 This story is considered by many fans to be one of the finest story of its era and Jon Pertwee had been heard to state numerous times that this was his favourite Doctor Who story.
It was actually written by Robert Sloman and Barry Letts together, using the pseudonym Guy Leopold.
This story was inspired by an audition piece that producer and co-writer Barry Letts wrote when casting the role of companion Jo Grant.
This story features an appearance by television presenter Matthew Corbett - whose father Harry created and operated the popular children's puppet character Sooty. He appears as one of The Master's devil-worshipping acolytes in episode five.
Nicholas Courtney was pressed into additional service as the voice of the BBC3 announcer. Director Christopher Barry's also provides a vocal performance as he is heard as the RAF pilot.
Many have noted the similarities between this story's plot and that of the 1958 BBC serial and 1967 Hammer film "Quatermass and the Pit". Both involve the unearthing of an extraterrestrial spaceship, an alien race that has interfered with human evolution and is the basis for legends of devils, demons and witchcraft, and places with ‘devilish’ names - ‘Devil's End’ in this story, and ‘Hob's Lane’ in "Quatermass and the Pit".
This story differs with other explanations for the destruction of Atlantis; Azal implies his race was responsible for its destruction. (However, it should be pointed out that Atlantis isn't destroyed in either "Underwater Menace" - the lower levels are just flooded - or "The Time Monster" when Chronos attacks Atlantis we see it knock over the temple - there is no indication that Chronos destroys the whole of Atlantis). Also in "The Dæmons" itself, this is just one of a handful of non-specific claims Azal makes in a rant, and could not necessarily be true.
The clip of The Brigadier's helicopter blowing up as it hits the heat barrier was actually a piece of footage taken from the James Bond film "From Russia With Love".
The incantation that The Master uses in summoning Azal is actually part of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb" spoken backwards.
It is revealed that Azal is the last of his race, from the planet Dæmos, which is 60,000 light years from Earth. The Dæmons came to Earth 100,000 years ago to engineer mankind's genetic development. Azal says ‘my race destroys its failures. Remember Atlantis’.
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 any offence to religious viewers. Similarly no mention of God was permitted to be made in the story's dialogue, although references to the Devil were acceptable.
The Doctor uses the words of a Venusian lullaby to ward off Bok. He uses the lullaby again in "The Curse of Peladon" and "The Monster of Peladon", singing the words to a tune which is actually the Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".
The television news programme filmed at Devil's End was depicted as broadcast on a fictional channel called BBC Three, Since 2003, BBC Three has been an actual digital BBC channel.
Interestingly a signpost is seen next to the heat barrier stating: 'Devil's End 1' – despite, in episode two, it being announced that the barrier has a five mile radius, centred on the church.
Much of this story was filmed on location in the village of Aldbourne, Wiltshire - particularly in the grounds of the Church of St Michael and in the vicinity of the Blue Boar, the local pub which was renamed the ‘Cloven Hoof’ for the duration of filming. Many Aldbourne residents participated in the recording, and the two week period would subsequently be generally acknowledged as a high point of the entire Pertwee era.
Because so much material had been captured on film, this story required only three studio days instead of the normal Doctor Who formula of having one day in the studio per episode.
After this story was broadcast, which brought Season Eight to a close, the BBC received a number of letters complaining about the destruction of the church. Many viewers mistakenly thought that the BBC had actually blown up a church as part of the filming when in fact they had used footage of a model church being blown up.
In 1993, Pertwee, along with several members of the cast and crew including Nicholas Courtney, John Levene, Richard Franklin and director Christopher Barry returned to Aldbourne for the Reeltime Pictures reunion documentary "Return to Devil's End".
Nicholas Courtney titled his 1998 volume of autobiography "Five Rounds Rapid" after the famous line from this story.
The 2005 revived show suggests that The Doctor's theory that humans' ideas of demons were derived from "The Dæmons" may be incorrect. The story "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit" posits that all forms of theology about devils, on every planet (including Dæmos), are derived from a primordial memory of a horned creature called the Beast. Russell T. Davies stated in the Doctor Who Confidential episode "Religion and Myth" that accompanies this 2006 Tenth Doctor story, that they aimed to create a ‘Russian doll’ effect, wrapping that story around "The Dæmons".
In the 2007 story "Utopia", two sound clips from this story (‘Destroy him!’ and ‘Then you will give your power to me!’) were used when professor Yana prepares to open his fob watch.
An omnibus version of this story was shown on BBC One over Christmas in 1971. The omnibus's opening credits gave the title as "Doctor Who and the Dæmons".
Sadly the BBC wiped all the original 625-line PAL colour videotapes (except for episode four). This was despite a request made at the time by producer and co-writer, Barry Letts, for this story to be retained as an example of 1970s Doctor Who. Luckily a converted 525-line colour NTSC version recorded off-air from an American broadcast was made available to the BBC. This version however, was abridged and unsuitable for transmission as it was not of broadcast standard. In 1992 the colour signal from the NTSC tapes were used, along with a VHS fan recording to bridge the gaps, as the basis for colourising the 16mm monochrome telerecordings of episodes one, two, three and five. The colourised version was subsequently repeated on BBC2 on consecutive Fridays in November/December 1992. It was again repeated on BBC4, as 2 compilation episodes, on the 21st and 22nd October 2007.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be written by Robert Sloman and Barry Letts (under the Pseudonym Guy Leopold).
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(Position = 27 out of 159)
(Position = 34 out of 200)
