''The King's Demons'' is the sixth and final serial of the 20th season of the British

science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...

series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'', which was originally broadcast on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

on 15 and 16 March 1983. This serial introduced Kamelion, voiced by

Gerald Flood Gerald Robert Flood (21 April 1927 – 12 April 1989) was a British actor of stage and television. Early life Flood was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, but lived for most of his life in Farnham, Surrey, where he regularly appeared on stage at ...

, as a companion. The serial is set in an English castle in 1215. In the serial, the alien time traveller the Master ( Anthony Ainley) uses the robot Kamelion to imitate King

John of England John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...

as part of the Master's plot to have the real King John overthrown and thus prevent the signing of

Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter"), sometimes spelled Magna Charta, is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardin ...

Plot

In 1215, the Court of

King John of England John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empi ...

is at the castle of Sir Ranulf Fitzwilliam to extort more taxes, and when the lord refuses to pay the King insults him. To defend his honour his son Hugh takes on the King's champion, Sir Gilles Estram, in a joust. The latter wins easily, though the joust is disturbed by the arrival of the

TARDIS The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space") is a fictional hybrid of a time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. While a TARDI ...

. The

Fifth Doctor The Fifth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Peter Davison. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time Lord ...

, Tegan, and Turlough are greeted as demons and welcomed by the King. Having established the date, the Doctor concludes the King is not himself – in fact, he is not the King at all, as he is actually in London taking the Crusader’s Oath. Sir Geoffrey de Lacy, the cousin of Sir Ranulf, arrives at the castle and confirms he knows the King is in London. Sir Gilles is about to torture him as a liar during a royal banquet when the Doctor intervenes. It seems the King's champion is not who he claims to be, either: Sir Gilles sheds his disguise and reveals himself to be the Doctor's nemesis, the Master. He flees in his own TARDIS, which had been disguised as an

iron maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

. The King knights the Doctor as his new champion, and he is given run of the castle. After a series of mishaps, including the death of Sir Geoffrey at the Master's hands, the Doctor confronts the King and the Master and discovers the truth. The monarch is really Kamelion, a war weapon found by the Master on Xeriphas, which can be mentally controlled and used to adopt disguises and personas. Disguised as King John, the Master intends that Kamelion will behave so appallingly so as to provoke a rebellion and topple the real King from his throne, thus robbing the world of

, the foundation of

parliamentary democracy A parliamentary system, or parliamentary democracy, is a form of government where the head of government (chief executive) derives their democratic legitimacy from their ability to command the support ("confidence") of a majority of the legisl ...

. It is a small plan on the Master's usual scale, but nevertheless particularly poisonous to the normal progress of Earth society. The Doctor resolves the situation by testing the Master in a battle of wills for control over Kamelion. He takes control of the robot and steals it away in the TARDIS, thus foiling the Master's scheme. Kamelion reverts to its robot form and thanks the Doctor for his assistance and rescue. Kamelion asks to stay aboard the TARDIS, though Tegan seems unsure. When the Doctor suggests returning Tegan to Earth, Tegan however says she still wants to stay. The crew then head off for the Eye of Orion.

Production

The story was repeated on BBC1 on consecutive Fridays 6–13 July 1984, achieving viewing figures of 3.3 and 5.0 million respectively. The working titles for this story were ''The Android'', ''The Demons'', ''A Knight's Tale'' and ''Demons Keeper''. Part One of this story was billed by the BBC as the six hundredth episode of ''Doctor Who''. This story marked the first appearance of Kamelion as voiced by Gerald Flood. Freelance effects designer Richard Gregory and software designer Mike Power gave a demonstration of the robot prototype for Nathan-Turner and Saward. Nathan-Turner was so impressed he commissioned scriptwriter

Terence Dudley Terence Dudley (28 September 1919 – 25 December 1988) was a British television director, producer and screenwriter who worked on many programmes for the BBC. Dudley produced the BBC science fiction series '' Doomwatch'' (1970–1972), and dir ...

to develop a storyline to introduce Kamelion into the series. Shortly after filming, however, Power died in a boating accident and no one was able to continue his work. Subsequently, Kamelion made only two appearances before being written out of the series. In the story, the Master disguises himself as Sir Gilles Estram, Estram being an

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...

of "Master". To hide Ainley's return, Sir Gilles was credited in the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith, then general manage ...

'' as having been played by "James Stoker", an anagram of "Master's Joke". This story marks the last appearance of the

console room set, which had been in use since '' 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 The Second Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, the protagonist of the British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was portrayed by actor Patrick Troughton. Out of his 1 ...

's console in ''

The Two Doctors ''The Two Doctors'' is the fourth serial of the Doctor Who (season 22), 22nd season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in three weekly parts on BBC One, BBC1 from 16 February to 2 March 198 ...

''. According to the extensive production documentation released from the archive as part of the ''Season 20 - The Collection Box Set'' in September 2023,

Eleanor Bron Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is an English stage, film and television actress, and an author. Her film roles include Ahme in the Beatles musical ''Help!'' (1965), the Doctor in '' Alfie'' (1966), Margaret Spencer in '' Bedazzled'' (1967) an ...

was offered the part of Queen Isabella. Bron was later cast as Kara in the Season 22 story ''

Revelation of the Daleks ''Revelation of the Daleks'' is the sixth and final serial of the 22nd season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 23 and 30 March 1985. This was the final serial to b ...

''.Doctor Who – The Collection Season 20 Blu-Ray. Release date: 18 September 2023. BBC Video. ASIN: B0CBN3G7JS

Commercial releases

In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by

, was published by

Target Books Target Books is a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became wel ...

in February 1986.

Home media

''The King's Demons'' was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in November 1995 in a box set along with a special edition of the subsequent serial " The Five Doctors" and a postcard book. It and '' Planet of Fire'' were released in a Kamelion-themed

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

box set on 14 June 2010. In September 2023, the story was released again in an upgraded format for Blu-ray, being included with the other stories from Season 20 in the ''Doctor Who - The Collection Box Set''.

References

External links

Target novelisation

* {{DEFAULTSORT:King's Demons, The Fifth Doctor serials Doctor Who pseudohistorical serials Doctor Who serials novelised by Terence Dudley The Master (Doctor Who) television stories 1983 British television episodes Television series set in the Middle Ages Fiction set in the 1210s Cultural depictions of John, King of England Television episodes set in England Fiction set in the 13th century