The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The King's Demons
THE KING'S DEMONS (Part One) 15/03/2023
I can't help but think this story might have been better placed between Snakedance and Mawdryn Undead to break this season up a bit. We're back in 1215, a few months from Magna Carta at Fitzwilliam Castle, a mere four hours by horse from London. King John is in residence, being a general pain in the arse to resident Lord, Sir Ranulf, which is very odd because he's also in London (where he's actually documented as having been).
The story started off with a jousting match between Ranulf's son and the King's Champion to defend Ranulf's honour. It was interrupted by the arrival of the TARDIS, and King John, weirdly, welcomed the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough as his 'Demons'. The rest of the episode played out slowly addressing the mystery of what was going on which is all very well were it not for the fact that from quite early on it was clear that the King's Champion, Sir Gilles, was in fact the Master in a rubbish disguise and sporting a terrible 'French' accent. Worse, the cliffhanger had this 'surprise' revealed after an okay sword fight between 'Sir Gilles' and the Doctor. Alas, it wasn't a patch on the fencing from The Sea Devils.
On the plus side, it's really nice to have a story set in the past again, especially the Middle Ages. So it's not quite as wonderful as its two closest cousins, The Crusade or The Time Warrior, but the location work is beautiful and the incidental music is the second best of the series (I doubt much can compare to that of Enlightenment). The sets are a bit iffy but get the point across; I doubt even the BBC could really do a working castle interior justice without going on location. The acting is pretty good given that, on the whole, the script is somewhat poor. Some of the dialogue is rather clunky at times, and I can't help thinking that Terence Dudley may have managed to pull off the topping repartee of 1925 but should have kept things simple for the 13th Century. The plot is also crawling a bit, but this is only Part One.
There's also a couple of Iron Maidens being carted about which are horribly anachronistic, but I guess they have to bring some jeopardy in somewhere. It certainly wasn't by having Ranulf Jr. cart Turlough off to a dungeon (where he ended up getting chained up with both Turlough and his mother - and not in the good way).
I don't know what to make of this one yet. Hopefully it will improve, but so far it seems to be suffering from the same problem the rest of this season has, bar Enlightenment, in that, despite its positives, it's coming across as slightly underwhelming.
THE KING'S DEMONS (Part Two) 16/03/2023
And just like that, it's over! It seems the 20th Anniversary season was affected by strikes or something, so it's ended up being four episodes shorter than last year (which was two episodes shorter than the year before - I hope this isn't going to be a thing!) and so we ended up with the season ending with a rather uninspiring two-parter.
Let's focus on the positives, though. The location work was excellent and the music was very nicely arranged. And I forgot to mention yesterday that Tegan got to wear an almost-suitable outfit. Finally! Granted, it was a rather short dress, but it was better than the awful, white boob-tube and shorts and thankfully came with a big, warm coat (supplemented by a large cloak later on which went lower than mid-thigh to keep her legs warm.
The overall plot wasn't bad, with the Master using a shape-changing robot called Kamelion to replace King John and meddle with history. I do feel, though, that the story would have been better served if this had been the Meddling Monk rather than the Master. Prior to the series airing, showrunner John Nathan-Turner apparently promised an old villain would be back for each serial this year. That this consisted of the Time Lords and Omega, the Master (again), last year's Mara, and 12 weeks of the Black Guardian (four of which barely had anything to do with him) leaves me feeling somewhat short-changed. There weren't even any Daleks! Although, perhaps they were to conclude the series and were victim of the strikes? Nevertheless, you'd think, given the circumstances, the BBC could have done something about rescheduling shooting.
Anyway, back to The King's Demons. It seems Kamelion has joined the Doctor as a companion! He's controlled mentally and the two Time Lords ended up having a battle of wills for control of the android. Fortunately, the TARDIS turned up (preset coordinates c/o the Doctor) and Kamelion latched onto that, or rather onto Tegan inside, at which point the Doctor grabbed Kamelion and he and Turlough ran into the TARDIS and pissed off, having left the Master's Tissue Compression Eliminator inside his own TARDIS to fuck up the internal structure or something. Other things happened, including the rather brutal murder of Sir Geoffrey, but the writing was so bland that I can't be bothered to go into it.
