Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The Time Monster (Story 64)

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

 

 

Well, it's not the best of the Pertwee era, but it's not the worst, and it's certainly good fun. And Roger Delgado is true to form as the best Master of all Time and Space. Pertwee and Katy Manning have great chemistry as always. Look out for Dave Prowse (aka Darth Vadar's body) - he's the one with the bull's head that charges Jon Pertwee and his cape. The TARDIS console room gets a face lift, complete with Tupperware bowls in the walls. The Chronivore (antagonist #2 - his whites are VERY white!) is laughable, as he swings through the studio on invisible wires... BUT - if you're watching Doctor Who to see great special effects, you're missing the point! Grab some friends, some snack food and some drinks, and treat yourself to some truly groovy, 1970s fantasy.

While VHS is a dying format, those of us who have devoted most of our lives to collecting Doctor Who videos can't resist buying them.
Since Dr. Who is no longer on TV in many places these days, it's been a long time since I have seen many of them, and "The Time Monster" did not disapoint.
Unlike most 6-part Dr. Who adventures that start of strong through the first 3 episodes but end up dragging the story out; "The Time Monster" maintains a steady pace throught.
There's some neat slow motion camera work throughout the story, and very few "wobbly sets" and other special effects gaffs that are not usually appreciated by the non-whovian.
Best viewed on a rainy day with a nice hot cup of Earl Grey.

The Doctor has a nightmare, more a premonition, of the Master being in control using a trident-shaped crystal, and it turns out he is right. His nemesis, using the alias Professor Thascales, has invented a time-device called TOMTIT (Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time) at Wooton, just out of Cambridge. It basically dematerializes an object, sends it through "the crack between now and now" and rematerializes it at its destination. And yes, it does use a trident-shaped crystal. He has Dr. Ruth Ingram and her brother Stuart as his assistants.

The Brigadier is sent as a UNIT observer, but during a trial run, Stuart is aged to an octagenarian. The Master then calls for Kronos, who is a chronovore, dangerous creatures living in the time vortex that cab "swallow a life as quickly as a boa constrictor can swallow a rabbit. Fur and all!"

The Doctor and Jo arrive at Wooton because they detect the Master's TARDIS and comes upon an aged Stuart, who mentions the name Kronos. From then, it's the Doctor and Jo against the Master and Krasis, the high priest of Atlantis who unwittingly helps the Master in controlling the dangerous chronovore.

One interesting goof is the word "chronovore." "Chrono" is Greek, while "vore" is Latin. Surely "chronophage" should have been more appropriate, or "temporavore"? Another is the V-1 rocket that the Master brings through time against Yates' convoy. A farmer remembers a V-1 striking in the exact area in 1944. Unless there was more than one V-1 attack in that area, it's impossible for the farmer remembering it if it had been taken out of time. And Aidan Murphy (Hippias) has a shrill and irritating voice.

Other items: the Doctor and the Master's TARDIS materializing within each other is later duplicated in Logopolis. And the rounded wall designs in the Doctor's TARDIS is a neat improvement from the usual. In fact I wish it'd stayed that way. Jo is at her most loyal and bubbliest, and not only has a chance to wear her usual mini and long boots but a nice Atlantean dress (and surely a wig). And one must suspend some sort of disbelief over the time flow analogue constructed by the Doctor, created out of a wine bottle, two forks, two corks, keychains, and some piece of equipment. At least the Doctor's having fun.

George Cormack (Dalios) would later appear in Jon Pertwee's final story Planet Of The Spiders as the old mountaintop hermit referred to in Episode 6. Dave Prowse (the Guardian) is best known as the body of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. The big guest star here only appears in the last two episodes, and that's Hammer horror queen Ingrid Pitt (Galleia), whose deep sultry voice is used to great effect.

The Time Monster has the reputation of being one of the stinkers of the Jon Pertwee era, but that is hardly the case. It is an engaging 6-parter, one of the best UNIT stories, and features one of the Master's boldest schemes.

This is one of those stories that gets knocked in fandom as not being very good but I must disagree with that view. The story is tight and hangs together pretty well for being a six parter. The acting is very good from both the regulars and guest cast. The picture quality is from restored NTSC tapes and, while some problems remain, the picture quality is much better than the old VHS version I had from a PBS broadcast I taped in the early '80's. As usual with Doctor Who dvd's, this one is packed with special features.

This is a great old Doctor Who episode that isn't available on DVD at the time of this post. This is a must see episode to understand this doctor.

This episode would be great if it was made today, but it was just a story before its time. The very premise of the story was interesting, but then you were shocked back to reality when the fearsome Kronos was portrayed as a man covered in a sheet flying around. Or how about the Minotaur, which was also suppose to be a fearsome creature? Yet the way the production team portrayed the Minotaur was rather silly. You could have ran circles it. Granted Doctor Who is know for its cheesy special effects, but in this episode, for whatever reason ruined the atmosphere in my opinion.

What also lead to the downfall of this episode was the storyline. Approaching the 4-6 part of the story, the story became somewhat confusing, as if certain parts were just time fillers & really served no purpose.

However, one thing I really liked about this story was the acting. The Master was at his peak performance, & appeared to be the legendary foe he was supposed to be. The other characters also did a pretty good job in this episode filling their roles.

Overall, this episode is worth watching. Perhaps the special effects won't ruin the story for you, as they did for me. But in reality, it neither really bad or neither really great. If anything, its worth seeing the Master in one of this peak performances.

I really love Pertwee's Doctor. I like most of the Doctors, but I really love his and this is one of his best. Well thought out and not overly cheezy.

In this story I feel Jon shows why his Doctor is so well liked. It is his acting with Roger Delgado that keeps it moving and fun to watch. It is a great treat to see the late Ingrid Pitt looking beautiful and doing a decent job in the acting area. All of the cast does well and it is still Pertwee and Delgado that steal the show. Ending leaves you a little empty but all in all a great show. Fun for all!!!

This is probably the weakest John Pertwee Dr. Who video I have
ever seen. It starts out where Dr. Who has a dream about the time
monster Kronus. Then it goes to where the Master is working on a college campus doing a time experiment with some helpers. The Master brings this time monster from Atlantis. It is just a guy in a bird outfit flying around. This is probably the worst monster I have ever seen in any Dr. Who video. Then it turns into a UNIT adventure with
UNIT fighting soldiers from midevil times. This is typical Dr. Who
when they build up character rolls like Captain Yates, then you
never hear from them that rest of the show. The Doctor and Jo Grant
follow the Master in their TARDISs, then end up in Atlantis. The
Atlantis set is not too bad with some fairly good actors that get
built up then are not used again the rest of the show. There is a
few scenes of the Atlantis queen's cleavage, which is very unlike a
John Pertwee Dr. Who episode. Even the Master has a half romantic
scene with the queen. The Doctor and Joe do a TARDIS "time ram" with the Master, then return back to 20th century earth. If you are a huge John Pertwee Dr. Who fan this may be worth buying if it's the one you are missing from your collection. It sort of filled in the gaps for me. If you are starting your Dr. Who collection I would recommed other John Pertwee Dr. Who videos like Frontier in Space, Terror of the Autons, Planet of the Spiders, The Green Death, or Death to the Daleks. Again if you are not a huge John Pertwee Dr. Who fan I would not recommend this video.

I remember seeing this one on PBS when I was growing up. This is a great episode and John Pertwee is one of the best doctors to date!