The Time Meddler

I count myself very fortunate person indeed, to be here in the time to prevent this disgusting exhibition.

The Time Meddler is the beginning of a major turning point in Doctor Who. With the departure of Ian and Barbara at the end of The Chase, all of the original companions have gone leaving only the Doctor. In addition, The Time Meddler was the last story of Season Two and the beginning of the final production block where Verity Lambert would oversee the show as producer. The production block extended into the first five episodes of Season Three, but with The Mythmakers, John Wiles fully took over. It is somewhat understandable that the first ten minutes or so of Episode One feel a bit like a pilot episode with a lot of information being passed to Steven (and the audience) as the Doctor and Vicki explain the premise of the show and how things work.

Plot Summary

The Doctor and Vicki reminisce about Ian and Barbara leaving when they hear a noise in the living quarters of the TARDIS. They prepare to defend themselves thinking that it might be a Dalek when Steven stumbles out and collapses. They carry him to a chair to recover. To ease things, the Doctor dematerializes the TARDIS on a beach, where it is observed by a man in a monk's cowl.

Steven is impressed with the ship but does not believe the Doctor or Vicki when told it is a time machine. Piqued, the Doctor tells Vicki to help Steven get cleaned up and then they will go out to show him that it is a time machine. Outside, they find a rusted Viking helmet, leading the Doctor to suspect they are in the 9th or 10th century. Unbeknownst to them, the monk has crept forward and is eavesdropping on their conversation. The Doctor, opting to investigate, walks along the beach while Steven and Vicki elect the climb the cliff face. The monk creeps forward and investigates the exterior of the TARDIS before noticing that he is missing something from his wrist.

Two other men observed the TARDIS on the beach and have come forward to investigate. They leave behind a woman, Edith, to manage the fire and house. The Doctor meets her and from her learns that it is the summer of 1066 and they are near York, just prior to the Viking invasion that will be beaten back by King Harold II just before losing the battle of Hastings. While sitting near the fire, the Doctor hears monks chanting in the abbey nearby, but the sound suddenly warbles as it would on a recording. He learns from Edith that the abbey had been abandoned until a few weeks ago but only one monk had been seen moving around the countryside. The Doctor thanks her and heads up to the abbey.

Vicki and Steven have gotten lost in the dark and stop to rest. While resting, they observe a local man, Eldred, bringing back a rabbit he has killed. He stops to pick something lying on the ground. Curious, and still not believing in time travel, Steven calls out to Eldred. He attacks Steven and then runs off. Steven however has grabbed the object he picked up. It is a modern wristwatch, further cementing Steven's belief that this is not the 11th century.

At the abbey, the Doctor sneaks in and finds a recording playing the Gregorian chants. He stops it but bars drop down and the monk peeks in and laughs at him. He moves the Doctor to a cell in the abbey and offers him breakfast, cooked using modern equipment but the Doctor refuses it. The monk leaves the abbey and watches the horizon. There he spies an approaching Viking ship.

Steven and Vicki awake in the forest but are captured by the villagers. They bring them back to the village where Edith recognizes their clothing style. The headman of the village, Edith's husband Wulnoth, decides to let them go while Edith tells them that the Doctor was headed to the abbey. They leave but Eldred, remembering their attack on him earlier, is fearful that they are spies for a Viking attack.

The Viking scout ship lands on the coast. Most of the warriors stay on the coast and the captain sends out two parties to scout the land and look for food and water. They are given orders not to engage unless necessary for they are a scout force preparing for the larger invasion by King Harald Hardrada later that year.

Steven and Vicki arrive at the abbey but when speaking to the monk, he denies ever seeing the Doctor. Steven sets a trap when asking and the monk gives evidence that he had seen the Doctor. Vicki is suspicious that it could be a trap for them but Steven decides that they will sneak in at nightfall to find the Doctor.

One of the Viking scout parties find the village with Edith being the only one around. They steal supplies and rape her. After they leave, the village men return from the fields to find what happened. Wulnoth leads a group after the Vikings, who have left a trail being drunk. They find them and attack. One of the Vikings is killed along with a couple of the villagers in the melee but the remaining two Vikings escape into the forest. Eldred is wounded and Wulnoth takes him to the abbey to get medical help.

