Day 153 — June 2nd 2021
The Dæmons Episodes Three and Four
The Dæmons — Episode Three
I blow a bit hot and cold on the character of the Master. I think I’ve made it clear over the last fortnight that I’m not a huge fan of having him show up as the baddie in every single story of Season Eight, and given that they cut his appearances back drastically from now on — he’ll show up twice in Season Nine and only once in Season Ten — I think the production team would agree with that.
My biggest issue is that he’s often a bit wet. Almost every story ends the same way, with the Master discovering that he’s in over hi head, has been betrayed by his allies, and having to side with Doctor Who to escape with his life. You could overlook it the first time, but when he’s been turned on by the Autons, the Keller Machine, the Axons and the people he was hoping to win over on
Uxarieus it starts to become a bit repetitive and silly.
And then you get a scene like the one in today’s episode, where he’s given some brilliant dialogue and Delgado really runs with the material — showing off exactly why he’s so well regarded by fans;
The Master: ‘I only need two things. Your submission and your obedience to my will.’
Winstanley: ‘What’s all this about obedience and submission? You said that we were going to rule.’
The Master: ‘You rule? Hah! Why, you’re all less than dust beneath my feet!’
We also get something of an unusual situation at the very end of the episode — the character in peril for the cliffhanger is the Master himself, rather than one of our good guys. I’m not sure we’ve seen this happen before.
It perhaps also helps that while he’s said some fairly derogatory things about my fellow humans this week I’m not exactly cheering for Doctor Who either — because he’s an absolute wanker in this episode. He’s properly rude to Jo for perhaps the first time, tearing her a new one in front of Benton and Yates, and it’s hard to feel any sympathy for him at all after that;
Jo: ‘Of all the idiotic plans. As if blowing things up solves anything.’
Doctor Who: ‘Jo, the Brigadier is doing his best to cope with an almost impossible situation. And since he is your superior officer, you might at least show him a little respect.’
I was rather hoping he’d lose control of Bessie and we’d skip ahead to Tom Baker early.
Thankfully there’s other bits in the episode which are far more successful than Doctor Who’s characterisation, including the chase sequence between Bessie and a helicopter. Chases like this are getting to become another recurring element of the series, but at least this is another great example of the format, complete with some really nice shots.
I’m also a fan of Bok the gargoyle here. I’ve always thought of him as being slightly silly, and in still; photographs the character doesn’t look all that effective. On screen, though, and paired with some brilliantly unusual and sinister movement, he works really well.
A step up from Episode Two, and a 7/10.
As a side note, there’s a Deacon at our local church who’s the spitting image of Roger Delgado. He’s a lovely bloke, with a fascinating story to tell, but during our son’s baptism a couple of months ago I couldn’t help thinking about The Dæmons! It’s especially noticeable when Delgado wears his glasses in this episode… I wonder if our Deacon has ever watched Doctor Who?
The Dæmons — Episode Four
Having talked about the Master getting to deliver a particularly powerful speech in the last episode, he’s back to being a bit rubbish again in this one. He spends an awful lot of time here kowtowing to Azal, and coming across all the worse for it. I want the character to feel genuinely threatening, a credible opponent to Doctor Who and UNIT, but when he’s grovelling here he’s right back to being useless.
I was also a little put off in those sequences by wondering how big the crypt under the church must be — I know Azal can grow and shrink as needed but having been told repeatedly that he’s at least 35 feet high it really threw me the first time we saw him inside. I’m also wondering about the whole ‘appearing three times’ thing — was the first time when he grew really big and took a stroll across the fields outside? And if so, then what did that achieve?
They’re trying their hardest to mesh together the magic and science in this one, but I’m afraid that it’s still not sitting right with me. All the way through a brilliant sequence in which Doctor Who is set upon by some Morris Dancers and a May Pole I found myself thinking that I should really give The Wicker Man another watch. It’s interesting enough stuff on its own merits, but feels an ill fit for Doctor Who.
It got me wondering about this story’s stellar reputation with fandom. It placed 38th in the 2014 Doctor Who Magazine poll of all stories, and I’m struggling to reconcile that with the story I’m watching. Having seen some of the special features on the Blu-ray disc today, though, I’m wondering if there’s an element of the story gaining a positive reputation simply because the cast and crew had such a good time making it?
In his introduction to the Pertwee Years VHS, Pertwee talks about how nice it was to have all his friends taking part in this one, and the Production Subtitles give details of some of the fun activities the team enjoyed on their days off — trips to New Age places and taking part in the real church sermons while on location. It’s beyond doubt that they had a lot of fun putting the story together, but I’m not sure the story itself is as strong as the memories.
There is one area which really shone for me in this one, and it’s poor Sergeant Osgood trying to put together a piece of equipment from Doctor Who’s instructions. His forlorn expression while trying to make it work gave me a real laugh;
Brigadier: ‘Well, how long are you going to be?’
Osgood: ‘About a minute, sir. I’ve got the hang of it now…. [the machine explodes in the man’s face] …Half an hour, sir. At least.’
And I’m pleased to see that Doctor Who is back to being his usual good-natured self today, joking around with the Brigadier when faced with a crisis;
Brigadier: ‘Do you know what you’re doing?’
Doctor Who: ‘My dear chap, I can’t wait to find out.’
We also get another appearance of the ‘reverse the polarity’ catchphrase when instructions are being given out, for anyone keeping track of those at home.
On the whole, though, I suspect that The Dæmons might just not be for me as we dip back down to a 6/10.
