The Dæmons (TV story)

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"Chap with wings, five rounds rapid..."


Synopsis

The Master, posing as a rural vicar, summons a cloven-hoofed demon in a church basement.

Plot

The Doctor becomes alarmed on seeing television coverage of an archaeological dig by a Professor Horner into an ancient barrow near the village of Devil's End. He hurries to the scene with Jo.

The Master is posing as the local vicar, Mr Magister, and using black magic rituals to summon Azal, the last of a race known as the Dæmons, whose miniaturised spaceship is buried within the barrow. Benton and Yates arrive in a UNIT helicopter but, before the Brigadier and his troops can join them, a heat barrier appears and cuts the village off from the outside world.

As the Doctor attempts to breach the heat barrier, they must contend with Bok, a living gargoyle. The members of the commmunity, under the Master's possession, attempt to burn the Doctor at the stake for being a witch. He is saved with the assistance of Miss Hawthorne, herself an actual witch.

Azal will appear three times and on the last of these occasions will decide whether to transfer his awesome powers to another or to destroy the planet as a failed experiment. The Master hopes to be the recipient of the powers, but in the event Azal offers them to the Doctor instead. The Doctor declines, arguing that the human race should be allowed to develop at its own pace.

Azal decides to kill him, but Jo then offers to take his place and, unable to comprehend this act of self-sacrifice, the Dæmon self-destructs. The Master is finally captured by UNIT and taken away to await trial for his crimes against humanity.


Cast

Crew

References

  • The Master has taken over as vicar in Devil's End.
  • Azal is one of the Dæmons from the planet Dæmos.
  • The Doctor has fitted Bessie with a remote control.
  • It is implied that Azal (or his race) destroyed Atlantis (which makes it the second explanation of how Atlantis fell).

Story Notes

  • The shot of the exploding helicopter is actually a scene taken from James Bond film From Russia With Love.
  • The Master's summoning phrases for Azal is 'Mary had a little lamb' backwards.
  • 'Guy Leopold' (the writer), is a pen name for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts.
  • This story had the working title; The Demons.
  • The area under the church is always referred to as 'the cavern' and never 'the crypt'. This was a BBC requirement to avoid the risk of causing offence to viewers with religious sensibilities.
  • Similarly, much to director Christopher Barry's amazement, no mention of God was permitted to be made in the story's dialogue, although references to the Devil were acceptable.

Ratings

  • Episode 1 - 9.2 million viewers
  • Episode 2 - 8.0 million viewers
  • Episode 3 - 8.1 million viewers
  • Episode 4 - 8.1 million viewers
  • Episode 5 - 8.3 million viewers

Myths

  • There was a sixth episode planned, where the master escaped UNIT (an April fools joke)

Influences

  • This story makes a few nods towards Quatermass and the Pit, and not just for the idea that stories of devils and demons may be a race memory of horned aliens who conducted a eugenics experiment on early humans. Devil's End is essentially the same as Hobb's End, the fictitious London setting of the earlier story, Hob being an old name for the Devil. The use of iron to hold both Azal and Bok at bay is an old folk superstition that is also referred to in the Quatermass story. (See also DW: Image of the Fendahl.)
  • The large hoofprints left by Azal as he walks around the village of Devil's End and encircles the community with a heat barrier brings to mind a famous and well-documented case. On the morning of 9th February, 1855 the inhabitants of several villages and towns in Devon awoke to find what appeared to be the tracks of a hooved, two-legged creature in the snow, traversing a total distance of one hundred miles, going over rooftops, a 14-foot wall, and even apparently leaping across a two mile wide estuary. Many believed that the Devil himself had walked through Devon the previous night.

Location Filming

Aldbourne, Wiltshire

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

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

Continuity

DVD, Video and Other Releases

Video Releases

  • The Dæmons was released on VHS in the UK and Australia in 1993, this was a recolourised version of the story.

Target Novelisations / Script Books

External Links

TVStub.png
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