Day 300: The Dæmons Episode 2

The Dæmons is a story that I should have been more familiar with as a child. We had a copy of it on VHS and I could have theoretically watched it when I was a kid. However, I was encouraged not to as a child, as my mother had watched it recently and found it terrifying, so she assumed that it would be altogether worse for a 9 year old boy who has just been severely traumatised by Inferno. So I never really watched the Dæmons until I was 16. Which is a shame, as it lost something for me because of this. I had had The Dæmons built up as a terrifying piece of television, something that would chill me to the bone. But it isn't really. It's got undertones of darkness and a few moments that are mildly chilling but aside from that, it's just another Doctor Who story.

But when I was looking at the day on which this episode would fall for me, I thought that I might save this anecdote for Day 300. Because although the anecdote is somewhat depressing as a young man realises that the myths of his childhood aren't all that they're cracked up to be, it still has the fact of the mythic quantity that this story had held in my heart for so many years. That one story can be so terrifying and so important to put an impact on my life without me having even seen it. In some ways, I'm disappointed that I never saw the Dæmons as a child, as it meant that I never got to have that experience of terror for myself.

And yet, I'm also pleased as it means that the myth of The Dæmons was able to be built up around my mind and help make Doctor Who a series to remember, however many years after I first saw it. Which leads up to the fact that I have spent almost 300 days straight watching one Doctor Who episode a day (except for that one time when Mitch took over for me (thanks Mitch, by the way)) and each new moment adds more to my personal mythos around Doctor Who. Sometimes it can make me realise how misplaced my expectations were, other times it reveals the wonders and beauties of this wonderful television programme. And as I look at the 500-odd days left of discovery for me left, I realise that We've Got Work To Do!