305 Day of the Daleks: Episode Two

EPISODE: Day of the Daleks: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 305
STORY NUMBER: 060
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 08 January 1972
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 10.6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Day of the Daleks
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Yes, well, you tell Captain Yates not to worry. Everything's fine. And tell old Styles too, and the Prime Minister. Oh, and Brigadier? Don't forget to tell it to the Marines. Goodbye."

The three time travellers, Anat, Boaz and Shura, take the Doctor & Jo prisoner. The Brigadier tries to contact the Doctor on the phone which allows the Doctor to tip the Brigadier off that something's wrong. Jo threatens the soldiers with the time machine but accidentally activates it transporting herself to the future where she's captured by the Dalek's human allies who convince her that the time travellers are criminal terrorists. Shura is sent to fetch explosives but is knocked out by an arriving squad of Ogrons. The Ogrons attack forcing Anat & Boaz to leave and make their way back to the railway tunnel they arrived in. The Doctor, saved from the Ogrons by the arrival of the Brigadier, follows them into the tunnel and where he encounters a Dalek!

Yup, good stuff again, but like the previous episode the Daleks are very much in the background. I think for their big return I'd have liked more Daleks up front actually doing something.

The start of this episode is a little odd: when the reprise ends we get the sting from the start of the title sequence as the action moves on. Apparently this was a conscientious decision by the director. I'd always put it down as sloppy editing when I watched the original compilation video and was astounded to find it was intact on the episodic version.

While talking to the Controller, Jo confirms the day and month she left this time in but neglects to mention the year which would have been useful to those trying to date the UNIT stories!

CONTROLLER: However, there is a chance that I may be able to save your friend.
JO: Could you?
CONTROLLER: I can try. There are means but I shall need your help.
JO: How can I help?
CONTROLLER: Well, first of all, I shall want to know exactly where you came from and when.
JO: Well, we were at Sir Reginald Styles' house, about fifty miles from London.
CONTROLLER: Now, you've told me the year. Can you tell me the exact date?
JO: That's easy. It was September the 13th.
CONTROLLER: Excellent.

Oddly the controller does think she's told him the year, a cut to that scene perhaps?

The date is actually significant to the production of the story: 13th September 1971 was the when location filming started for this episode, at Drop More House in Buckinghamshire, the location used for Style's house. This was a late replacement for Osterley House in Middlesex which is closer to the other locations used in the story. Styles' house is called Auderley House in the story but scripts show an earlier name for it was Austerley House, reflecting the intended location. This name was used in Terrance Dicks' 1974 novelization.

The bridge & tunnel entrance over the Grand Union canal at Bull's Bridge in Hayes

The railway line carried over the bridge is the mainline out of London Paddington: I've ridden over this many times without realising!

The focus of this episode is on the group of guerillas from he future led by Anat, who is played by Anna Barry.

Scott Fredericks plays Boaz, will return to Doctor Who as Maximilian Stael in Image of the Fendahl. He later appears in Blake's 7, playing Carnell in Weapon.

Jimmy Winston is Shura, the guerilla sent back to th tunnel and injured by the Ogrons. He's been in UFO as a Rating in Destruction and appears in The Sweeney as Sid in Hearts and Minds.

From the Guerillas to the Gorilla like Ogrons. Chief amongst them is stuntman Rick Lester, who returns in he same role in both Carnival of Monsters & Frontier in Space. He was previously a stunt driver in The Italian Job, a role he also fills in The Sweeney episodes Chalk and Cheese, Big Brother and Stay Lucky Eh?. In Space: 1999 he was he stunt double for Martin Landau in 6 episodes but that pales before his work on the James Bond films where he's a guard in Dr. No and then performs stunts in From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill and The Living Daylights meaning he worked on the first FIFTEEN films in the series!

Deputy Ogron appears to be Maurice Bush: he's the only other to appear in episode one so we have our two suspects for "No Complications"! He's back for Frontier in Space as an Ogron and later appears in both The Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi as the bounty hunter Dengar. His Empire Strikes back appearance is alongside Kenneth Colley who also features in his Inspector Morse appearance in Second Time Around where Bush plays Charlie Hillian and Colley plays Patrick Dawson, two policeman who had worked together.

