And the hits just keep on coming. “The Daemons,” the onscreen title of which is “The Dæmons” (note the “æ” ligature), is yet another serial deserving of the label classic. It’s one of the most memorable and popular storylines of Jon Pertwee’s era, and probably the first
Doctor Who tale to so clearly take mankind’s belief in a higher power to task, via that old chestnut from Arthur C. Clarke, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
The tale turns on the opening of an ancient burial mound in the tiny village of Devil’s End. The event, which will take place at the stroke of midnight on April 30th (
Beltane), is to be broadcast on BBC Three, which, in reality, didn’t come into existence until many, many years later. The whole thing is reminiscent to someone of my age of Geraldo Rivera’s opening of Al Capone’s vaults…only in this instance, something is found, or more precisely, unleashed. The Doctor and Jo (Katy Manning) head to Devil’s End to investigate, only to discover the Master (Roger Delgado) is behind the sinister goings-on. He’s summoning forces that have existed since the dawn of man – an alien called Azal, who belongs to a race known as the Daemons, and he’s very displeased with mankind’s lack of progress.
Since most everything that
happens on Doctor Who must have some sort of scientific explanation, Barry
Letts couldn’t do a straight-up horror tale, but with “The Daemons,” he gave
viewers the next best thing, and that’s a tale of science masquerading as, or
rather being mistaken for, mysticism, and according to “The Daemons,” which
Letts wrote with Robert Sloman under the pen name Guy Leopold, it’s been going
on for centuries. The central premise of the story is a great one, and “The
Daemons” drips atmosphere and sports one memorable moment after another. There
are many different reasons to appreciate all the many different classic Doctor
Who stories, but for sheer fun, “The Daemons” is right up there with
the best of them. Certainly if you appreciate Hammer horror films – especially
fare like The Devil Rides Out, written by Dennis Wheatley, whose work
was a clear inspiration for “The Daemons” – then this you just gotta see. (Of
course if you know who Dennis Wheatley is, maybe you already have.)
Now all of that said, don’t
peel the curtain too far back, otherwise you’ll notice that “The Daemons” is
riddled with what I like to call “Yeah right!” moments; the sort of stuff you
have to deal with when viewing an action movie, which, when it comes right down
to it, is what “The Daemons” basically is: a low budget sci-fi/horror/action
film. For instance, in this five-episode tale that’s set entirely within the
confines of a tiny English village (which in turn is enveloped by a massive
heat barrier for most of the story, so nobody can enter or exit Devil’s End),
the Doctor and the Master do not meet until the final episode. It’s
mind-boggling that the Doctor never marches several hundred feet over to the
church (the Master’s base of operations) to simply confront his enemy head on,
especially since he’s been battling the Master in story after story throughout
all of Season Eight, which “The Daemons” closes out. To my eyes, that’s a
pretty serious “Yeah right!” aspect of the story.
Also to my eyes, neither of
the monsters in this tale are realized as well as they could’ve been, due
mostly to ill fitting tights. Bok, the stone gargoyle come-to-life, is cuter
than he is threatening, and Azal is one of those great examples of how
much more effective it is to not see
the goods. “The Daemons” does such a fantastic job of teasing the viewer as to
Azal’s appearance, that it almost has
to be a letdown when he’s finally shown. It sort of is (seriously – keep an eye
out for the tights), and the less said about Stephen Thorne’s booming, one note
performance as the beast, the better. (This is the same guy who played Omega in
“The Three Doctors,” FYI.)
Now all of that
said (ahem…), “The Daemons” remains benchmark, must-see classic Who. It’s one of the best UNIT stories, with the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney), Mike
Yates (Richard Franklin) and Sgt. Benton (John Levene) each getting their
moments on the spotlight. The Doctor and Jo are both in prime form, with the
story thematically being something of a culmination of her season-long
introduction to the world of the Doctor, as well as their mentor/student
relationship. The script is crammed with great one-liners, with my personal
favorite being the moment in which one of the townspeople thinks the Doctor is
part of the BBC TV crew because of “the costume and the wig.” To which Pertwee,
aghast, replies, “Wig!?”
Then there’s the local white
witch, Miss Hawthorne, played to utterly kooky perfection by Damaris Hayman, a
character that’s sort of emblematic of how much fun this story is. Another
great character is Professor Horner, played by Robin Wentworth. He only appears
in Episode One, but every single utterance that comes out of his mouth is
priceless. It’s almost a shame he wasn’t kept around for the rest of the story.
