Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The Time Meddler

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've liked this story from the first time I saw it many years ago. This is the last story from the second season. This story picks up where The Chase left off with the Doctor and Vicki finding new companion Steven Taylor hiding inside the TARDIS. Events from that story are also talked about in this one. They arrive on the eve of an invasion between Vikings and the Normans in 1066. The Monk turns out to be another person from the Doctor's home planet. This would be the first time other than the Doctor and Susan, that we see someone from his home planet although The Doctor's planet wouldn't be named until Doctor Who - The Time Warrior (Episode 70). This is also the first time that we get a story that is based on historical events but with a Sci Fi twist thrown in.

The story itself is quite good and the region 2 disc that I've seen, thanks to a friend, doesn't look too bad so I should think that the region 1 disc will look as good. I hope so as that's the one I'm buying. There are still 11 seconds of the fourth episode that are still missing due to overseas distributors' editing it for viewing. One of the special features goes back and uses both telesnaps, off air recordings and the such to recreate this scene as one of the special features.

Never meddle with success, they say. Fortunately the producers of "Doctor Who" chose not to heed this warning in 1965, ending the successful second season with this strange tale of time meddling. It's worth bearing in mind that this was a very different era, one in which season endings weren't felt to require earth-shattering cliffhangers or mega-dramatic climaxes, and indeed there is little to distinguish "The Time Meddler" from its prior stories in terms of tone or pacing. And yet, mainly in retrospect, it's crucially pivotal in the show's history, introducing unprecedented concepts and themes that we now take for granted as essentially "Doctor Who" through and through. And it also succeeds as an entertaining romp of an adventure, to boot.

First of all, "The Time Meddler" shines as the prototypical example of the so-called pseudo-historical story, that delightfully distinctive blending of science fiction elements and past historical settings so typical of Doctor Who. Afterwards, that is. Up until this story, the purely science fiction stories and the purely historical stories had remained worlds apart, alternating with each other in almost lockstep fashion. What an innovative brainstorm it was to fuse the two! And something of the excitement of this unusual new approach communicates itself through the mood of the storytelling: we're pulled along by puzzle upon apparently irresolvable puzzle as the Tardis arrives somewhere along the northeastern coast of England in 1066 and what seems like an onlooking medieval monk seems less mystified than intrigued, as if by an unexpected but familiar sight. A monk, as it gradually turns out, who happens to own a wristwatch, a gramophone record player, an electric toaster, a first aid kit with penicillin, and...a Tardis?!

Yes, this is also the first time in the show's history that we get to meet someone else from, well, wherever the Doctor is from. The Meddling Monk, that is, another wanderer in time and space like the Doctor, though with much more of the prankish trickster about him. The way this revelation is weaved into the script is subtle and ingenious, adding a whole dimension to the ongoing series and the mythos of its main character even as, in a way, it reveals nothing and only adds a layer of mystery to it all (a knack that later writers eventually lost, for better or worse). The Monk himself is a great and memorable character, incorrigibly mischievous and yet likable for that very reason--and also for the fact that amidst the mischief and his unconventional methods he has a nice altruistic streak, the desire to "improve things" through his time meddling, in this case by wiping out the Viking fleet with space-age weaponry and so allowing King Harold to win the Battle of Hastings, thereby avoiding much of the warfare and strife in Europe that necessarily followed over the centuries. The Doctor will have none of such irresponsible interference, however, and comes down pretty hard on the Monk. Maybe too hard. The Doctor here seems just a bit malicious, possessed of a playfully cruel streak all his own (and perhaps a dash of envy?), reminding me anyway of his more initially unsettling personality in the show's first episodes. Indeed, the "Battle of Wits" between the Doctor and the Monk comes across not as a comfortably simple tussle between good and evil but more like a turf war between two unreliably eccentric but powerful renegades. I'm not sure if the writer intended it so, but it's definitely more interesting that way. Even, as the Meddling Monk might say, more fun.

