Theory:Doctor Who television discontinuity and plot holes/The Dæmons

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This page is for discussing the ways in which The Dæmons doesn't fit well with other DWU narratives. You can also talk about the plot holes that render its own, internal narrative confusing.

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• Various pronunciations of 'Dæmons', 'Dæmos' (and all other permutations) are used throughout the story.

The characters could be unsure of how to pronounce it, or simply make errors in doing so.

• No explanation is offered for why Bok shares the superstitious credulity of the villagers when it comes to iron and "magic spells" / old Venusian lullabies. Furthermore, if he is so cripplingly frightened of iron-based metals, he ought to be terrified whenever he passes through the church gate (though he opens it with no apparent reluctance in episode 6).

As a gargoyle, he was built to represent the villagers' superstitions, so of course he would beleve in them. As for the gate, it is unknown if it is made of iron, or if it's the combination of iron and the Venusian lullaby - which sounds like a spell or hex - that scares him off.

• A signpost next to the heat barrier says: 'Devil's End 1'. However, in episode two, the barrier has a five mile radius, centered on the church.

Signposts usually list distance to the border point of a town. Depending on how large the township of Devil's End is within that border, this would not be an inconsistency.

• If the "breached" heat barrier is still hot enough to make the Brigadier's swagger stick smoulder so profusely, it ought to have some fairly unpleasant effects on human flesh (but the troops pass through entirely unscathed).

By the time they pass through, the barrier has been overcome in that section.

• In episode three, the energy exchanger interferes with radio communication, but by episode five it has lost this side effect.

UNIT was working to overcome the communication problem.

• Why does the Master look so annoyed in Episode One when he hears of the presence of the Doctor? Apart from the fact that his presence was almost inevitable (since UNIT were bound to take an interest in the Devil's End situation, sooner or later), the Master has been trying to kill him all season, and one would think would be pleased to have lured him (albeit inadvertently) into a place where he has several loyal lackeys, a homicidal gargoyle, and an arsenal of psychic powers at his disposal.

And yet, the Doctor always seems to thwart the Master's plans. Hence, why he was annoyed to find the Doctor was there.

• Surely any alien race that has taken such a keen interest in the development of homo sapiens and their direct evolutionary predecessors over the last hundred thousand years, would be aware that altruism and the capacity for self sacrifice is a key human trait, and arguably is one of the major contributory factors in allowing them to survive and become Earth's dominant species. Would Azal then, really by so shocked by Jo's attempt to protect the Doctor to the extent that it leads to his own destruction?

Depends which humans he had met previously. Not many would really so readily sacrifice their lives for someone else.

The Doctor's explanation does imply there might be a little more to it than death by confusion. Since the psionics / "black magic" upon which Azal's technology is based seems to thrive upon the energy of negative human emotions (according to the Doctor's explanation of the purpose for the coven), Jo's altrusitically leaping into the path of Azal's psionic "death ray" sets up a force field of positive human emotions that deflects the energy back at its sender, fatally. This is further implied by the scene in Episode One in which the scientifically-ignorant Miss Hawthorne manages to deactivate a psionic force field and release the mind-controlled policeman simply through faith in her own spell. Azal regards human as mere "laboratory rats", and has neither credited them with possessing any higher emotions nor considered the potential psionic power (or the danger to himself) of such emotions.

It makes sense in context. The Daemons, completely unlike their "angelic" equivalent Light (from "Ghost Light"), are fascinated by evolution and what they can do to manipulate its outcomes. This has naturally involved them in giving aid and power to the more ruthless types of humans (with the implication that one of their earliest interventions was to help modern man exterminate the neanderthals). Indeed, the fact their their science has passed into mythology as black magic and Satanism reinforces that only particularly selfish and ambitious humans (or Time Lords) would take the trouble and risk of actually trying to summon a Daemon and willingly participate in its experiments. Altruism certainly does have its natural evolutionary value, but not one that Daemons would have been likely to have much encountered, as altruistic humans would be far less likely to take any interest in having evolution ruthlessly manipulated in their favour.