Daemons in Levenshulme

"Miss Hawthorne is the sacrifice that Azal requires!"

Writer: Paul Magrs

Format: Short Story

Released: October 2025

Printed in: The Adventures After 03

Featuring: Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz

Synopsis

Discover what happened after...

A remarkable collection of new Doctor Who short stories that give a glimpse into the moments just after the Doctor saves the world, and the credits roll.

The Doctor has had many adventures, visited many planets and made a whole host of friends (and some enemies). 

But if you thought it was all over after the TARDIS doors closed, and the time ship dematerialised, onto the next adventure, you'd be very much mistaken.

From Earth's past, present and future, to the furthest reaches of the universe, here are eight tales that give us a glimpse into the worlds the Doctor left behind. Sometimes triumph, sometimes tragedy (and always chaos) these are stories you'll never forget.

Verdict

Daemons in Levenshulme was a great story to continue my way through The Adventures After collection of sequels! I think The Daemons is a fine serial to do a sequel to as that is one that has a considerable amount of lore and a very high standing in fandom, but I would not have expected it to be done with the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz! I'm going into reading these stories very dry on what exactly the sequels are apart from the image at the start of the chapter and I can only then guess which Doctor and companion combination will feature. This was a really nice surprise as I think the Thirteenth Doctor is severely under appreciated and whilst her wonderful surprise cameo at the end of The Reality War is helping people readjust their opinion alongside the glorious Thirteenth Doctor Adventures at Big Finish which are selling out, it's lovely to see this incarnation getting a lot of love. I think it's wonderful to bring a cult classic monster like the Daemons and Azal back but having the Doctor and now the Master as well in female form. I thought it was great stuff to acknowledge how terribly modern this all was and that came from the wonderful returning Miss Hawthorne! I don't think it would have been really possible to do a Daemons sequel without her and here she was at the ripe age of one-hundred-and-two still going strong! The fact she has a cat named Benton was fun stuff but as a cat owner myself, I can't believe how she copes with twenty-five of the feline creatures running around! That would drive me insane. I thought Missy returning here in the role of Ms Magister was tremendous and I loved the continuity from The Wonderful Doctor of Oz in acknowledging that this is not the first time the two female incarnations have faced off. Missy acknowledging that they had gotten a little out of sync was a nice touch although I reckon she'd have been just fine with the Scottish fella showing up instead. Referencing that the Doctor was still adjusting to the revelations of her past in Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children was strong stuff and I thought Yaz was good in going with the flow of the story. However, I would have expected more from her when it came to Missy being present as a female incarnation of the Master. Given everything he put her through in Spyfall and the aforementioned Series 12 finale, I thought she would have reacted more. I do wish she got to properly confront her also! I liked the reunion between the Doctor and Miss Hawthorne and the latter reacted well to finding out that the woman was the Doctor she once knew. That was very nice indeed and she complimented the Doctor and Yaz very nicely! She was clearly concerned by the coming of the Devil himself once again although the Doctor was on hand to explain to her companion that it was actually a race of demons from Daemos. Yaz being intrigued by aliens possibly providing the basis for historic myths and legends was fun stuff and something good to ponder. I must admit, I was a tad disappointed by the resolution in having Azal almost be reformed as a demon. I'm not sure that's the right move but it's certainly different! I think it was trying to highlight the change of the modern world compared to 1971 which I'm fine with, it just felt almost like a letdown after a very strong build. The fact he then subjected Missy to the microcosm in which he had escaped his fate was fascinating as that would be something fun to explore with her frustrations at ruling over nothing more than dust and atoms. But then maybe she's not there at all with it seemingly being the case that this reformed Azal was a projection all along? Perhaps a little too much ambiguity there, but still a really lovely read. Overall, a fun little story to continue the collection! 

Rating: 8/10