When I first started this I really thought the historical episodes were going to be the boring ones, but if anything they're more entertaining. I think a lot of that has to do with them working with the budget a lot more. Instead of trying to get these ambitious ideas on the screen, they can focus more on the plot, characters, and just have a good time with it. That's definitely the case here as the Doctor encounters another time lord who's trying to alter history. It's a really compelling story trying to figure out why there's modernish technology in the 10th century and the reveal of another TARDIS puts all the pieces together. It's really neat seeing the Monk and the Doctor debate their polar opposite approaches to time travel (although I'd argue that the Doctor changes history a lot, just not on purpose). They get a chance to expand ever so slightly on the Doctor's origins which is great. The whole episode is definitely helped by the TARDIS team they got now, which is fantastic. Everyone is a bit more sarcastic which leads to some genuinely funny interactions. Vicki and Steven work great off each other, it's really cool that the 2 companions we have right now are both from the future. I noticed that Steven is the first one not to treat Vicki like a child, she can take care of herself and he acknowledges that. Speaking of Steven he's awesome, he's got a comeback for any situation. I brought this up in my previous review, but him saying we in reference to his panda stuffed animal (it might have been a joke, but I get the sneaking suspicion that it wasn't) cemented it, I'm pretty sure he went at least a bit insane after being held prisoner all alone for 2 years. That only serves to add more to his character though, I really wish this group had lasted longer than 2 episodes (the second of which isn't on Britbox) because it's a really strong one. There's also an outro sequence for this one with all the travelers faces in space, I'm not sure if I like it or not yet.
8 Reviews
Part 1, The Watcher, this is an absolute joy.
Sleepin_Dragon26 August 2015
One of my favourite Hartnell stories.
Ian and Barbara have gone, and someone has trespassed onto the TARDIS, it's Stephen, who's stowed away and joins the TARDIS crew. The TARDIS lands on rocks overlooking the sea, it's arrival is witnessed by a Monk. The Monk listens in to the Doctor's explanations about the TARDIS and doesn't seem phased, he's a suspicious character. The locals look pretty savage, but the Doctor is very warmly welcomed by one of the women folk, where he learns of Vikings, and that it's 1066! Something's up at the Monestary as the singing suddenly takes a sharp dip, so the Doctor sets off to investigate, all is not as he was expecting......
I love the humour, Hartnell's at his funniest, in answer to Stephen's disbelief his response is hilarious, 'that is the dematerialing control, and that over yonda is the Horizontal hold, up there is the scanner, those are the doors, that is a chair with a Panda on it, sheer poetry dear boy.' So sarcastic, but brilliantly delivered lines.
Hartnell is absolutely glorious throughout this story, of those that exist it's probably my favourite of his performances, you can see he's totally loving what he's doing.
This is a fabulous opening episode, Stephen's proved to be a great addition, making up for the loss of Ian and Barbara. The Monk is a fascinating character. It's a real joy. 10/10
Ian and Barbara have gone, and someone has trespassed onto the TARDIS, it's Stephen, who's stowed away and joins the TARDIS crew. The TARDIS lands on rocks overlooking the sea, it's arrival is witnessed by a Monk. The Monk listens in to the Doctor's explanations about the TARDIS and doesn't seem phased, he's a suspicious character. The locals look pretty savage, but the Doctor is very warmly welcomed by one of the women folk, where he learns of Vikings, and that it's 1066! Something's up at the Monestary as the singing suddenly takes a sharp dip, so the Doctor sets off to investigate, all is not as he was expecting......
I love the humour, Hartnell's at his funniest, in answer to Stephen's disbelief his response is hilarious, 'that is the dematerialing control, and that over yonda is the Horizontal hold, up there is the scanner, those are the doors, that is a chair with a Panda on it, sheer poetry dear boy.' So sarcastic, but brilliantly delivered lines.
Hartnell is absolutely glorious throughout this story, of those that exist it's probably my favourite of his performances, you can see he's totally loving what he's doing.
This is a fabulous opening episode, Stephen's proved to be a great addition, making up for the loss of Ian and Barbara. The Monk is a fascinating character. It's a real joy. 10/10
The Time Meddler
ametaphysicalshark22 July 2008
"The Time Meddler" is another "Doctor Who" story I find fandom's reaction to slightly bewildering. This tale is extremely likable and often entertaining, and it does feature the excellent villain that is The Meddling Monk, but its two middle episodes are erratically-paced and the scripts aren't quite as good as episodes one and four, which are excellent. Episode one is, for the first ten minutes at least, a tongue-in-cheek take on "An Unearthly Child", and episode four is a fun climax to the story with a memorable ending. The best part of the middle two episodes is the cliffhanger ending to episode three.