At dark, Steven and Vicki sneak in to the abbey. The monk is aware of them entering but he is distracted when he hears knocking at the door. It is Wulnoth and Eldred, whom he escorts inside. Steven and Vicki find the record player of the chanting and then find the cell where the Doctor is being held. They break in but under the Doctor's cloak they find only straw. They guess that the Doctor found a secret passage to escape. Searching the cell, they also find it and follow it.

The monk treats Eldred's wounds and tries to get Wulnoth to take him back but they realize he is too weak to travel. Leaving Eldred to rest in the abbey, Wulnoth heads back to the village. The monk checks on the Doctor to find him gone. He also asks Eldred when they might expect the main Viking force and Eldred guesses a couple of days. The monk seems pleased and leaves him to sleep.

The Doctor returns to the village and talks to Edith, learning of what has happened. He reassures her that the Vikings will not bother them again as the main force will land further to the South and that it will be defeated by King Harold. He then returns to the abbey to deal with the monk. At the same time, Steven and Vicki emerge from the secret passage and continue to search for the Doctor in the woods.

The two surviving Viking raiders try to figure what to do. They elect to head to the abbey to seek sanctuary. Once inside, they will hold the monks as hostages until the main fleet arrives and they can return safely.

At the abbey, the Doctor surprises the monk and prepares to get his story out of him. Before he can, the door knocks again. To not cause any trouble, the Doctor dons a monk's cowl and opens the door. The Vikings enter and lock the Doctor back in his former cell with one standing guard. The monk, having hidden behind the door when the two Vikings entered, sneaks around and knocks out one searching the abbey. He ties up the Viking and then leaves the abbey.

Steven and Vicki return to the cliff overlooking the TARDIS but find the tide has come in and the TARDIS is inaccessible. They also find a futuristic cannon hidden in the bushes nearby. Hoping the Doctor headed around to stop the monk, they crawl back through the secret passage into the Abbey.

In the cell, the Doctor opens the secret passage entrance. The Viking, checking and seeing the open passage, enters to investigate. The Doctor, hiding behind the door, knocks him out. He heads out looking for the monk. Steven and Vicki arrive shortly after to find the unconscious Viking. They walk through the abbey and find an electrical cable leading to a sarcophagus. Doors are hidden in the bottom and inside they find a TARDIS. Searching through, they find many relics and weapons. They also find a log book demonstrating how the monk has given modern ideas and technology to primitive peoples to influence history.

The monk travels down to the village and asks Wulnoth to have the villagers prepare signal fires to be lit in a couple of days. He informs them that he is expecting materials to rebuild the monastery to be coming by ship and wants to guide them in. Wulnoth reluctantly agrees. Edith cautions him, telling him of what the Doctor said about a Viking fleet approaching.

The Doctor gets the drop on the monk upon returning to the abbey. The monk confesses his plan to change history. He will lure the Viking fleet further North than originally. Then he will use nuclear weaponry to destroy the fleet. With no northern invasion to sap his strength, Harold II will face the Norman invasion with a fresh, full strength army, allowing him to win the Battle of Hastings. The monk then plans on introducing other things into this alternate timeline, introducing the modern era over 400 years before it actually happened. The Doctor is appalled and forces the monk into his TARDIS. There they meet Steven and Vicki.

The Viking the Doctor knocked out comes to and finds his companion tied up. He releases him and the two search for the monks. As they search, they are spied by Eldred who hurries back to the village. The Vikings spy the monk and the Doctor's party emerging from the sarcophagus. The monk flees to them, professing loyalty to King Hardrada and the Vikings tie up the Doctor, Steven and Vicki. The monk gives the Vikings some warheads, telling them that they are charms that will aid their fleet.

In the village, Wulnoth is telling the rest of the village that the monk may be a Viking spy as they believe that the signal fires will actually lure the rest of the Vikings there. Eldred arrives in the middle and informs them that he saw Vikings in the abbey. Convinced, the villagers head to the abbey armed. They see the two Vikings emerging with the warheads with the monk. Upon seeing the mob, the three drop the warheads and flee into the forest. The monk misdirects the Vikings to a hiding spot and then flees in the opposite direction. The Vikings are cornered by the villagers and killed.

