The Time Meddler

"Monkey Business", "Friar Little Tenderness", "Bad Habits"

"The One With the Two Tardises" (USA), "School Days" (Germany)

Doctor Who foils the plans of a time meddler who planned to meddle with time, the scamp.

*** - Camp Vikings vs camp Saxons with that bloke from the Carry On films in the middle - no one loses their trousers but it's still pretty close to bliss.

"Did you hear that Margaret? IDBI - I don't believe it! What a pithy catchphrase." (the young and groovy Vic Meldrew has his life changed by a cheap studio drama serial)

"That is the dematerialisation control, and that over yonder is the horizontal hold. Up there is the scanner, those are the doors, that is a chair with some pants on it... Sheer poetry, dear boy! Now please stop bothering me"

Dennis Spooner was a pen name for the writing team of Nobby Styles and Richard Dimbleby

The mead featured in this story was genuine and, under the influence of seven Hartnell-inspired retakes, one of the Saxon villagers threw up all over Maureen O’Brien. She received an ex gratia payment of sixpence plus dry cleaning expenses.

Episode two was mistakenly broadcast in Arabic during the 1992 repeat run. BBC 2 controller Henry Binks blamed “miserable stupidity” for the error and sacked his mother.

The British Viking Anti-Defamation league called for this story to be banned as it was offensive to them. Their calls were unsuccessful. However, The National Council of Viking-Americans did manage to get every Viking scene prefaced with a caption which read “Viking-Americans are no more prone to raping and pillaging than any other racial group. If you are a Viking-American who has suffered from harassment please call 1-800-VIKING-RITES to speak to a counselor”

A copy of the script for episode one which mistakenly features the title “The Time Fiddler” was sold on eBay for twelve pounds in 2001. The successful buyer, “Elkiebront” , is believed to be a professional collector.

During his long captivity, Nelson Mandela often watched this serial four or five times per day. It is credited in his autobiography as number seven on the list of things that kept him sane. Number six was mango juice.

Si Hunt

"I was sat at home one day in late nineteen hundred and ninety one when a journalist from the Bendaton Probe rang my doorbell. I was a little taken aback as I had assumed the batteries had run out three years earlier but composed myself and opened the door. 'Mr Brent' he began sensibly, 'have you heard the good news - they're repeating Doctor Who on BBC2'. I made a careful note of the salient points in my rough book and used them as the basis of a letter to the controller of the second channel. "Dear Controller" I began, "Don't be pathetically stupid. Repeating "Doctor Who" is a subnormal's idea as it will cheapen the show and make it available to the proles. We as a nation must ensure that our heritage remains in the hands of those of us who are properly equipped to keep it safe from the unwashed eyes of the working caste. Furthermore, I would implore you to burn the remaining master tapes to prevent any future leaks. If you have lost my original correspondence from 1971 in which I advocated the destruction of all official copies I would be happy to send you a Photostat copy. Yours sincerely, Dennis Brent." Alas the repeats went ahead, starting with Story S, and thus began the decline of modern society. Thankfully the experience hasn't left me bitter."

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