"The Time Meddler" has much more going for it, too. Stock footage is craftily mixed almost seamlessly into the story, allowing it to transcend the look and feel of the necessarily studio-bound production that it was. Rather maturely horrific incidents are tactfully alluded to and still somehow successfully alloyed with the whimsical humor of the overall adventure. A new companion, Steven Taylor, is introduced and established properly, changing the overall chemistry of the Tardis crew--and confirming such cycling of companions as a permanent fixture of the series. And we get to see the Doctor relish putting away a heady brew of mead with ease, the old devil! In short, this is a quiet classic from the golden age of "Doctor Who"--sheer poetry, dear boy!

Season Two.
Another amusing gem from the prolific Dennis Spooner. This is regarded as the first of the pseudo-historicals, and is one of my favourite season two stories.
I can never feel anything but sorrow for the Monk at the end of this story. I know he was a rogue, as witnessed by his Tardis full of stolen art treasures, but he did help the ancient Britons build Stonehenge with the aid of his anti-gravitational lift, after all.
"Carry on" film star Peter Butterworth plays the part of the monk with amusing relish. I would have loved to have seen him as a regular recurring.....I hesitate to use the word villain, so I'll say character instead.
And by being "shades of grey" in temperament, as opposed to the "black and white" pantomine personality of another Time Lord renegade from the seventies and eighties, makes the Monk a far more interesting and entertaining character in the process.
Here's an example, when the Doctor asks him why he behaves the way he does, the Monk replies with glee,
"Doctor it's more fun my way...". No heavy intellectual reasoning, just, it's more fun. That made a refreshing change from the pretentious reasons of some other sci-fi shows. This story was the first for the series to undergo a format change, as the Doctor takes a more pro-active role, and the actions of the companions had a lesser impact on the outcome of the stories.
As for The Monk, he is the kind of character that would go back in time just for fun, and etch some contemporary comment on some ancient artifact just to give future archaeologists headaches.
Not an evil character as such, just extremely naughty.
Although there's no worlds to save, (just a particular time-line) and no companions die this is still an enjoyable slice of early Who.
From the season with the highest overall ratings ever.
~~~~
DVD extras.
Commentary:~ Verity Lambert, Peter Purves, Donald Tosh, Barry Newbury.
Verity Lambert Obituary.
Photo Gallery Subtitle Production Notes.
English subtitles.
pdf files of Radio Times billings.
"The Lost Twelve Seconds" - 12 lost seconds recreated using off-air audio recording and the script.
Stripped for action - a look at the first Doctor's comic strip adventures.
Restoration featurette.
Coming soon trailer.
Originally aired:~3 july - 24 july 1965.
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Trivia:~ In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode; "The Neutral Zone", as Dianna Troi helps a woman from the past search for living family members the computer screen flashes up a family tree with the names William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker.
Maybe some Trek writers were closet Whovians?

Part of the idea behind "Doctor Who" was that it was going to be used to teach children a little something about history. Well, that pretty much came to an end once the Doctor visited Skaro for the first time, but the show still tried to do historical stories.

The pure historicals are ones like Doctor Who - The Aztecs, where the TARDIS crew winds up somewhere in the past, runs into trouble and has to get out. This is all done without them having to deal with any kind of monsters or sci-fi peril.

But after a while, the powers that be decided the show needed to have a sci-fi angle to every story, so gradually the pure historicals faded away, leaving behind a beast called the pseudo-historical. These are stories that take place in a historical setting, but feature sci-fi elements to them. Aliens meddling in Earth's past, power-mad time-travelers meddling in Earth's past, robot's meddling in Earth's past or, surprisingly enough, other Time Lords meddling in Earth's past.

The first of these, appropriately enough, is "The Time Meddler", where another Time Lord (though they weren't called that yet), called the Monk, goes back in time to change the outcome of the Battle of Hastings. He's not exactly evil, more of just a problem. Naturally the Doctor has to put a stop to this nonsense.

