The Theology of Doctor Who. Chapter 3. THE DAEMONS

CHAPTER 3
THE DÆMONS

1971’s The Dæmons could be seen as the paragon of anti-religious sentiment in Doctor Who. Following the plot of Quatermass and the Pit, the story revolves around an ancient alien presence on earth, revealed to be the origin of all myths about horned gods and devils. While the role of von Däniken god[1] is fulfilled by insectoid Martians in Quatermass, The Dæmons replaces them with Azal, a demonic figure complete with cloven hooves and horns, who watches over the world. Though not actually creators, the Dæmons’ purpose is: “To help Homosapiens take out Neanderthal man… they’ve been coming and going ever since. The Greek civilisation, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution… they were all inspired by the Dæmons”[2]. The influence of Dennis Wheatley on co-writer Barry Letts also sees the action moved from London to the village of Devil’s End, and the psychic phenomenon of Quatermass replaced with ‘Black Magic’. The Quatermass-influenced theme of ‘scientific explanations’ is prevalent during Jon Pertwee’s tenure, and is at its very strongest here. This is explored mainly in duologues between the rationalist Doctor and either naive companion Jo or eccentric white witch Miss Hawthorne. “Science… not sorcery”[3] is the Doctor’s maxim.


It is interesting that the occultism that would so dominate the classic Holmes-Hinchcliffe era[4] is here synonymous with religion. The sinister hocus-pocus[5] of the Black Magic cult is indistinguishable from the life of the local church, which shares its membership with the coven. The rites take place in a cavern below the church, and are led by the vicar (in reality, the season‘s recurring villain- the Master). Director Christopher Barry comments: “We did have a minor problem with the Black Magic angle in that people were a little bit wary about connecting black magic with ecclesiastical premises. There was a certain amount of trepidation about using the old church…it was always assumed…that this was not consecrated ground.”[6] Further, “Another arguably rather strange limitation dictated by religious sensibilities was that the script could make no mention of God, in case this was considered blasphemous.”[7]

It is significant that the production team were alert to the potential sensitivity of the issues, yet their efforts not to offend seem somewhat at odds with the story. To summarise this anti-religious reading of the plot, we have the rationalist materialist Doctor – the forces of good - set against a superstitious cult, held in the thrall of the local vicar, who meet in the church to worship a god-like entity[8] – the forces of evil. If the anti-religious imagery was not clear, the church is even symbolically destroyed at the end of the story – a recurring image in the history of the programme.[9]

“The opposition between science and magic is indeed one of the strongest themes of the story,” writes Doctor Who historian Stephen James Walker, “ with the Doctor at pains to stress that everything that happens in life “must have a scientific explanation” and that magic is “balderdash” and “nonsense”. “[10] For ‘magic’ we may read ‘the supernatural’, and thus, by unfair association, religion. Again, the two are synonymous here: “The apparently supernatural forces which the Master, posing as a clergyman, summons up in a cavern below the church in Devil’s End are rationalised as a product of “The secret science of the Dæmons.””[11] In his chapter on The Dæmons, Anthony Thacker writes: “Most religion, including occult religion… is presented as primitive and superstitious… The running implication throughout is that it has no basis in reality, except as alien activity. It is certainly presented as having no spiritual reality.”[12]


An Alternative Reading

While the above interpretation is in line with the conflict thesis world-view and anti-supernatural bias of science fiction, there is another, more subtle reading of The Dæmons. The themes outlined below are not oblique by any means and could form part of a holistic viewing of the story. They are somewhat at odds, though, with expectations of the theological picture we have built up. We can see these alternative views most clearly in instances when The Dæmons varies from the classic sci-fi tropes and attitudes exemplified, in this case, by Quatermass and the Pit.

Firstly, the Doctor never fully succeeds in convincing Miss Hawthorne of his ‘scientific’ explanations.

The Doctor: Well, he uses violent emotions- fear, hatred, greed.

Thorpe: How?

The Doctor: Well, the emotions of a group of ordinary human beings generate a tremendous charge of psycho-kinetic energy. This the Master channels for his own purpose.

Hawthorne: But that is magic. That’s precisely what Black Magic is!

The Doctor: No, Miss Hawthorne, I’m afraid not.

Hawthorne: Are you trying to tell me that the invocations, the rituals, even the Sabbat itself, are just so much window dressing?

The Doctor: No, no, no, of course not. No, they are essential to generate and control the psionic forces… and to control the Dæmon himself.[13]

The Doctor, predating Clarke’s third law[14] by three years, states: “All the magical traditions are just remnants of their advanced science.”[15] If we are to believe that this is the case, then the Doctor’s argument is reduced to a somewhat facile insistence on correct semantics. In fact, he tacitly agrees with Miss Hawthorne: “It’s a great pity they didn’t listen to you in the first place.”[16]

Barry Letts is one of the few writers who will use the Doctor as something other than the ‘moral voice’. Since the gradual phasing-out of the First Doctor’s anti-Hero status, the Doctor is always seen to be in the right- at least, morally. Barry Letts returns Doctor Who to a much keener exploration of the flaws of the central character. In short, it is not entirely clear that we are expected to agree with the Doctor’s diagnosis.

Secondly, arguably the most significant clue to an alternative reading of the Dæmons is the resolution. Azal is annihilated when, as he prepares to destroy the Doctor, Jo makes a substitutionary sacrifice:

Jo: “No! He is a good man. Kill me, not him!”

