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.
In the serial, the alien time traveller the Master (Roger Delgado) awakens the ancient horned alien Azal (Stephen Thorne) in a cavern beneath an English church, with the Master intending to be granted Azal's immense power.
Plot
In the village of Devil's End, an archaeological dig is excavating the infamous Devil's Hump, a Bronze Age burial mound. 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. After watching a television broadcast about the dig the Third Doctor tells Jo that Miss Hawthorne is right – the dig must be stopped, and so the two make preparations to depart.
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 Doctor and Jo reach the mound and the Doctor rushes inside to stop the dig, but it is too late. 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.
The leader of the dig perishes, but the Doctor somehow recovers, presumably due to his alien physiology. 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. From this, the Doctor realises that the Master is trying to conjure up an ancient and all-powerful demon, who is seen on Earth to be the Devil but is an alien. The Doctor explains that the Dæmons have used Earth as a giant experiment throughout its history, becoming part of human myth. The Master has called the Dæmon up once, and right now, it is so small as to be invisible. The third summoning, however, could signal the end of the experiment, and the world.
The Master summons up Azal again and demands to be given the Dæmon's power, but Azal warns him that he is not the Master's servant. Azal says on his third appearance, he will decide if Earth deserves to continue existing. If so, he will give it to the Master. Azal then vanishes in another heat wave.
The Doctor is captured by a mob of villagers working for the Master. They tie him up to a maypole and plan to burn him alive, but with the help of Miss Hawthorne and Benton he escapes. In the Church cavern Jo and Yates watch as the Master summons Azal one last time. They try to interrupt the ritual but are taken prisoner. As Jo is prepared as a sacrifice to Azal, the Brigadier manages to get through the heat barrier and enter the village. The Doctor manages to avoid Bok, who is guarding the Church and gets into the cavern, where the Master is expecting him. Outside, UNIT troops are held back by Bok.
The Doctor and the Master both try to appeal to Azal but for opposite reasons. The huge, devil-like figure decides to give his power to the Master, and fires electricity at the Doctor to kill him. However, Jo, steps in front of the Doctor, asking Azal to kill her instead. Azal is unable to comprehend this illogical act of self-sacrifice, and his power turns against him, destroying himself and the Church. The Master tries to escape but is captured by the UNIT troops and taken away. The Doctor, Jo, Miss Hawthorne and the UNIT team join the villagers in their May Day celebrations.
Production
The Dæmons began life as an audition scene for the companion Jo Grant. The audition sequence went on to be written into episode four. 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. The Master was originally intended to worship the demon in a church setting, standing on an altar. However, owing to fears that this might upset religious viewers, the scenes were reset in a crypt. This was subsequently revised again, and the crypt was called a cavern, although the set resembled a church crypt. Letts initially intended to write the story himself but found himself short of time due to his role as a series producer. His wife suggested a friend of hers, Robert Sloman, who was a playwright and journalist. Together they worked on the script in the evening after work. At the time, however, the BBC frowned upon production staff writing for their series and so Letts and Sloman decided on the pseudonym Guy Leopold - Sloman's son and Letts' middle name respectively. The working title for this story was The Demons, which was commissioned on 17 December 1970. The scripts were completed by mid-February 1971 and worked on by Dicks, who had barely completed work on them by the time the story went into pre-production in March.
Much of the serial was filmed on location in Aldbourne, Wiltshire. 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. Membury Airfield in Berkshire and Bridge Farm, Ramsbury, were also used briefly as locations. Filming began on 19 April 1971 and saw pleasant, sunny weather for the first week, leading to sudden overnight snow in the second week – causing filming to be delayed. Some episode one scenes were filmed at night – a rarity for the show, although some of these scenes were filmed during daylight with a dark filter put over the camera lens.
The incantation that the Master uses in summoning Azal is actually the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb" said backwards, as well as Damaris Hayman's name said backwards.