Episode #59: The Daemons

"Jenkins...chap with wings there, five rounds, rapid!"

Episode 59:   The Daemons.
Companions: The 3rd Doctor and Jo Grant.
Air Date:        Five episodes. 22nd May to 19th June 1971.

The Master, posing as a rural vicar, summons a cloven-hoofed demon in a church basement.

The Daemons is perhaps my most favourite story of the Jon Pertwee era. Everything about it is so well written, acted and portrayed on screen. Whoever wrote it did their homework, because although it has been given a spin for the television show, a good amount of the Wiccan/Pagan dialogue almost spot on.

The story deals with the Master's attempt to gain ultimate power by summoning up Azal, the last of the Daemons. The Daemons (pronounced demon - daemon is just the old English spelling) were an ancient race who manipulated other younger races as part of some vast experiment, including early humans which explains legends of demons and of the Devil himself. Once again however, the Master hasn't fully thought his schemes through very well. At the end of the story, the Master is captured and taken away by UNIT at last.

There is a moment in the story when the model of a church explodes in flames. Apparently for the 70's audience, it seemed all to real and the BBC received complaints for them destroying a real church just for television. It does make you wonder I think.

The Daemons is also perhaps the first time that we see the show really do a horror themed episode. I find that some of the better episodes have been those which have the freakier or more scary approaches.

Even as I sit here writing this, I can't help but think that The Daemons is possibly the best story from the Jon Pertwee era. If you haven't seen it, I recommend checking it out.