By Guy Leopold
“Chap with the wings there. Five rounds rapid.”
Broadcast 4th June 1971
There
are strange things going on at Devils End.
There is an archeologist dig at The Devils Hump where a witch by the
name of Miss Hawthorne is trying to get Professor Horner to stop as she
believes great evil will be released. While
catching wind of this The Doctor and Jo head off to Devils End and see if they
can put a stop to it as The Doctor believes that Miss Hawthorne is indeed
right. To make matters worse The Master
is posing as a Vicar for the town and is hoping that whatever is in Devils Hump
will give him unlimited power. The
Master is already using black magic to help his cause and using the gargoyle
Bok to do his bidding and to help keep a strangle hold on his control over the
town.
What
lies in Devils Hump is the alien Azal that looks like a version of the Devil. As they open the hatch of what happens to be
his ship The Doctor tries in vain to stop them but is too late as the cavern is
hit with a cold blast of air which freezes The Doctor and signals the coming of
Azal as he is now free to roam the countryside.
So it’s up to The Doctor, when he thaws out, and UNIT to save all of
humanity from Azal and The Master.
The
Daemons is the rare five part story that closes out season eight and also the
last story of The Master season. The Daemons is a classic story that deals with
witchcraft and the occult dealing mainly with fears of the devil. Of course The Doctor debunks all this with
science and the fact that Azal is actually an alien just adds to the charm of
this story. It is a classic 70’s Doctor Who and one of the
best of all time and a particular favorite of mine.
What
is different about this encounter between The Master and The Doctor is that
they only meet in the last episode and that is the last 10 minutes of the
story. This is not the norm but there
are a couple of stories where The Master shows up later and is revealed as the
protagonist. The Doctor and The Master
play cat and mouse through most of the story trying to stop the other. Well mainly The Master is trying to prevent
The Doctor from interfering in his plans by sending out his minions to kill The
Doctor. I guess having a cult to do your
bidding does have its advantages. It is
pretty entertaining watching to see what The Master has in store next and watching
how The Doctor gets out of the predicament.
He was shot at, chased in Bessie by a helicopter and my favorite is The
Doctor being tied up and threaten by Morris Dancers who want to burn him at the
stake with the stake being a Maypole. Luckily
the great Wizard Qui Quae Quod had enough magic to save himself from being
burned. Well that and the timely
intervention of Miss Hawthorne and the sharp shooting of Sgt. Benton. This is one of my favorite scenes from The
Daemons and one of the best from the Pertwee era.
I
loved the whole mix of the occult and science aspect of this story. Here you had The Master using Black Magic to
sum up Azal from the Devils Hump. He
used the towns fear and superstition against them. The Master went as far as offering Jo as a
sacrifice to Azal. The Master also used
a gargoyle named Bok to terrorize and to guard the church he was operating
in. I always liked Bok and thought he
was one of the best creatures The Master ever used in Doctor Who. It looked creepy and fired a blast from his
fingers that disintegrated you.
The
Daemons has one of those endings that has The Doctor not saving the day. In fact, The Doctor almost got killed by
Azal. What eventually happens is that Jo
stands in the way of Azal blast and The Doctor and this causes Azal to
self-implode. Azal could not comprehend
Jo’s sacrifice and this act caused Azal’s power to be turned on him and he blew
a fuse as The Doctor says. There are not
many endings like that where the Third Doctor is saved by his companion and it
is one of Jo Grant’s finest moments in the show.
The
Daemons is a timeless classic that has survived the test of time. You have UNIT finally catching The Master and
an alien that looks like the devil. You
have The Doctor explaining to an inept science guy how to make a device that
will break a hole in the heat barrier and getting frustrated at him for
explaining it over and over. Yates and
Benton get an expanded role in this story also.
They actually have something to do besides firing the guns and being in
the background. Plus, you have a great
performance by Jon Pertwee also as he delivers some really good dialog at the
end with The Master and Azal. The Doctor
and Jo’s relationship seems pretty flawless and you can tell in this story that
the chemistry is there and you can see that they are the main pairing during
the Third Doctor era. The Daemons is a
fun story to watch and one that you can watch during Halloween as it has that
type of feel to it.
Grade
A
No comments:
Post a Comment