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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Saturday, May 22, 1971

Production Code

JJJ

Directed by

Christopher Barry

Runtime

125 minutes

Story Type

Series Finale

Time Travel

Present

Story Arc (Potential Spoilers!)

Exile on Earth, Working for UNIT

Inventory (Potential Spoilers!)

Bessie

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Devil's End, Earth, England, Wiltshire

Synopsis

The Master, posing as a rural vicar, summons a cloven-hoofed demon-like creature named Azal in a church crypt. Seeking to gain the ancient titan's demonic power, he gathers a cult and then corrupts or controls the residents of Devil's End to bow to his will.

Dark elemental forces begin to disturb the village on the eve of May Day: unexplained murders, a stone gargoyle come to life, and a nigh-impenetrable infernal energy dome. With the Master fully prepared to destroy the Earth, the Doctor and UNIT — aided by a benevolent practitioner of witchcraft — battle the wicked rites of a secret science wielded by an alien from another world.

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5 Episodes

Episode One

First aired

Saturday, May 22, 1971

Runtime

25 minutes

Directed by

Christopher Barry

UK Viewers

9.2 million

Synopsis

Earth, the near future. When an archaological dig at the village of Devil's End goes disastrously wrong, an ancient power begins to revive. Can even the Doctor withstand the power of the Daemons? And just what is the local vicar up to in his spare time?


Episode Two

First aired

Saturday, May 29, 1971

Runtime

25 minutes

Directed by

Christopher Barry

UK Viewers

8 million

Synopsis

With the Doctor frozen by the energy release from the barrow, Jo calls Yates and Benton for help, but when the Brigadier tries to join them he finds the village surrounded by a heat barrier.


Episode Three

First aired

Saturday, June 5, 1971

Runtime

25 minutes

Directed by

Christopher Barry

UK Viewers

8.1 million

Synopsis

The Doctor explains to his friends that the Master is trying to gain the power of the last of the Daemons, a race who influenced Earth's development, while the Master brings the rest of the village under his control.


Episode Four

First aired

Saturday, June 12, 1971

Runtime

25 minutes

Directed by

Christopher Barry

UK Viewers

8.1 million

Synopsis

The Master orders Bert to set a trap for the Doctor at the village while a concussed Jo makes for the cavern.


Episode Five

First aired

Saturday, June 19, 1971

Runtime

25 minutes

Directed by

Christopher Barry

UK Viewers

8.3 million

Synopsis

The Master decides to sacrifice Jo to Azal and when the Doctor and his friends try to intervene they come under attack from Bok.



Characters

How to watch The Dæmons:

Reviews

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11 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

this is easily one of the best serials in classic who. it features a village of actually insane people and I love it. no one is helping them or imprisoning them. Bok the evil statue just runs around and blows people up and sometimes a demon farts people awake. I love it. Delgado!master is just juggling like 18 different cults at this point, absolutely insane of him.


kawaii2234

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This review contains spoilers!

I think The Dæmons gets better every time I watch it.  It’s Doctor Who going full folk horror with a remote English village where the Master has set himself up as the vicar and is using the uncovering of a burial mound as a route to calling forth the Dæmon Azal.  Barry Letts and Robert Sloman have written a story pulling between magic and science a la Clarke’s Law, with nearly everything on screen being explained with a “scientific” explanation despite having a character claim to be a white witch (Damaris Hayman as Miss Hawthorne is such a delight and the first important older woman stock character).  Even with the explanations much of the serial is written with pagan tradition in mind, making it have this completely unique feeling for all of what Doctor Who would do.

The format being five episodes also gives it almost an archaic structure, adding quite a bit to the general folk horror feeling because everything intentionally feels off.  It’s also the third season in a row that really attempted a big finale, though shorter than The War Games and Inferno, The Dæmons ends with the Master captured.  Roger Delgado gets some of his best material, Barry Letts being one of the serial’s cowriters obviously helps, but the vicar material is just so captivating.  Stephen Thorne gets to be his first big shouty villain for the series, though not his best.  Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning are always a delight.  Christopher Barry directs and makes liberal use of the location shoot, an incredibly ambitious shoot that really pays off.  Plus the script is incredibly punchy and quotable.


Newt5996

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The Doctor insisting something is science while other characters claim that it's magic is a bad trope. This story did very little for me, though it certainly isn't bad. I'm also just not a fan of this aesthetic.

C.


Azurillkirby

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My favourite from this season. Cool concept for the story and the Master gets a lot to do. As do a lot of the cast. Pertwee doesn't though tbf. But such a fun story.


Scottybguud

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This is probably the most bonkers and silliest Doctor Who story I've seen in ages if ever and I love it. So fun!


BSCTDrayden

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AVG. Rating379 votes
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Member Statistics

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Favourited

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Reviewed

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Saved

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Skipped

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Quotes

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BRIGADIER: Now I'm not going to sit here like a spare lemon waiting for the squeezer.

— Third Doctor, The Dæmons

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Transcript Needs checking

Episode One

[Village Green]

(It is a dark and stormy night. The quiet village of Aldbourne in Wiltshire pretends to be Devil's End, with an appropriate eerie howling wind and thunderstorm. Lightning briefly  illuminates the church across the green as the public house, the Cloven Hoof, turns out its last customers - a man and his dog - into the storm.)

JIM: Goodnight, Frank.
FRANK [OC]: Goodnight, Jim.

(By the churchyard, the dog gets free of his master and runs through the gravestones, barking. Jim follows, and we hear a strange noise as a look of terror comes over his face.)


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