In 1971, Doctor Who, as part of its eighth season, aired a series of five serials, which ranged from four to six episodes each. The eighth season saw the introduction of soon to be fan favorite villain the Master (played then by Roger Delgado) and saw a trend towards stories taking place away from Earth, following producers’ comments of the Doctor’s (Jon Pertwee) exile there feeling too limiting.
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The fifth serial of the season, collectively called “The Dæmons” aired late May to mid June of 1971 and is regarded as one of the best Doctor Who stories. Directed by Christopher Barry and written under the pseudonym Guy Leopold — the script was written by members of the production team Robert Sloman and Barry Letts, a practice that was discouraged due to potential conflict with the Writer’s Guild — the episodes followed a plot by the Master to raise the demon Azal (Stephen Thorne).
Over the course of “The Dæmons”, the Doctor and companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning) try to stop an archeological dig from awakening a great evil. Grant is stopped by the Reverend Magistar— who is actually the Master — leading the Master to complete his awakening of Azal, who is not actually a demon but rather an alien. Still, Azal’s an alien with great power that the Master wants for himself.
After a series of summonings, Azal grants his power to the Master and prepares to kill the Doctor, only to have the doctor’s companion sacrifice herself. The sacrifice confounds Azal. The alien finds no logic in the sacrifice and is so taken aback that his power backfires, destroying Azal and the church where the events have taken place.
It was the decision to have the church blow up, however, that landed the episodes in hot water.
Unintentional Blasphemy
Back in 1971, the UK still had a blasphemy law, criminalizing blasphemy and blasphemous libel. The blasphemy law had been grandfathered in from common law statutes from England and Wales dating back several centuries. The law ensured the protection of Christianity, especially as it pertained to the Church of England. The 1998 Human Rights Law would go on to weaken the legislation before it was ultimately repealed with the 2008 Criminal Justice and Immigration Act.
Likely with this law in mind, the serial was carefully written to avoid blasphemy. Despite much of it taking place in a church, the word “God” is not mentioned. Any talismans used by the characters are specifically not crucifixes. The area under the church is described as a secular “cavern” rather than a “crypt”. Despite what the title of the episode may leave fans to believe, Azal is not a demon at all. Instead, he’s an alien who has visited Earth with his spaceship so frequently that he’s influenced Earth mythology and conceptions of what a demon is, despite not being at all occult in nature.
Additional changes to the episode included a switch from a reversed Lord’s prayer to saying “Mary Had a Little Lamb” backwards, removing what shred of Christianity had managed its way into the episode. Even the episode’s title “The Dæmons” had been changed from its original “The Demons” just to be safe. Subtitles from production members for “The Dæmons” serial credit many of these changes with script editor Terrance Dicks who was concerned with specifically avoiding Satanic overtones.
Of course, changing a word in a script is easier than changing a location. Towards the end of “The Dæmons”, a church blows up. Viewers of Doctor Who were able to recognize the filming location as St. Michael’s Church in Albourne, Wiltshire. Many were upset at the destruction of a church they knew and wrote into the BBC, expressing horror.
The audience hadn’t realized that the blown up church was a model and not the real thing. For the episode, BBC visual effects designer Peter Day with assistant Ricky Grosser constructed a model that would be shot using an enlargement effect to resemble the church’s actual size. It’s ironic to think of Doctor Who, a show frequently criticized for its special effects, managing to fool its audience to this degree.
“The Dæmons” would not be the last Doctor Who story to take place in a church, yet it very well be the last one to blow one up. As recently as the 2023 Christmas Special “The Church on Ruby Road”, the location was used only as set dressing with the main story taking place on a ship in the sky, rather than the titular church.
“The Dæmons” is available to watch for free on the Doctor Who: Classic Youtube channel.
Have you heard about the controversy around “the Dæmons” before? Is it surprising? Let us know in the comments below!
