Production Code: JJJ
First Transmitted
1 - 22/05/1971 18:15
2 - 29/05/1971 18:10
3 - 05/06/1971 18:10
4 - 12/06/1971 18:10
5 - 19/06/1971 18:10
Plot
The Doctor becomes alarmed on seeing television coverage of an archaeological dig by a Professor Horner into an ancient barrow near the village of Devil's End. He hurries to the scene with Jo.
The Master is posing as the local vicar, Mr Magister, and using black magic rituals to summon Azal, the last of a race known as the Dæmons, whose miniaturised spaceship is buried within the barrow. Benton and Yates arrive in a UNIT helicopter but, before the Brigadier and his troops can join them, a heat barrier appears and cuts the village off from the outside world.
Azal will appear three times and on the last of these occasions will decide whether to transfer his awesome powers to another or to destroy the planet as a failed experiment. The Master hopes to be the recipient of the powers, but in the event Azal offers them to the Doctor instead. The Doctor declines, arguing that the human race should be allowed to develop at its own pace.
Azal decides to kill him, but Jo then offers to take his place and, unable to comprehend this act of self-sacrifice, the Dæmon self-destructs. The Master is finally captured by UNIT and taken away to await trial for his crimes against humanity.
Episode Endings
The Doctor and Jo arrive at the site of the dig at the stroke of midnight, just as Professor Horner breaks through a stone wall that he has uncovered. A freezing wind blasts through the hole, apparently killing both Horner and the Doctor.
The Doctor and Jo enter the barrow to investigate further. They find what looks like a model spaceship but the Doctor explains that it is a real ship that has been miniaturised. Suddenly, a gargoyle-like creature sent by the Master attacks them.
In a cavern beneath the village church, the Master summons Azal the Daemon. There is what appears to be a minor earthquake and the Master falls back, urging the Daemon to obey him.
The Master summons Azal once more, this time in a black magic ceremony involving his full coven of acolytes. Jo, who has been watching from hiding, tries to stop him. It is too late, as Azal materialises and grows to giant size before her eyes.
Azal's death results in a huge explosion that destroys the church. The Master is then captured by UNIT troops and driven away. As Devil's End starts to return to normal, the Doctor, Jo and Benton join the local white witch Miss Hawthorne in a dance around the maypole while the Brigadier and Yates retire to the pub for a drink.
Roots
The witchcraft comes via 60s British horror films like The Witches, Curse of the Crimson Altar and The Devil Rides Out, and the novels of Dennis Wheatley, with their village covens led by the vicar.
Quatermass and the Pit.
The Night of the Big Heat.
Invasion (specifically the heat barrier).
The Quatermass Experiment (interrupted TV broadcast).
Star Trek's Who Mourns for Adonis?
The Avengers' The House that Jack Built (the revolving signpost).
Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End.
The Midwich Cuckoos.
Village of the Damned.
Erich von Daniken.
There's a Conan Doyle pun ('Elemental, my dear Benton').
Benton carries a Walther 38, not quite James Bond's gun but close enough.
Jo mentions 'The Age of Aquarius' (Hair).
BBC2's live Chronicle broadcast of the Silbury Hill dig.
The Master's Black Mass is 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' backwards.
Lord Aldbourne's 18th century parody of black magic is mentioned, and there is a reference to Matthew Hopkins (Witchfinder General).
Miss Hawthorne modernizes and quotes Chaucer's Prologue to Canterbury Tales ('a very perfect gentle knight').
The Bok design derives from a Notre Dame gargoyle.
Dialogue Triumphs
Miss Hawthorne : [To the Master in the guise of Mr. Magister.] "A rationalist, existentialist priest indeed!"
Captain Mike Yates : "I see. So all we've got to deal with is something which is either too small to see or thirty feet tall, can incinerate you or freeze you to death, turn stone images into homicidal monsters and looks like the devil."
The Doctor : "Exactly."
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart : "Jenkins... chap with wings, there. Five rounds rapid."
Azal : [To the Master] "Take care, creature. With your few pitiful grains of knowledge, you have summoned me here. But I am not your slave, and you are not immortal!'"
Professor Horner : [is asked by Harry the TV producer what to do if the Devil puts in an appearance on live TV] "Use your initiative, lad, get your chatty friend to interview him!"
