Day 306 — November 2nd 2021
The King’s Demons Parts One and Two
The King’s Demons — Part One
I think this episode suffers for following Enlightenment, because the difference between the careful plotting of both stories is vast. In the last story, mysteries were allowed to build carefully before we got a reveal, and it felt like you were coming at them from several different angles at once, allowing all the characters to naturally find their own place in the narrative. Take the jewels which Captain Wrack used to destroy the other ships; Doctor Who clocks one as the only item out of place on the Grecian ship early in Part Two. In Part Three Turlough spots one as part of the sword being gifted to another ship, and the episode concludes with Tegan having one placed in her tiara. By the time it becomes a threat in the story it feels like it’s been carefully seeded. All of Part One there is spent building the mystery and the atmosphere, dropping in some anachronisms and threat until that brilliant reveal that the ship isn’t anywhere near where they’d expected.
By contrast, this episode has set up a mystery — what’s wrong with King John — but it’s done it in such a lackadaisical way that I can’t help thinking the answer is ‘who gives a toss’. There’s a particularly awkward moment about half way through the episode when Tegan asks Doctor Who why they’ve bothered to stay here and only then does he realise that there’s something wrong with the presence of the king on that date. I can’t help thinking that needed to be established earlier on, with their whole reason for leaving the ship being that there’s something wrong with history that Doctor Who wants to investigate.
Then there’s the cliffhanger reveal of the the Master, which doesn’t really do anything for me. He’s not been especially well hidden throughout the episode so far — I don’t expect many people were fooled, which is a shame because although Kalid was questionable in Time-Flight I think it would have been a genuine surprise when the reveal came — and Doctor Who and friends have had no reason to suspect that he’s anything other than not a very nice bloke. Again, I just want that bit more from all this — have Tegan overhear him talking about something he shouldn’t know in 1215 and get her suspicions raised!
The biggest crime this episode commits, though, is that it’s boring. The last four episodes have been so rich and textured, filled with some great material, but this one isn’t half as packed and it’s not in any hurry to get anywhere either. We’ve only got two episodes for the story, but the TARDIS crew don’t even appear on screen for the first six minutes. Before then it’s all feasts and some tame jousting. And even when they do arrive we’re treated to another few minutes of horseplay. The climactic swordfight between Doctor Who and the Master should be an impressive spectacle — as it was when they last fought like this in The Sea Devils — but it’s just a bit dull and flat.
It’s not all bad — I love the horse rearing up as the TARDIS materialises, and seeing the knight outside the police box looks fantastic. Some of the location material looks lovely, if a little drab and grey, and the sets are as good as you’d expect for a historical story. The real highlight here is that we get the arrival of my favourite outfit for Tegan in the form of her colourful splodgy dress. We’ll be seeing more of it next season.
On the whole, though, a 4/10.
The King’s Demons — Part Two
Oh I know the Master has had some questionable plans in the past, but this really must be the worst one ever, surely?
Doctor Who: ‘[The Master wants] to change the course of history.’
Tegan: ‘What possible satisfaction can that give him?’
Doctor Who: ‘He wants to rob the world of Magna Carta.’
The biggest problem for me here is that it’s some time since I was at school, so I can’t remember enough about the Magna Carta for it to really mean anything to me. I know it was an important document, and I suspect it may have had something to do with uniting the country, but the story doesn’t make any concessions in case you’re not aware of the object — a surprising omission considering how much John Nathan-Turner had an eye on overseas sales for the series.
Even if they did make more effort to explain why this would be a bad thing for history, it just doesn’t feel like something I’d expect from the Master. Many of his recent plans have been about extending his life (The Deadly Assassin, The Keeper of Traken) or trying to take control of the entire universe (Logopolis). Castrovalva was about revenge on Doctor Who, and I’ll accept that Time-Flightwas simply that he’d gotten stuck somewhere and needed a hand. Meddling with history just doesn’t feel like his MO. It’s more the plan of the Monk from The Time Meddler, and this is essentially the same story told with less interest.
The Monk isn’t the only other baddie being channelled here. The Master’s speech about the universe feels like it’s been lifted directly from the any of the Black Guardian’s dialogue over the last three stories;
Doctor Who: ‘You won’t win, not ultimately.’
The Master: ‘You’re mistaken. With Kamelion’s unique ability at my command, it’s only a matter of time before I undermine the key civilisations of the universe. Chaos will reign, and I shall be its emperor!’
It’s telling that’s the strongest bit of writing in the whole story (aside from the hilarious bit where it sounds like the Master is questioning Doctor Who’s sexual prowess), I wonder if it was an off cut from a previous story, repurposed here?
Overall this episode has done even less for me than the opener did, and I’m dropping to a 3/10. I know the original plan was to end Season Twenty with a big Dalek epic which was cancelled by strike action, but it’s a shame to see the run go out on such a weak story after the heights we achieved yesterday.
