600 days. That's an awfully long time to be watching Doctor Who episodes for. In that time, there's been Aztec priests, disused yetis, Metebelis crystals, imbeciles called Harry Sullivan, a Romana who was one of the noblest of her name, and a companion plagued with an impossibly difficult task. It's been a fun ride (and there's only around 200 days left to go!), and so to celebrate, I'm watching a mediocre Doctor Who story.
I'm perhaps being a bit unfair to The King's Demons, as there are some good things in it. The only problem is that it is a story featuring the Master, where the Master is again disguised. This time, his disguise consists of wearing a beard and speaking in a French accent. It is, perhaps, the worst disguise the Master has ever used. Aside from the eternal question of "Why has the Master disguised himself this time", it is at least something that we can have fun with as an audience. Doctor Who, in all of its history, has occasionally delved into the joy of being enjoyably bad (c.f. The Horns of Nimon, The Underwater Menace), and that at least makes the story somewhat enjoyable (contrast with Arc of Infinity earlier in this series, which was just bad for bad's sake).
Speaking of history, this episode seeks to get in some real world history as well. We learn about King John, and his role in signing the Magna Carta. Similarly, we also get a picture of what it was like living in a medieval castle (very cold, it turns out). This is a nice call-back to the early days of Doctor Who, whereby the series was intended to be educational and, as such, dropped in little history lessons here and there. That said, the history stories were generally either grand epics (e.g. Marco Polo) or bright comedies (e.g. The Gunfighters), but here we have just a light adventure, lacking in the scope of the epic or the humour of the comedy. But it's nice to be reminded of these things, as we have more fun with The King's Demons.
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