Directed by Christopher Barry
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Jo - Katy Manning
The Brigadier - Nicholas Courtney
Yates - Richard Franklin
Benton - John Levene
The Master - Roger Delgado
Main Guest Cast-
Miss Hawthorne - Damaris Hayman
Professor Horner - Donald Wentworth
Fergus - David Simeon
Sgt. Osgood - Alec Linstead
Bert - Don McKillop
Synopsis-
The unearthing of the Devil's Hump, near the village Devil's End is being filmed for BBC Three. The local white witch, Miss Hawthorne, warns Professor Horner to stop work on the excavation. Miss Hawthorne warns of an arrival of a horned beast, and of the end of the world.
The Doctor, after watching the television coverage, decides to investigate and takes Jo along with him. He's arrives too late to stop the digging and both he and Professor Horner are caught in the cold blast of air emanating from the tomb.
The Doctor eventually recovers, and tell everyone of the menace they now face, an extraterrestrial entity known as a Dæmon. The Doctor also discovers that The Master is also in the village, posing as the new vicar and that The Master hopes to gain control of the Dæmon in order to control the Earth.
At the Dæmon's final appearance, it offers it's powers to The Doctor first, who turns them down. The Dæmon then offers them to The Master, who accepts. The Dæmon attempts to kill The Doctor, but Jo attempts to sacrifice herself to save The Doctor by jumping between the Dæmon and The Doctor. This confuses the Dæmon, and the Dæmon's power is turned back upon itself.
The Master is captured by UNIT personnel, while The Doctor, Jo, the villagers and other UNIT personnel celebrate their victory at a May Day celebration.
Review-
The Dæmons reminds me a great deal of the Fourth Doctor "gothic" era, which brought us such classics as The Talons of Weng-Chiang and The Horror of Fang Rock. During that era, the "horror" aspect took precedence over straight forward sci-fi. The Dæmons is clearly in that mold, with the horror aspects taking the lead.
The black magic and occult references were deliberately toned down, the Dæmons may resemble the Devil, but they are clearly stated to be extra-terrestrial beings of great power. This was done, presumably, to keep those who might claim that the program was worshipping the Devil and/or black magic.
The Doctor is clearly a man of science and scoffs at the idea of "magic". This leads to a few funny bit, particularly at the beginning when The Doctor's car, Bessie, drives itself around. It turns out The Doctor is controlling Bessie by remote control but to the untrained eye it looks like "magic".
The Dæmons is one of the stronger Third Doctor stories, in my opinion, and a great way to close out the eighth series/season. Much like the later "gothic" era, I have a fondness for the more horrific stories, as I simply love a good scare.
However, I will admit one of the most satisfying parts of The Dæmons is the capture of The Master. As I mentioned in my review of Colony in Space, the idea of having the same villain in every story had begun to get stale. Now with The Master in UNIT custody, it means that the following series/season could feature other villians or monsters in addition to the Master.
Thanks to the capture of The Master in the Dæmons, it allows the series to feature other villians and monsters, and for the opener of the next series/season, we will witness the return of the most famous Doctor Who adversaries of them all, The Daleks.