Bruce Wells was an English amateur boxing champion who was once the holder of the ABA Light Middleweight and European Amateur Boxing Championship titles. He'd previously played a Cyberman in Tenth Planet and an Alien Guard / Union Recruit in the War Games and returns as an Ogron in Frontier in Space. He'd been in the Dr. Who and the Daleks feature film as a Thal. Geoffrey Todd also returns as a Frontier in Space Ogron: he can be seen elsewhere in The Sweeney episode Sweet Smell of Succession as Phil Nairn while David Joyce was previously in The Ambassadors of Death as a Technician (uncredited)

304 Day of the Daleks: Episode One

EPISODE: Day of the Daleks: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 304
STORY NUMBER: 060
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 01 January 1972
WRITER: Louis Marks
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.9 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Day of the Daleks
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Jo, how would you like to spend the night in a haunted house?"

Sir Reginald Styles, organiser of the world peace conference, is working late at night when he's disturbed by a man dressed in combat gear who vanishes. The Doctor, working on the Tardis console with Jo, accidentally transports their future selves to this time for a brief while. The man returns hunting Styles but he is attacked by ape like Ogrons and left for dead. The Ogrons report back to their human controller in the future that the mission was a success. The injured man is taken to hospital by Unit but when the Doctor examines his gear he activates the time machine the man carried sending the man back to the future. This time transference is picked up by the controller's staff and he reports it to his masters.... As Styles leaves for China Jo & The Doctor elect to spend a night in his house. A squad of three humans from the future arrives to kill Styles. The Doctor works on the time machine activating it causing the squad to storm the house to try to get him to deactivate it. His use of the time machine is detected in the future by the rulers of Earth ...... The Daleks!

Ooooo, that was rather good, fabulously atmospheric.

When we meet The Doctor & Jo, The Doctor is at work on the Tardis once more, with the console removed from the ship like it was in Ambassadors of Death and Inferno. While he's at work something unexpected happens as a second Doctor and Jo walk into the lab!

JO: Doctor, why don't you take a break?
DOCTOR: It's maddening, you know. So nearly there. If I could only cut out their override on the dematerialisation circuit. Let me see those figures.
JO: Doctor? I thought the Tardis was working again.
DOCTOR: What gave you that idea?
JO: Oh, being dragged off to an alien planet five hundred years in the future, for example. Oh, you know, all that business with the miners and the colonists.
DOCTOR: My dear Jo, the Tardis was being operated then under remote control by the High Council of the Time Lords.
JO: Well, if it worked for them.
DOCTOR: I don't want it to work for them. I want it to work for me. No one's going to turn me into an interplanetary puppet. Yes, of course. Why didn't I think of that before?

DOCTOR 2: Yes, of course, I remember now. Look, don't worry, my dear. I know you're alarmed but you needn't be.
DOCTOR: Yes, well I think that should do it. Why on Earth I never realised that.
DOCTOR: Oh, no. What are you doing here?
DOCTOR 2: Well, I'm not here. Don't worry. Well, that is, in a sense I am here, but you are not there. Yes, well, it's a bit difficult to explain really.
DOCTOR: This won't do at all. We can't have two of us running about.
DOCTOR 2: Yes, well don't worry. It will all sort itself.

JO: Doctor? What happened?
DOCTOR: Well, it's a very complicated thing, time, Jo. Once you've begun tampering with it, the oddest things start happening.
JO: But there was another you and another me. Well, where've they gone?
DOCTOR: Back into their own time stream, of course. Or do I mean forward?
JO: But, Doctor, I don't understand.
DOCTOR: Look, Jo, don't worry about it. It was a freak affect. It's very unlikely to happen again.

This scene should have had a nice little pay off at the end of episode 4 as the unlikely thing happened again and the returning Doctor & Jo found their past selves working in the lab! The scene is still present in the book but had to be cut for time reason leaving the scene merely pre-empting some of the themes of the story.