The direction is predictable but solid by Douglas Camfield, and the script by Dennis Spooner is okay, but obviously does not have a proper grasp on Steven's character. Peter Purves is trying his hardest but having been introduced in such a hurry by the writers it is not surprising that he is not very well-characterized in this final story of season two.
The main high point of "The Time Meddler" is The Meddling Monk and some additions to the "Doctor Who" mythology (and specifically TARDISes). I find it an enjoyable tale but fail to understand why it is regarded as an absolute classic.
Episode 1: 8/10, Episode 2: 6/10, Episode 3: 6/10, Episode 4: 8/10.
Average: 7/10
________________________
Thoughts on season two: Season two really surprised me this time around. "The Romans" is great comedy, "The Crusade" features a tremendous script and a brilliant third episode that is up there with the best of "Doctor Who", "The Chase" is amazingly hysterical fun, "Planet of Giants" is a fun, inventive little tale by Louis Marks that is unfairly forgotten. The other stories are all solid as well except for "The Web Planet".
Season 2 Average Rating: 7.443/10
The direction is predictable but solid by Douglas Camfield, and the script by Dennis Spooner is okay, but obviously does not have a proper grasp on Steven's character. Peter Purves is trying his hardest but having been introduced in such a hurry by the writers it is not surprising that he is not very well-characterized in this final story of season two.
The main high point of "The Time Meddler" is The Meddling Monk and some additions to the "Doctor Who" mythology (and specifically TARDISes). I find it an enjoyable tale but fail to understand why it is regarded as an absolute classic.
Episode 1: 8/10, Episode 2: 6/10, Episode 3: 6/10, Episode 4: 8/10.
Average: 7/10
________________________
Thoughts on season two: Season two really surprised me this time around. "The Romans" is great comedy, "The Crusade" features a tremendous script and a brilliant third episode that is up there with the best of "Doctor Who", "The Chase" is amazingly hysterical fun, "Planet of Giants" is a fun, inventive little tale by Louis Marks that is unfairly forgotten. The other stories are all solid as well except for "The Web Planet".
Season 2 Average Rating: 7.443/10
The Time Meddler: Part 1 - Brilliant, entertaining adventure that fascinatingly introduces a villain from The Doctor's home planet.
A_Kind_Of_CineMagic19 August 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Review for all 4 parts:
The Time Meddler is a 4 part story beginning with The Watcher.
This story is excellent entertainment, well written, well acted and good fun but most importantly it introduces 'The Meddling Monk', wonderfully played by Peter Butterworth, who gives us fascinating new information about The Doctor's background.
Writer Dennis Spooner is at his absolute best here with the humour blending beautifully with drama, unlike in some of his stories such as his earlier Season 2 effort The Romans where this is done badly. It is ironic that when Spooner was script editor standards were generally lower but he is the writer of this first story after Donald Tosh took over from him as script editor and it is brilliant. Tosh and director Douglas Camfield deserve a lot of credit for this I am sure. The humour is executed much better than it is in the stories when Spooner edited/oversaw the scripts himself.
It all begins very mysteriously with 1066 England having items such as electric appliances being shown. The viewer is left wondering what is going on and it makes the build-up really interesting. At the same time the new companion Steven begins to be established. The character proves to be superb and Peter Purves starts as he means to go on with a fine performance matching Hartnell's delightful Doctor. Butterworth also excels as the amusing and interesting Monk.
The character of the Monk finally gives a little development to the mysterious background of the Doctor as he is eventually revealed to be of the same race and planet of origin as the Doctor and also has a TARDIS time machine. This provides fascinating aspects to the story. It lets us know the Doctor is just one of a race capable of time travel. They are not yet named on screen as Time Lords from Gallifrey, though, that only happens in Second Doctor story The War Games.
The Monk uses his TARDIS to travel to Earth past and interfere in proceedings at the time of the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. He is not portrayed as thoroughly evil, more as mischievous and dangerously meddling in past events for his own gain.
The whole story is excellent in my view with script, story and acting of a very high standard. It is one of the great all-time gems.
My Ratings: All 4 episodes 10/10.
Overall, Season 2 started and finished really well but dropped in quality noticeably in between for the stories where Spooner was script editor (except for The Crusade which was more serious in tone than the others and really top quality). That makes this one of the weakest of the classic series in my view up until the disappointing Colin Baker and early Sylvester McCoy years when the show reached its low point.
Average Season 2 Rating: 7.65/10
The Time Meddler is a 4 part story beginning with The Watcher.
This story is excellent entertainment, well written, well acted and good fun but most importantly it introduces 'The Meddling Monk', wonderfully played by Peter Butterworth, who gives us fascinating new information about The Doctor's background.
