2x09. The Time Meddler
Writer: Dennis Spooner
Director: Douglas Camfield
Script Editor: Donald Tosh
Producer: Verity Lambert
Synopsis: The TARDIS
materializes in Northumbria just before the Viking attack and Norman
invasion of 1066. While attempting to prove to Steven, who stowed away
before the crew escaped from Mechanus, that the TARDIS really is a time
machine, the Doctor discovers that a member of his own race is posing
as a monk and attempting to alter English history.
Review: "The Time Meddler" is a
decent serial, though it probably would have been better as three
episodes instead of four. Stylistically, it reflects the transition the
series was undergoing at the time, towards a greater emphasis on the
science fiction format and with the companions assuming an increasingly
secondary role to the Doctor.
The serial is probably best remembered for being the first to introduce
another member of the Doctor's race, in the character of the Meddling
Monk. Of course, this doesn't have quite the same impact now,
especially for the great many of us who originally started watching Doctor Who long
after the mythos of the Time Lords and Gallifrey (neither of which are
actually mentioned in "The Time Meddler") had been established. For
viewers at the time, however, the revelation of the Monk's TARDIS at
the end of Episode 3 must have been a real surprise, and it's an
effective first step towards fleshing out the series' fictional
universe a little more.
The Monk has his moments of silliness -- at one point we see his entire
plan written out on a board, for no conceivable purpose other than as a
lazy piece of exposition -- but he still makes for an effective
villain, partly because he seems sincere in his good intentions. He
honestly believes that he can improve history by destroying the Vikings
and giving the English a better chance against the Normans, but he
hasn't considered what unintended consequences might result from
altering the timeline. It's also nice to see that the first Doctor, who
can sometimes be rather arrogant and condescending, realizes that he
and others like him don't have all the answers and that the most
responsible thing to do is to leave history alone.
(On the other hand, this raises a question that I'm not sure the series
will ever resolve satisfactorily. How does the Doctor, as a time
traveler, distinguish between established history and open-ended
future? That is to say, suppose he had previously traveled to the 30th
century and witnessed Earth destroyed as a result of the Daleks'
invasion in the 22nd century. Would he then have insisted, in "The
Dalek Invasion of Earth," that aiding the rebels was an irresponsible
alteration of history? The only answer I can think of right now is that
the Doctor left Gallifrey sometime just prior to 1963 according to
Earth's calendar, that his "future" is therefore roughly the same as
the audience's, and that he avoids knowing any more about it than is
absolutely necessary.)
"The Time Meddler" is also the first serial to feature none of the
original companions, with Ian and Barbara having departed at the end of
"The Chase." Steven Taylor, having stowed away on the TARDIS at the end
of the last adventure, now joins the crew, startling the Doctor and
Vicki with his presence at the beginning of Episode 1. Steven's initial
skepticism that the TARDIS really is a time machine makes for some
amusing conflict (especially when modern technology keeps turning up,
thanks to the Monk), and the readiness with which the Doctor accepts
him shows how his attitude towards the idea of humans traveling in the
TARDIS has changed since we first met him in "100,000 B.C." Still,
Steven isn't quite as smart and competent as Ian or Barbara, and
neither he nor Vicki is really capable of driving a story on their own
the way their predecessors might have. Instead, the Doctor assumes
center stage as the character driving the story, despite his minimal
role in the events of Episode 2.
As I said at the beginning, the biggest drawback to the serial is that
it feels padded. The script does a decent job setting up the mystery at
the beginning as to what the Monk is planning and where the
anachronistic technology comes from, but that doesn't change the fact
that the first two episodes mostly consist of people wandering through
the woods, and none of the English or Viking characters are really all
that compelling. That said, "The Time Meddler" still represents an
important expansion of the Doctor Who universe, and it's a decent finish to a second season that overall proved disappointingly uneven.
Rating: *** (out of four)
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