Oddly, after visiting Auderley House and returning with the found gun, the Doctor refers to the scene occurring "a few moments ago"!

DOCTOR: Do you believe in ghosts, Brigadier?
BRIGADIER: Let's be serious, Doctor.
DOCTOR: I am.
BRIGADIER: Oh, come along, Doctor, come along.

DOCTOR: Oh, my mistake. I was forgetting the unimaginative nature of the military mind. But we saw a couple of amicas seperatas a few moments ago, didn't we, Jo?
JO: Did we?
DOCTOR: Yes, here in this laboratory.
JO: Oh, you mean when we
DOCTOR: Mind you, they were manifestations of a much more benevolent kind. None of your clanking chains and chilly fingers, but ghosts, none the less.
JO: That was because you were playing around with the time mechanism on the Tardis, wasn't it?
BRIGADIER: Still can't get it to work, eh?

Was there a rearrangement of the scene order in post production or an on set ad lib from Jon Pertwee referring to the scene they'd just shot?

Two stories exist about surrounding the Daleks return to Doctor Who for the first time since 1967' Evil of the Daleks: Terrance Dicks' version has them forgetting to ask Terry Nation's permission to use them, having to go to see Terry to apologise and being given a very nice, mainly liquid, lunch by him. Barry Letts' version is roughly the same, except they had the lunch when they went to see Terry Nation to ask permission to use the Daleks before work on the story started! Barry's version, while less of a good tale, is the one supported by the BBC paperwork. The meeting led to Robert Sloman, who wrote the Daemons with Barry Letts, being commissioned to write a storyline called “The Daleks In London” to close season 9.

Returning to the series after a considerable absence is script writer Louis Marks, who wrote the Hartnell tale The Planet of Giants and isn't the toy company that made Daleks. This is Marks' only Pertwee script but he'll be back for two more Tom Baker stories. His story originally titled “The Ghost Hunters”, later “Years Of Doom” and then “The Time Warriors”, was always designed to open season 9 but didn't feature the Daleks in it's original form which instead had a military dictatorship ruling Earth but retains the idea of rebels travelling back to this time.

Realising they needed a big event to hook the viewers in for the start of the new series, like the Master's debut and Autons return in Season 8's opener Terror of the Autons, Barry Letts & Terrance Dicks decide to use the Daleks as thee big villains in Louis Marks' story and instructed Sloman to write a different tale to close the season. The Daleks take a back seat in this episode, manipulating events behind the scenes through their human and Ogron allies.

My wife Liz laughed at the discontinuity between the two Ogrons who've been to the 20th century. One gives a slow monosyllabic report of their excursion:

CONTROLLER: Your report?
OGRON: We found and destroyed the enemy.
CONTROLLER: Any complications?
OGRON: No complications.
CONTROLLER: Good. They will be satisfied. I did not say dismiss. I want an intensified effort. There can be no relaxation. Not until we have found all those responsible for this menace and eliminated them too. Now you may go. Keep me informed of all developments.

The other Ogron dismisses enquiries as to if there were any problems with a quick No Complications! Did the director, first timer Paul Bernard, forget to tell one of them how they should be performing? It comes as no surprise o find this line cut from the special edition version on the Day of the Daleks DVD,

I do think there is one critical error in this episode: You see the Controller reporting to his masters halfway through the episode giving you a brief glimpse of them. I'd have saved the reveal of the Daleks until the end of the episode. It's tradition after all, and the intent to honour that is present in the dialogue with The Controller referring to the Ogrons' masters as "They"rather than by name! So when the Daleks do appear at the end of the episode, the reveal isn't really that dramatic. I'd have the voice appear earlier in the episode, perhaps distorted over an intercom, and then a big pull back and reveal at the end.

Aubrey Woods plays the Controller here and later was Krantor in Blake's 7: Gambit.

