Best character dropped here. Kamelion my love. Besides that I do think the episode is fun... maybe a little boring at times but.... kamelion.. so

• Even for 2 parts, I turned off completely
• I found it boring in many aspects, none of the cast seemed interesting
• Kamelion is the most interesting part of the story and it appears in like 1/10 of the entire story
• Like with most of them, I don't have a particularly big interest in Master stories
• Not even the fight scenes were as good, as Pertwee's were vastly superior

It sure does exist. I went into this with the honest expectation that this was four parts long. Suffice it to say, this story felt a bit bland, and personally, I think it fits better as a story with the Monk. Five's alright here, and it's always nice to have a swordfighting Doctor. I could kind of tell that they didn't like using Kamelion, given how little he actually appeared. The Master was alright, but I get the feeling that this story was planned more as a Monk story that contracts said had to be a Master story. I'm still somewhat confused as to why the Master wants to undo the signing of the Magna Carta, aside from chaos. It's a very skippable story, but at least it doesn't drag.

A slight story deserves a slight review, I think. Like Black Orchid the season before it, The Kings' Demons is only half the length of most of its contemporaries. The chief problem I saw with it was that it didn't seem to realize this restriction until the start of the second episode.

The first part starts promising enough, with a historical setting that seems rendered fairly well and some guest characters whose actors are doing an able job. King John (or rather his facsimile) was a highlight for me, with his cruel, plummy tone lending itself well to his florid dialogue. ("Your words are more generous than your purse...")

The Master's demasking at the end of part one is also a bit of a fun conceit, though it was easy to see coming. His affected accent and slight mumble as "Gilles" both makes him difficult to understand, and makes him stand out a little as odd. I must say, it's also odd (and slightly disappointing) that Nyssa went out just a few episodes too soon and missed one last rematch with the man who stole her father's face, something the show never really fully reckoned with. Missed opportunity.

Things go off the rails in part two, I'm afraid. With not very much time left in the story at all, we see the Doctor and company fail (badly) at keeping the trust of the lord of the castle and his family, kind of get his cousin killed unless I'm misremembering something, and then escape without ever letting them know what really happened.

There's also the interesting matter of Kamelion. The Master's explanation leaves the question of whether he's fully sentient or not rather muddy, and his introduction is, as a whole, pretty rushed. I fail to understand why exactly he's invited to stay on the TARDIS at the end of the story. I think Tegan has the right idea!

So, half good, half bad. A familiar thing at this point...

This story is short and entertaining. I can't claim I really understood the point of it, the ending felt extremely rushed and lackluster (which I think could have been mitigated if this was a four-parter and they had more time to, well, have a plot), and the Master's plan doesn't really make sense within the rest of his characterisations, but there are sword fights and horses and iron maidens, and it's just plain mindless fun. It's certainly not as boring as most other Fifth Doctor stories I've seen have been.