The story is quite good as is the acting, and the Doctor comes off as something more heroic than the usual anti-hero role the First Doctor had. I loved what he wound up doing to the Monk at the end of the story.

As for the rest of the episode... well, the sets and costumes are good, as one expects for a historical story. Much less cheese than when they tried to do sci-fi (then again their budget was something like 2000 pounds for an entire season, so yeah).

The extras are nice, including commentary that features Verity Lambert in her last role on the last episode she produced (it was also her last commentary). There's also a nice obit for her, and a few other nice extras, including a feature on the First Doctor's adventures in the "Doctor Who" comic strips.

Overall this is a nice purchase. It's always good to see some of the earliest episodes and the extras are nice icing on the cake.

After The Unearthly Child and The Daleks, the Time Meddler adds to the modern mythology of the show with the 1st appearance of another member of the Doctor's race with his own TARDIS.

This pacing of the story is of it's time, and feels completely different than the modern show, but I feel that that just show how strong the format is to endure throw the generations.

The one super highlight of the DVD is the mini documentary on Doctor Who in Comics: The 1st Doctor. I hope to see the continuation of the series with future releases for other Doctors, since one may be surprised about the talent that has worked in Doctor Who comics in the pass would make a amazing set of documentaries.

Again this is story that should be in any fans collection, but I wouldn't use the story as a jumping point for fans drawn in from the modern series.

To me the William Hartnell stories from the Doctor Who videography are an acquired taste. By today's standards many of them a slow moving and a challenge to watch. But "The Time Meddler" is one of the few existing Hartnell era stories that I actually enjoy. The story is interesting, the black & white film enhances the cheesy sets, the Monk is a great nemesis for the Doctor, and Hartnell is at his most playful when he interacts with the Monk.

The extras aren't anything exciting though. The Hartnell comic books history is fascinating and the tributes to the late Verity Lambert, first producer of the series, are fine. The missing scene deleted by overseas sensors was not worth the wait. It was audio only and you get thirteen seconds of the sound of screaming and grunting.

When Doctor Who began in 1963, the types of stories it told could be roughly categorized into one of two classifications. There were the science-fiction stories in which the TARDIS crew would visit the future or an alien world and have some sort of adventure there. Then there were the purely historical stories -- adventures where the crew would become separated from their ship, be accused of murder, or something along those lines. These stories would allow children to learn miniature history lessons (one of the original purposes of the show) by showing the regular characters interacting with historical figures.

The important distinction between the two types was that the historical stories contained no science fiction concepts. The villains were regular humans, not evil alien monsters. Fights took place using swords or pistols, not death-rays or blasters.

THE TIME MEDDLER changed all this by combining the science fiction with the historical (pseudo-historicals as they became known in fan nomenclature). Looking back, it's intriguing to see how the production team played on viewer expectations by opening with an adventure set in the 11th century and only slowly dropping clues that a subversion of this story-type is unfolding: a modern wristwatch is found in the woods; a monastery has a phonograph (which apparently broadcasts the "Chant" album across the countryside).

The story is relatively straightforward. Landing in England in 1066, the TARDIS crew are puzzled by the aforementioned anachronistic clues. The one thing they have in common is a monk who has recently appeared in a previously abandoned monastery. This character is commonly known in fan circles as the Meddling Monk, who would become a semi-recurring character in one later television serial and a few spin off media appearances. (Watching this story for the first time in a decade or so, I was stunned by Peter Butterworth's resemblance to New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, complete with hoodie.)

Once the Meddling Monk's scheme is discovered, the Doctor, Steven and Vicki must stop him to prevent the entirety of Western Europe's history from being completely corrupted. The Monk's plan never feels particularly concrete and so there isn't a lot of drama to be pulled from what is a relatively high concept in this era of the show's history. The character is also mostly comic relief which makes for fun viewing, but is an odd decision for the serial's only real villain.

