Doctor Who/The Dæmons

The Dæmons
Season 8, Serial 5
Airdate	May 22, 1971
Production Number	JJJ
by	Guy Leopold
Directed by	Christopher Barry
← 8x04 Colony in Space	9x01 → Day of the Daleks
Doctor Who — Season Eight

This article about an episode needs to be expanded with more information. Please help out by editing it.

The Dæmons is the fifth serial of the eighth season of Doctor Who, and the fifty-ninth serial overall.

Episode One: Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart), Roger Delgado (The Master), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Damaris Hayman (Miss Hawthorne), Don McKillop (Bert the Landlord), Rollo Gamble (Winstanley), Robin Wentworth (Prof. Horner), David Simeon (Alastair Fergus), James Snell (Harry), John Joyce (Garvin), Eric Hillyard (Dr. Reeves), Jon Croft (Tom Girton), Christopher Wray (PC Groom)

Episode Two: Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart), Roger Delgado (The Master), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Damaris Hayman (Miss Hawthorne), Don McKillop (Bert the Landlord), Rollo Gamble (Winstanley), John Joyce (Garvin), Jon Croft (Tom Girton), Eric Hillyard (Dr. Reeves), James Snell (Harry), Christopher Wray (PC Groom), Gerald Taylor (Baker's Man), Stanley Mason (Bok)

Episode Three: Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart), Roger Delgado (The Master), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Damaris Hayman (Miss Hawthorne), Don McKillop (Bert the Landlord), Rollo Gamble (Winstanley), Eric Hillyard (Dr. Reeves), Jon Croft (Tom Girton), Alec Linstead (Sgt. Osgood), John Owens (Thorpe), Stanley Mason (Bok)

Episode Four: Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart), Roger Delgado (The Master), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Damaris Hayman (Miss Hawthorne), Don McKillop (Bert the Landlord), Alec Linstead (Sgt. Osgood), John Owens (Thorpe), Stephen Thorne (Azal), The Headington Quarry Men (Morris Dancers)

Episode Five: Jon Pertwee (Doctor Who), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart), Roger Delgado (The Master), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates), John Levene (Sergeant Benton), Damaris Hayman (Miss Hawthorne), Don McKillop (Bert the Landlord), Alec Linstead (Sgt. Osgood), John Owens (Thorpe), Matthew Corbett (Jones), Stanley Mason (Bok), Stephen Thorne (Azal)

Uncredited: Christopher Barry (Voice of RAF pilot Red Zero-Four), Nicholas Courtney (BBC3 Announcer)

Trivia

The Show

• Episode three's cliffhanger is the only time such a cliffhanger ends depicting the Master in peril.

• The symbols on the collar of the Master's ceremonial robe are from the sixteenth century occult alphabet known as Theban. From left to right they translate to "Master".

• Miss Hawthorne calls the Doctor "the great wizard Quiquaequod." Qui, quae, and quod are all versions of the Latin for "who".

• Although Barry Letts requested during his time as producer that The Dæmons be retained complete in the BBC Archives as an example of 1970s Doctor Who, the 625 line PAL colour videotapes of episodes one, two, three and five were either erased for reuse or junked, with only episode four surviving in this format. 16mm black-and-white film telerecordings of the story, made for overseas sales to countries not yet broadcasting in colour, were retained for the other episodes.

• This was Jon Pertwee's favourite serial.

Behind the Scenes

• The area under the church is always referred to as "the cavern", never "the crypt". This was a BBC directive given to producer Barry Letts, to avoid potentially offending religious sensibilities. Similarly, no mention of God was permitted to be made in the story's dialogue in case this was considered to be blasphemous (which was still a criminal offence at the time). However, references to the Devil were acceptable.

• The incantation used by the Master to summon Azal is the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb" spoken backwards. It was originally going to be either the Lord's Prayer or "The Ballad of Eskimo Nell" spoken backwards, but this was objected to.

• The shot of the exploding helicopter is actually an unused shot from the James Bond film From Russia With Love. It had been used earlier, albeit in black-and-white, in The Enemy of the World.