N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

‘If he’s the best swordsman in France they must have terrible swordsmen’, remarked my son of Sir Gilles’ skills after watching the sword fight at the end of Part One of The King’s Demons.

And it’s true — as sword fights go, it’s not up to the epic standard set by the Doctor and the Master in The Sea Devils (which gets a mention for the second post running). Once again, Anthony Ainley is far more interesting an actor before he reveals himself to be the Master — even if it’s the second story in a row for which he’s required to provide a dodgy accent!

“I’ve had quite enough of you, whoever you are, so don’t try me too far.”

Turlough, The King’s Demons: Part Two

As good as The King’s Demons sounds — with a suitably mediæval song contribution from Peter Howell — and looks (and I’m sure it’ll look even better once it receives a Blu-ray restoration), overall, it’s not hard to disagree with the Doctor’s conclusion that this is ‘small time villainy’ by the Master’s standards — perhaps more in keeping with something the Meddling Monk would attempt?

The significance of The King’s Demons for me is more down to its scheduling. It was almost certainly the last time I watched a complete episode of Doctor Who as a child. By the time of the show’s twentieth anniversary, I’d left the UK — and it would be another 22 years before I would watch another regularly scheduled episode on first transmission. Perhaps because of this, I’d never noticed before that The King’s Demons leads us nicely into The Five Doctors but that, as they say, is another story.