LOOK INTO MY EYES, IT'S WHERE MY DAEMONS HIDE...

The classic Doctor Who story, The Daemons has always been a favourite of mine. It's popular with a lot of classic Who fans too. In it the third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee has a run-in with The Master, who’s using black magic to bring stone statues to life, and conjure up an ancient creature that looks remarkably like the fabled ‘Horned Beast!’

The action takes place in the peaceful village of Devil’s End during the festival of Beltane, and as the local white witch, Miss Hawthorne says,” When Beltane is come, tread softly, for lo the Prince, himself is nigh… the Prince of Darkness!”

Spooky stuff, and a homage of another vintage BBC serial, Quatermass and The Pit, which  like The Daemons, put a scientific slant on the supernatural. The story also takes ideas from a number of other classic sci-fi films and books.

Anyway, I know it’s actually coming up to Halloween, and not the festival of Beltane (unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere), but as a bit of fun, I’ve dug out my Character Options set of Daemons figures for a supernatural photo shot.

Bok is a stone gargoyle who normally resides in the cavern under the church.  He comes alive when The Master summons up the powerful, Azal, the last of The Daemons.  In the story he’s played by Stanley Mason, and the costume was inspired by a rooftop Gargoyle on the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, the difference being the costume’s wings are dragon wings, rather than angels’ wings. 

The Master, in the story played by the wonderful Roger Delgado, here dressed in his ceremonial robes.  Using the superstitious locals he creates a black magic coven to channel their psychic energies to summon The Daemon, and inherit his power. The producers had concerns about using a supernatural story line for Doctor Who’s family audience, however, as long as the black magic elements had plausible scientific explanations it was deemed acceptable.

The Brigadier, in the story played with military precision by Nicholas Courtney, who is totally unfazed by the sight of supernatural happenings at Devil’s End, and seeing Bok, the stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to the church, utters that famous line to one of his men, “Jenkins, chap with wings there, five rounds rapid!”  

For added scariness, I’ve included the Eaglemoss figure of the Daemon, Azal, played in the story by the booming Stephen Thorne. The amoral, Azal is an ancient alien from the planet, Daemos, sixty thousand light years away on the other side of the galaxy.  His kind arrived on Earth one hundred thousand years ago to steer humanity throughout history.

For those who celebrate it, Happy Halloween, and for those in the southern hemisphere, Happy Beltane for the 1^st November.