017 - The Time Meddler

Broadcast:

3^rd - 24^th July 1965

Doctor:

William Hartnell

Companions:

Vicki, Steven

Adversary:

Meddling Monk

Written by:

Dennis Spooner

Director:

Douglas Camfield

Music:

Stock, Charles Botterill

Script Editor:

Donald Tosh

Producer:

Verity Lambert

Average Viewers:

8.43m (8.9, 8.8, 7.7, 8.3)

Summary: England in 1066 has a well established place in most British citizens' knowledge and it is not a place for gramophones and electric toasters so something is clearly wrong! The Doctor must discover what is going on before he can set things right and there is only one possible cause... could it be that he is not the only time traveller there?

Although loved by those involved and often picked as their favourites, the historical stories had never gone down particularly well with viewers who would rather skip on to the next science fantasy of the future and preferably see the Daleks again. It had been a tradition and indeed a stated intention to alternate between historical fact and science fantasy to balance entertainment and education but times were changing. The Romans had quite successfully added humour into the mix and The Time Meddler was about to throw fantasy into a history story a well... with a mixed reception, but setting up a whole world of possibilities for the series as producer Very Lambert released the reins.

Science fact was taking a more prominent role on television as well with "Tomorrow's World" beginning on BBC1 during The Time Meddler run and Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to bring us pictures of Mars as it made a fly-by. In more Earthly news, the Mont Blanc tunnel was inaugurated, Ronald Biggs (Great Train Robber) escaped from Wandsworth Prison and US aircraft were attacked and one shot down over Vietnam for the first time. Meanwhile The Beatles received a record five Ivor Novello Awards and former Boxing champ Freddie Mills was found shot on the day episode 4 was broadcast - he was declared dead the following day and while exact motives remain uncertain, the verdict was suicide.

As Summer rolled out there was plenty of choice in the cinemas including British film Rotten to the Core, The Art of Love, and Tickle Me starring Elvis Presley who also topped the music charts with "Crying in the Chapel" - swapping back and forth with The Hollies's "I'm Alive" and ultimately replaced by The Byrds "Mr. Tambourine Man". Against that background, Doctor Who was about to conclude its second series but William Hartnell still managed to get a week off!

Following the departure of Ian and Barbara at the end of the previous episode, the mood in the TARDIS is quite sombre and the Doctor even questions whether Vicki would rather have gone with them or go home herself. It's a nice sentimental moment that is interrupted by a noise from the living quarters... Vicki arms herself with a shoe while the Doctor removes his jacket ready to throw over what must be a Dalek... but there is one other loose end from The Chase and he comes stumbling out with his panda mascot Hi-Fi in hand before collapsing. Steven is delirious and a little bewildered as Vicki tries to explain to him that the small exterior he saw that didn't look much like a ship actually is the same place he finds himself in now "It is very small on the outside, it's just in here it's big." The Doctor decides to let Steven learn for himself, but when he starts asking what the extraordinary controls do, he simply states "That is the dematerialising control and that over yonder is the horizontal hold. Up there is the scanner, those are the doors, this is a chair with a panda on it. Sheer poetry, dear boy!" - 'horizontal hold' being a familiar adjustment on old television sets and the panda of course being Hi-Fi, it's not clear whether the Doctor was being cheeky and dismissive or simply blasé. He does very seriously request that Steven does not call him 'Doc' though.

Interestingly, when explaining 'TARDIS' Vicki uses the plural 'Dimensions' rather than the singular that had been used before. This is apparently a mistake by Maureen O'Brien but it stuck. There is also a scene explaining the whole problem of the Police Box disguise and Steven continues to mock in disbelief a refuses to accept that they have also travelled in time. Even a Viking helmet doesn't convince him, leading to a wonderful line from the Doctor "What do you think it is? A space helmet for a cow?" and it will be some time before he is convinced especially after further modern items are discovered like a wrist watch (though not a digital one, because they didn't even exist when the programmes were made!) - the watch belongs to a monk who viewers had been seen observing the TARDIS arriving and over heard the later discussions, nodding as if he knew exactly what the Doctor and Vicki were talking about... he is the time meddler of the title, more specifically referred to as the Meddling Monk. More on him later...

