1971-06-19
N/A
125 min
On the eve of May Day, dark elemental forces begin to disturb the village of Devil's End as the Master summons the demon Azal: unexplained murders, a stone gargoyle come to life, and a nigh-impenetrable infernal energy dome. With the Master fully prepared to destroy the Earth, the Doctor and UNIT - aided by a benevolent practitioner of witchcraft - battle the wicked rites of a secret science wielded by an alien from another world.
The entertaining Damaris Hayman brings something of the eccentric Margaret Rutherford to this enjoyable series as she claims to be an white witch ("Hawthorne") warning of great dangers should the pompous "Prof. Horner" (Robin Wentworth) go ahead with uncovering a tomb long since hidden near the menacingly named village of "Devil's End". If you ever doubted the "Doctor" could do time travel, then a quick glance at the television coverage of this event would prove that we could all watch BBC3 almost fifty years before it did actually start broadcasting! Anyway, the Time Lord (Jon Pertwee) and "Jo" (Katy Manning) hear her portents of doom and race to stop the dig. Meantime, the place has a new vicar in the form of "Magister". Yep, it's Roger Delgado using a Latin disguise. What's he doing at an ancient dig, though? Well that soon becomes apparent as the giant "Azal" emerges whom he hopes will endow him with power to rule humanity. With an heat shield surrounding the village ensuring that the increasingly frustrated "Brigadier" (Nicholas Courtney) is kept at arms length, it falls to our intrepid duo as well as the civvie-clad "Capt. Yates" (Richard Franklin) and "Sgt. Benson" (John Levene) to do some thwarting before their antagonist becomes all-powerful. This is one of Delgado's better efforts as his menace in a dog-collar works nicely with the eccentric Hayman, an helicopter, plenty of remote controlled Bessie, a bit of ESP lightbulb shattering, a flighty blue devil and there's even a floral dance (without an hint of Terry Wogan). Its darker than many with some Satanic menace and adequate visual effects to support a story rooted in folklore that plays to superstition. There is a solid cast of support and across a more tightly edited five-parts this brings the season to an entertaining conclusion.
