299 The Dæmons: Episode One

EPISODE: The Dæmons: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 299
STORY NUMBER: 059
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 22 May 1971
WRITER: "Guy Leopold" (pseudonym for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.2 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Dæmons
EPISODE FORMAT: 16mm b&w film recording recoloured using 525 off air video

"If Professor Horner opens up that barrow, he will bring disaster on us all!"

For many years The Dæmons was touted as the best Pertwee story and probably the best Doctor Who story. It's certainly well loved by those that worked on it with most of those involved speaking very fondly about it. Then it got repeated in 1993, right in the middle of Doctor Who fandom's big re-appraisal of the series and suffered a huge backlash damaging it's reputation, a feeling that persists to this day. So how is it now?

In the village of Devil's End preparations are being made to open a local burial barrow. Local white witch Miss Hawthorne voices her concerns to the new local vicar The Reverend Magister: The Master. Jo is keen to stay up to watch the dig opening the barrow live on television but the Doctor's curiosity is pipped and he & Jo drive to try and stop the dig. In a cavern under the church the Master and a local cult are holding a ceremony to summon something.... The Doctor arrives just as the barrow is penetrated and torrent of cold air comes out freezing him. The Master calls on the name of Azal as the gargoyle in the cavern, Bok, comes to life.

Oh look, it's the Master. Again. This time he's a rationalist, existentialist vicar leading what looks like a black magic cult in a cavern under the church!

There is the casual insinuation that the Master may have had something to do with the disappearance of the previous vicar Cannon Smallwood......

GARVIN: What do you want?
HAWTHORNE: Well, if you must know, I wish to contact the vicar.
GARVIN: Mister Magister's not in at the moment.
HAWTHORNE: Not him. I mean the real vicar.
GARVIN: What would you call Mister Magister then?
HAWTHORNE: I mean Canon Smallwood, our old vicar. The one who left in such mysterious circumstances.
GARVIN: Nothing mysterious about it. Taken ill and had to leave.
HAWTHORNE: Suddenly? In the middle of the night? Without so much as a goodbye to anyone in the village?

There's a lot of little detail to like in this episode: First we get the Doctor playing with Bessie, who is fitted with a new remote control in a sequence filmed at Campbell Aircraft Ltd in Membury Wiltshire. A plane from that firm will later appear in The Planet of the Spiders!

Then we have the off duty life of the UNIT team as the Brigadier gets dressed up for a regimental do while Yates & Benton stay in to watch the rugby, complete with commentary from Bill McLaren!

All this is against a background of black magic and village cults pre-dating The Wicker Man by two years. It's a very un-Doctor who sphere to be wandering into especially taking this episode in isolation and not knowing how the story progresses. I can imagine there may have been some slight unease amongst some viewers at the subject matter this week.

The Dæmons is the only Doctor Who story credited to Guy Leopold: That's because it's actually a pseudonym for Robert Sloman, writer and actor, and his friend Barry Letts, Doctor Who's producer, formed from the first name of Sloman's son and Letts' middle name.

The director of the story is Christopher Barry making his return to the show after a 5 year absence. He'd previously been in charge for The Daleks episodes 1, 2, 4 and 5, The Rescue, The Romans, The Savages and The Power of the Daleks. After this he returns for The Mutants, Robot, The Brain of Morbius and The Creature from the Pit

It's hard to see all the roads that The Doctor & Jo drive down on he way to Devil's End and the dig but fortunately the ones that are at Oaken Coppice turn up in the next episode in the daylight! The one we can see clearly here, where both the hill and signpost are found, is at
Membury Crossroads. The same stretch of road later features in Planet of the Spiders episode 2's infamous chase sequence!

The locations are very much the star of this story, with the village of Aldbourne in Wiltshire serving as the centrepiece which we'll see much more of as the story goes on. The nearby
Four Barrows serves as the dig location:

The events of this episode at least look like they were inspired, at least in part, by a BBC Televised dig at Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, not that far from the locations used in this story. Silbury Hill and it's neighbouring neolithic sites Avebury Stone Circle and West Kennet Long Barrow are well worth a visit: I was taken on a day trip to all three when I was at school in London and have been back since I've lived in Wiltshire.

The main guest role for the story goes to Damaris Hayman, as Miss Hawthorne, who has an acting CV as long as your arm, mainly sitcoms, and is now a regular on the convention circuit.

Christopher Wray plays PC Groom and he's be back next season as Ldg. Seaman Lovell in The Sea Devils.

Don McKillop plays Bert, the Landlord of the Cloven Hoof pub. He appears in Doomwatch as Det. Chief Inspector Logan in Waiting for a Knighthood, one of the three existing third season episodes which you can see on The Doomwatch DVD. He's in Star Maidens as the Sergeant in Hideout, The Professionals as Maclean in Operation Susie and An American Werewolf in London as Inspector Villiers. He's probably best known as Jack, a workmate of Terry & Bob, in 11 episodes of The Likely Lads

Rollo Gamble who plays Winstanley also worked as a director as well as acting. He died two years after this story was made in 1973.