Continuity
Azal is the last of his race, from the planet Dæmos, which is 60,000 light years from Earth [on the other side of the Milky Way]. The Dæmons came to Earth 100,000 years ago to engineer mankind's genetic development. Azal says 'my race destroys its failures. Remember Atlantis' (cf. The Underwater Menace, The Time Monster).
The Dæmons arrived in time 'to help Homo Sapiens kick out Neanderthal Man... The Greek civilisation, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, they were all inspired by the Dæmons.' [Either through Azal's psychic influence or the Doctor simply means that Neanderthals wouldn't have achieved all that.] Azal can control his size, and that of objects, [and can create or animate stone robot creatures like Bok].
Yates and Benton watch highlights of a Rugby international [judging from Bill McLaren's commentary, it's England versus Scotland], while the Brigadier goes to a regimental dinner. Afterwards, they discover he has 'gone on somewhere' [with somebody, it seems]. Benton pilots the UNIT helicopter to Devil's End. The Brigadier's car has the numberplate OLR 461 E [dating it to contemporary times]. He mentions having contacted Nuton in episode 4 (meaning that the station has been rebuilt since The Claws of Axos).
Alastair Fergus is the linkman for BBC3's The Passing Parade.
QV
Location
Devil's End, [Wiltshire, 30 April-1 May 1971].
Links
When the Doctor reveals Azal is an alien, Benton asks 'like the Axons or the Cybermen?'
Untelevised
The Doctor has possibly met Hitler and/or Genghis Khan [whom he hadn't when he met Kublai Khan].
Trivia
The area under the church is always referred to as 'the cavern' and never 'the crypt'. This was a BBC requirement to avoid the risk of causing offence to viewers with religious sensibilities. Similarly, much to director Christopher Barry's amazement, no mention of God was permitted to be made in the story's dialogue, although references to the Devil were acceptable.
Azal at one point implies that his race were responsible for the destruction of Atlantis (apparently at odds with events seen in The Underwater Menace).
Matthew Corbett, whose father Harry created and operated the popular children's puppet character Sooty and eventually sold the rights to him, appears as one of the Master's devil-worshipping acolytes in Episode Five. He was a late addition to the cast, replacing Bill Wiesner.
Myth
There was originally a sixth episode. (This was an April Fool's joke in the fanzine DWB.)
A helicopter was destroyed during the making of this story. (Although a helicopter is seen to explode as it hits the heat barrier, this was actually a piece of footage taken from the James Bond film From Russia With Love.)
The original intention was that Michael Kilgarriff, seen previously in the series as the Cyberman Controller in The Tomb of the Cybermen, would play Azal on screen and that Stephen Thorne would provide only his voice. (The original intention was that Thorne would play Azal on screen and vocal artist Anthony Jackson would provide his voice. In the end, Thorne both played and voiced the character.)
Jo Grant's own clothes are left behind in the cavern when she escapes dressed in a sacrificial tabard just before the church explodes, and yet she is seen wearing them again at the end of the story. (Jo is clearly seen carrying her clothes under her arm when she escapes from the church.)
Technobabble
Phrases like 'an EHF wide band width, variable phase oscillator, with a negative feedback circuit' and 'negative diathermy buffer [sic] the molecular movement of the air with reverse phase shortwaves' will cause heart attacks for anybody with a Physics 'O' level.
Goofs
A signpost next to the heat barrier says: 'Devil's End 1'. However, in episode two, the barrier has a five mile radius, centered on the church.
In the same episode, Garvin holds his broken shotgun together during his fight with Benton.
In episode three, the energy exchanger interferes with radio communication, but by episode five it has lost this annoying side effect.
How do Yates and Benton have time to change into civvies?
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
Captain Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
Jo Grant - Katy Manning
Sergeant Benton - John Levene
Alastair Fergus - David Simeon
Azal - Stephen Thorne
Baker's Man - Gerald Taylor
Bert the Landlord - Don McKillop
Bok - Stanley Mason
Dr. Reeves - Eric Hillyard
Garvin - John Joyce
Harry - James Snell
Jones - Matthew Corbett
Miss Hawthorne - Damaris Hayman
Morris Dancers - The Headington Quarry Men
PC Groom - Christopher Wray
Prof. Horner - Robert Wentworth
Sgt. Osgood - Alec Linstead
The Master - Roger Delgado
Thorpe - John Owens
Tom Girton - John Croft
Winstanley - Rollo Gamble
Crew
Director - Christopher Barry
The Dæmons