The King's Demons

"Chaos shall reign and I shall be its Emperor!"

Writer: Terence Dudley

Format: TV

Broadcast: 15th - 16th March 1985

Season: 20.06

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough

Synopsis 

England, March 1215. King John is visiting the castle of Sir Ranulph Fitzwilliam. The arrival of the TARDIS disturbs a medieval joust, but the Doctor and his companions are proclaimed to be friendly demons by the King, who seems strangely interested in their 'blue engine'.

It soon becomes clear that neither King John or his Champion, Sir Gilles Estram, are who they pretend to be. One of the Doctor's oldest and deadliest enemies threatens the future of democracy on Earth, and he must be stopped!  

Verdict 

The King's Demons is a great little story to conclude the landmark twentieth season of Doctor Who. After the eventful 'Black Guardian Trilogy' that saw the Doctor reunited with old friend the Brigadier, Nyssa's departure and Turlough's arrival, this is a nice place to drop in with the season with a relatively calm feel. I really liked the plot and the setting and even if the Master's disguise was pretty poor, the fact that we knew the revelation was coming filled me with great anticipation. Before blogging this story I read a little about how the adventure was perceived in the Radio Times and I find it pretty funny how JNT went to the trouble of having the Master's return hidden only for him to basically just dye his hair and grow a beard! I did think it was clever to go under the name of Estram though. This is only the second Classic era adventure I've blogged and I really am looking forward to getting stuck into them but with my A2 exams looming I'm struggling to find the time to consistently blog as I had been most of 2015. I'm still aiming for 20 stories a month but for now revision has to be my priority. The TARDIS arriving into 13th century England in the middle of a joust was rather funny! I like how the Doctor just calmly sauntered out as if what just happened was normal. The portrayal of King John was intriguing but of course there was later a big revelation regarding that. The sword fight that closed part one between the Doctor and Estram was excellent and cast my mind back to The Sea Devils where the two, in previous incarnations, also engaged in sword combat. Just like then, the Doctor got the upper hand. Or so he thought. Then came the looming cliffhanger of the Master breaking the disguise and immediately taking control. I loved the disguise of his TARDIS, a very eloquent hiding place. The story wasn't the best one for companions with Turlough just locked away and Tegan not offering much at all to the Doctor. Peter Davison was brilliant as the Fifth Doctor and showed signs of why on my original DVD hunting where I was watching these Classics for the first time, I considered him to be my favourite Doctor. That has since been revised but I do hold a soft spot for Davison's incarnation I must admit. The plot of the Master, though something possibly more likely to be associated with the Monk, was fantastic. As I was earlier speaking of my upcoming A2 exams, the references to Magna Carta and the fact that the Master was intent on preventing that Act being signed by the King was wonderful! Imagine a world ravaged by a lack of parliamentary democracy. There would be chaos indeed. However, the Doctor knew something was wrong and that's when the revelation surrounding King John was revealed. He was actually a shape shifting robot known as Kamelion! I really liked the idea with the robot being controlled by mind. The battle of wits between the Doctor and the Mastet was a superb moment. I like how the Doctor got the upper hand and decided to take Kamelion inside the TARDIS. The Master got away but the Doctor used his own tissue compression eliminator against him to meddle with his TARDIS dimensions! Overall, a great little plot. The disguise of the Master could obviously have been better but a decent little season finale.

Rating: 8/10