Tegan arrives in the TARDIS.

Kamelion assumes the form of Tegan and Sir Ranulf is too stunned to stop him as the Doctor grabs Kamelion and Turlough and hurries them into the TARDIS. The TARDIS disappears and the Master heads to the dungeons to pursue them, leaving a confused Sir Ranulf. However, the addition of the tissue compression eliminator throws off the Master's guidance system and he cannot pursue the Doctor.

On the TARDIS, the Doctor to let Kamelion stay with them and he accepts, although Tegan is suspicious. The Doctor then says that he will take Tegan home over her petulance. She objects, stating that she wants to stay and head with the Doctor to the Eye of Orion as he mentioned. The Doctor agrees, admitting that he never entered the coordinates for Tegan's time anyway.

Analysis

Unlike the other two-parters, I think The King's Demons would best be classified as "a thing that happened." There is almost no real plot and even less action. It's not unenjoyable, but it's a bit boring as there aren't even any real personalities to sink your teeth in to.

The Doctor and his companions are fine, but they show up a bit late and are fairly passive though the first episode outside of a mild quip or a complaint of being cold by Tegan. The intrigues of the Master mostly go unchecked until the end of Episode One and then once the unmasking has been done, things move quickly but with almost no real plan. Outside of a battle of wills with the Master, there is very little that the Doctor actually does of consequence.

The Master is actually slightly more interesting than the Doctor in this story, but even there, it's not really the Master but watching the quality of Anthony Ainley's acting as Sir Giles. I've always felt that because the Ainley Master is so mustache twirl-y and over-the-top, he is regarded as somewhat of a lesser actor. However, when you watch his performance here as Sir Giles or in Castrovalva as the Portreeve, you get a much better sense of his abilities. I rather wonder if half the reason the Master is shown in disguises so often is just to give Ainley some change of pace work. As Sir Giles, he has a restraint that is often lacking as the Master and it's fun to see where the Master pokes out a bit, such as when he arrests Sir Geoffrey approaching the castle.

The other draw of the Master is that in stories such as this one, he seems to be the only one having any fun. Of course you expect the denizens of the castle to be a bit dour, it was the times. But the fact that in this and other adventures, there is no real sense of fun in the adventure by either the Doctor or his companions. I think that is what truly creates the rift between the Fourth and Fifth Doctor eras and why only a smattering of Fifth Doctor adventures really stand out as excellent.

I didn't have any problem with Kamelion in either concept or execution. It looks like a silvery mannequin controlled by wires or tubes but I would expect that from the early 80's. The idea of a robot that can cloak itself in any form is an interesting concept and it says a bit about the motivations of the Master that his first act after escaping is to go for such a minor annoyance as trying to stop Magna Carta. I do think that the producers missed the boat with Kamelion when they abandoned him due to the problems they had. Kamelion could easily have been played by various guest actors as needed, without any use of the robot puppet at all. I don't know that it would have improved any of the subsequent stories, but it would have made him a viable character.

Going back to the Master and his plan, I was reminded of some of the off-hand comments Missy makes to Clara in their initial meeting in The Magician's Apprentice as well as comments made by Doctor Who fans in that this is more of the Master flirting with the Doctor. The plan to stop Magna Carta is something well beneath the Master (the Doctor even mentions that) and would have been much more suited to the Meddling Monk, who would have thought of it as a laugh. I don't buy this as a real plan for conquest by the Master but more of a calling card to let the Doctor know that he has escaped their previous encounter and will be toying with him more in the future. Even at the end, the Master seems completely unphased by the loss of Kamelion and the foiling of his plan. He genuinely doesn't care because the calling card to the Doctor was the real plan and he succeeded there.

The look of the story is pretty well done. You can always count on the BBC to get period costuming and sets to look good. Of course, the iron maiden was a complete anachronism as it never really existed and didn't even appear in stories about the era until the 19th century. However, that can easily be handwaved away by King John bring it to the castle (he would have had to since it was the Master's TARDIS) and Sir Ranulf just assuming it was a device John came up with or one of his knights discovered on a crusade. With the uncovering of the false John the use of what would have looked to him as magic, he would have not bothered to mention the torture device as he could have dismissed it as a trick of hell. It's anachronistic nature should have only served as an additional notice to the Doctor that something was up and if you restructure the story as the Master toying with the Doctor, it makes a lot more sense.

Despite all the fun of hand waving and reading alternate contexts into the story, you still have to judge it for what it was and the truth is that I found it dull. Little action, little character development and just a bit of Time Lord flirting. You can tell that the story was devised almost exclusively to introduce Kamelion but that takes a minute, leaving you bored for the other 47 minutes. It's even worse if you know about Kamelion already since there is no real surprise at who the imposter is. With that knowledge and with the story checked off in the watch box, I can't say that there's any reason to go back and revisit this one. Again, it's not bad, it's just not particularly engaging unless you enjoy the flirting between the Doctor and the Master.

Overall personal score: 1.5 out of 5