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The plot: Professor Horner, an archaelogist is digging into a barrow at Devil's End that he claims contains treasure by a Bronze Age chieftain. Local resident and white witch Olive Hawthorne is against the dig, as she claims Satan will appear. After all, it is Beltane, 30 April. Something clicks in the Doctor's mind and he and Jo rush over to Devil's End. He is too late, and powerful forces send the Doctor and kills Horner.
The forces have been unleashed by the Master, masquerading as the local reverend, and he intends to invoke Azal, the last Daemon, so he can rule the world with the power given by the Daemon. The Dćmons were an alien race who gave mankind knowledge to evolve, but amorally. To make matters worse, the Master has Azal create a heat barrier encircling Devil's End, trapping the local inhabitants in, and locking everyone else out, so the Doctor and his friends are left to fend for themselves.
Here is one story where the fan/viewer can see the entire UNIT team at work, not only professionally, but in a family sort of way, where everyone looks after each other and shows genuine concern. Yates and Benton are akin to the big brothers to Jo's little sister, the Doctor is the grandfather, and the Brigadier is the uncle of the family. Jo's concern for the Doctor is all so apparent here.
In the confrontation scene between the Doctor, the Master, and Azal, who is a fearsome, satyr-like creature standing 30' tall, the Time Lord launches effective arguments for why Azal should just leave and let mankind grow up, at their own pace. "Thanks to you, he can blow up the world and he probably will. He can poison the river, the land and the air he breathes, he's already started." When the Master says that he alone possesses the strong leadership needed, the Doctor retorts with "I seem to remember someone else talking like that. Who was the bounder? Hitler. Yes, Adolf Hitler. Or was it Genghis Khan?" The Doctor's moral character in the confrontation distinguishes him as a champion for Earth and its people.
One of the best cliffhangers of the series comes at the end of Episode 2, when Bok, the stone gargoyle, traps the Doctor and Jo inside the cavern where they find Azal's miniaturized spaceship. How is it resolved? Yeah, right, like I'm going to tell you.
One goof noticeable is the fight between Sergeant Benton and Garvin, the Master's servant. The shotgun held by Garvin breaks during their struggle and he carries on, holding both pieces together.
The appearance of the heat barrier, the thick black marks on buildings denoting its presence, and the attempts to penetrate are some of the outstanding special effects.
The Daemons is one of those stories whose colour prints were lost during the BBC purge. Episode 4 survived, but the colour synchronized restoration from the black and white prints of the other four episodes gives it a film look. With #4 still in its original condition, the interior video shots are a big contrast to the outdoor film footage. It makes me wonder, well, why not do it to the B&W print of #4 to give the whole story a film look? Still, this is only a minor complaint.
The regulars give their best as usual, but Damaris Hayman (Miss Olive Hawthorne) is one of the best non-regulars I have seen in the entire series. John Scott-Martin has a non-speaking role as one of the villagers, and John Owens (Thorpe) may be familiar as a recurring character in The Two Ronnies.
Jo Grant is the hero of the hour, as what she does causes Azal's defeat. No, you have to watch it to find out what I mean.
The debate between science and magic is another subtopic presented here, between the Doctor and Jo and later, he and Miss Hawthorne at opposite ends. What appears to be magic in conjuring the Daemon is explained as highly advanced science, with the ceremony a means of controlling the psionic forces and the Daemon himself. To the Doctor, anything can be explained by science, as he demonstrates with to Jo by causing his yellow Roadster Bessie to run by itself via solenoids and a remote control.
Yet, let's get one thing straight here. Azal is amoral, not evil, as the Doctor points out. Take Prometheus, a cousin of Azal. In Greek mythology, Prometheus was punished by the gods for giving fire to man. He eventually escaped with the help of his brother and continued giving knowledge to man. As a Rational, Prometheus is my hero, but should he have perhaps let mankind develop at its own pace, as the Doctor claims Azal should have done? Series producer Barry Letts, using the alias Guy Leopold, wrote the story, and how wonderful it was to have had an introspective, intellectual philosopher at the helm of Doctor Who!
The Daemons remains one of my favorite Who episodes. At the end, the Doctor tells Jo, "There is magic in the world." as they and villagers dance around the Maypole. You tell'em, Doctor!
As for the story ... well, let me just state for Who fans who haven't had the opportunity to see this five episode 1971 story that it features "the Master" (gloriously portrayed by Roger Delgado) once again stirring up trouble, this time at a prehistoric barrow near the village of Devil's End, in Wiltshire, in a quest to attain the power of Azal (played by the excellent Stephen Thorne, though in this appearance as an alien, he's sporting cloven hooves rather than Wellies), the last of the Daemons, a race of powerful beings who have helped shape the course of human history. If that's not enuf, there's also the involvement of the Brig (Nicholas Courtney), Capt. Yates, Sgt. Benton (John Levene), and UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Task force), but, as it turns out, it's Jo, the Doctor's assistant/"companion" (no, not in THAT sense), who is of most help to the Time Lord.
And, as one of several great Doctor Who stories wherein supernatural occurrences are "explained away" with science, it's fitting that THE DAEMONS should feature an indestructible stone gargoyle - named "Bok" (played by Stanley Mason) - that's brought to life in the service of Azal, a demonic-looking creature. Taken together, it's not surprising that this story consistently gets voted among "classic" Who's all-time top 25.
Enjoy.
* UPDATE *
According to the website, dvdactive, episodes 1 & 2 supposedly look almost as good as the original Quad master tapes, ep 5 isn't far behind, but ep 3 looks "soft" by comparison. They didn't mention how well ep 4 turned out, but I wd assume that it must look very good becuz it was the only one that still existed in (colour) PAL format (for the 1993 VHS release of THE DAEMONS, the monochrome film of the other four ep's was overlaid onto the NTCS colour signal from an "off air" VCR recording of them). The site also noted that the video sequences looked better than the scenes shot on film. Hope that they're right and that this helps.
* UPDATE #2 *
Have since received the dvd and, yes, the Who restoration team did a bang up job considering how bad the "masters" that they were using were and that this story, again, was from 1971. The sound quality is also better than on the VHS offering, but that's not saying a whole lot since the story was recorded in mono. For fans of Barry Letts - of which I am one - this dvd is worth purchasing just for the featurette on his career.
Full of references to withcraft and mysticism the story combines ancient English practices of Morris Dancing and the Maypole with Dridic and Celtic legends. Throw in some witchcraft, black and white and Satanism and you have all the makings of a good science fiction story.
Actually the story links the magical elements more with superior science than with devil worship and clearly attempts to show that the representations of the horned demons owes more to early visits from aliens than satanism. The rites and rituals thus evolved as ways of communication with the aliens and ways to cope with their powers.
This story owes a lot to the earlier Quatermass movie where a strange spaceship is discovered in a London Undergound station in an area dominated by streets with devilish names. It is soon discovered to contain elements of Martian life which have a devilish appearance and which cause the local inhabitants to indulge in group killing and other alien behaviours.
There is also a strong undercurrent of the writings of Dennis Wheatly in the script as the devil worshipping practices are measure and correspondent to Christian ones, with the Master assuming the role of the High Priest.
Towards the end of the story the portrayal of the Daemon as being intelligent armed with superior science but with a simplistic moral code is a dramatic scary affair but which makes a good point.
Highly recommended.
Another great addition to my Doctor Who collection!
A must have for any Whovian!
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