Written
by Terrance Dicks
Published
in 1986 for
Target
Books
‘Together
we will become Masters of the Universe’
There’s something very
quintessentially English about the Third Doctor era. It’s all very ‘pip pip’ and ‘jolly good show, eh, what?’. It’s very much a man’s world and
women mustn’t even think of becoming a heroine, or lift a tyre iron, or the
good old Brigadier will come over and patronise them – it’s amazing that he
ever managed to marry and have children, what with that stiff upper lip and
all.
However, the fictional
world can often depict women in a much lesser light, and the Master who only
really has eyes for himself, holds women in much the same regard as whatever
he’s trodden in that day. Much like his likeness for Krasis, the High Priest of
Atlantis, who suddenly finds himself zapped into the 20th century
grasping a crystal and feeling the might of Kronos – a creature that feeds on
time itself as the crystal the High Priest is worshipping grows brighter.
Dr Ruth Ingram has been an
instrumental factor in the scientific make up of the TOMTIT machine – I mean
honestly, could they not have thought up a less ‘snicker behind the hands’ acronym? And when she begins to power up
the machine before the big talk with the big wigs of the university it’s
currently residing in, the Master can’t get there quick enough to pull the
plug.
‘The
meddling fools.’
By now we’ve come to
realise that The ‘You Will Obey Me’
Master is a little too far up his own backside to notice the flaws in his
machine. I guess when you’re that insane, you’re bound to miss a few key
ingredients. Such as having the power to summon but not control the Chronivore.
Despite all it’s faults of
the 20th century, the actual story is a jolly good read, and in a way, it was fun journeying back to the
70s, the super speed ride in old Bessie, the Doctor recreating his TARDIS, the
Master riding in his TARDIS cleverly disguised as a computer cupboard – of all
the things to come up with. Might as well have been a Grandfather’s clock…oh
wait…!
The Time Monster was a
truly wonderful journey and I seem to remember scenes from the television
episode that brought it all back to life for me.
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