The initial mystery of
the Doctor was always exactly what the Doctor was. The audience had been given hints that he
could have been an alien or possibly a scientist from the future. We didn’t know if he built the TARDIS which
was hinted at in the original pilot of the story or if he stole it which would
eventually be established. The mystery
everyone says is given up in The War
Games, but really that is false as it is The Time Meddler that really gives us the first glimpses behind the
curtain into what the Doctor is and where he comes from through its
villain. I will of course delve into
that later. First let’s discuss the
opening scenes in the TARDIS which serve to introduce Steven who had been introduced
in The Chase as the new companion to
replace Ian and Barbara. It is a great
scene as it allows the Doctor and Vicki to contemplate where they are going
from here before Steven is introduced. The
Doctor is ready to leave Vicki if she asks for it as we see just how the Doctor
has grown. He is ready to say goodbye
and go on his own travelling. Of course
Vicki doesn’t and we get introduced to Steven in a scene that is simply
hilarious. Hartnell shows Steven around
pointing out a chair with a panda on it and calling it sheer poetry which is a
hilarious line.
The actual plot of The Time Meddler sees the Doctor land in
1066 just before the Battle of Hastings which of course Steven is skeptical of
time travel being possible, where there is a monk in a monastery. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary until
Steven finds a watch on the ground and the monk holds the Doctor hostage. Eventually it is of course revealed that the
Monk is trying to stop the Viking invasion so King Harold can defeat William of
Normandy. The plot then thickens when it
is revealed at the end of “The Battle of Wits” that the Monk has a TARDIS and
is from the same planet as the Doctor.
The plot while sounding very dramatic on paper is played with a very
good mix of drama and comedy and Dennis Spooner is great at writing this
serial.
William Hartnell does
very well with the comedy and the drama as the First Doctor, be it his reactions
to Steven which are hilarious or his interactions with the Monk he is on top
form through all four of the story’s episodes.
He is obviously having the time of his life in the part and is almost
celebrating the fact that this is one of the last times he is able to work with
Verity Lambert. He’s got some great
fluffs in this story which just adds to the whole comedy of the piece. Hartnell and Maureen O’Brien also have this
really good chemistry as they are still acting a lot like a couple of
schoolchildren having a laugh with each other.
The Doctor acts very mysteriously and almost feels like he is going to
explain his plan, but then just snatches away the letter from Vicki which is a
hilarious scene. It’s these little
moments that really sells the two as old friends together.
Maureen O’Brien as Vicki
also has a lot of the great moments with Peter Purves’ Steven Taylor mainly
because for “The Meddling Monk” the Doctor does not appear. Both actors however pull off the episode
brilliantly and you barely remember that the Doctor is not in the episode. Steven is the skeptic while Vicki is still
like a schoolgirl who knows she’s right, but is having a lot of fun winding up
Steven for a laugh. Peter Purves is just
great as Steven and while Hartnell as the Doctor starts off a bit distant from
Steven, by the end of the story they have grown to work together as a real team
to continue into the next season.
The final member of the
cast that isn’t part of the two groups is the Meddling Monk played by Peter
Butterworth. The Monk is the same
species as the Doctor and has left the planet for most of the same reasons, but
of course he is the villain because he is changing history to rewrite it in his
own image. We do learn that some of his
plans have actually succeeded and created the history that we have today which
is a very interesting idea. Peter
Butterworth is great as he is a comedy actor in a comedic script. He is really in his element here as the Monk
and became popular enough with audiences to warrant a return in The Daleks’ Master Plan the next
year. The Vikings while historically
accurate, not actually having horned helmets, are very comedic characters for
the most part until “Checkmate” where the actual drama comes in and there is a
massacre. There are twelve seconds
missing and those twelve seconds sound brutal as the two Vikings are brutally
murdered by the Saxons.
Douglas Camfield returns
from The Crusade to direct this story
and now that we can see his entire direction, it is brilliant. He knows exactly how to position the cameras
to convey the emotions on screen. He
uses every frame as a painting to give you off some sort of impression even if
it is on a limited budget and in black and white and for television. The scenes in the Monk’s TARDIS in particular
are very surreal as we get the shots mainly coming down from the ceiling which
gives off that effect. There are also
action scenes which Camfield also excels at directing for the screens, knowing
just when to cut from camera to camera.
To summarize, The Time Meddler is one of the earliest
stories that can be called perfect as it does what every Doctor Who story
should be doing. It explores its
characters with brilliance, gives us a good reason to be invested in the
mystery and shows a new style of story which would be a breath of fresh air for
the people watching. The direction is
great while the acting and writing comes together extremely well for a tight
and perfect story. 100/100
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