“The King’s Demons” is the last adventure of the twentieth season of “Doctor Who” classic series which aired in 1983. It follows “Enlightenment” and it’s a two parts adventure written by Terence Dudley and directed by Tony Virgo.
The story
The Tardis materializes in England in 1215, where the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) are mistaken for demons but curiously received with courtesy by King John.
The Doctor soon realizes that something is wrong: in those days the King is supposed to be in London and this is confirmed by a knight who comes from there. Someone is meddling in British history to prevent the King from signing the Magna Carta.
Extras
This DVD contains a limited amount of extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, Radio Times Billings, a trailer about the next “Doctor Who” DVDs to be released and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.
There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonist Peter Davison, actress Isla Blair and script editor Eric Saward. The first part has a second alternative audio track with a comment by director Tony Virgo.
Kamelion – Metal Man. A brief history of Kamelion.
Magna Carta. A documentary about the Magna Carta and its importance in history. It also uses images taken from “Doctor Who” but it’s a historical documentary.
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At the end of 1981, producer John Nathan-Turner was reported about a project aimed to develop an android whose creators were looking for funds to perfect their prototype. After seeing the robot, Nathan-Turner and script editor Eric Saward thought it could be an interesting addition to “Doctor Who”. They decided to test its participation in an adventure with the intention of making it a companion for the Doctor if the experiment was successful.
A new demonstration of the android was made for writer Terence Dudley, who was commissioned to write the adventure “The King’s Demons” which was intended to introduce it as a character named Kamelion.
Unfortunately, the android proved very limited in its abilities so its use in the filming was complicated and took a long time. Even worse, the developer of the software that made the android work died shortly afterwards and no one else was able to continue his work. Consequently, producer John Nathan-Turner was forced to abandon his plan to have Kamelion as a Doctor’s companion.
In “The King’s Demons”, Kamelion is part of a plot that recycles in some ways the one from the First Doctor adventure “The Time Meddler” with the Master instead of the Meddling Monk. Unfortunately, the conflict between the Fifth Doctor and the Master is dull compared to the one between the First Doctor and the Monk. In fact, in “The King’s Demons” various clichés are used in the conduct of the Master, therefore despite the Anthony Ainley’s always good performance the result is quite poor.
It’s no coincidence that “The King’s Demons” has a rather negative reputation among fans. Overall, it’s a little adventure in which the Master has a little plan compared to his standards. It had the ambition to introduce Kamelion, a failed experiment. On the bright side, it consists of only two parts so the pace is pretty fast, so much that Tegan and Turlough have little to do but follow the Doctor, and ends quickly.
In region 1 countries, “The King’s Demons” DVD is sold on its own. The few extras are decent but I think that the DVD is good only for the fans who appreciate this adventure and the ones who want to have the complete collection, possibly at a bargain price.
In Region 2 and Region 4 countries this DVD is part of the “Kamelion Tales” box set – available on Amazon UK
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I thoroughly enjoy ‘The King’s Demons’. It doesn’t set out to be an epic like ‘The Daleks’, or a thought-provoker like ‘Curse Of Peladon’. it is what it is, a short, well-written piece set in Medieval England.
Oh, by the way, “with the Master instead of the Meddling Monk”? There has never been a character called “The Meddling Monk”. Unless you graduated from the Paul Cornell School of Idiocy. Peter Butterworth played a character that was later taken over by Edward Brayshaw, then Roger Delgado…
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Your vision of the Meddling Monk, War Chief and the Master as the same character is shared by part of the fandom but it was never confirmed by any official sources.
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Hello. Just seen you replied to my post. Just a few notes:
1)Issue 75 of Doctor Who Magazine, April 1983(you know the officially licensed magazine of the television show) ran a preview on the then-soon-t-air story ‘The King’s Demons’. The article dropped lots of not-at-all-subtle hints that the villain in the serial would be a character who had first appeared in ‘The Time Meddler’. And it wasn’t one of the Vikings, no it was The Master.
2)In 1985 another officially licensed Doctor Who product, the FASA ‘Doctor Who Role Playing Game’ stated that the Master had previously disguised himself as a monk, and used the alias “The War Chief”.
3)Interestingly when the Delgado incarnation first appears, a Time Lord arrives to warn the Doctor. The Doctor responds with “That jackanapes! All he ever does is cause trouble”, and “I refuse to be worried by a renegade like the Master, He’s a , he’s an unimaginative plodder.” The Time Lord responds with “The Master has learnt a great deal since you last met him.”
4)And what is The Master doing in stories such a ‘The King’s Demons’ and ‘Mark of the Rani’? Yes, he’s meddling with significant events in England’s history so that he can change the future/present to something he personally feels would be much better. In fact in ‘Mark of the Rabi’ he states that “I could turn this insignificant planet into a power base unique in the universe” The planet is of course Earth, and the War Chief attempted something similar.
5)RTD had the Master use the alias “Harold Saxon”(a nod to ‘The Time Meddler’) and the Master’s last appearance is eerily similar to the War Chief’s “end” in ‘The War Games’.
There are dozens of other examples, but the main point is that the television show makes clear who these men are. It is only with the Virgin New Adventures that we get dross like ‘No Future’ and ‘Timewyrm:Exodus’, which most people don’t consider to be canon anyway.
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Too bad I can’t read “Doctor Who Magazine”! However, you mention hints, no explicit statement that The Monk is actually The Master.
Is the RPG considered canon? Curious that the majority of fans don’t consider it a source to establish that The Monk / War Chief / Master are one and the same.
Your other points are inconclusive as you mention more hints and plot similarities. Strange that such an important point was never made clear.
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I never realised that was mentioned in DWM, though it rings a bell. I have to admit i fall into the ‘Monk is the War Chief is the Master’ camp, just can’t help myself. Although if the new team decide to bring the Monk back as a seperate character, it’ll all be a bit academic, but that’s not really likely. I do really love the Master’s penchant for bizarre disguises, especially the Ainley version, has to be said that nothing quite tops the scarecrow outfit from Mark of the Rani!
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It would be interesting if they produced an episode with the Master and the Monk together. 🙂
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