Doctor Who/Recap/S8 E5 The Daemons

"I see. So all we've got to deal with is something which is either too small to see or thirty feet tall, can incinerate you or freeze you to death, turn stone images into homicidal monsters and looks like the devil."

- Captain Yates sums up UNIT's job.

Watching TV, the Doctor becomes uncharacteristically alarmed by a planned archaeological dig on a barrow in the village of Devil's End. He races there with Jo in tow, where he discovers that the local vicar, Mr Magister is really the Master (no!) who is using what looks like black magic rituals to raise the Devil.

In fact, the "devil" is a Sufficiently Advanced Alien called Azal who conforms to most of the classic appearance tropes of the Devil - horns, hoofs - and claims to have set the Earth in motion as an experiment.

With the Doctor and Jo in the village and UNIT troops cut off outside by a heat barrier, Azal appears and says that he will either pass on his powers or destroy the Earth as a failed experiment. The Master is hoping to be the recipient of the powers but Azal is swayed by the Doctor's eloquent defence of Earth and offers him the powers instead. The Doctor of course refuses, and Azal angrily decides to kill him. Jo offers herself in the Doctor's place and Azal, unable to comprehend self-sacrifice, suffers a Critical Existence Failure.

Meanwhile, UNIT troops have got past the heat barrier and the Brigadier has ordered Five Rounds Rapid at animated gargoyle Bok, and arrive just in time to apprehend the Master and take him away to await trial for Crimes Against Humanity: attempts to conquer humanity, subjugation of the people of Devil's End, and infliction of Morris dancers on an unsuspecting public.

Tropes

 * Ancient Astronauts
 * Ash Face: Rare live-action example, when the anti-heat-barrier machine blows up in Osgood's face.
 * Bad Habits: The Master poses as a priest.
 * Burn the Witch: The locals try to do this to the Doctor. Ironically the local witch intervenes to stop them (with the help of Jo and Benton).
 * Chekhov's Remote
 * Closed Circle: Somewhat literally until UNIT breaks through.
 * Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: This spells the end for Azal.
 * Evil Laugh: The Master really hams it up here with aplomb.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: Azal.
 * A Fete Worse Than Death: Not a regular thing but due to the Master's influence over the village, but the attempted burning of the Doctor as the centerpiece of May Day probably counts.
 * Five Rounds Rapid: Trope Namer
 * Godwin's Law: When the Master pleads for Azal's power so that he may bring order to the world, the Doctor compares him to Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan.
 * Human Sacrifice
 * Hypocritical Humour: Probably intended when the Doctor upbraids Jo for mocking the Brigadier in the way that he constantly does, but it's played sufficiently seriously to appear genuinely unpleasant and bullying to many fans.
 * Magic From Technology: The Daemons powers are handwaved as highly-advanced science.
 * The Master: Duh.
 * Minion with an F In Evil: The cultist who gets upset when the Master decides to sacrifice Jo.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Azal, Reverend Magister, Devil's End
 * Our Gargoyles Rock: Bok.
 * Reverse the Polarity: The first ever instance.
 * Road Sign Reversal
 * Satan: Well, sorta.
 * Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: The Daemons, apparently responsible for many eras of human advancement.
 * This Is My Name on Foreign: The Great Wizard Quiquaequod and the Rev. Magister.
 * Villainous Breakdown: A very limited amount of disagreement from the villagers when the Master tries to talk to them into helping him rapidly results in screaming demands for obedience and comparisons of them to dust beneath his feet.