Who Reviews The Time Monster by Matt Rabjohns

"Welcome! Welcome to your new Master!"

The Doctor is having the grandmother of all nightmares as we join this story, The Time Monster. Volcanoes and earthquakes rage on in a very very strong opening scene. These then dissolve away into a picture of the Doctor slumped on a sofa, besides a massive glowing trident shaped crystal. A flash of lightning and the Doctor, played suavely and amazingly by Jon Pertwee, awakes, seriousness and horror etched on his features. Then he looks up to see the Master, as ever sublimely portrayed by Roger Delgado who utters these commanding words. Then the Doctor wakes up. Wow, what a brilliant opening scene. I remember thinking this scene was truly filmic when I first watched it as a kid!

What follows on from this memorable opening scene is a story packed with some extremely strong ideas, only slightly hampered by some not quite so brilliant effects. But the story is definitely ambitious, and has a massive epic quality to the storytelling none the less. The Time Monster wonderfully weaves some of the best-known Greek myths together in a very satisfying cake that is brilliant to watch from the get go.

First let's talk about the cast of this story. It is extremely strong. Ingrid Pitt for beginners stuns and impresses as the Atlantean Queen Galleia. Her scenes together with Roger Delgado are absolutely priceless scenes. I love scenes where the Master is using his suave charm to bend people to his will. Ingrid is superb in this role, and her final scene of looking on as Kronos the Chronovore reduces her city to rubble makes for a very powerful final image of the ancient city of Atlantis.

George Cormack is superb as King Darius, and his scenes where he talks with the Doctor are just as good as Roger's with Ingrid. George gives so much realism and pathos to the doomed King, and his final scene is touching and deeply moving indeed.

I dont think one will see many people ever dwell on the character of Lakis, portrayed incredibly wonderful by Susan Penhaligon. I absolutely love her character and how she instantly strikes up such a strong and firm rapport with Katy Manning's Jo. I love the scenes of them creeping about Atlantis spying on the Queen. I only wish that she had been in more stories. This unassuming yet brave girl deserved even to become a companion if you ask. Oh well, I suppose one has to be glad of them being in one episode I suppose.

Its brilliant beholding the sublime costume and makeup of the wonderful Dave Prowse as the Minotaur. In fact, I would state he portrays one of the very best Minotaur's I've ever seen in any film or TV programme. The makeup is fantastic. His Bull head is absolutely exquisitely designed. Its again such a shame he didn’t get a few more scenes!

Wanda Moore and Ian Collier are absolutely a class double act as Ruth Ingram and Stewart. I love that Ruth is absolutely a feminist, and one loves some of the one liners she has throughout this story. They make a memorable couple of scientists and Ian is particularly superb when in his aged form, he gives a superb performance when he sees his old man face in the mirror.

John Wyse is wonderful as the easily controlled and manipulated Dr Percival. His scenes with Roger Delgado are amazingly good.

This story is also a very strong one for both John Levene's Benton and Richard Franklin's Mike Yates. In fact, this story yet again has an extremely fine cliff-hanger to part three where the Master drops the WW2 doodlebug on the UNIT troops transporting the TARDIS through the woods. This is a superb scene indeed and one that stayed in my mind a long time after watching.

It's a shame that the make up of Kronos doesn't work so well as the rest of the story does. The strange helmeted bird fails to ever really be convincing. And the much better adopted form of Ingrid Bower as the female face of Kronos in the final scene is let down because of this being her only scene in the role, so she doesn't really have much at all to work with, and this is a shame as she still manages to steal the scene.

However, one slight oddity is that at the end of the scene Roger Delgado perhaps gives a somewhat starkly uncharacteristic grovelling scene to the Doctor which fails to convince, it’s totally at odds with his otherwise superb performance throughout the rest of the story. But it’s the only time I thought Roger could have done it a bit better, otherwise in every story he was utterly formidable in the role of the Master.

And the Doctor's daisiest daisy scene would rank high up as one of the Third Doctor's defining moments. There is no way Jon Pertwee could have delivered the scene any better than he did either. It's a sublime scene and so beautifully performed indeed.

The Time Monster is a thoroughly excellent six parter. However, there is just one other slight annoyance with this story. This story for some reason, is a lot more jarring between its studio scenes and film scenes. In this story the filmed sequences are extremely effective, and when paired with the studio scenes this time it's a little distracting at times. I think this story would have benefited greatly in being shot completely on film.

This is only a minor niggle though. This story is imaginative, creative and with the the abbreviation TOMTIT highly amusing indeed. The whole concept of Time Ram too is a bonkers little addition to the mix. This makes the Time Monster a very strong, if slightly flawed entry to the Doctor Who canon.

And, oh yes, how can one end this review without a mention of John Levene's intense embarrassment as the now grown up Benton in nothing more than a nappy to close the story on a very very memorable way?! Priceless stuff.

Who Reviews Target Zone: The Time Monster by DJ Forrest

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 20^th 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 20^th 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.