It’s pretty rare for Doctor Who to deal with Black
Magic or the occult, yet it was so ubiquitous in 70’s horror and sci-fi
that the trope sponge that was classic Doctor Who was bound to soak it
up at some stage.
The Doctor and Jo head to a little village of Devil’s
End where an archeologist is opening a Bronze Age burial mound known as
Devil’s Hump (I can hear you sniggering up the back you know). After a
mysterious murder (actually it’s really mysterious since in the story
it’s never explained); they encounter the local White Witch Mrs Hawthorn
who is deadest against the calling up of dark arts but the Doctor
assures us that there is no such thing. Meanwhile in a really subversive
move it turns out that the local Vicar is in fact the Master who has to
have something to do with his spare time. It turns out what he does with
his spare time is study Black Magic so he can call down spirits, make
statues come alive and summon up the Devil. The Doctor keeps assuring us
that it’s just science; taking the whole “any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from Magic” thing about as far as it
will go. When the barrow is opened there is a tremendous explosion that
freezes everything. When the boys at UNIT see this they rush down to
Devil’s End except the Brigadier who is out for a “Night at the Opera,”
which I choose to believe is code for him attending a Queen concert.
When the Village is encased in a force field and people start being
murdered things look desperate. Don’t worry, I’m sure the Doctor will
think of something, once he’s been unfrozen.
The Daemons is a cast and fan favorite, and with good
reason. A solid sci-fi story combined with a classic English Village
setting, the Dark arts and the Master. What more do you want?
Video: Ok, this has been through the ringer make no
mistake. There were no surviving copies of the Daemons in color except
for episode 3 and what there was, was a black and white film copy that
had been copied overseas and a color beatamax version that had been
videotaped in the late 70’s. To get the color master we have today these
were combined back in the 90’s for the video version. Great! Imagine
what we could do now with our advanced technology! Well you’ll have to
keep on imagining because this looks like it hasn’t been touched. It
looks terrible. What might have been passable on a CRT off video in the
90’s now looks so blocky I had to be sure that I wasn’t watching the
Lego version. And that’s with a really good up scaling Blu-ray player.
A real shame that there wasn’t more done to it as this is a really well
respected story. Look at all the love that was poured into “Tomb of the
Cybermen” and deservedly so, and how well that turned out, but why
doesn’t this get the love?
Audio: Audio is fine a little grainy at times but
fine
Special Features: The Devil Rides Out.
Surviving cast and crew talk about the making of this story.
Remembering Barry Letts. A comprehensive look at the life and
work of the late Barry Letts, with a particularly moving tribute from
Terrance Dicks.
Location Film. A silent look at the location filming done for
the episode.
Colourisation Test. The original colourisation test version of
episode 1 from 1992.
Tomorrow’s World. A segment from an episode about the restoration
of this episode from 1992.
Where is Return to Devils End the documentary that accompanied
the VHS release?