Edith frees the Doctor and his companions, inviting them back to the village to celebrate their victory. The Doctor accepts but says he must take care of something in the abbey first. Heading back into the monk's TARDIS, he sabotages it and then heads back to his own TARDIS with Steven and Vicki.

The monk circles back to the abbey to find everyone gone. He decides to leave but finds a letter written to him by the Doctor. He is amused at the Doctor's threat but is then horrified to find that the Doctor has stolen the dimensional transformer from his TARDIS. The control room is now shrunk down proportional to the sarcophagus exterior, rendering it impossible for him to enter and leave. He realizes he is marooned as the Doctor's TARDIS dematerializes.

Analysis

This was an excellent episode. I had unfortunately already been spoiled to the ending of Episode Four so I knew what was coming, but even with that, the story was very engaging. As each episode ended, and a couple of points where I had to stop in the middle, I was disappointed because I was genuinely interesting in seeing what happened next.

One of the best things about the episode is the production value. Nearly everything, except for a couple of quick bits of stock footage, is filmed in studio. Yet this fact is very well disguised. The forest sets look realistic as do the buildings, both exterior and interior. In fact, the only time where it is a bit obvious that they are in studio is when they are on the cliff face overlooking the TARDIS. There is nothing wrong with the set but the whole focusing on the characters while they point to and talk about something below or off the in distance is a fairly well known trick and did bring it back in.

One of the best tricks is the use of sound. It is subtle but whenever there is a forest scene, there is a chirping of birds in the background. Likewise, there are seagulls when on the beach or overlooking the cliff above the TARIDS. But the best is when they are in the abbey. The sounds is undamped so that there is an actual echo going on as if they are in a large cavernous space. It is not something that you would expect people to really notice but its addition just adds a whole level of realism that your brain picks up on. It is quite impressive.

The acting is very good in it as well. I think the two Vikings get a little over the top at one point, but they are still decent. The monk himself is a rather cool customer with a joking sense of humor. Even the Doctor seems greatly amused, even when he is obviously put out by the monk's actions. There is a good bit of humor even though the story goes to some very dark places. The aftermath of the Viking raid, including the rape of Edith, is striking for how dark it is. When Wulnoth finds Edith, I thought she was actually dead at first, but instead is catatonic. That is both impressive acting and a very dark place to go to in 1965 for a children's show. I certainly appreciated it.

I personally wish Doctor Who would actually do more stories along this line of this one. This is an alternate history lover's dream. I'm sure a number of stories and papers have been written about how King Harold could have won the battle of Hastings, with the removal of the Viking invasion being a good starting point. From there you go down the rabbit hole of what would have happened. It is interesting to see the show teach history by showing the possibility of it being changed. It also marks an interesting contrast to the Doctor's statement in The Aztecs about how history cannot be changed, even if you try. Of course, the monk did try and he was thwarted so one could argue that time did preventative maintenance by bringing the Doctor there.

If I had any quibble with the story, it is with the monk's motivations. He speaks about changing history to keep Harold on the throne and turning Britain into more of an insular place; not getting involved with all the wars in France. He estimates that with uninterrupted prosperity, they might have flight in less than 400 years and have Shakespeare produce his stories for broadcast on television. But the question is why? What does the monk gain out of this? If the monk were human, you might argue that it would be for the betterment of his race and power. After all, a Britain with powered flight and other modern technology could easily take over any location that they might desire.

However, it had been established in The Sensorites that the Doctor and Susan were from another planet and by implication, the monk was as well. So why is he interested in altering the course of Earth history? About the only thing I can think of is that he is interesting in staying on Earth for the long haul. Steven reads a passage in the monk's log that he placed a sum of money in a bank and jumped forward 200 years to collect a fortune based on the compound interest. The Doctor never worries about money but the monk does. From this, we can guess that he has a vested interest in improving his life on Earth and has little to no interest in going anywhere else. Either that or he is just someone who gets his jollies from causing trouble; like a prankster. It's a minor point but it does leave you scratching your head.

Overall, I think I would have to say that I think this is the best First Doctor story I've seen so far. It was on an interesting subject, it was well acted, it had moments of dark seriousness but was also tempered with a measure of levity. It was also well produced and well directed. I think I would happily watch this one again with no complaints.

Overall personal score: 5 out of 5