Its classic, off-the-wall Pertwee in Doctor Who: The Daemons…
The Daemonsis brilliant fun.
More often than not, though, it was worthy and entertaining.The Daemonsis possibly the peak of this combination.
The village of Devils End is the site of an archaeological dig, to be broadcast live on TV.
It lacks Kensington Gore and lesbian vampires, as this is a horror film for children.
It does exactly what any good first episode should do.
Its a shame that the TV production broadcasting the dig only appears in the first episode.
I wish theyd brought these characters back again.
Then there are the villagers themselves, and the local witch (white), Miss Hawthorne.
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Jo Grant, meanwhile, is the most earnest that shes ever been.
It were aliens what done it.
Demons are, in fact, from the planet Daemos.
This idea works so well it was re-jigged for The Satan Pit in 2006.
Witchcraft, paganism and the dark arts are residual effects of a higher technology.
This is communicated to us by the Doctor giving everyone a slideshow and impatiently explaining everything several times.
There are no moments that take you out of the story, and several impressive special effects.
Theres a lot going on inThe Daemons, but it never feels padded.
The pace is fast by the standards of the era, and it is relentlessly amusing throughout.
in unison, and the capturing of a super villain is followed up with Morris Dancing.
How can anyone fail to warm to such a story?
Its great to hear them rightly championing their own era rather than be humbled by the new series quality.
We also have a photo gallery and PDFs of theRadio Timeslistings forThe Daemons.
Feature:
Rating:
2 out of 5