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.

We arrive in England in 1215 at the castle of Sir Ranulf Fitzwilliam. The 5th Doctor, Tegan and Turlough (a first appearance in history for our exiled alien public schoolboy) arrive in the middle of a jousting match between Hugh Fitzwilliam and Sir Gilles Estram (have you worked it out yet). Sir Gilles is at the castle accompanying King John but it is soon revealed that Sir Gilles is (gasp!) the Master and that King John is, in fact, a shape-changing android called Kamelion. The Master is in 1215 to prevent King John from signing the Magna Carta. The Doctor kidnaps Kamelion thwarting his plans. The end.

That is basically it. There is a fair amount of toing and froing from banquet hall to dungeon with some sword fighting and horse riding thrown in for good measure, but basically this two episode story is a vehicle to introduce Kamelion.

Kamelion is, for me, one of the more imaginative creations of the JNT era. I know that the plans he had for the robot never came to fruition through tragic circumstances but the general concept of a shape changing android on board the TARDIS could have made for some brilliant stories. One of my favourite Virgin Missing Adventures is The Crystal Bucephalus by Craig Hinton (the one with Kamelion on the cover) which plays with the character’s potential. I’m aware that, eventually, he would probably have to break down every other episode, just as K9 did before him, as his abilities may have been too easy a get out clause for writers, but as one of Doctor Who’s ‘might-have-beens’ I have always found him fascinating.

Unfortunately, Kamelion is introduced in one of the slightest television stories ever. I have complained quite a few times in these reviews that the one shot comic strips from the likes of DWM are often very unsatisfying in that very little happens in them. The King’s Demons feels like the televisual equivalent of one of those one shots. The short length is obviously a contributary factor, but I don’t feel the same about other two episode stories such as Black Orchid or The Awakening. It’s the fact that the Master’s scheme is so low key that the viewer never feels there is very much at stake. The Doctor himself doesn’t seem overly concerned and Tegan and Turlough do very little plot wise.

Ainley’s performance as the Master also leaves a little to be desired. This story, I reckon, shows the first glimmerings of the twirly-moustache villain we see through the rest of the 80s. I didn’t feel this was evident in Time-Flight (and to be fair, I don’t remember it being particularly prominent in Planet of Fire) but it’s probably the script that’s to blame as it doesn’t give Ainley much to work with, especially as the Master’s scheme is so odd.

The medieval setting, however, is very well realised. There is a lovely (I presume) glass plate shot at the beginning showing the expanse of the Great Hall, and the whole production is designed beautifully. At times it does feel a little clichéd what with wolfhounds and dwarf jesters, but the sheer number of extras in authentic-looking costumes makes this feel far more of a story than it actually is. Possibly the director, Tony Virgo (who delivers an informative if slightly dull commentary for Part One), realised how slim the script was and decided to try and distract the audience with nice things to look at.

I’m not entirely sure how historically accurate everything on display is and, at times, it feels like the production design is based more on familiar tropes from 1930s/1940s films such as Robin Hood or A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, but as a short hand for the viewer it does the job. Aside from the wolfhounds and jester, we have guards, swords, crossbows, horses, the castle, jousting, tents, iron maidens, a king’s champion, lutes, mention of Saracens, lots of moustaches and beards, Sir Gilles slapping the Doctor with a gauntlet to challenge him to a duel, banquets full of food and lots of animal skins and furs.

The guest characters dialogue is suitably medieval but doesn’t reach the florid heights of The Crusade’s Shakespearean verbosity.

There are, technically, no real historical characters in this story as King John is really a robot, but we do have allusions to a real historical event, even if it doesn’t actually occur within the timeframe of the story.

We do have a little history lesson from the Doctor when he explains to Tegan about the Magna Carta, debunking the idea that King John was forced to sign it.

I think I’ll always have a soft spot for The King’s Demons simply for the introduction of Kamelion. As a Master story it is forgettable (although his TARDIS being disguised as an iron maiden is fun – especially the scene where he is forced into it with some blood-curdling screams). It’s a shame it became a lacklustre end to Season 20 when the planned Dalek story fell through (although seeing what eventually became of that (Resurrection of the Daleks) maybe it’s not such a bad thing) but it’s not the worst story of this era.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Entropy Plague

I ponder why this story even exists as Enlightenment would have been a perfectly good finale, definitely better than whatever this is. It's not that this is boring, it's just that nothing really happens? It feels like a really pointless adventure and it's too short to say it drags on. Despite that it really is just a waste of time.

It's a bit of a shame because I liked all the set-up in the first part, and I feel like if they were forced to stretch it out into a four-parter they might have ended up doing something more interesting with the characters. Instead you get a few Doctor/Master interactions and the introduction of, uhh... Kamelion. I have no opinions of him as of yet and I find that unlikely to change.

All in all, I'm more baffled by this story's existence. I'm sure there's a behind-the-scenes reason for why this had to be made and why it was crammed at the end of Season 20 but I care so little for this story that I can't be bothered to look it up. Definitely recommend if you have around 50 minutes to spare and have exhausted literally every last possibility of what else you could do.

Next Story: Devil in the Mist

loveee the medieval aesthetic but we should have gotten more women. i did not expect kamelion to be in this so that was a sick surprise i love him hes cute and scary (so i get why tegan doesn't like him). trying to track allegencies over the course of the story is pretty difficult, everyone looks very similar, so that makes the story hard to follow. eg. the doctor is the champion one minute and not the next and the master doesn't like the doctor being the champion even though he picked him?? i don't understand all the demon references, they're all mostly coming from the non-medieval characters. why is the master so obsessed with the magna carta anyway they address it's weird but don't address why he is doing it. the doctor/the episode placing it in high importance is also weird. english democracy would be better if that magna carta had enever been developed, so that democracy could develop later under capitalism instead of under feudalism which has really f**ked it in a major way. but i digress

These Master reveals are getting more and more obvious! It does nothing to spice up what is an exceptionally bland story up until that point. This iteration of The Master continues to add nothing. In fact, this two parter remains wholly unexceptional until the King is revealed to be a humanoid robot called Kamelion. Then you find yourself with a handful of crazy, dead in the eyes Kamelion scenes. I like when he temporarily turns into Tegan and Janet Fielding gets to do her best dead in the eyes impression. It’s so strange. Obviously I’d heard of Kamelion, but he’d largely managed to pass me by as a fan of 16 years. Such a strange element of the show. I hate the uncanny way his chin moves. And how he has to be propped up against a chair.

I’m making the story sound worse than it is. It’s mostly a bit dull, then the sci-fi element of our new robot friend adds a little bit of fun into the mix.