THE TIME MEDDLER contains a neat science fiction concept, but it isn't a story that really stands up to multiple viewings (in 1965, it wasn't meant to be seen more than a single time). Once the secret and the plot are known, follow-up viewings make the serial seem slow to get to the point. What's left are the performances from the actors and they do in fact just manage to keep the story afloat. William Hartnell and Peter Butterworth have a great rapport which makes it a pity that Hartnell is absent for all of the second episode. I particularly enjoyed Alethea Charlton who has a much more subtle character to play than that of the cave-woman which she portrayed in AN UNEARTHLY CHILD.

Still, the script is probably cleverer than it appears at first glance. Take, for example, the fact that at the beginning of the story, Steven (as a brand new traveler on the TARDIS) is given the standard information dump about what kind of adventures he can expect and how the TARDIS works. This seems like just the usual material, but for once it actually comes in handy in episodes three and four once the Monk's true nature is revealed.

This DVD release (as usual) contains a much cleaned up and superior picture compared to the old movie-format PBS version that had been my only experience of this serial. There's a short extra which briefly explores how and where much of the digital scrubbing took place.

The text commentary is informative but seemed even more dry than usual. If you ever find yourself wondering the exact time of day the actors took their lunch and dinner breaks on the recording days of this serial, then this is the extra for you.

The audio commentary track is crowded in this one: producer Verity Lambert (who unfortunately passed away only months after she recorded this track), actor Peter Purves, story editor Donald Tosh, designer Barry Newbery and commentary moderator Clayton Hickman. As with other moderated commentary tracks, the conversation very often is not focused onto the on-screen action, but instead in loose discussions. It's rather refreshing to hear Peter Purves freely admit that he recalls almost nothing specific about this serial. The track really only gets lively during a digression where Verity Lambert starts dishing the dirt on which male members of the BBC production staff couldn't stand working for a woman.

THE TIME MEDDLER is a decent little story, and, if slow at times, it manages to not become tedious. The twist is a little long in coming, but there's other stuff to appreciate along the way. And who hasn't wanted to see someone throw their breakfast on Bill Belichick?

It's been years since I first saw this episode, and I've rather mixed feelings about it. Hartnell always had something about him, that little sparkle, that bit of charm that was, in many cases, overshadowed by the stubborness of the character he was playing. In his later episodes, he was lightened up considerably, whcih really allowed his charismatic side to shine through, and that is very much on display here. The Who historic episodes went the way of the Dodo after a while, and that is really a shame, as some of them, like the Aztecs for instance were really fantastic. This one is sort of a hybrid historic episode, with the inclusion of someone from the same place as the Doctor(though not revealed where at this point, as that came much later). The Monk had lots of possibilities, though few were explired here, and he was not entirely fleshed out. Still, the time that the Doctor and the Monk share on sreen makes this one worth it, and this episode is worth watching just for its historical value. Plus, it happens to be very watchable(though I have trouble ever seeing this Doctor without Ian, Barbara, and of course...Susan)

The Doctor and crew arrive on Earth to discover that another time-traveler is altering history......
If you described the events that unfold in the Meddling Monk story you might think we were referencing the 2005 series and HAROLD SAXON story arc, not a 1965 episode, because up til this point the the shows history we take for granted that the Doctor & the TARDIS are unique...maybe the "last of his kind" even. So although, the Meddling Monk story takes place during a shaky time for the series, what with it's lead character appearing less and less due to the failing health of William Hartnell, and his companions taking on more and more of the series focus. Resulting in Steven and Vicki spending practically all four parts trying to find the Doctor, while the Doctor himself, gets captured, escapes and then recaptured. But, this awkwardness can't diminish the importance of this monumental milestone in Doctor Who history: It is the first time that the viewer is introduced to another person who is a member of the Doctor's own race. Althought the Timelords still remain unidentified until Wargames (And not long in the series history, before another milestone is reached....the Doctor's ability to regenerate, which follows a short 2 story after this one). Another first for the series that occurs here is the departure from the straight historical story. So far whenever the Doctor has been in the past it has remained true to the history books but, here before long we see the Doctor find not only anachronistic objects (a wrist watch, record player playing monastery sfx, toaster and electric lamp) belonging to the Monk, his "meddling" actions bent on altering 11th century history for his own purposes, but an alien craft other than his own and another time-traveler. As obvious as it seems, this was a "NEW" twist on the shows time-travel theme. Can history be altered now?

