The Daemons - Episode 2

Episode 2 of The Daemons is the 300^th episode of Doctor Who. Quite hard to believe it’s been 300 days since I started this marathon. Every time I reach a milestone I am impressed that I haven’t chucked in the towel. I can’t deny that I haven’t thought about quitting over the last 300 days. When it was the 200^th episode, it was episode three of ‘Fury from the Deep’ and I don’t think that this was a great episode for the milestone whereas I can say without doubt that this is a better way of celebrating reaching 300. At the end of the previous episode, things started to go a bit wrong and the Doctor is out cold (literally) in this episode, he spends the vast majority of the episode asleep. Once he does wake up it’s like he’s just had a quick nap.

Benton and Yates become some amusing double act, it starts with them having two separate phone conversations. This then moves onto them taking the brigadier’s helicopter to Devil Hump and there is a great shot when they spot hoofs in a field which must show that what caused it is massive but sadly the closest we get to see is a shadow that forms on a police officer. There are some good effects used to hide the fact that we don’t see what it looks like and there is a nice POV shot where its moving along the floor of the crypt.

The brigadier tries to get into Devils Hump but has trouble as there is a barrier preventing anything from getting in or out. This does mean that his involvement in this episode is somewhat restricted and he cant really interact with the regulars apart from walkie talkie. Roger Delgado’s involvement doesn’t feel as big as it did in previous stories. Something that I did notice was the role and costume of a vicar does suit him. Katy Manning seems to get the lions share of the screen time in this episode which is quite surprising considering how little she was used in one episode of ‘Colony in Space’.

The cliffhanger is another good one as the gargoyle is in the dig with the Doctor and Jo and is blocking the exit. It’s not clear what exactly the gargoyle will do to them but that’s the magic of it. I think that as an episode it moves on enough and there is a nice mix of comedy and drama and all the performances are really good and I think that apart from the black magic stuff which I’m still not sure about is a good way to end the season.