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Doctor Who: ‘The Time Meddler’ REVISITED

By James Aggas

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In last week’s episode, ‘The Girl Who Died‘, the Doctor and Clara helped a Viking village against an alien attack. This wasn’t the first time the Doctor encountered Vikings, though. That was back in 1965 serial ‘The Time Meddler‘. The last story of the show’s second season, the Doctor only barely encounters two Vikings himself, and while they are an important part of the story, ‘The Time Meddler’ is far more noteworthy in its impact on the mythology. Not as significantly as ‘The Daleks‘, admittedly, but it did answer some major questions regarding the Doctor and established one or two key formats for the series.

For example, it introduced the “pseudo-historical”, a type of story that would be set in a historical period but would feature science-fiction elements other than the Doctor and his crew. This is notable as up until this point, all the previous historical stories had been “pure”, with the only problems the Doctor and his friends had to face being a result of the period they were in. It’s funny to think now, with every single historical story made these days, there’s always an alien threat mixed in with the story too, but back in 1965, this would have been a major turning point for the show.

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Hartnell‘s Doctor at this point is already a very different man to the confrontational and selfish alien we saw in his earliest stories, such as ‘The Daleks’. At the end of the previous serial ‘The Chase’, companions Ian and Barbara had finally found a way home, and the Doctor and Vicki are both greatly missing them.

Related: ‘The Daleks’ REVISITED

But as two companions leave, another one joins, and Steven Taylor, who had met the Doctor and his companions towards the end of the previous serial, joins the TARDIS crew. The Doctor’s reaction to Steven really does show how much he’s changed – whereas before, he would have barely tolerated having another human on board the TARDIS, now he doesn’t seem to mind too much. In fact, Hartnell’s Doctor comes across as charming and even childlike, someone who has learned to enjoy not just his travels, but the friendly faces he meets along the way.

However, not everyone is so keen to meet the Doctor: there’s a mysterious Monk, played by Peter Butterworth, who has been keeping an eye on the Doctor and his companions. Over the course of the story, we see several anachronisms, including a wristwatch, a record player and even atomic weaponry. By the end of the third episode, it becomes clear why the Monk would have these things: he is one of the Doctor’s own people and has a TARDIS of his own.

It’s funny to think that, other than the Doctor and Susan, the Monk is one of the first ever members of the Doctor’s race that we see in the show. Not just because even at this point, their race still isn’t identified by name (although it does clear up the matter of whether the Doctor was the only one who had a TARDIS), but also the fact that he made only one more appearance in the TV series after this story.

Related: REVIEW: ‘The Girl Who Died’

It’s a real shame too, as the Monk is such a brilliant character. Unlike classic villains such as the Master, he’s not exactly “evil”. In fact, he believes that he’s doing good, as he thinks history would look much, much better if it was done his way. The trouble is that the Doctor knows how reckless and irresponsible changing history to such a great extent would be, but the Monk just doesn’t care. It’s such a great and refreshing idea for an enemy of the Doctor – especially as he has no plans of destroying or taking over the universe as such, just making things “better” – that you wonder why he never made any further appearances in the TV series.

Then again, one thing that made the Monk so brilliant is Peter Butterworth’s charmingly childlike and mischievous performance. He’s actually a great counter-part to the First Doctor, and you can’t help but love his character, despite everything he’s planning. I think it would’ve been difficult to find a natural successor to him, even back in the 70s when the series had naturally established regeneration as more than just a one-off “renewal”, as it were. Difficult but, as Big Finish has proved, not impossible. I’d love to see his character return on screen.

‘The Time Meddler’ is worth a watch. While lacking the noticeable impact of ‘An Unearthly Child‘ or ‘The Daleks‘, it does include a number of “firsts” for the show. Along with introducing the pseudo-historical and the first other Time Lord, it also introduced the new companion template of “one boy, one girl” on the TARDIS, a template that would remain used throughout the 60s and even occasionally seen in the New Series. More than that though, ‘The Time Meddler’ is a really fun watch, and a great example of why I absolutely love Hartnell’s Doctor.

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