Writer Dennis Spooner is at his absolute best here with the humour blending beautifully with drama, unlike in some of his stories such as his earlier Season 2 effort The Romans where this is done badly. It is ironic that when Spooner was script editor standards were generally lower but he is the writer of this first story after Donald Tosh took over from him as script editor and it is brilliant. Tosh and director Douglas Camfield deserve a lot of credit for this I am sure. The humour is executed much better than it is in the stories when Spooner edited/oversaw the scripts himself.
It all begins very mysteriously with 1066 England having items such as electric appliances being shown. The viewer is left wondering what is going on and it makes the build-up really interesting. At the same time the new companion Steven begins to be established. The character proves to be superb and Peter Purves starts as he means to go on with a fine performance matching Hartnell's delightful Doctor. Butterworth also excels as the amusing and interesting Monk.
The character of the Monk finally gives a little development to the mysterious background of the Doctor as he is eventually revealed to be of the same race and planet of origin as the Doctor and also has a TARDIS time machine. This provides fascinating aspects to the story. It lets us know the Doctor is just one of a race capable of time travel. They are not yet named on screen as Time Lords from Gallifrey, though, that only happens in Second Doctor story The War Games.
The Monk uses his TARDIS to travel to Earth past and interfere in proceedings at the time of the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. He is not portrayed as thoroughly evil, more as mischievous and dangerously meddling in past events for his own gain.
The whole story is excellent in my view with script, story and acting of a very high standard. It is one of the great all-time gems.
My Ratings: All 4 episodes 10/10.
Overall, Season 2 started and finished really well but dropped in quality noticeably in between for the stories where Spooner was script editor (except for The Crusade which was more serious in tone than the others and really top quality). That makes this one of the weakest of the classic series in my view up until the disappointing Colin Baker and early Sylvester McCoy years when the show reached its low point.
Average Season 2 Rating: 7.65/10
Another Time Lord
Theo Robertson12 August 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Slight spoilers to all four episodes Vicki and The Doctor find an injured Steven Taylor stowing away on the Tardis . Landing the ship the Doctor finds himself in England 1066 . He starts finding anachronistic objects and worries that someone who is a fellow time traveler might be planning to change the course of history
In 1992 the BBC hyped up a repeat season of DOCTOR WHO on BBC 2 which was a dream come true for many fans . Satillite station BSB started up their Galaxy channel where they'd broadcast one episode a week on Sundays but this quickly bought up by Sky broadcasting which meant one Sunday I switched on Galaxy waiting for an episode of The Dead Planet only to find Sky One was broadcasting and they didn't have the rights to any BBC shows which felt like a kick in the teeth . At this point in time BBC wasn't releasing many DOCTOR WHO videos so this repeat season was well appreciated . As it transpired the BBC repeat season also had to include stories that were already available in the case of Genesis Of The Daleks and The Caves Of Androzani and The Time Meddler which wasn't the greatest Hsrtnell adventure
One should be thankful that The Time Medllar wasn't available at this point , oh well done the BBC another winner . What it does do is succeed in being something of a landmark story in that it introduces a new regular companion Steven Taylor but unlike Ian and Barbara this is the type of companion who's mainly just a character on paper who's used as a sounding board to bounce dialogue off against the Doctor
It also contains the first appearance of someone from the Doctor's home planet thereby keeping up the mystery of the Doctor . If you're expecting any great revelations from the Doctor's past then you might very well be disappointed because nothing is really revealed . It's also noticeable that Hartnell is taking a holiday and is written out of an episode as he spends it unseen in a cell . That said he does have a great line of dialogue when showing a Viking helmet to Steven " What do you think this is ? A space helmet for a cow ? "
And so ends season two of the show which is slightly uneven . The reason for this is because you can see the production team wanting to build upon the success of the first season which took off in a better way than they could have hoped and make more outlandish stories . It loses some of the grittiness of season one but does have major success too
In 1992 the BBC hyped up a repeat season of DOCTOR WHO on BBC 2 which was a dream come true for many fans . Satillite station BSB started up their Galaxy channel where they'd broadcast one episode a week on Sundays but this quickly bought up by Sky broadcasting which meant one Sunday I switched on Galaxy waiting for an episode of The Dead Planet only to find Sky One was broadcasting and they didn't have the rights to any BBC shows which felt like a kick in the teeth . At this point in time BBC wasn't releasing many DOCTOR WHO videos so this repeat season was well appreciated . As it transpired the BBC repeat season also had to include stories that were already available in the case of Genesis Of The Daleks and The Caves Of Androzani and The Time Meddler which wasn't the greatest Hsrtnell adventure
One should be thankful that The Time Medllar wasn't available at this point , oh well done the BBC another winner . What it does do is succeed in being something of a landmark story in that it introduces a new regular companion Steven Taylor but unlike Ian and Barbara this is the type of companion who's mainly just a character on paper who's used as a sounding board to bounce dialogue off against the Doctor
It also contains the first appearance of someone from the Doctor's home planet thereby keeping up the mystery of the Doctor . If you're expecting any great revelations from the Doctor's past then you might very well be disappointed because nothing is really revealed . It's also noticeable that Hartnell is taking a holiday and is written out of an episode as he spends it unseen in a cell . That said he does have a great line of dialogue when showing a Viking helmet to Steven " What do you think this is ? A space helmet for a cow ? "
And so ends season two of the show which is slightly uneven . The reason for this is because you can see the production team wanting to build upon the success of the first season which took off in a better way than they could have hoped and make more outlandish stories . It loses some of the grittiness of season one but does have major success too
The Watcher
guswhovian24 September 2020
The Doctor, Vicki and Steven arrive on the English coast in 1066, while a strange monk observed their arrival with little surprise...
