 "The King's Demons" is a two-part story where The Doctor, Tegan Jovanka and Vislor Turlough become involved with The Master in the historical world of the Magna Carta. This story also introduced the ill-fated Kamelion - a fully animated robot and the first non-humanoid companion since K9.
As with every story, during Season Twenty, "The King's Demons" featured an enemy from The Doctor’s past. For this story it was the turn of The Master, whose previous appearance in the show had been in Season Nineteen’s final story "Time-Flight".
Kamelion came about when, in November 1981, freelance effects designer Richard Gregory, who had been involved in several Doctor Who stories through his company, Imagineering, notified Producer John Nathan-Turner of a project conceived by software designer Mike Power in conjunction with CP Cybernetics, a computer company owned by Chris Padmore, who had devised a functioning robot prop, whose body could move and which could mime speech along to pre-recorded dialogue. Richard Gregory felt that the robot might be something that Doctor Who could make good use of.
After a demonstration of the robot prototype was given to John Nathan-Turner and Script Editor Eric Saward they were duly impressed, seeing in the android the possibility of another K9-type success. Terence Dudley, who had just finished writing the 1982 story "Black Orchid", was approached about developing a storyline to introduce the machine. After a second demonstration was held, which Terence Dudley also attended, John Nathan-Turner formally agreed to use the robot, although he requested that Chris Padmore continue to improve upon it, particularly with a regard to making the android more mobile.
In addition to introducing the robot in his two-part story, Terence Dudley was also asked by Nathan-Turner to bring back The Master. Anthony Ainley had been contracted for one story a year (a decrease from John Nathan-Turner’s original vision of two appearances by the arch-villain every season), but no Master story had yet been touted for Season Twenty. Consequently, Terence Dudley returned to an old idea he had had for Doctor Who prior to writing "Black Orchid", which took the TARDIS to the thirteen-century England of King John. Keeping in mind the limitations of the robot, Terence Dudley made it a shapeshifter, so that an actor could play the role whenever necessary. It was also Terence Dudley who coined the name Kamelion.
This story was Terence Dudley’s last contribution to Doctor Who. He passed away in December 1988, after a long illness.
Cast as both the voice of Kamelion and King John was Gerald Flood, whose previous television work included Crane, The Rat Catchers, and the science-fiction series Pathfinders in Space and its sequels, produced by Sydney Newman, before he became one of the creators of Doctor Who. Gerald Flood later returned to voice Kamelion in Season Twenty One’s "Planet of Fire" and for the brief regeneration sequence in "The Caves of Androzani".
The part of The Master was once again played by Anthony Ainley. Two pseudonyms were employed to mask his appearance. In his masquerade as a French knight, The Master calls himself ‘Sir Gilles Estram’ (‘Estram’ being an anagram of ‘Master’) while the credits for episode one would list Estram as being played by ‘James Stoker’ (which is an anagram of ‘Masters joke’).
The guest cast includes: Frank Windsor, well known as Sergeant Watt in Z Cars and its Softly, Softly spin-offs; and distinguished stage and television actress Isla Blair.
The Director assigned to this story was Tony Virgo, who had previously helmed episodes of The Bill.
Like the previous two stories the recording of this story took place in the midst of a labour dispute with the BBC’s electricians union. Despite this location shooting began in December 1982 at Bodiam Castle, in Sussex. Terence Dudley’s scripts actually specified the location as Odiham Castle near Basingstoke in Hampshire. But it was discovered that this structure was in fact largely in ruins. Interestingly the construction of Bodiam Castle actually occurred in 1385, nearly two centuries after the events depicted in this story.
Studio recording started as planned, on the 18th December 1982, in the wake of the industrial action. However, this appeared to be at risk, and for a time it appeared that this story - along with the stories before and after it, "Enlightenment" and "The Return" - would not be completed at all. In the event, only "The Return" was lost; this necessitated Eric Saward having to rewrite the final scene. Originally, this saw the TARDIS being trapped in a Dalek time corridor, leading into "The Return". Eric Saward’s new version, of the ending to "The King's Demons’s", became a lead-in to "The Five Doctors", a special story which was then in the planning stages, which would celebrate Doctor Who's Twentieth Anniversary in November 1983.
Despite studio recording starting as planned, this story was due to be completed in the second studio session, planned for the 20th (the intervening day being given over to a remount of "Terminus"). Unfortunately, serious problems had arisen with Kamelion.
Kamelion’s creator sadly died in a boating accident, just after Kamelion was introduced in filming, and it was found that no one was able to adequately control it while manual programming of its speech took nearly two weeks per episode (not to mention BBC union issues!). Furthermore, Kamelion constantly broke down and lost synchronisation with Gerald Flood’s pre-recorded dialogue and the robot’s walking mechanism still had not been perfected. As a result, not all the required material could be completed by the end of the 20th, forcing John Nathan-Turner to schedule a remount on the 16th January just before the first rescheduled studio session for Enlightenment.
