Day 152 — June 1st 2021
The Dæmons Episodes One and Two
The Dæmons — Episode One
One of the things that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by in the Pertwee era so far is just how funny it is. In my head I had these years down as taking themselves quite seriously, and thought it was one of the barriers that had historically prevented me from finding as much to enjoy in these adventures as during other periods of the show.
I’d also had The Dæmons down as being a bit over-rated. It often gets held up as one of the very best stories of the UNIT era, and is frequently cited by cast and crew as a personal favourite. But this first episode has actually been very good, and the thing I’ve enjoyed the most is just how much humour is stuffed into these 25 minutes.
I’m especially keen on the sequences of the BBC3 broadcast, in which Fergus is repeatedly shown up by the professor. The absolute highlight comes from the first mention of the relevant date;
Horner: ‘Six inches behind there lies the greatest archaeological find this country has known since Sutton Hoo.’
Fergus: ‘Would you like to explain that reference, Professor?’
Horner: ‘No.’
And then there’s the moment when Doctor Who bursts into the local pub like a mad man babbling about trying to stop the dig, and is reacted to in exactly the way you’d expect; no one taking any notice. When they assume he’s someone off the telly I actually had to skip back because I’d laughed so hard I missed the next line;
Winstanley: ‘Are you one of these television chaps then?’
Doctor Who: ‘I am no sort of chap, sir.’
Winstanley: ‘Forgive me, but I thought. Well, the costume and the wig,
you know?’
Doctor Who: ‘Wig?!’
But as much as the jokes are my favourite part of this one, I’m also really loving the atmosphere. Early on when we encounter a quaint village in the middle of a thunderstorm I made a note that it’s a shame this story went out in the summer as it’s so perfectly suited to being shown on an October evening as the nights are drawing in. But then they go and make the date an important aspect of the plot, which was clever.
It’s perhaps a little strange that they set it at the very end of April when broadcast didn’t begin until the end of May — I wondered if they’d timed it to coincide with broadcast but apparently not. The 50th anniversary of the broadcast of this episode fell over the weekend just gone, and I think this might be the episode I’m watching closest to a big anniversary like that.
There’s a brilliant sequence in which a policeman finds himself compelled to pick up a rock in at attempt to silence Olive Hawthorne — the only character so far powerful enough to resist the Master’s hypnosis — and it’s genuinely scary. Between this and Terror of the Autons, the police aren’t coming out of Season Eight very well, are they?
It’s a very strong start to the story, and I’m pleased to discover that some of my preconceptions about the series are being proven wrong. One of the best bits of this marathon has been finding new appreciation for bits of Doctor Who I’d previously overlooked, and I’d love to finally understand the hype about this one. An 8/10.
The Dæmons — Episode Two
The first episode of The Dæmons felt like it had loads packed into the running time — stretching from the set up all the way to a cliffhanger that was big enough to have come later on in any other story, with the Master actively summoning up the big baddie of the piece. By comparison Episode Two feels a little light on incident — this is what I often call a ‘typical Episode Three’ only a little bit early.
That’s not to say that I’ve not found things to enjoy in here, though. They lean hard into the idea that Doctor Who might be dead, and even when they reveal that he isn’t you still get a sense that the stakes are unusually high. Of course I know he can’t die here — Pertwee has another three seasons to get through yet! — but I was impressed by how well they manage to build the concern for him. He’s unconscious for around 15 minutes at the top of this episode — it was almost starting to feel like we were back in the 1960s and he was taking a week off from production.
It helps that he’s been given some really nice make up to appear frozen into a block of ice, and there’s something really unsettling about seeing him in this sort of situation. Pertwee’s Doctor Who is usually quite calm and in control, after all. It also feels somehow right for him to wake up shouting ‘eureka’, though I couldn’t tell you why.
The humour from Episode One carries on into this one, too, and I’m really keen on Yates trying to update the Brigadier on the situation;
Brigadier: ‘So, the Doctor was frozen stiff at the barrow and was then revived by a freak heat wave. Benton was beaten up by invisible forces and the local white witch claims she’s seen the Devil.’
Yates: ‘Yes, sir. I know it sounds a bit wild...’
Brigadier: ‘It does indeed, Yates.’
And yet this episode just hasn’t grabbed me like the first did. I vaguely suspect it’s because while I’m enjoying all the black magic stuff, and Miss Hawthorne continues to amuse, it feels an odd fit for Doctor Who. There’s a scene in this one which should be brilliant — Benton and Yates spot some massive footprints while flying over in a helicopter — but then they seem so totally out of place when they’re suggested to be the Devil. Isn’t it strange how I’d totally buy it had they said ‘dinosaur’, but I sort of check out when they talk up the shape of hooves.
I know there’ll be a science fiction explanation for it all (indeed, I think I can recall some of it having shades of Quatermass and the Pit), but I can’t decide if that makes things better or worse. I’d not want it simply to be that magic is real, but I also worry it’ll totally diffuse the atmosphere when the explanation arrives.
A proper mixed bag so far, then, which feels entirely on brand for Season Eight… a 5/10.
