059 The Daemons

 Started 27-Jan


We watched the recolourised and Vidfired from black and white 2012 DVD version.

Ep2 is the 300th episode of DW.

Like the Krotons I have had a audio version of this one that I have listened to a lot. Nowadays the dialogue sounds like lyrics of a favourite song.

What's becoming revealed by the DW Marathon is that some DW serials are kind of eaten up by the cast and the director. They devour it with relish (like the way a dog eats) because they 'LUV' it.

And "The Daemons" is one of those.

It gives all the regulars a good role and plenty of meaty lines.

The UNIT crew has been jollified in this story. The character of Lethbridge Stewart is more Colonel Blimp than Mad Mitch now. (Compare the funny lines he
has in Daemons with the first ep of Ambassadors the year before....)
Same applies (to a less detailed degree) to Yates and Benton.


Damaris Hayman as Olive Hawthorne is clearly having a ball playing the good witch/village independent woman. There's likely a PhD in feminist media studies in her role and performance. (I don't feel qualified to talk about this but I recognise what I'm seeing. The question of whether this is slipped under the BBC radar or not is fascinating when you consider what happened to the casting of Susan Jameson as Morgan which was stopped by BBC Controller Ronnie Marsh in just the previous story.) What I want to know is why and how Miss Hawthorne was included (aside from the obvious, she's against the coven and the goings on at the dig...) Then there's the cloak which appears to belong to Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple ...


The Daemons is not without problems. Apparently the BBC banned any reference to 'God' or religion in this story and also insisted that the area under the church be called the "Cavern" rather than the "Crypt". These are concessions to some imagined religious sensibility I suppose.

Primary problem is the incredible 'flip' ending.

The buildup for 5 episodes is careful and impressive. The threat of Azal is thunderous and mighty... and is completely evaporated by what happens at 17m35s of ep5. And this is the second time this series this mistake has occurred. (Remember Terror of the Autons?)

Let's just go through the tape.... Azal has made his third and final appearance. The Doctor refuses to accept the Daemons 'power'. Azal then decides a) to give it to the Master b) to kill him for irrationality. Then Jo steps in to offer an alternative self sacrifice which the Daemon cannot accept for reasons of irrationality. So he self destructs.... Surely any normal well-adjusted psi-demigod would just shrug their shoulders and say "ok, whatever" and then proceed to do what they planned to do. Why does Azal self-destruct?

• AZAL: You refuse my gift?
• DOCTOR: Of course I do! Don't you understand? I want you to leave. I want you to go away and give man a chance to grow up.
• AZAL: I cannot. My instructions are precise. I bequeath my power or I destroy all.
• MASTER: Then you will give your power to me?
• AZAL: I shall. Time is short.
• MASTER: What about him?
• AZAL: He is not rational. He is disruptive. He must be eliminated.
• (Azal's electricity starts to play over the Doctor's body, then Jo stands in front of him.)
• JO: No! No, he's a good man! Kill me, not him!
• (Jo braces herself for the kill shot, but Azal clutches his wrist in pain as his power turns in on himself.)
• AZAL: This action does not relate. There is no data. It does not relate. Go! Leave me, all of you!
• (Bristling with surplus energy, Azal totters and the humans flee the building.)

Azal could have run out time or energy, the Master could have chickened out when accepting Azal's offer of power, the power could have proved incompatible or unusable or unworkable, Azal could have been prompted to check with Daemos central control and found new instructions. Any of these ideas would be better!

Second and perhaps just as important is the notion that psionics is in some sense scientific. There is a valiant attempt in dialogue in ep 4 to explain what magic is and how it works. There is an explanation for magic and ceremony and witch/warlocky belief but it is NOT this.

• BERT: Well, there you are. That proves you're talking nonsense. How could he have called him up in the first place except by sorcery?
• DOCTOR: Well, he uses violent emotions. Fear, hatred, greed.
• THORPE: How?
• DOCTOR: Well, the emotions of a group of ordinary human beings generate a tremendous charge of psychokinetic energy. This the Master channels for his own purpose.
• HAWTHORNE: But that is magic. That's precisely what black magic is.
• DOCTOR: No, Miss Hawthorne, I'm afraid not.
• HAWTHORNE: Are you trying to tell me that the invocations, the rituals, even the sabbat itself are just so much window dressing?
• DOCTOR: No, no, no, of course not. No, they are essential to generate and control the psionic
  forces, and to control the Daemon himself. 

