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The Time Meddler Format Reviewed: DVD Review The Time Meddler brings to a close the second series of Doctor Who. By this time, Doctor Who was fast becoming a staple of British TV, and continuing to grow in popularity. With only William Hartnell now remaining from the original cast, following the depatures of Jacqueline Hill and William Russell in the previous story, the show had now evolved into one where the cast could change and still be successful, something that would become very important as time went on. In the TARDIS, The Doctor and Vicki hear noises and Steven Taylor stumbles out if the interior doors and collapses. He is quickly revived, and then the TARDIS lands in 11th century England, much to Steven's disbelief. The three go out to explore, and The Doctor on his own discovers it is 1066, just before a Viking invasion. He also discovers anomalies surrounding the monastry and goes to investigate. There he is imprisoned by the monk, who is later discovered as one of The Doctors own kind and someone who meddles in time. Vicki and Steven try to find The Doctor and soon come to the monastry. There they find the Doctors cell, but he has escaped through a secret passage and they follow. A viking ship later arrives and centers on the monastry, and it is revealed that the Monk is helping the Vikings out. The small scouting party is eventually dealt with, and The Doctor removes the dimensional unit from the Monk's TARDIS, thus marooning him. The Doctor, Vicki and Steven then make their getaway and leave in the TARDIS. There are a few significant firsts in The Time Meddler. We see another TARDIS, and the Monk is implied to be a Time Lord, although the name Time Lord is not mentioned until long after this story. Also, with Ian and Barbera leaving it cleared the decks for new characters, showing that the programme could survive changing the lead roles. It seems that around this time the production staff were playing with the formula to see how it could evolve into being different and new, whilst retaining the essence of the show that had already captured the hearts and minds of millions of viewers. Different concepts were also used on the end credits, with opposite images of the new TARDIS crew in white on black silhouette. There is a relatively small cast for this story, with the guest cast little more than some Vikings, villagers and the Monk. The regular cast now is Peter Purves as Steven, Maureen O'Brien as Vicki and William Hartnell as The Doctor. Purves' introduction to The TARDIS crew is a very positive move, as he is a strong personality who in many ways will stand up to Hartnell's Doctor powerfully. It also is such a contrast to the relatively soft portrayal of Vicki that Maureen O'Brien gives. Hartnell is fine in this story. Not exactly classic for him, but certainly not a weak performance from the lead performer. The main members of the guest cast are Alethea Charlton as Edith and Peter Butterworth as The Meddling Monk. Many people will know Butterworth better for his roles in teh Carry On series of films, but fortunately his performance here did not degenerate into farce, and he gives a whimsical and good performance. Alethea Charlton is very good and strong as Edith, and really gives some middle-age colour to the story. In patches, there is some very good incidental music. Far from the wall-to-wall music that appears on todays television programmes, shows of this era tend to have none or very little. What incidental music that does exist tends to be relatively drab. The few bits that appeared here though were good and enhanced the story. There is very little to criticise this story on, except a lack of pace to the story telling. This is not however a criticism of this episode, more it is indicative of the period the show was filmed in. You couldn't have cut a show like they did in the eighties, let alone now, back in the 1960's, and reviewing shows from this era always makes the lack of pace and tightness stand out. This said, there is a good amount here to keep most interested throughout. Overall, The Time Meddler is a very good story for the era. You definitely get the feeling that with this story the production of Doctor Who is moving forward and evolving, as it changes most of the lead actors. There is a lack of pace to the story, but all shows of this era suffered in the same way. With the introduction of more of The Doctor's people, there are also many new avenues to explore opened up here, and The Time Meddler will rightly be remembered well for this. Rating:  |