Deborah Brayshaw plays the speaking female Technician in the Daleks' future. Lurking in the back of these scenes is Brychan Powell as the Daleks' Guard. He's a Russian Aide in episode four, a Solonian in The Mutants, the Prime Minister in The Green Death, a Mentiad in The Pirate Planet, a Noble in The Androids of Tara, a Logopolitan in Logopolis, an Umpire in Black Orchid, a Business Passenger in Time Flight and a Citizen in Planet of Fire. He can also be seen in Doomwatch as a Man in Flood.

In amongst the other Female Technicians in the future we have Karen Burch who is a Woman Watching the Show in Snakedance and appears in Blake's 7 as a Pyroan in Volcano. Alison Daumler had been an extra in Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 6, which is the episode with people collapsing at the railway station while their numbers are rounded off by Scarlett O'Dare.

The time travelling Guerilla is played by Tim Condren who'd been in The Time Meddler as a Saxon warrior, The Web of Fear as a Soldier and Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. as a Rebelling Roboman. He's also in a existing first season Out of the Unknown episode playing a Crewman in Sucker Bait and you can see that on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set. He appears in Space: 1999 as a Clansman in Journey to Where, a Star Wars as a Stormtrooper and not one but two Roger Moore James Bond films: The Spy Who Loved Me as a Russian Sub Crewman and A View to a Kill as a Thug at Stacey's House.

The music heard when the guerilla materialises in the 20th century is the first use of what will become the 70s Dalek theme!

Gypsie Kemp plays the U.N.I.T. Radio Operator: I wonder if they tried to get Fernanda Marlowe back as UNIT's Corporal Bell for this role which seems similar to the one she served in a few episodes last year?

Bara Chambers is the female U.N.I.T. Control Room Operator. She supplies the voice of Control in the first episode of the The Tomorrow People story The Vanishing Earth.

Leon Maybank plays the U.N.I.T. Male Operator with his back to the camera here! He was previously Scientist Ted Braun, crew number 12 in The Moonbase

Sir Reginald Styles is played by Wilfred Carter and his secretary Miss Paget by Jean McFarlane.

Carter returns as Styles towards the end of the story in episode 4 and it was planned for Jean McFarlane to return too. However the actress was taken ill and her lines in the studio session for that episode go to Styles’ Aide played by Desmond Verini.

You may remember during Evil of the Daleks 5 I mention the controversy amongst fans as to whether the Doctor ate meat or drank alcohol. Well here he's knocking back the wine here in an attempt to drink Styles' cellar dry!

DOCTOR: You know, one thing you can be certain of with politicians, is that whatever their political ideas, they always keep a well-stocked larder. Not to mention the cellar.
JO: Doctor, ought you just to help yourself like that?
DOCTOR: Well, you heard what Miss Paget said, Jo. We were to treat the place as our own.
JO: I wish you hadn't sent all the servants away.
DOCTOR: That's common sense. You can't expect a ghost to walk in a house full of people, can you? Come on, tuck in.
JO: Well, I'm not really hungry, thank you, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Well, you ought to eat something, you know. This is likely to be a very long night.
JO: What's that?
DOCTOR: It's a clock chiming. I say, you really ought to try this gorgonzola cheese. It's absolutely delicious!

DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, that's a most good humoured wine. A touch sardonic perhaps, but not cynical. Yes, a most civilised wine. One after my own heart.

By which point Jo's had enough of The Doctor's ruminations on food and goes for a wander, running into Sergeant Benton!

BENTON: Everything all right, miss?
JO: It was until you came along. You took years off my life creeping about like that.
BENTON: Well, I didn't want to disturb the Doc. What's he up to?
JO: Well, at the moment, he's carrying on rather like a one man food and wine society.
BENTON: Oh, talking of food, you, er, you couldn't get us a bite to eat, could you, miss? I'm famished.
JO: Hang on....

Jo then nicks the Doctor's late supper for Benton

BENTON: Ah, you've saved my life.
YATES: Sergeant Benton!
BENTON: Sir! No.
YATES: Just what do you think you're up to, Benton?
BENTON: I was just checking, sir.
YATES: Yes, well I want you to go and check on number three patrol. Move, Sergeant Benton.
BENTON: Sir.
YATES: Jo, how thoughtful.
JO: That wasn't very kind of you.
YATES: RHIP, Jo.
JO: Pardon?
YATES: Rank Has Its Privileges. Thank you.

