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| Azal |
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 Name: Azal, last of the Daemons
Format:
Television show and Book
Time of Origin: Came
to Earth in ancient times, but confronted The Doctor at the village
of Devil’s End in 1971 and in Manchester in the 2020s.
Appearances: "The
Dæmons" and "The Adventures After: Dæmons in Levenshulme"
Doctors: Third
Doctor and Thirteenth Doctor
Companions: The
Brigadier, Sergeant
Benton, Jo Grant and Captain
Mike Yates and Yasmin Khan
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Bok |
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History: One of The Doctor’s
most unique enemies, Azal was the last of the ancient race known as
the Dæmons, who had influenced Earth’s development in
the past. According to The Doctor, the Dæmons were not evil,
but merely logical and amoral - much like his old friend/future enemy
The
Rani ("Mark of the Rani") -, possessing advanced technology
that allowed them to perform seemingly magical feats. Examples of
this included matter-energy conversion technology which allowed them
to shrink and grow things at will, allowing them to alter their own
size to be anything from microscopic to around thirty feet tall. They
could also generate heat force fields which could disintegrate anything
that moved into it, animate stone statues, and discharge bolts of
electricity.
Originally
arriving on Earth over a hundred thousand years ago, Azal was one
of many Dæmons who helped humans overcome the Neanderthal, leading
their subsequent development with various experiments, such as providing
Atlantis with the Crystal of Kronos, although the subsequent experiment
resulted in Atlantis’s destruction ("The
Time Monster"). Having completed his experiments, Azal placed
himself in suspended animation in his spaceship underneath Devil’s
Hump, until the time came for him to judge if their experiments had
been a success or a failure. During this time, the rest of his species
went extinct in an unspecified war, their skeletal remains being used
by Faction
Paradox as warships ("Interference:
Book Two: Hour of the Geek").
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| The
Brigadier and UNIT |
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Having learned about the Dæmons
from his forbidden research of the Matrix ("Tomb
of Valdemar" and "The
Quantum Archangel"), The
Master learned that the Dæmons could be psychically summoned
by a special ritual, drawing on negative emotions such as fear, the
Dæmon appearing three times before deciding whether or not to
pass on its power to another. Tracking Azal’s resting place
to a church in the village of Devil’s End, The Master set himself
up as the village’s new vicar after murdering his predecessor,
assembling a black magic ‘cult’ to perform the rituals
necessary to awaken Azal. Despite The Master’s attempts to remain
undercover, a television broadcast about an archaeological dig at
the nearby Devil’s Hump prompted the Third Doctor to investigate
events in Devil’s End, aided by local ‘white witch’
Olive Hawthorne, who suspected that evil was present in the village.
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| Azal is Angered |
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Although
The Doctor, Jo
Grant, Captain
Mike Yates and Sergeant
Benton were able to enter the village, The Master’s contact
with Azal allowed him to generate a heat shield around the village
that prevented UNIT from gaining access to it. While The Doctor instructed
UNIT Sergeant Osgood in the construction of a diathermic energy exchanger,
The Master managed to summon Azal, only for Azal to dismiss him for
the moment by saying that he would decide if the Earth ‘experiment’
had succeeded after his next appearance. The Master tried to eliminate
The Doctor with the aid of his ‘cult’ rallying the villagers
into a mob against The Doctor, but some clever trickery by Olive and
Benton - as well as modifications The Doctor had made to his yellow
roadster Bessie - allowed them to convince the villagers that The
Doctor was a benevolent white wizard before they could burn him at
the stake.
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The Adventures After: Dæmons in Levenshulme
(Paul Magrs) |
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Despite The Master’s final efforts
to sacrifice Jo to the Dæmon, Azal instead offered his powers
to The Doctor when the time came, concluding that The Master was unworthy
of his abilities. However, The Doctor rejected the offer, feeling
that mankind should be allowed to develop themselves, prompting Azal
to attempt to kill him before Jo interrupted, asking Azal to kill
her instead of The Doctor. Unable to comprehend Jo’s illogical
willingness to die for another, the confusion caused Azal to lose
control of his power and ‘self-destruct’, the resulting
explosion destroying the church just after The Doctor, The Master,
Jo and The Master’s cult managed to escape, The Master subsequently
being captured when he tried to escape in Bessie without knowing about
The Doctor’s remote control for the car.
Despite this seemingly permanent defeat, Azal returned to The Doctor's life when the Thirteenth Doctor saw Olive Hawthorne in a news broadcast in the 2020s warning of a great evil ("The Adventures After: Dæmons in Levenshulme"). Making contact with Olive, The Doctor was quick to confirm that the current vicar of the local church was The Master - this time in the female incarnation known as 'Missy', although still using the alias of Reverend Magister - who had organised another coven to try and awaken the power of Azal. According to Missy, Azal had simply reduced himself to microscopic size rather than destroying himself in their last encounter, and it had simply taken this long for her to determine how to draw Azal back with a suitable ritual. Although Missy captured Olive to try and use her as the final sacrifice to Azal, The Doctor and Yasmin Khan arrived at the top of the building that would serve as the site of the sacrifice in time to see Azal manifest... in a human-sized appearance, now wearing a suit and observing that demonism had become more civilised in recent decades. With Missy's coven departing as they felt distinctly underwhelmed by Azal's new appearance, Azal observed that he preferred more subtle methods of control and influence these days, to the extent that he released Olive from Missy's sacrificial alter and spent the next few hours just talking with The Doctor over drinks at the bar. While Azal departed claiming that he was beyond The Doctor's constricting morality and that he would continue his experiments around Earth, even suggesting that he already controlled the planet, The Doctor and Olive observed that they didn't have any reason to believe his claims and would just accept that he wasn't interested in destroying Earth.
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| Original Target Cover |
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| Reprinted Target Cover |
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