The Time Meddler
| 017 – The Time Meddler | |||
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| Doctor Who serial | |||
| File:Time Meddler.jpg Vicki, Doctor, Steven examine a Viking helmet | |||
| Cast | |||
Guest
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| Production | |||
| Directed by | Douglas Camfield | ||
| Written by | Dennis Spooner | ||
| Script editor | Donald Tosh | ||
| Produced by | Verity Lambert | ||
| Executive producer(s) | None | ||
| Production code | S | ||
| Series | Season 2 | ||
| Running time | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each (material missing from part 4) | ||
| First broadcast | 3 July 1965 | ||
| Last broadcast | 24 July 1965 | ||
| Chronology | |||
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The Time Meddler is the ninth and final serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 July to 24 July 1965. The story is set on the North-Eastern coast of England in late summer, 1066 and sees Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) become a companion to the First Doctor (William Hartnell) after having stumbled into the TARDIS during the events of the previous serial, The Chase.[1] This story introduces recurring villain the Meddling Monk (Peter Butterworth).
Plot
 | This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (July 2011) |
The Doctor and Vicki find Steven Taylor aboard the TARDIS after He stumbled in in a disorientated state on Mechanus.When the TARDIS lands on a rocky beach and they all step outside Steven takes some convincing that the TARDIS has really been able to travel in space and time.
The Doctor establishes the century from a discarded Viking helmet and heads off to the village while Steven and Vicki explore the cliffs above, witnessed by a Monk who does not seem fazed by the materialisation. The TARDIS is soon after spotted by a Saxon villager called Eldred who runs to tell the headman of his village, Wulnoth, about it. The Doctor encounters Edith, Wulnoth’s wife, and convinces her he is a harmless traveller while probing her for more information. He finds out it is 1066, since Harold Godwinson is on the throne and has not yet faced Harold Hardrada at Stamford Bridge let alone William the Conqueror in the Battle of Hastings. At the nearby monastery, monks are chanting despite only one of them ever being seen.The chanting slows down as if played back from a recording at the wrong speed. The Monk lets the Doctor in and allows him to prowl around and find a gramophone playing the monastic chanting, and modern conveniences such as a toaster and a manufactured teapot. The Monk traps the Doctor in a makeshift cell.
Steven and Vicki encounters Eldred and notice his possession of a wristwatch that the Monk dropped earlier. They spend the night in a clearing and the next morning are ambushed by the Saxons and taken to the village council. They convince Wulnoth they are but travellers and are given provisions to travel on. Vicki is heartened to hear from Edith that the Doctor passed by her hut on his way to the monastery. Steven and Vicki visit the monastery, where the Monk tries to dissuade them from entering but gives himself away deliberately by describing the Doctor too accurately, and so Steven and Vicki decide he must be prisoner inside. They break in after dark, delighting the Monk as he prepares the same trap for them.
The Monk is pleased to finally sight a Viking ship on the horizon. The Vikings lands and two small groups are sent to search the area. One of the Vikings finds and attacks Edith, leaving her traumatised and the Saxons go hunting for the invaders. The Vikings are drunk and the giant that attacked Edith is cut down. His companions Sven and Ulf manage to flee. Eldred has been badly wounded and Wulnoth takes him to the monastery for help.
At the Monk’s lair, intruding Steven and Vicki find the gramophone. The Monk's trap is delayed by the arrival of Wulnoth and the injured Eldred. Steven and Vicki find the cell empty bar the Doctor’s cloak. They then manage to leave the monastery via a secret passage.
The Doctor has actually taken the same passage himself and returns to Edith in the Saxon village. He soon hears of the Viking invasion scouting party and, upon leaving Edith’s house, decides to head back to the monastery to track down Steven and Vicki, having learned they have gone there. Steven and Vicki have meanwhile found to their dismay that the TARDIS has been submerged beneath the incoming tide. Afraid that the Doctor may have had to leave in it, they resolve to check for him at the monastery anyway, especially after they discover an atomic bazooka trained out to sea from the clifftop near where the TARDIS was.
The Monk is intent on using the Vikings for his own ends and, once Wulnoth has departed his monastery, produces an elaborate checklist that builds to a meeting with King Harold himself. There is another knock at the monastery door and this time it is the Doctor who has the upper hand when the door is answered. Fooled into thinking he is being held at gunpoint, the Monk is marched back inside and is about to answer a few questions when there is yet another knock at the door. When the Doctor and Monk answer, they are overpowered by the two Vikings, Sven and Ulf. In the ensuing confrontation the Monk is able to slip away, leaving the Doctor as the Viking prisoner. It is a state of play that does not last long. The Doctor knocks out Sven and elsewhere the Monk does the same to Ulf and securely ties him up.
The Monk uses his freedom to persuade the villagers to light beacon fires on the cliff tops, lying that he is expecting materials by sea to enhance the monastery, when in fact he wishes to lure the Viking fleet to land nearby. Wulnoth says he will light the fires, but does not do so as he realises the danger.
Steven and Vicki return to the monastery via the secret passage and investigate the crypt, where a heavy power cable emanates from a sarcophagus. When they look inside, they discover that it is a TARDIS of the Monk's very own – he must come from the same place as the Doctor (though the term Time Lord is not used). The Monk has meanwhile returned to the monastery and is once more under the Doctor’s control. He reveals his plan is not to help the Vikings but to lure them to the coast where he hoped to destroy the invasion fleet with atomic bazookas. This would prevent the Viking invasion and thereby shore up King Harold to such an extent he would not then lose the Battle of Hastings. In short, the Monk is a Time Meddler who left his and the Doctor’s own planet some fifty years after the Doctor himself. Steven and Vicki have found further evidence of his meddling in his TARDIS: a journal recording his meeting with Leonardo da Vinci to discuss powered flight, providing anti-gravitational discs to help the ancient Celts build Stonehenge, and using time travel to collect a fortune in compound interest from a bank. The Doctor denounces the Monk for seeking to alter history and forces him to reveal his TARDIS, where they find Steven and Vicki. Together the time travellers piece together the Monk’s immoral plot, which the Monk insists is intended to stabilise England and benefit Western civilisation.