One does feel sorry for Benton as his scavenged snack is purloined by his superior!

DOCTOR: And what was all that about?
JO: Feeding the troops.
DOCTOR: Oh, quite right. Do you know, I remember saying to old Napoleon. Boney, I said, always remember an army marches on its stomach.
JO: Well, Mike Yates certainly does.

Another bit of name dropping there from the Doctor!

Looking at the BBC's archive holdings now, this whole story is the earliest to completely exist on it's original 625 line video. Earlier episodes survive: The Ambassadors of Death 1, from 1970's Season 7, and The Claws of Axos 1 & 4 plus The Dæmons 4, from 1971's Season 8, but this is the first complete story to exist on it's original video, although 1970s Spearhead from Space was made, broadcast and retained on 16mm film. This is the only story from this season to survive on 625 line video but later stories his year, The Sea Devils and The Mutants, have some of their episodes surviving in their original format. Things improve drastically in 1973's season 10.

303 The Dæmons: Episode Five

EPISODE: The Dæmons: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 303
STORY NUMBER: 059
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 19 June 1971
WRITER: "Guy Leopold" (pseudonym for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Dæmons
EPISODE FORMAT: 16mm b&w film recording recoloured using 525 off air video

"Jenkins! Chap with the wings there. Five rounds rapid!"

Jo is taken away to be prepared for sacrifice to Azal. Mike escapes from the cavern and tells the Doctor what's going on. Bok prevents the Doctor from entering the church. The Brigadier has the Doctor's machine activated and drives through the heat barrier. Azal and Bok are weakened while the machine is running but it blows up after they come through. The Doctor runs past the weakened Bok into the church before it can recover and menace Yates again. The newly arrived Brigadier has Bok shot at. The Doctor tries to bargain with Azal for Jo's life and demands he leaves. The Master demands Azal's power but Azal elects to pass it to the Doctor who refuses it. Benton sets a Bazooka up and destroys Bok but it reforms. Azal decides to kill the Doctor but Jo offers herself up instead causing Azal to destroy himself. Without Azal's power Bok becomes a statue again and the church is destroyed by a massive explosion from the cavern bellow while the spaceship at the dig self destructs and the barrier clears. The Master is captured by Unit. Jo & The Doctor and Benton & Miss Hawthorne join in the mayday celebrations while the Brigadier & Mike retire to the village inn for a quiet pint.

Having intervened on the Master's sacrifice on behalf of a chicken, Jo now finds herself as it's replacement on the altar in the cavern!

The Doctor meanwhile has the villagers eating out of his hand thinking he's a wizard!

DOCTOR: Now we're facing the greatest danger the world has ever known. Now, look, I've got to tell you the truth.
HAWTHORNE: Doctor, no.
DOCTOR: I've got to risk it.
THORPE: What are you talking about?
DOCTOR: I'm not a magician or a wizard or anything of the sort.
BERT: See! I told you!
DOCTOR: But neither is the Master. I've tricked you, yes, but only to save you from him.
BERT: To save your own life, you mean.
DOCTOR: Yes, of course, that too.
BERT: What? Well, there you are! Do you hear, the lot of you? He admits it!
THORPE: Just pipe down for two minutes, Bert.
BERT: But you heard him.
THORPE: Shut up! We want to hear what he's got to say.
HAWTHORNE: But your car? How did you make it move by itself?
DOCTOR: Science, not sorcery, Miss Hawthorne. Look.

Using Bessie's remote control as a demonstration neatly reminds the audience it exists!

