The Daemons by: Guy Leopold and directed by: Christopher Barry

 

The Daemons stars Jon Pertwee as the Doctor, Katy Manning as Jo Grant, Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Roger Delgado as the Master with Damaris Hayman as Miss Hawthorne, Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, and John Levene as Sergeant Benton.  It was written by: Guy Leopold (Robert Sloman and Barry Letts under a pseudonym) and directed by: Christopher Barry with Terrance Dicks as Script Editor and Barry Letts as Producer.  It was originally broadcast on Saturdays from 22 May to 19 June 1971 on BBC1.

 

When developing the character of Jo Grant, Barry Letts had written an audition piece which script editor Terrance Dicks believed would work if integrated into an appearance in the show.  Inspired by The Devil Ride’s Out, Letts wished to explore the idea of black magic as a possible back up script if one serial fell through for Season 8.  Letts, being inexperienced as a writer, decided to cowrite the black magic serial, teaming up with playwright Robert Sloman on recommendation from his wife for what would become the finale of Season 8.  The outline began with an archeological expedition digging up an alien in a burial mound while a white witch brings portents of doom, with the working title “The Demons”.  Dicks was impressed with the idea and he and Letts commissioned the storyline in December 1970, with The Daemons being commissioned as the final five episodes of Season 8 in January 1971.  Letts and Sloman, in writing their scripts were incredibly careful in the treatment of religion, as this was a story primarily concerned with the Master leading a black magic cult to summon Azal, a daemon trapped in the crypt at Devil’s End.  The actual Satanic chanting is “Mary Had A Little Lamb” spoken backwards and with bravado by Roger Delgado.

 

The Daemons is probably one of the stories Delgado is remembered most for, being the one where he is in his most famous disguise as a priest, Mr. Magistaire, and where he hypnotizes an entire village, bar Olive Hawthorne, the white witch.  The Master throughout the story is perhaps at his best, being ruthless towards his goal until everything falls apart, yet doesn’t admit that Azal would betray him.  This is the story where the Master has everyone wrapped around his own finger, as he convinces the leaders of Devil’s End that the Doctor is evil and should be burned at the stake and sacrificed to Azal.  He is entirely passive in this, with the people of the town acting out something straight out of The Wicker Man, two years before The Wicker Man would be made.  The Doctor only talks his way out of the situation by pretending to be a wizard and being able to convince the townspeople through trickery, getting Sergeant Benton to shoot a weathervane and using a remote control to get Bessie to drive.  The entire story plays up the idea of Clarke’s Law, that magic isn’t real, it’s just science that people don’t understand, yet Sloman and Letts play around with the idea, especially early on.  Miss Hawthorne early on seems to stop the weather and influence a policemen hypnotized to kill her through the use of her magic, and she is never wrong about the fact that there is a danger in opening the crypt.  Azal and his servant Bok are your classic demonic figures and despite the Doctor claiming they are scientifically advance, that science can only be explained and encompassed by magic.  Damaris Hayman as Miss Hawthorne is a fascinating performance as she definitely fits the witch aesthetic, but the idea of a white, or kind witch.  She has this spark with everyone she interacts with, the Doctor and Sergeant Benton especially.

 

The story has an interesting pace, being five episodes means that it can be slower, but it doesn’t quite drag.  It follows a general five act structure, with Azal only appearing in the final two episodes, the first episode building to the reveal of Bok and the strange goings on, the second being all about the Doctor recovering from the psychic attacks in episode one while Yates and Benton arrive before the village is cut off, episode three is where the Doctor realizes just what’s going on and the rest of UNIT arrive.  Each episode is essentially a new story with the cliffhangers recontextualizing what’s gone before and moving the story into a new direction.  The only issue with this is that Episode Four and Episode Five have an issue of bleeding together and the buildup of Azal doesn’t work as well with the payoff.  Stephen Thorne gives a classic performance as the daemon, but of the three Thorne performances this is perhaps the most one note, he’s just a shouty villain and by this point the Master starts to lose his edge due to the script, which is a shame because Delgado is perhaps giving my favorite performance.  The Master working with Azal while perhaps unrealistic could have helped in keeping the stakes high in the last two episodes.  It’s a slight issue that creates a slight drag, though not nearly as bad as most poorly paced six partners.

 

The production of The Daemons is also stunning, with a 2021 color restoration for Blu-ray making it look closer to the original broadcast than even the DVD, Christopher Barry’s direction pops.  This was a very experimental period for Doctor Who, when we’re largely out of the 1960s style of shoot it like a play on television with directors such as Richard Martin and even classic directors like Morris Barry, as the new technology and color allows director Christopher Barry to stop and start recording more, setting up dynamic shots.  The location footage is some of the most extensive to this point, with two of the typically five studio days added to the location shoot meaning that there is a much more natural look.  But even on the location shoot, Barry’s shooting style takes cues from Hammer horror films, at several points shooting from above and behind and angles one wouldn’t expect to see.  There is some wonderful color accents in the costumes and even the day for night shots used at several points have still aged wonderfully.  Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, John Levene, and Richard Franklin are also especially strong, getting a chance to really show their characters off while Nicholas Courtney whose presence usually dominates UNIT stories.  Benton and Yates have some lovely moments in the first episode where the audience gets to see them in their downtime, and for much of the story they are the ones in Devil’s End available to help the Doctor and Jo.  Pertwee and Manning on the other hand have their relationship developed to a tee, Jo has gone off planet but still isn’t afraid to ask the questions and the Doctor has grown to care for her greatly.

 

Overall, The Daemons is a near perfect way to close off Doctor Who’s eighth season.  It continued the trend of UNIT stories being more varied than simple mad scientist or alien invasion, and gave the chance to go off planet.  The Master has one final chance to impress in what may be his best performance and scheme, with the capture at the end of the story being graceful.  The rest of the cast is brilliant and remembered so well that the story was given an extra disc on the Blu-ray release, something generally only afforded to stories with extended editions.  The only thing letting this one down in the slightest is some pacing issues right near the end, but the closing lines almost make up for that.  9/10.