5.13: The King’s Demons
In which Doctor Who is racist against the French.
Broadcast: March 1983
Watched: December 2020
The King’s Demons, Part One
“Can’t say I like him myself. A French knight.” Aaaaand this being Doctor Who, we’re suddenly in Game of Thrones. There’s even a comedy dwarf. It’s quite well done, though.
The Doctor’s random racism against the French in this jars a bit. It’s also an odd interpretation of the politics of the 13th century: I’m not sure the ruling class of the time would have treated England and France as quite so separate in this manner. Also, despite going down in history as a complete ****, my understanding was that King John was, in fact, a complete and total ****, and the Doctor’s “he was lovely actually” routine jars a bit.
Are they even trying to disguise Ainley? It doesn’t feel much like they are.
“Fill her” oo-er.
Tegan, who I’ve defended a lot, is actually quite whiny in this one.
The King’s Demons, Part Two
“You may disguise your features but” – but he didn’t did he? It’s obviously Tony Ainley from the start.
Anyway. Despite that I rather enjoyed this – it’s slight, and I’m not sure it makes sense, but it’s quite fun in an album-track-like-Tooth-and-Claw kind of way.
The “king” torturing the Doctor by making him listen to the Master’s screams from inside an iron maiden is quite funny. I don’t really mind that Turlough spends most of the story in a cell, because it’s like a coda to the Black Guardian trilogy: he gets to prove his loyalty by immediately detesting the Master (”I’ve had quite enough of you whoever you are”).
The TARDIS is once again serving as a setting rather than merely a portal, for some reason. I like the way that, in the final TARDIS scene, the Doctor finally gets sick of Tegan’s whinging and announces he’s taking her home, even if he’s only winding her up.
“Very well Doctor, your will against mine – so be it.” Could they just... not be bothered to write an actual ending? Did something go missing?
Talking of which... this is a very odd end to a season, would feel much more natural to end on Enlightenment. What went wrong with Warhead? [The originally planned season finale, with Daleks, kyboshed by a shuffling of the production schedule resulting from industrial action. Jim Cooray-Smith tells me it’s a fan myth it was even called Warhead: apparently it was The Return. They eventually made it the next season under the title Resurrection of the Daleks, a title which I have just this minute realised is a joke.]
Jim is correct - Warhead is a fan myth. It originates in an eyewitness account of a visit to JNT's office where it appears to have been one of those titles that the producer was fond of writing on his whiteboard to misdirect fans.
Once you know it’s Ainley, it’s very obviously Ainley. But FWIW, on first viewing back in 1983, I didn’t twig it was him until two seconds before the reveal: I just thought it was a guest actor who thought he was in Monty Python.