He then explains to the villagers how the Master has done what he has:

VILLAGER: That's amazing.
BENTON: I'll be blowed.
DOCTOR: And your Mister Magister uses no more magic than that.
BERT: You're talking rubbish. The Master's a magician I tell you!
DOCTOR: All his feats are based on science. Either ours or the secret science of the Daemons.
BERT: Well, there you are. That proves you're talking nonsense. How could he have called him up in the first place except by sorcery?
DOCTOR: Well, he uses violent emotions. Fear, hatred, greed.
THORPE: How?
DOCTOR: Well, the emotions of a group of ordinary human beings generate a tremendous charge of psychokinetic energy. This the Master channels for his own purpose.
HAWTHORNE: But that is magic. That's precisely what black magic is.
DOCTOR: No, Miss Hawthorne, I'm afraid not.
HAWTHORNE: Are you trying to tell me that the invocations, the rituals, even the sabbat itself are just so much window dressing?
DOCTOR: No, no, no, of course not. No, they are essential to generate and control the psionic forces, and to control the Daemon himself.
BENTON: Look, shouldn't we get over there and sort this Daemon thing out?
DOCTOR: How?
BENTON: Well, I could get the men
DOCTOR: Yes?
BENTON: Well, we could
DOCTOR: Exactly. All we can do is wait.
BENTON: Well, what for?
DOCTOR: The energy exchanger. This machine that the Brigadier is building for me. With that I should be able to drain off our visitor's energy. Then perhaps we can sort him out.

A confused Sgt Osgood has spent over an episode building a machine for the Doctor he doesn't understand!

DOCTOR: Walkie talkie. Hello, Brigadier? Are you there?
BRIGADIER: That you, Doctor? Over.
DOCTOR: Look, they've got Jo. That machine must come through now. Now, do you understand?! Now!
BRIGADIER: We're on our way, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Good. And put a watch up on that barrow, will you? Just in case the Daemon's ship reactivates.
BRIGADIER: Will do, Doctor. Over and out. You heard him, Sergeant. Now.
OSGOOD: I...
BRIGADIER: That's an order, Sergeant. Now!
DOCTOR: Come on, Brigadier. Get a move on.
OSGOOD: It'll never take it, I tell you.
BRIGADIER: It must. Keep trying.

DOCTOR: What's going on, Brigadier? You must hurry!
BRIGADIER: We're up to the maximum now, Doctor. It's still no good.
DOCTOR: You'll have to use the booster.
OSGOOD: If you do, sir, she'll blow us all sky high!
BRIGADIER: We're coming through, Doctor. Over and out. Booster on.
OSGOOD: But sir.
BRIGADIER: Damn it, man. Get on with it.

Unfortunately The Brigadier thinks the machine's sole purpose is to get him and his men in....

BRIGADIER: Look, it's working! Right, it's still hot, but passable. Right, start up and keep to the tunnel.
DOCTOR: Look, what's going on, Brigadier?
BRIGADIER: We're through, Doctor. Over.
DOCTOR: What, all of you?
BRIGADIER: Yes, but not the machine.
DOCTOR: Well, that should have come through first.
BENTON: Doctor, look.
DOCTOR: The exchanger is working. It's bleeding off the energy.
BRIGADIER: Come on, man, bring it through! Get a move on!
OSGOOD: Sir! Right, Jenkins.
BRIGADIER: You can stop worrying, Doctor. We're through.
DOCTOR: And about time, too. Now get it over here fast!
BRIGADIER: Right.
OSGOOD: Sir! Sir, I can't stop it! It's running away!
BRIGADIER: Osgood, out of it! Get down, all of you! Osgood, get down, man!
DOCTOR: Brigadier? Brigadier, are you all right?
BRIGADIER: The machine's gone west. Blown itself up. Be with you right away. Over and out.
DOCTOR: A fat lot of good that'll do.

Oh dear. Fortunately the Doctor can take advantage of the effect the machine had had on Bok to nip past him and into the cavern so is missing when The Brigadier shows up to deliver one of the most quoted lines in Doctor Who:

BRIGADIER: Where's the Doctor?
YATES: Gone in there, sir.
BRIGADIER: Then what are we waiting for? Let's get after him.
YATES: Wait, sir. Look.
BRIGADIER: What the blazes is that? Some kind of ornament?
YATES: Not exactly, sir. Watch.
BRIGADIER: Yes, I see what you mean. Never mind, we'll soon fix him. Jenkins!
JENKINS: Sir.
BRIGADIER: Chap with the wings there. Five rounds rapid!