Words escape me for how perfect Roger Delgado is here. But then, words always
escape me for how good he was as the Master. There have been many Doctors, and
there have many fine debates over which is the best, but anyone, with any
amount of taste, must surely admit that Delgado’s Master has never been bested
(and maybe, at this point, never will be). “The Daemons” has finally found its way to DVD, but
there’s more to the matter than just the quality of the story. What of the disc
itself?
There’s no question that
with this release, “The Daemons” looks and sounds better – much better – than ever before. This is a story with a problematic
history of video and audio quality, and I grew up watching it in black and white,
because for years all (well, mostly all…but we’ll get to that shortly) that
existed were tapes made from the 16mm monochrome telerecordings. In the early
‘90s, “The Daemons” became one of the Restoration Team’s first projects. Using
their own “black magic,” a color version was released on VHS in ’93. I remember
being pretty bowled over by it at the time, but by today’s Who DVD standards, it
would no doubt look pretty creaky. So another round of work has gone into “The
Daemons,” although I’ve honestly no idea what exactly was done to it, or how
they got it to the level of quality displayed here. Sorely missing from this
release is any kind of featurette on the restoration. Perhaps such mini-docs
are considered redundant at this point? They shouldn’t be, as not every fan
buys every Who DVD. The Team has recently started updating their site once
again (after a period of inactivity), so hopefully they’ll put up an article on
this release some time in the near future.
Back to “mostly all,” from
above…Episode Four has always existed in its original PAL color videotape form,
and as a result, Episode Four looks and sounds amazing
on this DVD. The problem is that one ends up comparing the other four episodes
to it, and they can’t help but come up a little short in comparison. The
location film sequences, of which “The Daemons” has many (more of this story
was shot on location than in the studio), still look somewhat muddy at times,
but presently this is surely about as good as it gets. It’ll break both of your
Whovian hearts to know that, if not for archaic BBC shortsightedness, the entire
serial could look as great as Episode Four. Mind you, that’s not a specific criticism
of this DVD, just an observation of the cruelty of fanboy life. On the flip
side, the videotaped studio material looks really nice, although every once in
a while there seems to be some brief color bleed, but I’m talking matters of
split seconds here. On the scale of "massive overhaul" type restorations, I’d put this one ahead of
“Terror of the Autons,” but still not as near-perfect as “Planet of the Daleks”
Part Three, which (for me anyway) remains the gold standard.
DVD Extras: It is in this area that “The Daemons” DVD truly falls
short. Although the commentary track featuring Manning, Franklin, Hayman, and
director Christopher Barry is a nice one (particularly the contributions from
Damaris – the woman’s a hoot), it’s a massive oversight and shame that Barry
Letts and Nicholas Courtney weren’t secured for participation. I know for a
fact this was Letts’ favorite story, because he told me as much when, upon
meeting him back in the late ‘90s, I asked him what his favorite story was. Nicholas
Courtney went so far as to call his autobiography Five Rounds Rapid!, after a piece of dialogue from the story – one
that is quite possibly the Brigadier’s most famous.
Now there’s a competent
enough making of on here (amusingly) called “The Devil Rides Out,” which
features the same folks that are on the commentary, plus a few others,
including some archival interview footage with Letts (yet not nearly as much as
one might’ve hoped for), yet Courtney’s nowhere to be seen. It sure would have
been nice if the ’96 doc “Return to Devil’s End” could’ve been secured for this
release, as it isn’t owned by the BBC, but its inclusion would’ve made up for
some of the other oversights. Rarely do I complain about what’s not present on
a classic Who DVD, but this is a case where I feel I must, as the extras
here just don’t quite feel like they’re doing “The Daemons” justice.
Aside from the commentary
and the making of, also present is a very nice 33-minute documentary called
“Remembering Barry Letts,” which traces the man’s career, and features both of
his sons discussing him at length. This is a sweet, warm piece, and even though
there’s nothing in it that’s “Daemons” specific, it’s a welcome addition. There’s
six minutes worth of silent “amateur” 8mm film footage that was made during the
original “Daemons” shoot; doesn’t sound all that interesting, yet it really
rather is. The entirety of Episode One is also presented as it looked after the
very first colorization test in 1992, along with a short piece on the ‘92
colorization from a show called “Tomorrow’s World.” These seem like somewhat
baffling inclusions (talk about redundant!) given that they don’t reflect the
current work put into this story, although the ability to do a “now and then”
comparison of Episode One 1992 vs. Episode One 2012 is fairly enlightening in regards to the strides that have been
made in technology over the past 20 years. (Again, here’s where a short piece
on the current restoration would’ve fit in nicely.) Finally, there’s the usual
photo gallery, production notes subtitle option, Radio Times listings in PDF form, and a coming soon trailer for “Nightmare of Eden” which will be out next month.
