The Dæmons is the fifth and final serial of the eighth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts on BBC1 from 22 May to 19 June 1971.
A local white witch, Olive Hawthorne arrives to protest, warning of great evil and the coming of the horned beast, but she is dismissed as a crank.
Miss Hawthorne goes to see the new local vicar, the Reverend Magister who is the Master – he tries to assure her that her fears are unfounded, but his hypnosis fails to overcome her will.
Backed by a group of followers, the Master is conducting ceremonies in the cavern below the Church to summon up Azal, a force of evil.
The tomb door opens and icy gusts of wind rush out, freezing both the leader of the dig and the Doctor, while a stone gargoyle, Bok, seemingly comes alive.
Captain Mike Yates and Sergeant Benton arrive at the village the following morning, but the Brigadier, arriving later, finds himself unable to enter the village, as there is an invisible dome-shaped barrier, 10 miles in diameter and one mile high, surrounding it that causes anything trying to enter to heat up and burst into flame.
He contacts Yates and is briefed on the situation while the Doctor and Jo return to the dig where they find a small spaceship in the mound, which has been condensed.
Producer Barry Letts was keen to write for the show and decided that a story dealing in black magic would be interesting as well as frightening.
Script editor Terrance Dicks had reservations however, stating that people may view it as Satanist, and so it was reworked as strictly scientific with occultist themes.
[1] Letts initially intended to write the story himself but found himself short of time due to his role as a series producer.
[1] Director Christopher Barry had worked on Doctor Who before, but wasn't particularly keen to return as he preferred to concentrate on less genre-specific productions.
The location shoot was awarded two weeks of filming, more than double the usual amount at the time, leading to a lot of the finished story being set outside, rather than in the studio.
Filming for the serial caused great excitement in Aldbourne, with a lot of the village residents appearing as extras, as well as the Headington Quarry Morris dancers performing dances in episodes four and five.
Future television presenter and Sooty puppeteer, Matthew Corbett had a brief role in the final episode as a hooded coven member who objects to the sacrifice of Jo Grant, and was suggested to the production team by friend Katy Manning.
[3] Other guest actors in the story include Don McKillop as the pub landlord, John Joyce as Garvin and Stephen Thorne as Azal.
[4] The clip of the Brigadier's helicopter blowing up as it crashes into the heat shield is borrowed from the James Bond film From Russia with Love.
[6] Following the transmission of episode one, the story was discussed by BBC1 controller Paul Fox and Richard Levin, head of television design, who both commended the quality of the script and production.
This version was abridged and unsuitable for transmission as it was not of broadcast standard (the US recordings were made on a domestic Betamax VCR from a KCET repeat in 1978).
[11] Doctor Who fan Ian Levine tried to retrieve the original NTSC videotapes from KCET, but had discovered that they had been wiped and reused a few weeks before his visit.
[16] Arnold T. Blumberg of IGN gave The Dæmons a score of 10 out of 10, describing it as "a high point of this Doctor’s time on the show, a classic of the entire series in general, and an amazing document of a particular kind of fantasy horror adventure storytelling so wonderfully '70s and British that it just never loses its charm".
[19] Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping were also unimpressed by the serial, noting its popularity but stating "The Dæmons isn't very good.
[20] In Doctor Who: The Complete Guide, Mark Campbell awarded it six out of ten, describing it as a "wannabe occult chiller" which "gradually dissipates into a technobabble-filled damp squib".
The script of this serial, credited to Robert Sloman and Barry Letts edited by John McElroy, and titled The Daemons [sic], was published by Titan Books in October 1992.
[25] The DVD included an audio commentary, on-screen text notes, a retrospective documentary "The Devil Rides Out" in which cast & crew looked back on the making of the serial, and an obituary documentary "Remembering Barry Letts" in which family and colleagues looked back over the life and work of the writer/producer/director.