John Joyce plays Mr Magister's Verger Garvin. IMDB believes he had previously been an extra in the Myth Maker episode 2 Small Prophet, Quick Return.He appears in The Professionals as Langton in The Acorn Syndrome, Morons from Outer Space as Chief Inspector Miller and Inspector Morse as Mr. Gray in The Infernal Serpent.

John Holmes plays the ill fated Jim, killed in the churchyard at the start of the episode chasing his spooked dog. He was an animal trainer and worked on Monty Python, Survivors and Doomwatch's Tomorrow, the Rat.

Robin Wentworth plays Prof. Horner. You can see him in House of Cards episode 4 as Sir Humphrey Newlands.

David Simeon David Simeon Alastair Fergus 1 The TV presenter, Alistair Fergus, played by David Simeon who was Private Latimer in Inferno, seems a lot like a parody of a TV Presenter that Monty Python's Michael Palin would have done. The resemblance between the two actors doesn't help either! Simeon has a couple of tangential connections to Monty Python: In Fawlty Towers he appears as Mr. Mackenzie in A Touch of Class and can be seen as the Clerk of Court at the Old Bailey) in A Fish Called Wanda.

James Snell plays the TV producer Harry. He was in Space: 1999 twice as Cousteau in the Space Brain and Stevens in The Seance Spectre, The Sweeney as Johnny Moxom in Hit and Run, The Professionals as the Hitman in Hijack and the third episode of the House of Cards sequel To Play the King as Detective Inspector Hackett.

The BBC cameraman is played by Robin Squire. He'd previously been the show's Assistant Script Editor at the start of the Third Doctor's time and, as a non equity card holder he was pressed into service as an emergency stand in Squire was so good that he was used for all the main Auton appearances as credited as the suspiciously sounding Ivor Orton..... . He returned as a Starliner citizen in Full Circle and later plays a Pharos Project Boffin in Logopolis.

In amongst the BBC crew we have Sonnie Willis who should have started his Doctor Who career as t he RT Technician in 10th Planet but for some reason was replaced! He made his debut playing an Atlantean Guard in The Underwater Menace followed by a Cyberman in the Moonbase and then a Waxworks Visitors/Auton Replica in Spearhead from Space. He returns as a Villager in Green Death and a Time Lord in Deadly Assassin. He can also be seen in Doomwatch as a Man in Hear No Evil and a Prison Officer in Fire and Brimstone.

Patrick Milner is the UNIT Corporal who brings Yates & Benton their sandwiches: he was previously a Foot Soldier in The War Games episode three, a Resistance Man in The War Games episode seven, a German Soldier in The War Games episode eight and a Security Guard in Doctor Who and the Silurians. He'd been in Quatermass and the Pit as a Man in Crowd in The Enchanted, a Journalist in The Wild Hunt and a Sightseer in Hob, The Andromeda Breakthrough as the Policeman at Manor House in Gale Warning, and Doomwatch as the Airport Policeman in By the Pricking of My Thumbs.

There are a lot of Villager extras in this story. A LOT! So please forgive me if I'm briefer than usual with their credits during this story!

All of these are in episodes 1 & 2 and can be found in the pub and/or The Coven - The Doctor Who production file is unclear on this matter. Vic Taylor was a Saxon in The Time Meddler, a Cardinal's Guard in The Massacre, a Worker / Soldier in The War Machines, an English soldier in The Highlanders, an ATC Technician in The Faceless Ones, a Guard in The Enemy of the World, a Technician in Fury from the Deep and a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians. He returns as a Solonian in The Mutants. David J. Grahame was previously a Parisian Man in The Massacre, a pedestrian in The War Machines and a Control Room Technician in The Ambassadors of Death. He's back as the Old Man in The Mutants, a Chestnut Seller in The Talons of Weng-Chiang and a Coven Member in Image of the Fendahl. Roy Pearce was a Guard in The Massacre, a Soldier in Snow Camouflage / Engineer in The Tenth Planet, a Chameleon in The Faceless Ones, the Cyberman in The War Games episode ten, and an extra in Doctor Who and the Silurians. He's back as a Solos Guard in The Mutants, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks and a Courtier i/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora Michael Earl was an extra in The Savages Richard Lawrence was a Tracking Room Technician in The Tenth Planet, a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians and a Technician in Inferno. Charles Finch was a Cyberman in The Invasion and a UNIT Soldier in Doctor Who and the Silurians. Alan Lenoir makes another appearance as an Ice Warrior in The Monster of Peladon. Jimmy Mac returns in State of Decay as a Peasant

Then we have Ronald Mayer who was also in Quatermass and the Pit as a Journalist in The Wild Hunt and the Dead Photographer in Hob and John Tatham who has been listed under several different names: see John Tatham's Avelyman page and John Tatum on imdb. Tatham, Vic Taylor & David J. Grahame all return for episodes 3 & 4. Finally Lily Harold and Mo Race are the Woman in Cloven Hoof Pub!