Well, this is a bit more like it. After the tedium of "The Mutants", we get a snappy six-parter, featuring our old pal, the Master.
Harry -
You know Sarah, with all these DVDs and their extras - the "making ofs" and the "behind the scenes" bits - you know what I'd dearly love to see? A blooper reel.
It occurred to me while watching "The Time Monster" that everyone was having such a jolly time of it. Pertwee and Manning, Delgado and the UNIT crew, the two scientists, even the Atlantean guest stars, everyone was really relishing their roles. And amid all the seriousness, there were so many one-line zingers and moments of silliness (intended or not) that the actors must have been bursting with laughter during shooting. Imagine the hilarious outtakes!
I'd love to have been able to look in on the production of this one.
Sarah -
It’s obvious everyone is having a smashing good time – and it was so much fun to watch!
Having renamed himself Professor Thascales, the Master is ensconced at the Newton Institute, working on TOMTIT – a timey-wimey device he homes to use to control Kronos, a creature who will somehow make him all-powerful.
Working with Dr. Ruth Ingram and Stuart Hyde, the Master is ready for his first test of TOMTIT and some special guests have been invited to watch, including Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. This could get awkward!
Harry -
Especially when Thascales starts yelling "Come Kronos, come!"
Sarah -
Oh dear, that was a bit much, wasn’t it?
Harry -
Not what one would have expected from a prof. Gosh, it was good to see the UNIT team again, though. I didn't realize how much I'd missed them in the past couple of stories.
Sarah -
Wasn’t it just? Everyone just seemed a bit more crisp and sparkly. The Brig had a twinkle in his eye for most of the story, Yates got to play the action hero, and Benton had some wonderful moments.
One of my favorite lines was when the Doctor asked Benton if there had been any trouble, and he responded with, “I’ve been a bit lonely, that’s all.” Oh, Benton – he was even a beautiful baby!
Harry -
Baby Benton was adorable.
I did want to mention that earlier in part one, I did like that silly bit when Ruth and Stuart celebrated their successful test of the device. They danced around the lab to a merrie tune, then spun into the Master glaring at them from the door. Awkward!
Ruth and Stuart were a fun pair of short term companions for this adventure. You could see old Barry and Terry's rudimentary attempts at writing a strong female character here. Do you think they succeeded?
Sarah -
I quite liked Ruth and Stuart. Unfortunately, Our Barry and Terry couldn’t quite get their heads around strong female characters. A tip, lads: to write a strong female character just make her strong – think Liz before you started making her wear short skirts. In hindsight, we know Ruth is massive foreshadowing for our next companion, but I don’t want to jump ahead of ourselves.
Harry -
Barry and Terry seemed to think all a female character needs to do is talk about women's lib all the time and presto! Strong female! Ruth could have skipped all those lines, honestly.
Sarah -
Exactly.
Stuart, being a young, hip bloke, is a better fit for Ruth than all the old men in charge. Poor Stuart, from his 20s to his 80s in just a few moments. While we, as viewers, could be pretty sure he would be back to his 20s before the story was over, it still felt a little heartless when Ruth told him to try not to be too bitter. Aging 60 years seems like a perfect opportunity to be bitter to me!
Harry -
Another interesting character was Krasis, who arrives on the scene at the end of part two. I liked how he delivered all his lines in that stilted BBC Shakespeare style of the day. Actually, all the Atlanteans spoke in their own idiosyncratic way. A fascinating culture, to contain so many accents.
Sarah -
The whole little Atlantis interlude was fun. I imagine the sets were already together for some Shakespearean drama and the Doctor Who crew was able to just move on in.
Harry -
All the extras were already in costume.
I wonder if the palace intrigues in Atlantis were tacked on to pad out the story. I liked it though, it added more depth. It was as if the previous story had ended and we were suddenly watching a new one. Jo certainly got into the spirit of the place.
Sarah -
That was quite the getup she adopted in Atlantis, wasn’t it? The scenes did feel a bit like padding out the six-parter, but they were more successful than some other stories had been. The characters were interesting and fairly well-developed for being not the focus of the story.
Harry -
One letdown, and Barry Letts spoke to this in the DVD featurette, was how Kronos was realized. An actor on wires, flapping around in an all-white bird costume did not exactly instill terror. Even the actors seemed to find it hard being frightened.
Sarah -
I don’t think I was meant to be laughing at Dr. Percival’s reaction to Kronos’ arrival, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m sure it’s not what the creators were going for, but it had that endearing, low-budget Doctor Who charm about it.
What did you think of the TARDIS within a TARDIS conundrum?
Harry -
I'd forgotten about this scene. Right away I thought of the TARDIS within a TARDIS scene in "Logopolis", but that hasn't happened yet.
Sarah -
It was certainly fun to step inside the Master’s TARDIS, but disappointing to see that the Doctor’s TARDIS had been “redecorated” to match the Master’s. The tight-fisted BBC budgetary overlords are at it again.
Harry -
But they did manage to hire a knight and horse, a squad of Roundheads and a B-1 bomber. The story briefly turned into a reprise of "The War Games."
Sarah -
My thoughts exactly!
Harry -
I liked the Master's blinged-out 3-D roundels, but yeah, it was a lame coincidence for the Doctor to have spontaneously redecorated the same way. It's been a while since we've had so much action in the TARDIS control room.
Sarah -
I imagine them getting the same issue of “Better Homes and TARDISes” and not being able to resist copying the groovy cover look!
Harry -
Later on, Barry Letts even found a way for the Doctor to tell his own version of the Buddhist Flower Sermon. So much going on in "The Time Monster," is this story a secret gem or a crazy hallucination?
Sarah -
That was one of my favorite moments of the story. I’m going with secret gem!
Harry -
I don't know what the prevailing opinion of this story is among fanhood, but it really is a wild one. It begins in that tiny lab, spills over into ancient Atlantis, and the final battle is played out somewhere outside of time itself. It was, as Jo put it repeatedly, "groovy!"
Sarah -
Super Groovy!
Best Line: Doctor to the Brig - “It’s not meant to be anything. It just is.”
Favorite Moment: The Doctor telling Jo the story from his youth.
Lasting Image: The bloke in the Kronos suit swinging around the lab.
9/10
Harry -
Best Line: "This is not a picnic. One moment you're talking about the entire universe blowing up, the next you're going on about tea." The Brigadier at his exasperated best.
Favourite Moment: The Master attempts to hypnotize King Dalios, who laughs it off and proceeds to mock him.
Lasting Image: Baby Benton. So cute!
8/10
Our marathon continues with Story #65 - The Three Doctors...
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