The Time Monster - Episode 2

After being enthralled with the opening episode and finding it a lot of fun I must admit that I don’t feel as much warmth to this episode. That’s not to say that it’s a terrible episode by any means but something’s changed between the end of the previous episode and todays episode. Not sure if I will ever know but that’s not really important. Let’s just be grateful that this isn’t ‘The Mutants’. The main point of interest seems to be the fact that Stuart has been turned into an old man. It’s not the greatest make up and I might be somewhat cruel as I am comparing it to the old man make up used on David Tennant in ‘Last of the Timelords’.

The interaction between the Master and Doctor Percival. The thing that I like about it is that the Master really treats Percival with contempt. He even comments about not having someone as easy to control as Percival for quite sometime. After Stuart is aged horribly, he doesn’t get to do much apart from stay in bed and that means that Jo becomes nurse and has to stay by his side which is another disappointing episode for her.

I like the moment when Roger Delgado does a good job of miming to Nicholas Courtney’s voice. This is used to convince Benton to leave the lab unattended and I like how Benton actually gets to use his intelligence as he manages to pretend that he has left but just went around the building and came in from another window. Though he is somewhat undermined when he falls for a feeble trick from the Master.

The cliffhanger is rather good. It’s good because of the very last shot which is of Krasis looking very serious which works rather well and leaves a good image in my mind. Despite not a lot happening, I found this episode to fly by at a rate that I haven’t expected for quite some time. I still think that this might not be the best story of the season by any means but I still think it’s a better story than I have given it credit for.