Day 299: The Dæmons Episode 1

In this episode, Doctor Who fights Satanism. It's an interesting premise, and one which is able to firmly exist because of a few things. Number one is the fact that horror movies are a fairly well known genre in this time, so by having Doctor Who do a version of a horror movie of this ilk, then it's going to be something that the audience will actively recognise.

But there's clearly the temptation to just have an ordinary horror story and put the Doctor in it, and just leave it at that. Instead, the writers have quite clearly decided that the story should instead be about what would happen if a horror film ocurred within the Doctor Who universe, and how the rules of the Doctor Who universe would apply to the horror film. So this means that suddenly the villain isn't Satan but instead aliens, and that the reason for dark and mysterious happenings isn't magic but science instead. This means that the story's going to be somewhat interesting as we get a spin on the familiar horror tropes, but within the confines of the show that we all love and adore.