300 The Dæmons: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Dæmons: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 300
STORY NUMBER: 059
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 29 May 1971
WRITER: "Guy Leopold" (pseudonym for Robert Sloman and Barry Letts)
DIRECTOR: Christopher Barry
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 8 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Dæmons
EPISODE FORMAT: 16mm b&w film recording recoloured using 525 off air video

"Look, Miss Hawthorne, I agreed with you from the first about the danger, but now I think you're utterly mistaken. Whatever else you saw it certainly was not the Devil!"

Welcome to the 300th episode of Doctor Who!

Jo has the frozen Doctor taken to the village inn for treatment. Jo calls Mike Yates at Unit, who saw the event on TV, but is cut off. Yates & Benton decide to fly down first thing in the morning in the Brigadier's helicopter. At dawn an Earthquake shakes the village and the local PC, guarding the fig is killed. From the air Benton & Yates spot a line of giant hoof marks. They land on the village green and are taken to the inn by Jo who explains what's been happening. The Brigadier discovers his staff have all gone to Devil's End. Benton rescues Miss Hawthorne from the church where she's been held captive. A sudden heat wave revives the Doctor and creates a barrier round the village. Miss Hawthorne believes she's seen a 30 ft devil, but the Doctor disputes this. When she tells him that the local cult is headed by Mr Magister he realises that it's the Master, Magister being the Latin word for Master. The Brigadier discovers his way into the village blocked by the heat barrier. The Doctor goes to investigate the barrow, and finds the PC's body. Entering the barrow he finds a tiny space ship, reduced in size but is confronted by Bok the Gargoyle.

That was rather fun, enjoyed that. A fabulous performance from Nicholas Courtney who seems to be having a fab time in this episode. First he provides the BBC 3 announcer voice as they struggle to resume contact with the dig:

ANNOUNCER: We seem to have lost all contact with the barrow. We shall, of course, resume transmission as soon as we can. In the meantime, here's some music.

Then, in his usual role as The Brigadier he's talking to UNIT HQ from his bed:

BRIGADIER: The Doctor's gone? Gone where? Well, you should know, Corporal. I want to talk to him. What? Oh, all right then, wake up Miss Grant. I see. And I suppose she didn't leave a number either? I suppose it wouldn't do any good to ask for Captain Yates or Sergeant Benton? MY HELICOPTER? Where to? Devil's End. Yes, yes, I see. Get my car here right away. Yes, and if they do contact you, tell them to stay put.

The original plan here was for a woman's arm to have passed the phone to the brigadier when it rang!

Finally there's a lovely scene towards the end of the episode as Yates recaps over the radio to an incredulous Brigadier what's happened

YATES: And that's about it, sir. Over.
BRIGADIER: I see, Yates. So, the Doctor was frozen stiff at the barrow and was then revived by a freak heat wave. Benton was beaten up by invisible forces and the local white witch claims she's seen the Devil.
YATES: Yes, sir. I know it sounds a bit wild.
BRIGADIER: It does indeed, Yates. Now listen, I'm bringing up some men to investigate this heat barrier. Let me talk to the Doctor. Over.
YATES: I'm afraid you can't, sir. He's gone up to the dig with Jo. Over.
BRIGADIER: I see. Well, Yates, anything further revelations?
YATES: Just one, sir.
BRIGADIER: Well, what is it?
YATES: We've found out who's at the bottom of all this. It's the Master. Over and out.

Making a return to Doctor Who in this episode, as the Baker's Man, is sixties Doctor Who regular: Gerald Taylor. He first appeared in the sixth episode of Doctor Who, The Daleks part 2: The Survivors as a Dalek, a role he repeats in Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Chase, Mission to the Unknown, Dalek Masterplan, Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks and the Dr. Who and the Daleks film. He was in The Web Planet as a Zarbi and The War Machines as a War Machine and the Voice of Wotan. His first on screen appearance as a human was as Damon's Assistant in The Underwater Menace and he can be seen again as the heavily made up as Vega Nexos in Monster of Peladon episode 1. He's also in one of the currently missing Out of the Unknown second season episodes The Naked Sun as a robot.

Playing the village doctor Dr. Reeves is Eric Hillyard.

The Baker's Van and the Brigadier first encounter the heat barrier at the Airfield by Durrells farm now known as Ramsbury Airfield,.

Richard Bignell's Doctor Who On Location says that the Doctor's journey in Bessie during episode 1 is stopped by a fallen tree on The Lane by Oaken Coppice. Mr Bignell's book seems to think they remove the tree at the Airfield, as mentioned above, but I think in daylight it looks more like the location used at night and for the Brigadier's second encounter with the heat barrier which both the book and Doctor Who's On Location page for The Dæmons agree is the lane by Oaken Coppice!

More extras, this time more BBC3 TV Crewmembers. I guess they are those in the studio filmed scenes helping to dig the Doctor out at the barrow. Leslie Bates was in the very first episode of Doctor Who, An Unearthly Child, as the Shadow that falls across the Tardis at the end of the episode. He plays a Tribesman in The Cave of Skulls in the next episode, a Man at Lop in Marco Polo: The Roof of the World, a Mongol Warrior in Marco Polo Five Hundred Eyes and a Mongol Bandit in Rider from Shang-Tu. He's a Guard in The Massacre: Bell of Doom, a Villager at Inn / Pirate in The Smugglers and a 1862 Confederate Soldier in The War Games. He returns as a Lunar Guard in Frontier in Space episode three and a Draconian in Frontier in Space episode five, an Extra in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks. Anthony Case wasn't in the show before or since.

Ron Tingley is on debut and returns as a Naval Base Sailor / Rating in The Sea Devils and a Skybase Guard in The Mutants.

Also on debut is Steve Ismay and he's back as a Guerilla in Day of the Daleks episode three, Stills Cameraman in Day of the Daleks episode four, a Sea Devil in The Sea Devils, Varan's Bodyguard in The Mutants episode one, a Presidential Guard in Frontier in Space, a UNIT Soldier in The Time Warrior, an Army Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, an Exxilon in Death to the Daleks, a Guard in The Monster of Peladon, a Metabelis 3 Guard in Planet of the Spiders, a Guard in The Deadly Assassin, a Gracht Guard in The Androids of Tara, a Citizen in Full Circle and a Cyberman in Earthshock.