The Daemons

This story illustrates the problem with a show like Doctor Who having the same villain every single story. In the previous four stories, the Master has formed an alliance with the plastic Autons to take over the world, tried to take over the world with a machine that eats Evil, and then impersonated an Earth bureaucrat in hopes of claiming a weapon that could take over the universe. Here, he decides to impersonate an Anglican priest so he can start a devil-worship cult in hopes of convincing an alien who is the basis for depictions of the devil to give him the power to rule the Earth. it's like the Sesame Street sketch, "One of these things not like the other..."

This just doesn't fit with what we've seen of the Master in the previous four stories. The problem with having the same villain story after story, is you have stories that are plausible for the character to do and if you don't, it's really hard to suspend disbelief. And the script doesn't help as the Master spends the episode alternately overacting or just walking around mumbling, or in some scenes just staring really weirdly off in one direction or another.

The plot itself meanders from one implausible turn to another. Even within the limits that yes, this is Doctor Who, the characters don't act believably. They act in a very contrived manner, particularly Jo with her decision to recklessly get herself captured by the Master. It doesn't help that this is a season ending serial, so the effect are downright awful. The creature in the cave at the end of Episode 2 had me laughing as he headed into the cave rather than cringing with suspense.

If one or two of the silly things that happened in this serial happened in another, I'd just smile at the charm of it. However, all that was included in this story was really too stupid to keep the serial afloat from the Doctor being captured by May Pole dancers, to the silly looking demon minion, to the master knowing full well that this creature was an alien and doing things that would only gain him points if the creature was actually a demon, to the doctor's convoluted pseudoscience explanation of the supernatural, to the master escaping Sergeant Benton by throwing his robe at him. This serial got worse as it went on, right up through the contrived ending. This story is fodder for Riff Trax.

The bright sides of this story are few. Pertwee's performance is good throughout most of the story until Episode Five (he even gets to tell someone to rever the polarity) and Nicholas Courtney is solid as the Brigadier. The series started with some promise with the BBC on the scene but then went downhill quickly. Overall, this is a dreadful performance that just doesn't stand up.