The Daemons - Episode 1

The Daemons is the final story of the eighth season and its written by Guy Leopold who in reality is Robert Sloman and Barry Letts who has already directed a story this season as well as produced the entire season. This is a story that I cant quite make my mind up, on one hand there are things to like and yet there is the whole occult stuff which I really cant be bothered with so every time I watch this story I am wrestling with whether I should like this story or not. It seems strange that after letting the Doctor go to another planet, they sent him straight back to earth. But I suppose it needs to be a gradual change in setting considering its been a season and a half on one planet.

The opening scene is very good and quite atmospheric, it continues with Miss Hawthorne being introduced. Miss Hawthorne is at times an annoying character but it cant be denied that she’s a useful character and will become quite important as the episodes. The rest of the supporting characters are all quite funny and look like they have stepped out of ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ and help create a great atmosphere and the right setting.

There is a good scene with the Doctor, Jo and Mike Yates which involves Bessie moving via remote control. This is fun but wont become relevant until the final episode. Another thing that comes from this opening scene with them is that it states quite clearly that the Doctor doesn’t believe in magic and Jo is more willing to believe. Its good to remind us that the Doctor is a scientist and it’s the beginning of good performances from Katy Manning and Jon Pertwee.

This story features BBC3 which wouldn’t exist until 2003 and pretty soon wont exist again but that’s the charm of this story that they predicted BBC3 so long before it appeared.

Mr Majester is the vicar of the village and it of course there is something not quite right about him and this is realised when its revealed that the previous vicar left in mysterious circumstances. For 1971 viewers they should have instantly know what was coming. In ‘Colony in Space’ it wasn’t until episode four that Roger Delgado appears in the story and in this one it takes 15 minutes. Roger Delgado is only in the story briefly where he tries to hypnotise Miss Hawthorne but Delgado is really good and just oozes the brilliance that he has shown in every episode he has been in.

The effect when the stone is pulled is somewhat disappointing if I’m being honest. The rest of the effects were all quite good. As a cliffhanger its one of the better ones that we have seen over the course of the season. After the disappointing ones that we have had its good that we are getting some good endings. As an episode it does its job very well and I think that this season will end on a high note which is as it should be.