-
An early
stand-out moment comes when the Doctor is explaining to Steven that the
Tardis can take on any form to blend in with its surroundings. If it was
in the midst of the Indian Mutiny it would appear to be a
howdah. Peter Purves has
a strange moment and delivers his reply – "How… what?" as "Howwww…WHAAAT?!?"
Fans of random shouting cite that as a particular favourite.
-
That is just
the beginning – the joke of asking what someone has said because you
don’t know what they mean is repeated many, many times. Pebbles ("on the
what?"), mead ("…oh mead!") and Da Vinci ("Who?) are three examples that
clamber to be heard. Not the best joke in the world but oddly charming.
-
When the
Doctor finds the Monk’s gramophone at the end of episode one his
chuckles to himself. He also wafts his nose in a rather strange way.
-
Steven’s
entrance is a peculiar one. They hear a noise, conclude it must be a
Dalek (which confused the heck out of me when I first saw it as I didn’t
know it came after the Chase) and suddenly the double doors swing open.
How exactly did Steven open both doors at the same time without being in
shot? Unless the Doctor got lazy and build one of those supermarket
style light beams.
-
It has a
reputation as a bit of a comical story but there are serious themes
underneath. The villagers are genuinely scared of the Viking threat
(compare that with the jovial tone of Vikings keen to have a bit of
rape’n’pillage fun.)
-
Speaking of
rape, the implied rape of Edith is the third rape/attempted rape in the
show’s two year history. I imagine the early fanzines were full of smug
editorials about how viewers who thought this was just a children’s
programme were very wrong indeed.
-
Is the
semi-naked Wulnoth the first piece of gratuitous eye candy in the
series? There had been bits of nudity before but all were integral to
the plot. This was just flesh for the sake of flesh. Something for the
mums…
-
The way the
Monk laughs at the Doctor’s misfortune as the latter gets himself
trapped in a cage reminds me of someone at work. I don’t like him. He’s
the dullest man on Earth.
-
Let’s be
honest, the end of episode three is the best cliffhanger ever. Imagine
the shock and awe on the faces of the children as that stone sarcophagus
(another word used for a hilarious "What?" joke) turned out to be the
same as Doctor Who’s unique space and time machine. That sense of wonder
will have stayed with them for a whole week.
-
For whatever
reason that cliffhanger wasn’t reshot at the start of episode four.
Instead they play a clip from part three and it looks ropey as hell. I
don’t know what was done to that bit of film in the week between
episodes but it must’ve involved trampling, punching, digesting and
excreting to get it in that mess. Let’s hope the RT don’t decide to keep
it authentic for the DVD and leave those thirty seconds looking like
crap.
-
Peter
Butterworth – what a star. His Meddling Monk was an absolute joy to
watch. Quite the contrast to every traditional form of villainy – you
almost want him to succeed. Such a shame that the character was brought
back in the Daleks Masterplan for no real reason and treated as a purely
comic device. An amoral time meddler is a good character, a bumbling
time traveller who dresses as a monk for no reason isn’t. Perhaps if he
hadn’t been brought back then he might’ve been reused by a later regime.
-
"What do you
think it is? A space helmet for a cow?" is a classic line. "I’m not a
mountain goat and I prefer walking to any time. And a hate climbing" is
an even better one. Such a creative use of language. I’m in awe.
-
The most
important idea in the story is that "You cannot re-write history" –
which had been stated many times – was established as a moral law of
time rather than a physical one. It was implied in the Aztecs that
Barbara would not be able to change history no matter what she did. Now
we find that anyone can go back in time and change things but that the
Doctor’s people have (apparently) determined that acting contrary to a
known history is against their laws. This is a useful concept because it
gets rid of the knotty problem of the Doctor happily instigating
revolutions on other worlds but insisting that terribly periods of
Earth’s history remain untouched. If he doesn’t know the history of a
world then he isn’t breaking the law.
-
Vicki makes
the bizarre claim that the Monk has something from "every period and
every place" despite his collection being housed in a corner of his
console room. Obviously space and time are not quite as infinite as
certain scientists seem to think.
-
Back in 1965
audiences were told that the first episode involved "The Watcher", the
second featured "The Meddling Monk", the third was "A Battle of Wits"
and the final part saw "Checkmate". Viewers of BBC2 in 1992 knew from
the Radio Times that the story revolved around "The Time Meddler". I
know there is a short half-life for spoiler protection but the title is
a bit too much of a giveaway.
-
Is the fact
that the Saxon attack on the Viking held monastery features the women of
the village fighting alongside their men folk a brave piece of sexual
equality, predating the fighting females of the Buffy generation? Or was
it just that they could only afford three or four men and wanted to pad
the scene out a bit?
-
The
"automatic drift control" which allows to suspend yourself in space with
absolute safety is both a new feature of the Mark IV Tardis and a
charming piece of early technobabble.
-
The shrunken
Tardis interior set is soooo cute and I want one to play with. I mean to
put on display in a sealed glass case so selected colleagues can look at
it with me and take notes.
-
Vicki needs
to use her fingers to explain what TARDIS stands for. Purves, perhaps
already auditioning for Blue Peter, explains his own concept – IDBI –
without missing a beat.
-
There is
something gleefully appropriate about William Hartnell’s delivery of "A
balmy night, a balmy night" seeing as he sounds entirely barmy while he
says it. If only he’d been Sir William the joke would’ve been complete.
-
She may have
used her fingers to explain the TARDIS acronym but she obviously didn’t
have enough digits to settle the "Dimensions" vs "Dimension" feud that
has raged ever since. If only Peter Purves had explained what TARDIS
stood for – fandom to a man, woman and child would’ve accepted his word
as law.
-
At the end
of the story we are told that Steven and Vicki aren’t the Tardis crew –
they’re just passengers. Part of me wonders if this is included to show
the essentially lonely life the Doctor leads or whether he wanted it
stating publicly in case any of his young assistants ever asked for
proper employment benefits such as maternity leave or cigarette breaks.
-
If the Monk
put £200 in a bank account in the 1960s and went forward two hundred
years he would have £3,293,824.92 (assuming both an average interest
rate of 5% and that the Daleks’ invasion destroyed everything except
the computerised banking system).
-
I hope this
story is released on DVD sooner rather than later and I hope Gary
Russell (moderating the commentary as he does on all Billy tales) and
Purves do the following.
Russell: Peter – this was your first full Doctor Who story. How
did you get the part?
Purves: Howwww…. WHAT?????