Peter Howell was originally scheduled to complete the entire incidental score. But because of the remount and other commitments, Radiophonic Workshop newcomer Jonathan Gibbs was asked to handle the incidental music for this story, in place of Peter Howell. Peter Howell did contribute some material to the programme including the lute music heard being performed by the King (the lyrics for which had been composed by Terrance Dudley and played by Jakob Lindberg).
The credit details for this story in the television and radio listings magazine Radio Times, has the ‘Lute Player’ credit for Jakob Lindberg mistakenly referring to a character. Part One named Jakob Lindberg as a member of the crew, while Part Two listed credited Jakob Lindberg as a cast member instead of part of the crew.
The first episode of this story was promoted by the BBC as the sixth hundredth Doctor Who episode.
It was intended that Kamelion would become a regular companion, but given the many problems that were experienced John Nathan-Turner had already made the decision to write the android out of the show as soon as possible. Any thought of Kamelion playing an active role in each story had been entirely abandoned and the robot only appeared again in Season Twenty One’s "Planet of Fire" and for the brief regeneration sequence in "The Caves of Androzani".
It is revealed that The Master used Kamelion, the tool of an earlier invader of Xeriphas (see "Time-Flight"), to escape from the planet and then impersonate King John. Kamelion does have a mind of its own, but can be controlled psychokinetically.
The Master’s Tissue Compression Eliminator is referred to as a ‘compressor’ on several occasions.
At the time fans assumed that this story was originally going to feature the Meddling Monk. (However, there is no evidence that this was the original intention. Fan speculation postulates this due to its medieval setting and the fact that The Master’s scheme in this story is more similar to the Meddling Monk’s modus operandi than his own usual more grandiose schemes. Whether it would have been as the Meddling Monk or a later regeneration of the same Time Lord, it would have involved recasting the part as Peter Butterworth, who originated this character in the 1965 First Doctor story "The Time Meddler", had passed away in 1979).
This story marks the last appearance of the TARDIS Console Room set which had been in use since the 1977 Fourth Doctor story "The Invisible Enemy". A new Console Room would debut in the next story "The Five Doctors", although the console itself would be reused as the Second Doctor’s console in the 1985 story "The Two Doctors".
It seemed that once Tegan is able to make The Doctor’s TARDIS take off and land on her own (as with "Four to Doomsday"). However, much of this might be where the TARDIS is acting to minimise potential damage.
The Doctor re-establishes himself as a fair swordsman, having shown skill with a blade in two of his previous incarnations. These were the Third Doctor (in the 1972 story "The Sea Devils" and the 1973/74 story "The Time Warrior") and the Fourth Doctor (in the 1976 story "The Masque of Mandragora" and the 1978 story "The Androids of Tara"). This is the second sword fight between The Doctor and The Master - the first being in" The Sea Devils"). The Doctor Tenth Doctor also demonstrated this ability in the 2005 Christmas story "The Christmas Invasion".
Peter Davison and Anthony Ainley did their own swordfighting - no stuntmen were involved in that scene. Though the jousts did use stuntmen replace the actors.
This story contains a number of errors. Namely: The Master’s TARDIS is disguised as an iron maiden. The earliest iron maiden known to historians is the Iron Maiden of Nuremberg, which was built in 1515, 300 years after the setting of this story; French was still the language of the court in the early 13th century, so why does only Sir Gilles speak it? The Doctor’s claim that King John wanted the Magna Carta as much as his nobles and that he could have defeated the barons easily is historically untrue. King John signed the Magna Carta after it became clear that he could not suppress the Baron’s Revolt, and immediately appealed to the pope to release him from his oath to support the Charter’s terms.
In the final TARDIS scene of the story, when The Doctor introduces Tegan to Kamelion, he is heard to state that that Kamelion’s story ’appears to begin on Xeriphas’ and that it will ‘end with The Master’. This neatly ties together both the other televised stories that have anything to do with Kamelion: the introduction of the planet on which he was found ("Time-Flight") and his eventual demise in "Planet of Fire".
As a lead in to the next story The Doctor mentions the Eye of Orion to Tegan and Turlough confirms that he has been there before.
This minor cliffhanger (although it is unlikely initial viewers will have thought of it as such) is similar to the link between the 1974 Third Doctor stories "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" and "Death to the Daleks", where The Doctor offers to take his companions to a ‘wonder’ of the universe, later referenced in the following story. Unlike the similar promise the Third Doctor makes to take Sarah Jane Smith to Florana, the Fifth Doctor’s promise to Tegan and Turlough is actually fulfilled.
Technically this story brought a premature end to Season Twenty. This season, however continued later in the year with the Twentieth Anniversary special "The Five Doctors".
The first episode of this story scored the lowest rating since the Fourth Doctor’s final season.
This story was repeated on BBC One in July 1984.
There probably was a real Sir Gilles, whom The Master killed and impersonated. In Virgin Book’s The Missing Adventures novel "Sanctuary", which is set in 1242, The Doctor meets a relative of the real Sir Gilles, whose true fate was never known.
| |
|
The Firsts:
The introduction of companion Kamelion voiced by Gerald Flood.
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Tony Virgo.
|
|
(Position = 140 out of 159)
(Position = 181 out of 200)
(Position = 228 out of 241)