The first episode continues at a fairly calm pace, like many other opening episodes, and it's quite a relief after the frenetic finale of The Chase. There are long moody shots of the tide coming in very little happens beyond setting the scene (establishing the eleventh century setting, meeting the Saxon villagers and visiting the monastery) but there is plenty of room for fluffed lines - stating his preferred route off the beach, the Doctor says "I prefer walking to any day and I hate climbing", and after he asks the Saxon woman "Is the monastery near here?" she replies "No, it's not far from here", and finally he refers to Steven and Vicki saying "I do hope they don't worry me... worry about me". He also fumbles, though scripted, as he tries to determine when and where he is and talks to himself about the battle of Hastings whilst very nearly looking straight down the camera. Of course, the big moment in the first episode is the cliffhanger, following Steven grabbing the wrist watch off Saxon hunter is the discovery by the Doctor that the sound of monks chanting is in fact coming from a gramophone!

At this point the audience is either confused, intrigued or disinterested due to the anachronisms but Steven's disbelief should have been some reassurance that everything was very deliberate. The second episode sees William Hartnell in pre-recorded form only. The Monk captured him at the end of the first so he is seen in the reprise but beyond that only a few lines are played in to the studio to represent the Doctor in his cell. The Monk's anachronisms are added to with an electric toaster and electric frying pan. Beyond that, the plot progresses slowly for the regulars as the first Vikings invade and have a mediocre fight with the Saxons (faster cutting and better editing would have made it better but I think it's far from the worst studio fight sequence). Vicki and Steven meet the Saxons and learn for themselves what the Doctor already knows about the Meddling Monk and the episode again ends with the discovery of the gramophone but instead of being captured they think they have found the Doctor but he has vanished.

Without giving away any more of the plot, it is safe to say that Vicki and Steven generally spend their time going back and forth trying to find the Doctor and the story could almost be told without them. They are the first to find the Monk's TARDIS but it isn't long before the Doctor finds himself there as well but what a wonderful moment it all is. The first time an alternative TARDIS has been seen or even known to exist. It is essentially the same as the Doctor's but has a black floor and the console is on a dais raising the controls to a more comfortable height. It is described as being a Mk 4 with automatic drift control and course a working 'camouflage unit' (the Monk's words for what would become known as the 'chameleon circuit' in much later years) and while the Doctor refuses to say what model he has he does state that he must be about 50 years behind.

So, for the first time, we learn that despite claiming to have made his TARDIS (as recently as during The Chase!) it is not the only one in existence, we meet another of his people (it'll be another three years before they are named as Time Lords) and we have a clear and deliberate case of them influencing the course of Earth's history (the Monk talked to Leonardo Da Vinci about powered flight and used anti-gravitational lift to help build Stone Henge) There is also a discussion between Steven and Vicki about what would happen if the Monk succeeded in changing history as they knew it but it stops short of suggesting any kind of influence on their own existence.

There are further fluffs as the Doctor pretends to have Winchester 75 held at the Monk's spinal cord (He says 'Winchetser' and 'spinal corn'), he also fumbles a little with 'private correspondence' and Maureen O'Brien seems to forget her line when discussing the Monk's past activity, though Peter Purves recovers it seamlessly by simply delivering his next line. The sets are brilliant, if a little over lit at times and for the first time moving clouds are seen in the studio scenes, though there are a couple of moments where shadows are cast on the 'sky', and there is even a breeze n the cliff-top set. There are some wonderfully creating camera angles and details such as the need to duck in and out of the Monk's TARDIS set because the exterior appearance is a sarcophagus. All marks of what a great director Douglas Camfield was becoming and helping to earn The Time Meddler a score of 82%, largely let down by the modern sounding Saxons ("You must stop by for tea before you go") with no attempt to even suggest a Northern accent, and the general lack of terror (though there is some pretty nasty violence including two Vikings being whacked on the head by planks of wood and a 12 second scene - edited out and now missing - which features two more being stabbed. The music, though mostly stock is perfect and Peter Butterworth is brilliant as the Meddling Monk and would return for comic relief in the epic The Daleks' Master Plan despite being stranded in 1066 by the Doctor removing the dimensional control from his TARDIS (resulting in him peering in through the doors to see everything in miniature rather than being bigger on the inside!)

This story concluded the second series and in a similar ending to the first, the credits role over a star-field with the travellers' faces dissolving in and out of the picture. It would be six weeks before they were seen again, under a new producer for the first time...