It just feels like this series should have been vastly better; Enlightenment was the only story which was captivating, and whilst Snakedance and Terminus had great scripts, and Mawdryn Undead centred around a great concept, their execution felt largely uninspired. I'm pretty sure it had more to do with the design and directing than anything else. All three were very engaging at various points, both Snakedance and Terminus featuring some great guest stars - the former across the board, the latter less so - who were clearly aware of the quality of the scripts and chose to run with them. Mawdryn... was less well cast and less well directed and written, but had its moments. Unfortunately, the less said about Arc Of Infinity and The King's Demons the better. Both had great locations, but only Tony Virgo seemed capable of making the most of them. Ron Jones really does need hanging for utterly wasting his extensive location shoot in Amsterdam! Given how dire the script was and how one-dimensional the characters were, the locations were the one thing the story had going for it and what did we get? Backstreets, phone booths, poorly framed setting shots and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it background shot of De Nieuwe Kirk in Dam Square! Arc... is definitely the worst Davison story so far, and only marginally better than Logopolis! I've not been this frustrated by a season since The Key To Time. Perhaps the Guardians have something to do with it (although they did feature in the better serials this season)?
Looking ahead, there's going to be an Anniversary Special later in the year, and I'm enjoying the dynamic of the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough. I'm intrigued to see what they're going to do with Kamelion. The prop itself is a little rudimentary and rather static, but the fact that it's a shape-changing android means they can cast anyone in the part; they could literally have a different actor every story! Bring back Matthew Waterhouse and Sarah Sutton! Any previous companion since the TARDIS is at least partially sentient and could influence Kamelion's choice of form. The possibilities are limitless! Whilst it was a bit weird introducing him in the final episode of the series, it does mean there's some interesting possibilities lying ahead. And at least we won't have to wait until January for the next story. Despite how disappointing this season has been, I can at least be optimistic about what's to come!
A dull story with a silly plot, this should have been much better given the historical setting. The cast do what they can with it, but it's the writing that lets the side down. I agree that it feels much more like a Meddling Monk jape than one of the Master's dastardly plots, barring how convoluted it is vis-à-vis the impact it's likely to have.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest letdown of the whole story though is yet to come: the criminal underuse of Kamelion. I have no idea why JNT insisted on keeping him when a) he hated K9 and b) must have seen how useless the prop was during production of this story. It would have been the work of half an hour to rewrite the ending and have Kamelion destroyed here. But no, the automaton was retained - thus making it even more of a waste that he was then shoved in a cupboard, never to be seen again until his final outing, when as you rightly point out he could have been used in every single story and just been played by a guest actor or returning cast member. Sigh - such a waste.
I have to admit that I don't often drag out the stories from Season 20 to watch and, as usual, have avoided watching any of them since New Year 2022. So I really did come to this series with little idea how I'd react to it. I don't know if it's because of how fresh Season 19 seemed, or how varied each story was compared to those around it, but this season really was very underwhelming. And that it ends with a rather bland little tale which should have been better and concludes with countless possibilities (which are never explored - not that I know that) just adds to how frustrating this run of serials has been. I'd actually forgotten how static Kamelion really is on screen. It's an interesting design, but the proportions are a little awkward and, to be brutally honest, K9 was more animated. It was a nice idea to introduce what at the time was cutting edge technology to the show, and I realise that many of the problems that came with the device were down to the untimely death of its creator and subsequent issues with programming it, but you're absolutely right that the story could easily have been rewritten to destroy Kamelion at the end of this story and avoid any further issues.
DeleteI don't know how fans at the time reacted to this season, but I felt incredibly deflated by the majority of it. Nothing but Enlightenment really achieved their potential. Is this a case of the import of the season, celebrating two decades of adventures, overshadowing the stories themselves? Were my expectations too high? Did I enjoy Season 19 to the point where anything less diverse would pale in comparison? To be honest, I don't think so. I just think the production team chose poorly when allotting certain ideas to certain writers and certain stories to certain directors. The King's Demons isn't necessarily a bad story as much as it's just fairly bland. It certainly isn't a story to end a season on!