This has been lambasted as ‘risible’[17] but it is no less dissatisfying than the denouement of Quatermass and the Pit and as we shall see it may be more significant. Stephen James Walker writes: “It is arguably one of the story’s few weak points that in the end he [Azal] is defeated relatively easily…Clearly the writers were drawing a religious parallel here.”[18] If nothing else, this indicates that The Dæmons may not be as hostile to religion as the first reading suggests.

Thirdly, the role of Azal is quite different from the almost passive Martians of Quatermass:

Hawthorne: Then these creatures are linked with the Black Arts. They are evil.

The Doctor: Amoral, perhaps. They help Earth, but on their own terms. It’s a scientific experiment to them. Just another laboratory rat.[19]

Significantly, Azal is a scientist, cast in the mould of the many other amoral scientific villains of Doctor Who and allied with the Master’s “rationalist, existentialist priest”[20]. In an impressive subversion of the norm, the monster is used to show the dark side of the Doctor’s insistence on scientific rationalism. Helpful here is Couch et al.’s fine exposition of the etymology of ‘monster’, and their role in mythology:
"The word ‘monster’ can be traced to various Latin roots related to education. The Latin monstrum means ‘that which teaches’, while monstrare means ‘to show’. Both words derive from monere, meaning ‘to warn’… So the role of the monster is to show us something, to warn and to teach us… In this way, monsters often fulfil a prophetic role in society, showing and warning us about uncomfortable truths."[21]
From the perspective of both Freud and Jung, this is true of all the monsters of myth, but the demonstrative monsters of Doctor Who are the result of conscious effort, rather than subconscious action. The Daleks are the fascist right; Cybermen express fears about prosthetics and posthumanism; the Zarbi represent communism; the Sontarans, militarism, and so on.


Jo: This… Dæmon, could destroy the world?

The Doctor: What does any scientist do with an experiment that fails? He chucks it in the rubbish bin.

Jo: The end of the world![22]


If, as in Planet of the Spiders[23], Barry Letts uses the monster to represent the Doctor’s hamartia[24], then The Dæmons can be seen as a cautionary tale against cold, inhuman rationalism which would destroy the world. It is Jo’s humanity that destroys the monster - driven insane by the apparent “illogicality of Jo’s willingness to sacrifice her own life to save the Doctor’s.”[25]

In this reading, while a conflict thesis is still assumed, the monster of the story is not religion but science - or, more correctly - amoral application of science. Jo’s irrational and human act of self-sacrifice saves the Doctor from the over-sized demon of his own positivism. “Science… not sorcery”[26] is the Doctor’s maxim but human compassion is the writer’s.

[1] See appendix 1. Doctor Who’s von Däniken gods.
[2] Letts, Barry; Sloman, Robert Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Titan Books, London, 1992. Pg. 93
[3] Letts, Barry; Sloman, Robert Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Titan Books, London, 1992. Pg. 138
[4] A ‘golden age’ heavily influenced by Hammer Horror, with Philip Hinchcliffe as producer and Robert Holmes as script editor. This era lasted from 1974 until 1977 and includes seasons 12-14 of the show. Tom Baker starred as the Doctor.
[5] Etymologically, a very appropriate term.
[6] Director Christopher Barry in Stephen James Walker ‘Background’. Letts, Barry; Sloman, Robert Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Titan Books, London, 1992. Pg. 11
[7] Stephen James Walker ‘Background’. Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Robert Sloman and Barry Letts. Titan Books, London. 1992. Pg. 11
[8] The idea of evil gods is explored in greater depth.
[9] Indeed, it has become something of a joke amongst fans of the show. The Church is destroyed in 1984’s The Awakening
[10]Stephen James Walker ‘Background’. Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Robert Sloman and Barry Letts. Titan Books, London. 1992. Pg. 11
[11]Stephen James Walker ‘Background’. Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Robert Sloman and Barry Letts. Titan Books, London. 1992. Pg. 11
[12] Thacker, Anthony. A Closer Look at Science Fiction. Kingsway Publications, Eastbourne. 2001.Pg. 264
[13] Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Robert Sloman and Barry Letts. Titan Books, London. 1992. Pg 139.
[14]Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. -Arthur C Clarke
[15] Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Robert Sloman and Barry Letts. Titan Books, London. 1992. Pg. 93
[16] Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Robert Sloman and Barry Letts. Titan Books, London. 1992. Pg. 73
[17] Cornell, Day and Topping, cited in Thacker, Anthony. A Closer Look at Science Fiction. Kingsway Publications, Eastbourne. 2001. Pg. 262
[18] Stephen James Walker, cited in Thacker, Anthony. A Closer Look at Science Fiction. Kingsway Publications, Eastbourne. 2001. Pg. 262
[19] Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Robert Sloman and Barry Letts. Titan Books, London. 1992. Pg. 93
[20]Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Robert Sloman and Barry Letts. Titan Books, London. 1992. Pg. 42
[21] Couch, Steve; Watkins, Tony; Williams, Peter S. Back in Time: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who. Damaris Books, Milton Keynes. 2005. Pg. 116
[22] Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Robert Sloman and Barry Letts. Titan Books, London. 1992. Pg. 93
[23] This is examined in Chapter 5 “Buddhism and ‘B’-Movies”.
[24] The fatal flaw of Greek drama.
[25] Stephen James Walker, cited in Thacker, Anthony. A Closer Look at Science Fiction. Kingsway Publications, Eastbourne. 2001. Pg. 262
[26] Doctor Who: The Scripts. The Daemons. Robert Sloman and Barry Letts. Titan Books, London. 1992. Pg 138