It’s amazing how the BBC didn’t realise what they had with Doctor Who in its early days, when a lack of foresight meant that numerous episodes were wiped by the corporation. Many have since been recovered from archives around the world, although sadly some are still missing. Doctor Who: The Daemons was one story the Beeb inexplicably wiped, so that of the original transmission quality tapes, only episode four remained. Thankfully lower quality versions recorded from a US airing remained, as did black & white 16mm telerecordings.
As a result, you could have The Daemons either in colour but with terrible picture quality or black & white but looking fairly sharp. At least you could until 1992, when they managed to combine the colour signal from the video recordings with the 16mm film to recreate something that’s as close to how it was originally seen as possible. And all that fuss because the BBC didn’t think Doctor Who was worth properly archiving!
Now we’ve got all five episodes looking pretty good and in colour, but was The Daemons worth the effort? Well, yes and no. It is a very silly story, but Jon Pertwee’s Doctor is always worth watching, as the actor brought such sincerity and fun to the role that you’ll go with him no matter how daft things get.
The Daemons was the last story of the eighth series, which was a point in the Who mythology when the Doctor was exiled to Earth and was working with UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce). It was also the series that introduced us to The Master (Roger Delgardo), a Time Lord who’s bent on power and world domination and became a recurring villain appearing in all five stories of Series 8.
In The Daemons, an archaeologist is about to open a Bronze Age burial mound known as the Devil’s Hump, which he believes holds the treasure and tomb of a warrior chieftain. However a white witch claims she known that evil is afoot and wants the dig stopped, and while the Doctor believes any strangeness can be explained scientifically rather than due to the supernatural, he also wants to stop the dig as he’s convinced opening it up is a bad idea. However he’s too late and a strange gargoyle-like creature is released.
And what’s the new local vicar up to, who looks suspiciously like The Master and seems to think opening the Devil’s Hump will give him access to something or someone who can help his world domination plans?
While beloved by many Who fans for its attempts to take the pseudo-science of Who and give it a supernatural, demonic spin, it’s a pretty silly story. Ideas about supernatural creatures actually being aliens who’ve affected mankind throughout history may have seemed novel in 1971, but now feel fairly old hat. It’s also true that while on the special features, all involved seem pretty impressed by the mischievous gargoyle creature Bok, he’s one of the few Doctor Who creatures who have literally made me giggle at the cheesiness.
That said though, it is fun. Pertwee and Katy Manning had great spark as the Doctor and his assistant, and it’s them who ensure The Daemons is a lot of jolly fun and even manages a couple of genuinely creepy moments as demonic forces butt up again Whovian sci-fi.
As always, the special features are very good, with a lengthy making of ’ featurette, a documentary about the late Who producer Barry Letts, as well as various other bits and pieces. If you’re interested in how they brought colours back to the serial, there’s an excerpt from Tomorrow’s World explaining how it was done.
Overall Verdict: Not the best of Doctor Who, but Jon Pertwee is wonderful and ensures this silly but enjoyable story is fun to watch.
Special Features:
Audio Commentary
The Devil Rides Out’ Featurette
Remembering Barry Letts’ Featurette
Location Film
Colourisation Test
Tomorrow’s World Excerpt
Photo Gallery
PDF Materials
Reviewer: Tim Isaac