The effect is, of course, absolutely negligible and leads to UNIT blazing away at Bok with everything they've got up to and including a bazooka!

Meanwhile the Doctor is trying to recall who the Master's power mad ravings is reminding him of

MASTER: Well? You waste time. I order you to kill him, Azal!
AZAL: I command. I do not obey.
MASTER: But I called you here and you came?
AZAL: I answered your call because the time was come for my awakening. The time has come for the completion of the experiment or its destruction.
MASTER: Then fulfil your mission by granting the ultimate power to me. Who else is there strong enough to give these humans the leadership they need?
DOCTOR: I seem to remember somebody else speaking like that. What was the bounder's name? Hitler. Yes, that's right, Adolf Hitler. Or was it Genghis Khan?

The episode is all going well until the point where the Doctor refuses Azal's power

AZAL: You refuse my gift?
DOCTOR: Of course I do! Don't you understand? I want you to leave. I want you to go away and give man a chance to grow up.
AZAL: I cannot. My instructions are precise. I bequeath my power or I destroy all.
MASTER: Then you will give your power to me?
AZAL: I shall. Time is short.
MASTER: What about him?
AZAL: He is not rational. He is disruptive. He must be eliminated.

JO: No! No, he's a good man! Kill me, not him!
AZAL: This action does not relate. There is no data. It does not relate. Go! Leave me, all of you!

So Jo offers herself up as a sacrifice in exchange for the Doctor's life and Azal clutches his head, starts yelling the Dæmon equivalent of "Does not compute" then collapses and explodes! I'm sorry but what is going on there? Deary me.

Still it gives Christopher Barry and Barry Letts an opportunity to play with the Top of the Pops video effects box as they kill Azal!

I'd never noticed before but the point where Bok becomes a statue again he resumes the pose he had in the cavern!

We then get the famous church exploding scene which prompted letters to the Radio Times from viewers, convinced by the model sequence who were convinced the BBC had blown up the actual village church!

BRIGADIER: What happened in there, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Well, by a ridiculous and foolhardy act of self-sacrifice, Jo here has managed to save us.
JO: I did?
DOCTOR: You did. You see, Azal couldn't face an act as irrational and as illogical as her being prepared to give up her life for me. Look, Jo, why don't you go and get out of that ridiculous garb?

Jo's sent inside to change, how does she get her clothes back, weren't they left in the cavern when she was forced to wear the sacrificial robe?

Benton, who's had a cracking few episodes then gets the privilege of metaphorically slipping the cuffs on the Master!

The Master is then driven off accompanied by, so the story goes, boos from the onlooking crowd of villagers!

The closing moments of the story are superb with Benton being dragged off to the maypole by Miss Hawthorne, who had rather taken as shine to him!

HAWTHORNE: The May day miracle has happened again. The Earth is born anew. Sergeant, we must do the fertility dance to celebrate.
BENTON: Oh, no, I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm still rather busy.
HAWTHORNE: Oh, nonsense, Sergeant. Come along.
JO: Come on, Doctor!

They are followed rather more willingly by Jo and The Doctor....

... leaving Captain Yates and The Brigadier outside the pub!

YATES: Fancy a dance, Brigadier?
BRIGADIER: It's kind of you, Captain Yates. I think I'd rather have a pint!

Then we get a lovely shot at the end, pulling back from the green, that must have been filmed from the church tower which is at that end of the village green.

DOCTOR: You're right, Jo, there is magic in the world after all.

I can see why The Dæmons was so popular for so long. The regular cast are superb throughout, with Benton & Yates being given loads to do, The Master being superb and only the Brigadier being relegated to the background but even then his brief moments on screen are superb and some of the best performances that Nick Courtney gives. Against that the serial is essentially a lot of mucking around in between the dig and Azal's final appearance, which in turn is one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in Doctor Who so far!