As I said companions Steven and Vicki take center stage for much of this story, proving themselves interesting characters even when not fielding dialogue for the Doc. Steven, in his first full story, having come on board the TARDIS as a stowaway at the end of THE CHASE, takes the opportunity to pick the Doctor & Vick's brains a bit about the abilities of the TARDIS, giving viewer the chance to hear more concepts and details not heard since the pilot. The Monk played by Peter Butterworth also proves an excellent addition to the show in the sole appearance as an interesting character never to return to the TV series, but perhaps inspiration for the Master character to come. Although, there is much debate among fans has taken place over the year for and against the likelihood that pair of rogue Timelords are in fact one in the same. But, common reasons against are as follows: The Doctor says that he is "50 years earlier" suggesting he left Gallifrey 50 years before the Monk did and that they have never met before. There are many references that the Master and the Doctor were contemporaries; he and the Monk are not. Also the M.O. of the Monk is dissimilar, unlike the Master, the Monk isn't interested in creating chaos or even world domination, he IS motivated by self-interest in manipulating time to his advantage, like his examples: He claims to have put 200 pounds in a bank account in 1968, and then collected a fortune in interest 200 years later. He also admits to helping the ancient Britons build Stonehenge using an anti-gravity lifter. The Monk is a character you almost can't help, but like, his wicked sense of humor...laughing at the Doctor trapped like a mouse, brings out a similar wickedness in the Doctor...as seen when the Doctor holds the Monk at er..."gunpoint." Unlike, the Master, you don't get the sense that the Doctor holds him as any kind of a real threat...he even says as much himself.


The Monk's plan is to save Harold's army from having to attack the Vikings by destroying the fleet with a bazooka-weapon-of-sorts, allowing King Harold to face the forces of William of Normandy with a fresh army at the Battle of Hastings thus, ensuring that William is defeated at Hastings and thus bringing a period of peace to Europe. With the Monk's help, he hopes that the British will have jet propelled airliners by 1320 .
....interesting that, HAROLD and the SAXONs and the Doctor learning that he isn't alone, while another of his kind prepares to alter the future of mankind....this all seems so familiar but I can't put my drumming fingers on in (drum-drum-drum...drum-drum-drum...drum-drum-drum...)



Here are some GREAT LINES from the story!...The Doctor giving Steven the Tour of the TARDIS...

"That is the dematerialisation control, and that over yonder is the horizontal hold. Up there is the scanner, those are the doors, that is a chair with a panda on it... Sheer poetry, dear boy! Now please stop bothering me!" Genus!!

Later when the Monk explains his plans for excellerating history and that by the 14th century Hamlet will premiere on television ...the Doctor says...
"I do know the medium."

The BBC has done a fine job restoring this William Hartnell adventure. The video is very crisp and the extras, including audio commentary with original series producer Verity Lambert, are very interesting and informative. This is the first story without any of the original companions; i.e., Susan, Barbara or Ian. The Doctor and Vicki are very surprised to find Steven onboard the TARDIS and have to convince him that the ship actually travels in time - in this instance, to 11th century England. There they encounter the Meddling Monk, a time traveler like the Doctor, but, unlike the Doctor, he enjoys meddling with time and messing with history. Of course, The Doctor puts a stop to that in the end! The sets and costumes are quite interesting, and the other characters in the story - the villagers and the Vikings - are pretty well developed. Well, actually the Vikings are a pretty bumbling bunch, but their costumes are cool! This DVD would make a good addition to anyone's Dr. Who collection.