"Do our demons come to visit us?"
Episode 128: The King's Demons.
Companions: 5th Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough.
Air Date: 15th to 16th March 1983.
The TARDIS materialises in 13th Century England during a joust held in the presence of King John. The King welcomes the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough as his 'demons', but his actions toward the family of his host Ranulf fitz William are decidedly hostile. The Doctor discovers that what appears to be the King is in fact a shape-changing android called Kamelion whom the Master found on Xeriphas. The Master has disguised himself as the King's Champion, Sir Gilles Estram, and is using Kamelion in a plot to discredit the King and prevent the signing of the Magna Carta, thereby changing the course of history.
The King's Demons is a nice short story played out well and gives the 5th Doctor the opportunity to refresh his sword fighting skills. A casual viewer may not notice the details but there are some plot holes in the telling. The most obvious and perhaps important one is the question why the Master wants to mess with something like the signing of the Magna Carta? As the Doctor points out this is small fry compared to what he is used to doing. Then at the end the Master simply runs off and escapes not even bothering to try and finish what he started. The second problem is more obvious. The Master is disguised as a French knight in service to the king, but he looks just like the Master with a beard. It's obvious that it is him and yet the Doctor and Tegan don't recognise their old enemy till the end of the first part.
At the culmination of the story Kamelion joins the time travellers but only ever makes one more appearance. Why he was included seems a bit odd but the reason for his disappearance is that the use of the robot prop was impractical and often malfunctioned.
This episode while entertaining is really just a filler episode to round out the current series. However it does lead directly into the next story which is far far superior.
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