The Coven Members in the cavern are mainly made up from those playing villagers elsewhere in the story: Charles Shaw Hesketh, Geoffrey Witherick, Rex Rashley, Michael Moore, Bill Burridge, Laurence Archer, John Tatham, David J. Grahame and Vic Taylor. The presence of John Scott Martin in the coven is interesting: his village character Charlie seemed to be needing some threat to get him to cooperate in episode 3 so is it Charlie in robes the cavern or not? Inevitably the villagers in the coven are supplemented by the presence of Pat Gorman!

But playing Jones, the cultist that interrupts Jo's sacrifice in this episode, is Matthew Corbett, son of Harry Corbett the creator of Sooty. The Dæmons was his television d�but. He went on to form a singing group with Rod Burton and his then wife Jane Tucker (daughter of Doctor Who director Rex Tucker) known as Rod, Jane & Matthew, who appeared in the children's TV series Rainbow becoming a fixture. When Matthew left the group to take over the Sooty role he was replaced by first Roger Walker and then Freddy Marks to eventually become Rod, Jane & Freddy. Three other Who Alumni have Rainbow associations: Daleks voice artists Peter Hawkins and Roy Skelton both provided voices for the puppets Zippy and George while Bungle the Bear was at one time played by K-9 voice artist John Leeson.

Earlier in this story I was left with the question of who plays Mr Granville, the villager deserted by his wife. A similar question arises here in the last episode: who plays Jenkins, much mentioned in the last few episodes and seen on screen here shooting at Bok?

The DWAS Doctor Who production file says the UNIT soldiers in episodes 3-5 are: Jim Davidson, Paul Stone, George Mackie, Andrew Butcher, Terry Denton and possibly Ron Taylor with Frank Bennett, Raymond James and Ray Taylor serving as UNIT drivers. In addition the following are down as Villagers/coven member/UNIT Soldiers for episode 5: Daryl Grove, Terry Relph, Gary Edwards, Robert James, Clive Wentzal, Roger Marcham, Monty Yerger, Dave Martin, S Ford, S Madden, Jerry Melbourne and Robin Ford. So if you know which of them plays Jenkins, then let me know please!

An obituary for Damaris Hayman, who played Miss Hawthorne in this story, appeared in the Guardian last Monday written by Toby Hadoke.

The novelization of this story was carried out by Barry Letts, one of it's co-authors. It's the only Doctor Who TV Series novelization that he wrote and, like the previous story The Colony in Space/The Doomsday Weapon, is still held in very high regard. I am somewhat surprised that in three rounds of Target book reprints by the BBC that neither The Dæmons or the Doomsday Weapon, the novelisation of the previous story Colony in Space, have been re-released!

The Dæmons was repeated on BBC1 on the 28th December 1971 in a 90 minute omnibus edition. In 1992 the story was colourised using the colour signal from 525 line home video recordings and the BBC 16mm black & white film prints. The original colour restoration was infinitely preferable to the previous black & white, but was quite a murky looking colour restoration, easily the worst of the four done for VHS. This may well be down to the original material, episode 4, still existing on it's original 625 line video, always looked a bit murky compared with other existing Pertwee episodes. The colour restored version was shown on BBC2 in 1992 from 20th November to 18th December and again on BBC4 21st - 22nd October 2007.

Somewhat ironically, for a story that mentions it in the first two episodes, The Dæmons was never repeated on BBC3!

This final episode of The Dæmons was the first to be released on video in March 1992, when a black & white copy accompanied Inferno episode 7 and Frontier in Space episode 6 in The Pertwee Years. Following the story's colour restoration for it's 1992 repeat the entire story was released on video in 1993.

A phantom DVD listing for this story existed for many years on Amazon UK which, along with a commentary which was recorded some years in advance, led many to believe that a DVD of this story was coming a lot sooner than it did!

The story was eventually released on DVD on 26 March 2012 complete with a new improved colour restoration and a tribute to it's co-author Barry Letts who died in 2009.

Doctor Who Season 8, containing this story, was released on Blu Ray on March 8th.

Fifty Years of Doctor Who returns with episode 304 Day of the Daleks Episode 1, the start of Season 9, on 1st January 2022!