The King's Demons (1983) Review

"Your turn! Okay, now I'm gonna move my right foot over here and swing my sword
there! Now you..."

The King's Demons is a funny, easygoing escapade and a nice break from the complex storytelling of late. 

WRITTEN BY

Terence Dudley, who previously wrote Four To Doomsday and Black Orchid. He has a knack for fun little adventures. 

PLOT

After receiving an unusually warm welcome from King John in 1215 England, the Doctor and his companions become his guests at Fitzwilliam Castle only to discover that he is in fact an android manipulated by the Master(hell yeah!) for the purposes of rewriting Britain's democratic development.

ANALYSIS

I really enjoyed that. The historical, Robin Hood-era setting gives the story an interesting background by default and that same sort of mischievous atmosphere carries the story. Another huge element in its favor is the use of the Master as a lovable rogue, which suits Anthony Ainley like a glove. 

It's fun and engaging, the plot is clever, the guest stars are strong and it doesn't outstay its welcome. It's the perfect story for a lazy afternoon.

CHARACTERS

Peter Davison is, as the Master put it best, a "medieval misfit". His straightlaced incarnation doesn't acquit himself to the gritty time period as well as the others might have, but Davison himself seems to be having a great time, particularly when the King gives him permission to wave a big sword around at anyone he pleases. 

Sadly, the companions really suffer from the short, snappy pace and no time is devoted to them all. Turlough is literally out of the plot for most of the story by being locked in the dungeon and Tegan spends most of her time either complaining about the cold or being inexplicably stuck in the Time Vortex during the lengthiest TARDIS jump ever.

Anthony Ainley's theatrical performance fits the story perfectly, meaning that for the first time in his tenure, he's a credible threat. It's great seeing him throw barbs at the TARDIS crew and of course don another ridiculous disguise(a French knight in the service of an English king! Because he really wanted to woo some ladies with that accent). 

Gerald Flood has a double role. As King John, he is simply marvellous as a wickedly evil Shakespearean villain(even more so than the Master himself!) and as the robot, Kamelion, he's sort of like C-3PO! Shame that Kamelion never caught on, because I would've loved to have Flood as part of the regular cast. But that android, yeah... it really hasn't aged well and it's blatantly obvious that the production team had no idea how to operate it properly.

Michael J. Jackson is earnest, but realistic as Sir Geoffrey de Lacey and I was not surprised to find out that he actually has been in a Robin Hood production. He's got exactly the right kind of regal air to him.

ANALYSIS

*Why does Tegan insist on pointing out all of the Doctor's flaws? It's a nasty habit. Fortunately, this story is self-aware enough to recognise that and Tegan sort of gets her comeuppance at the end.

*So, a blue box arrives from nowhere in the middle of a joust, three strangers emerge and King John just lets them talk to one another for a full minute whilst everyone stares awkwardly?

*This awkwardness later carries on to the Master's reveal, at which point nobody reacts until the Doctor and the Master are done catching up. That's just poor scriptwriting, which is a shame given how good the rest of it is.

*I know the Master wants to keep the Doctor and his companions out of his way, but what actual reason does he have as Sir Giles to arrest Turlough? 

*And why does the Doctor never bother to even ask the King or Ranulf where Turlough might be? He and Tegan barely even notice his absence.

*The swordfight is very poorly choreographed, to the point where even the actors should've noticed that it wasn't worthy of being recorded. It takes a full second between each move!

*The Master reveal in the cliffhanger is really cheesy and has already become a cliche.

*So, the Master appears and yet the only thing Tegan says is "Tissue Compression Eliminator!" ... yeah. It is. I'm sure there could've been a more natural way to reveal that what the Master is holding is his weapon. 

*Why does the Master just hand the Eliminator over to the Doctor? He says something about it being a mistake for the Doctor to accept, so it was deliberate, but I don't see how it helped the Master at any stage. In fact, the Doctor sabotaged his TARDIS with it later on! 

*And with the Eliminator in his hand, why can't the Doctor just kill the Master? I know it's the Doctor and they're former friends and all, but come on. Not only has the Doctor killed people with guns before, the amount of people he's indirectly killed to stop them from harming others is insane. Is there really any reason to allow the Master to continue to leave?

*Why would the jailer, who probably has no idea about what's going upstairs, obey the orders of the Master and release Hugh and Isabella?

*Mark Strickson's delivery of "He is the evil one!" is priceless. It's written to be a retort to the Master's claim that the Doctor is evil, but Strickson makes it sound like he's describing the Master to someone. In a very over the top fashion. 

*Considering when this takes place, I'm surprised that nobody questioned Tegan's clothing or King John's decision to make her his squire. Did they think Tegan was a boy??

*When did Sir Geoffrey find out about the Doctor's TARDIS? Once he's lead the Doctor to the dungeons, he starts talking about the "blue engine", but he arrived to the castle as a prisoner and wasn't there when it first materialised, so how would he know about that?

*Even though most of the men in the castle are undoubtedly Ranulf's, is it really wise to speak of the King's judgement being affected by demons in a loud voice? 

*Apparently, Turlough has experience with horses, as he happily volunteers to help Sir Geoffrey with his, and then slaps the horse on the backside to make it move.

*Ranulf's guards are abysmal at their job. I already mentioned the jailer, but they also allow Tegan to enter the TARDIS without argument(despite wanting to kill her) and then let the Doctor escape whilst they gawp at it disappearing.

*Why would a war robot be susceptible to psychokinetic control from two different sides? And why does the Master even reveal such a weakness to the Doctor?

*The confrontation scene between the Doctor and the Master over Kamelion is brilliant. It feels like one of those classic James Bond scenes, where he has dinner with the villain and discusses his inevitable demise. It's all so polite on the outside.

*Why did the Doctor set the TARDIS coordinates for King John's room anyway? And when?

*Why wouldn't the Master order his guards to immediately remove the Doctor instead of giving him the chance to try and alter Kamelion's shape?

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) The Master's previous exile on Xeraphas(which began at the end of Time-Flight) is mentioned, and he reveals that he escaped with Kamelion's help. It's a neat little explanation and I like that they worked Xeraphas into Kamelion's origin.

2) Tegan asks whether the TARDIS landing in 1215 all of a sudden(yeah, why did that happen actually?) could be a Black Guardian trap? The Black Guardian of course harassed them in the previous three stories. But it's a forced in, pointless reference.

3) The Master teases the Doctor after his initial failure to control Kamelion and tells him he should regenerate already. It's not necessary at all, but I do rather like the line, so I'll just leave that up in the air.

4) Turlough reminds the Doctor that they were heading towards his planet. Seriously now, why did the TARDIS end up in 1215 England? If ever there was proof that the TARDIS takes the Doctor whereever he needs to go, this is it. 

BEST QUOTE

RANULF: "He is said to be the best swordsman in France!"
DOCTOR: "Fortunately, we are in England."

The Doctor is more nationalistic than Superman 

CONCLUSION

I can definitely imagine watching this time and time again.

And with that, season 20 comes to a close. Like with Davison's first year, it was flawed and I struggled with the Black Guardian trilogy(I seriously fail to see why he needed three stories... couldn't we have had a much more interesting season with more classic monsters?), but ultimately, I feel it came out more positive than the last one. There was definitely more energy to it and going down to two companions at a time helped.