The Time Meddler

“The Time Meddler” feels like a very different show to the television series that began its second season in the autumn of 1964. Susan’s departure in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” shook things up a little bit, but with her replacement character, Vicki, more or less a carbon copy of Susan things didn’t feel all that different. Ian and Barbara’s departure really takes some getting used to though; they truly were the backbone of the show for nearly two years (in the days when two years of TV literally meant two years of TV!) Arguably, in the early days of Doctor Who it was William Russell’s Ian – not William Hartnell’s Doctor – that was the true ‘hero’ of the show.

Cast at the last minute following his brief and amusing appearance in “The Chase” as Morton Dill, an Alabama yokel, Peter Purves made his debut as new companion Steven Taylor in the last episode of that serial, “The Planet of Decision.” However, it isn’t until the opening moments of this serial that we discover that he has stowed away on board the TARDIS, teddy-bear and all! The opening ten minutes or so of “The Watcher” reworks much of “An Unearthly Child”, though with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek this time. The Doctor’s “sheer poetry” speech to Steven about the TARDIS is fantastic; it’s just a shame that Steven is so annoyingly pig-headed about his belief that time travel is impossible! In “An Unearthly Child,” Ian and Barbara’s incredulity at the TARDIS was handled brilliantly by the writer and made for some top-notch drama. However, with this story having a more light-hearted take on things, it does tend to grate a hell of a lot more.

I’m not the biggest fan in the world of Steven, either; he’s certainly no Ian! To be fair, he does get much more palatable over his tenure and Peter Purves always gives his all to the role, but in this story he’s an absolute nightmare. His running “Doc…” / “Doc… tor” joke is cringe worthy; that daft teddy bear; his arrogance…”The Time Meddler” certainly isn’t the best debut a companion ever had.

However, Dennis Spooner’s story itself is a gem, and more importantly it introduces my favourite ‘black and white’ Doctor Who villain – Peter Butterworth’s Meddling Monk (or ‘Mortimus’, if you will.) A member of the Doctor’s own (as yet nameless) race, the Monk also wants to “improve things” for humanity. However, he is prepared to cross the one line that the Doctor never will – altering history. The Monk is planning to ensure Harold’s victory at Hastings with atomic bazookas! Whether his actions really are for the greater good or not is open to debate, but whatever his motivations the Monk is an absolute joy to watch on screen. He has a checklist, written on a whiteboard in marker, where his plan is broken down step-by-step! Genius! They don’t make villains like that any more! The Monk is eventually overcome when the Doctor sabotages his “Mark Four” TARDIS (a superior model to the Doctor’s), stealing the dimensional control and shrinking the interior dimensions so that the Monk can’t get in, marooning him on Earth! The look on the Monk’s face is brilliant!

One of the better second season stories, “The Time Meddler” is a William Hartnell story that certainly shouldn’t be missed. The chemistry between Hartnell and Butterworth is electrifying, and even in spite of Hartnell’s absence from the second episode, the story sustains itself well over the four episodes. The end title sequence is also worth looking out for, instead of the credits rolling across a blank screen as normal we see the faces of the new TARDIS crew in space, and for the first time there is no “Next Episode” caption, despite filming for “Galaxy 4” being well underway by this point. As I said earlier, this serial really feels like the beginning to a very different Doctor Who; a Doctor Who with a very inconsistent third year ahead of it.