The King's Demons (TV story)

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The King's Demons was the sixth story of Season 20. Technically it marked the end of the season, however later in the year the anniversary special The Five Doctors was broadcast, and it is generally considered the conclusion of Season 20. This story marked the debut of Kamelion, the first non-humanoid companion since K9.

Synopsis

The Doctor and his companions arrive at a medieval joust and are surprised to be greeted warmly by King John, who calls them his demons. But when a young nobleman returns, having just left King John in London, the Doctor realizes that this king must be an impostor! Then the Master makes an appearance and the Doctor's worst fears are confirmed...

Plot

Part One

In 1215, the Court of John of England/King John of England is at the castle of Sir Ranulf Fitzwilliam to extort more taxes, and when the lord refuses to pay the King insults him. To defend his honour his son Hugh takes on the King’s champion, Sir Gilles Estram, in a joust. The latter wins easily, though the joust is disturbed by the arrival of the TARDIS. The Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough are greeted as demons and welcomed by the King.

Having established the date, the Doctor concludes the King is not himself - in fact, he is not the King at all, as he is actually in London taking the Crusader’s Oath. Sir Geoffrey de Lacy, the cousin of Sir Ranulf, arrives at the castle and confirms he knows the King is in London. Sir Gilles is about to torture him as a liar during a royal banquet when the Doctor intervenes. It seems the King's champion is not who he claims to be, either: Sir Gilles sheds his disguise and reveals himself to be the Doctor’s arch nemesis, the Master, who aims his tissue compression eliminator at the Doctor...

Part Two

The Master flees in his own TARDIS, which had been disguised as an iron maiden (torture device). The King knights the Doctor as his new champion, and he is given run of the castle. After a series of mishaps, including the death of Sir Geoffrey at the Master's hands, the Doctor confronts the King and the Master and discovers the truth. The monarch is really Kamelion, a war weapon found by the Master on Xeriphas, which can be mentally controlled and used to adopt disguises and personas. Disguised as King John, the Master intends that Kamelion will behave so appallingly so as to provoke a rebellion and topple the real King from his throne, thus robbing the world of Magna Carta, the foundation of parliamentary democracy. It is a small plan on the Master's usual scale, but nevertheless particularly damaging to the normal progress of Earth society.

The Doctor resolves the situation by testing the Master in a battle of wills for control over Kamelion. He takes control of the robot and steals it away in the TARDIS, thus foiling the Master’s scheme. Kamelion reverts to its robot form and thanks the Doctor for his assistance and rescue. To Turlough's surprise and Tegan's dismay, the Doctor accepts Kamelion as a new travelling companion aboard the TARDIS. Tegan insists that she does not wish to be returned home, however, and the Doctor admits that the co-ordinates are already set for the Eye of Orion.

Cast

Crew

References

Story notes

  • This story had working titles of; The Android, The Demons, A Knight's Tale, Demons Keeper.
  • Part One was promoted by the BBC as the 600th Doctor Who episode.
  • In order to conceal the fact that the Master featured in this story the Radio Times credited him as Sir Gilles Estram played by James Stoker - 'Estram' being an anagram of 'Master' and 'James Stoker' being an anagram of 'Master's joke'.
  • This story marks the debut appearance of short-lived new 'companion' Kamelion - in reality a computer controlled, sound activated, animated robot created by software designer Mike Power and computer hardware expert Chris Padmore of a firm called CP Cybernetics.

Ratings

  • Part One - 5.8 million viewers
  • Part Two - 7.2 million viewers

Myths

  • This story was originally to feature the Meddling Monk. (There is no evidence that this was the original intention. Fan speculation postulates this due to its medieval setting and the fact that The Master's scheme in this story is more similar to the Monk's modus operandi than his own usual more grandiose schemes. Whether it would have been as the Monk or a later regeneration of the same Time Lord, it would have involved recasting the part as Peter Butterworth, who originated the character in The Time Meddler, had died.)
  • The King's Demons used the same set as The Black Adder. (Not outside the realm of possibility--both were BBC productions, and were filmed at roughly the same time (late 1982/early 1983)--but there's no particular reason to think it's true, either, and no evidence that it's anything but an Internet rumour.)

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

  • In the final TARDIS scene of the story, the Doctor introduces Tegan to the android that is Kamelion. He says that Kamelion's story "appears to begin on Xeriphas" and that it will "end with the Master". This neatly ties together both the other televised stories that have anything to do with Kamelion: the introduction of the planet on which he was found DW: Time-Flight and his eventual demise in Planet of Fire.
  • The Doctor re-establishes himself as a fair swordsman, having shown skill with a blade in both his third (DW: The Time Warrior) and fourth selves (DW: The Masque of Mandragora, The Androids of Tara). In fact this is the second sword fight between the Doctor and the Master. As in the first such contest (DW: The Sea Devils), the Doctor shows the greater skill. His abilities in this arena are again displayed by his tenth self. (DW:The Christmas Invasion)
  • The story (and, thus, the season) ends in a minor cliffhanger, although it is unlikely initial viewers will have thought of it as such. Much like the link between DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Death to the Daleks, the Doctor here offers to take his companions to a "wonder" of the universe, later referenced in the following story. Unlike the similar promise the Third Doctor makes to take Sarah Jane to Florana, however, the Fifth Doctor's vow to Tegan and Turlough is actually fulfilled. He proposes to take them to the Eye of Orion, the initial setting for The Five Doctors.
  • There probably was a real Sir Gilles, whom the Master killed and impersonated. In MA:Sanctuary, set in 1242, the Doctor meets a relative of the real Sir Gilles, whose true fate was never known.

Timeline

Home video releases

DVD releases

  • This story was first released on DVD in the UK on 14th June 2010 as part of the Kamelion Tales boxset. The one disc set includes a restored version of the story, as well as the following special features:
  • Commentary by Peter Davison (The Doctor), Isla Blair (Isabella) and Eric Saward (Script Editor).
  • Commentary by Tony Virgo (Director).
  • Kamelion – Metal Man
  • Magna Carta
  • Coming Soon Trailer
  • Radio Times Billings
  • Production Subtitles
  • Photo Gallery
  • UK DVD 2010 Cover

    UK DVD 2010 Cover

  • UK DVD 2010 Boxset

    UK DVD 2010 Boxset

VHS releases

  • The King's Demons was released on video by BBC Worldwide in November 1995 as part of a boxed set with the Special Edition version of The Five Doctors.

Novelisation

Kings Demons novel.jpg
Main article: The King's Demons (novelisation)

External Links

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According to one account, the Master had the appearance of Roger Delgado while on Gallifrey. According to another, he had Anthony Ainley's likeness. According to another one, the one with James Dreyfus's appearance was the incarnation who ran away from Gallifrey.

Divided Loyalties, A Brief History of Time Lords and The Legions of Death feature, or otherwise acknowledge, the War Chief, but in the process contradicted the notion put forward by other stories that he was an incarnation of the Master.

One account suggests that the incarnation portrayed by Roger Delgado may be the same as the one portrayed by Peter Pratt while some others distinguish them.

According to one account, the incarnation portrayed by Gordon Tipple is the one portrayed by Anthony Ainley, while some others state that the Ainley one was already lost by then.

While fighting to extend his life at the end of his regeneration cycle, many bodies were possessed by the Beevers incarnation, but all kept somehow reverting to his real being until he finally regenerated into the MacQueen one. Hence, these sections cannot be strictly chronological
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