The problem with this is that there is not even the slightest shred of any evidence that mind power has ANY effect whatever other than the influence over people's moods and feelings. And then mood and feeling depends on peoples' beliefs and values. Any person who has different beliefs and values is unaffected (other than maybe boredom or amusement). An important social phenomenon but far from a direct physical cause and effect.

It should be recognised that The Daemons represents a trend in TV, film and SF of the early 70's. That trend was for 'magical' investigator stories. The 'clandestine witchcraft in an English village investigated by the "team" ' story is a staple ingredient of television action-adventure series (everything from Catweazle to Bergerac to The Goodies have had a go.) 60s British horror films like The Witches, Curse of the Crimson Altar, The Devil Rides Out, The Blood on Satan's Claw (DO NOT watch this, it will ruin your life.. it ruined Wendy Padbury's) and the novels of Dennis Wheatley are also acknowledged sources.

So the reason it's in is 'it's a cool trend'. The trend has faded in the 4&1/2 decades since.

That said the direction, the script and the filming are all at iconic standard. The action just whips along. The story is very easy to watch and enjoy. The stunt work is slightly less prominent in this story but is present.

Pertwee's performance is assured and confident. I imagine he had the time of his life in the Bessie/helicopter/motorbike bits in ep2-3. The ep3 bits where he does a grumpy, patrician "with horns" lecture are consistent with the Series 8 version of  the third Doctor. The use of the word 'bounder' to describe Hitler in ep5 has attracted some criticism but in context (Azal's and the Master's thunderous exchange in the Cavern) it seems to provide counterpoint as much as apologist/sympathetic under-attribution. The fact the Doctor brought up the subject simply shows how wrong he regards the reasons for the Master's request for Azal's power.

The locals are presented in a respectful enough way but they come across as a bit odd.  There are several untold stories among their oddities which remain unheard. This is good for giving the show some depth.

The depiction of the BBC crew in ep1-2 is kind of meta. There seems to be little discussion of who they were parodying but someone must have reacted to it. But no one's sayin' nothing.... ohh!

I think this is the most significant part of the Daemons. The Doctor (or the writers Barry Letts and Rob Sloman) acknowledges for the first time the means by which the world might be destroyed inadvertently. Not through war or alien invasion/destruction but greed and delusion. This is the first mention of 'the Buddhism'... This will get to be a theme....

• AZAL: You wish to see this planet destroyed?
• DOCTOR: By no means. You see, I have an alternative.
• AZAL: State it.
• DOCTOR: Leave humanity alone. Just go. You've done enough harm.
• AZAL: We gave knowledge to man.
• DOCTOR: You certainly did. Thanks to you man can now blow up the world and he probably will. He can poison the water and the very air he breathes. He's already started. He can
• AZAL: Enough! Is man such a failure then? Shall I destroy him?

The argument isn't about God or whether people follow him or not. It's about people's (or in 70's DW dandruffy bloke's terms....man's) humility and acceptance of responsibility. It prompts the idea that The Daemons is all metaphor.... but that's longer story for another time.

The Daemons was the first story to be repeated in the UK as a omnibus. These were a feature of Xmas BBC lineup for several years in the 70's. An edited 90 minute version of The Daemons was shown on 28-Dec-71 and attracted the best viewing figures for a DW ep since 1965 (The Web Planet). 

In common with Inferno and Mind of Evil, The Daemons was not shown in Australia until 1986 due to the Film Censorship Board of Classifications decision to make it A rated in 1971. This meant broadcast was restricted to post 7.30pm and ABCtv chose not to do this. (In 1986 a change of regulations meant that these stories were reclassified. Daemons and Mind of Evil were shown in B&W in 1986.)

That's series 8 done.

ABM Rating 3.30/4.00
LJM Rating 4.50/5.00
SPJ Rating 8.95/10   

No. 8 (out of 59)

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