"The Watcher" is a refreshing change of pace after The Chase; in fact, this is the best episode in quite a while.
Peter Purves makes a good addition to the TARDIS crew, gelling well with Hartnell and O'Brien. Hartnell is on top form in this episode, seemingly taking delight in Dennis Spooner's excellent script.
After Richard Martin's bungled direction of The Chase, Douglas Camfield's direction is a refreshing change of pace. The episode is completely studio bound, but the production design and effective use of sound effects and stock footage add to the atmosphere.
"The Watcher" is a refreshing change of pace after The Chase; in fact, this is the best episode in quite a while.
Peter Purves makes a good addition to the TARDIS crew, gelling well with Hartnell and O'Brien. Hartnell is on top form in this episode, seemingly taking delight in Dennis Spooner's excellent script.
After Richard Martin's bungled direction of The Chase, Douglas Camfield's direction is a refreshing change of pace. The episode is completely studio bound, but the production design and effective use of sound effects and stock footage add to the atmosphere.
The Monk
wetmars8 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
The Doctor, Vicki, and new companion Steven Taylor arrive in Saxon Northumbria on the eve of the Viking and Norman invasions. It is 1066, a pivotal moment in British history. The hand of a mysterious Monk is at work in the nearby monastery, intending that history takes a different course.
Review of four parts -
Ah yes, the first appearance of another time lord. Eh, I have mixed feelings about this episode, it's just that... the story just felt absolutely nothing, you can't even pay attention the episode because of that good old "hard to follow" element which I hate. *sigh* It had a great ending though! If you know what I mean, seriously! After this, I'm gonna watch Dr. Who and the Daleks, I've never watched it before, I've heard that it's terrible. See you!
6/10, short review... =^[
Review of four parts -
Ah yes, the first appearance of another time lord. Eh, I have mixed feelings about this episode, it's just that... the story just felt absolutely nothing, you can't even pay attention the episode because of that good old "hard to follow" element which I hate. *sigh* It had a great ending though! If you know what I mean, seriously! After this, I'm gonna watch Dr. Who and the Daleks, I've never watched it before, I've heard that it's terrible. See you!
6/10, short review... =^[
Entertaining second-season four-parter* that provides more details about the Doctor's universe
jamesrupert201412 February 2024
The Doctor (William Hartnell), Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) and a stowaway materialise on the coast of Northumbria in 1066 and discover a suspicious monk who seems overly interested in the approach of Harald Hardrada's Viking invasion fleet. This is an entertaining four-part story that forgoes the space-opera trappings of the previous two serials and explores the one of the other core 'sci-fi elements' of the Doctor Who universe: time travel. As can be guessed by the serial's umbrella-title 'The Time Meddler', the focus is on the morality, wisdom and consequences of altering the past. This story introduces Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) as a companion (apparently he had snuck onboard the TARDIS just before it departed the Mechanoid City at the end of 'The Chase'), and he and Vicki spend a lot of time apart from the Doctor, fending for themselves in the creepy Monastery or avoiding angry Angelo-Saxons and bloodthirsty Viking scouts. Don't expect a heavy metaphysical discussion or a resolution of the Grandfather Paradox when the Doctor and the Monk discuss temporal tampering but the interplay between the two characters is amusing and well written. Although the terms 'Gallifrey' and 'Time Lord' were still a couple of seasons in the future, this was the first episode to establish that there were other travelers like the Doctor drifting through the continuum (and that not all could be trusted). *Score and comments pertain to the complete serial.
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