The Vikings have meanwhile freed themselves from their bonds and decide to avenge themselves on the monks who have imprisoned them. Eldred spots them and, despite his injuries, flees to the village where he raises Wulnoth and a squad of Saxons to deal with the marauders.
At the monastery the tables have turned. Ulf and Sven have formed a contrived alliance with the Monk and have tied up the Doctor’s party while the three of them take the bazooka shells down to the cannon on the beach. The scheme is foiled however when the Saxons arrive and engage the fleeing Vikings in a nearby clearing, killing Sven and Ulf in battle.
The Monk hides while this fighting rages, little knowing that the Doctor and his friends have been freed and are tampering with his TARDIS. With his scheme in ruins, the Monk decides to leave and returns his TARDIS, though the Doctor has gone and left a note assuring the Monk his meddling days are ended. When the Monk looks inside his TARDIS he realises the Doctor has taken the dimensional control and the interior of his ship has shrunk beyond use, leaving him stranded in 1066 with an angry band of Saxons nearby. The tide having gone out, the Doctor and his friends are free to leave this primitive time in their TARDIS, and journey onward to the stars.
Continuity
- The Time Meddler is the first example of what is known in Doctor Who as the 'pseudo-historical' or 'ahistorical' story, which is one that uses the past as a setting for a science fiction story, as opposed to the pure historical stories, which are set in the past but have no science-fictional elements attached to them besides the presence of the regular characters and the TARDIS.
- This is the first time we meet another member of the Doctor's race besides his granddaughter (although they are not yet identified as Time Lords). The Monk's name is not revealed in the story, in which he is called simply "The Monk", "The Meddling Monk" or "The Time Meddler". Later spin-off novel, the canonicity of which is debatable, give the name as Mortimus and establish that the Monk and the Doctor attended the Academy as schoolmates.
- The character would make one return appearance on television in the epic The Daleks' Master Plan.
- Due to an error by Maureen O'Brien during recording, the acronym TARDIS is said to stand for "Time and Relative Dimensions in Space" (rather than the singular 'Dimension' as in An Unearthly Child), an error which was retained throughout much of the series' history, with occasional exceptions. The original 'Dimension' was re-established in the first episode of the revived 2005 series, "Rose" and so far maintained thereafter.
- Vicki and the Doctor discuss Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright's departure as seen in The Chase and the Doctor refers to Susan's departure as seen in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Doctor later misses Barbara's knowledge of history.
- Footage of the Doctor from this story appears in the projection from the Cybermen's datastamp in "The Next Doctor".
Production
Template:Doctor Who episode head The working title for this story was The Monk.[2]
During production of this story, new producer John Wiles began taking over production duties. William Hartnell, displeased at the number of changes undergoing the production, play-acted throwing a temper tantrum during the rehearsal of this story.[citation needed]
Footage of the Viking ship was taken from a BBC Newsreel item about a Viking recreation on the south coast of England. In the remastered DVD version this footage is restored from the original film, and the complete item appears on the DVD extras.
Episodes one, three, and four were reported missing from the BBC Film and Videotape Library following an audit in 1978 (see Doctor Who missing episodes). Edited telerecordings of all four episodes were returned to the BBC from Nigeria in 1985, and complete copies of episodes one and three were returned in 1992. A short sequence from episode four, depicting an act of violence, remains missing from the otherwise complete prints of all four episodes, as it was removed by censors. The 2008 Region 2 DVD release includes as an extra, called The Missing 12 Seconds, the audio for this missing sequence with original script excerpts and explanatory text – it appears that the two Vikings were seen on screen to be run through by the sword-wielding Saxons via the use of dummies.[3]
Cast notes
William Hartnell does not appear in episode 2 as he was on holiday. A pre-taped recording of his voice is played when the Doctor is locked in a cell.
Alethea Charlton also appeared in An Unearthly Child as the cavewoman, Hur.
Broadcast and reception
The serial was repeated on BBC2 in January 1992 on consecutive Fridays - 03/01/92 to 24/01/92 at 7.20pm/6.50pm, as part of a season of stories to represent each of the (then) seven Doctors adventures.
In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Nigel Robinson, was published by Target Books in October 1987. Template:Doctor Who book
VHS and DVD releases
The story was released on VHS in November 2002. On 4 February 2008, it was released on DVD. The quality of the surviving prints of the later episodes was deemed low enough that the typical VidFIRE process was not applied to the story. The DVD was dedicated to the late Verity Lambert.
References
- ^ Writer Terry Nation, Directors Richard Martin, Douglas Camfield, Producers Verity Lambert (26 June 1965). "The Planet of Decision". The Chase. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1.
{{cite serial}}: Unknown parameter|city=ignored (|location=suggested) (help) - ^ http://homepages.bw.edu/~jcurtis/Pixley_3.htm
- ^ http://www.gallifreyone.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?id=EEAZulFkFlpmDkJKkx&tmpl=newsrss&style=feedstyle
External links
Reviews
- Template:DWRG
- The Time Meddler reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
Target novelisation