The Time Monster - Episode 1

The Time Monster is the final story of the ninth season and it’s the return of an earth based story but more worringly, it’s another six part story and whilst I didn’t enjoy the previous six parter and still not sold on six parters I am still prepared to give this story the benefit of the doubt. It’s one of the last third Doctor stories that I ever saw and it’s the one that I haven’t been able to make my mind up really. I’m going to start with my stat bit. This is Katy Manning’s 46^th episode, she is now tied with Peter Purves and by the end of this story will be the joint 4^th longest serving companion. This is the first time that we have seen Nicholas Courtney since episode 4 of ‘Day of the Daleks’. This is also his 65^th episode which if he were what I would call a traditional companion would put him in fourth place. It’s good to have Courtney back

It takes just three minutes for Roger Delgado to return. He has well and truly into The Newton Institute. Delgado has now appeared in 28 episodes in just two seasons. Less than five minutes in he has hypnotised someone and seems to be making up for lost time. There is a bit where he is operating the machine whilst trying to avoid being noticed by Benton and the Brigadier. It seems rather silly really

Stuart and Ruth are two scientists that are working for the Doctor. It’s revealed quite later on in the episode that they are brother and sister. Ruth is someone who doesn’t like being talked down to by the Master and is quite the feminist which is a character trait that would have been fairly common in 1970’s drama. Stuart seems like a nice if slightly less feisty version of Ruth. He does get the best line in the episode where he says the line about the good ship womens lib (and all who sail in her). Apart from these two the supporting performances (apart from the Brigadier, Mike and Benton) were pretty average.

The acronym TOMTIT might have been fine in 1972 but I can’t say it without a snigger. It’s going to be a problem for the rest of this story. The actual principle of it is what makes it more than a snigger. Despite not being a big fan of this story, I feel quite good about the next five episodes. I don’t quite know why, it could be just because I found ‘The Mutants’ to be such a terrible experience that I am just happy to have gotten past it or it might be because the Master and the Brigadier are back so it feels like I’ve got a new enjoyment in this marathon and despite this being a rather normal opening episode, I am really looking forward to this final story.