Things I've Learnt from Watching My Favourite Doctor Who Stories: Part 20 - The Time Meddler

20: The Time Meddler

I know what a space helmet for a cow looks like! 

I'm writing this blog entry in the same week that Joe Ford releases his Hamster with a Blunt Penknife podcast on this story that I recorded with him, as well as the premiere of the Tales of the TARDIS vignettes, one of which features actors Peter Purves and Maureen O'Brien recreating their roles near sixty years after they made this story. And now I have to write about it as well! 

But that's OK, because it is a great little story, and one that changes the future of the direction the series took back in 1965. It introduced the concept of the pseudo historical, a buzzword that fans have used for those stories set in the past with a science fiction element in them.

This features Peter Butterworth playing the Monk, a time meddler intent on changing history for what he considers the better. Butterworth has a wonderfully expressive face, which was am actors dream and he even looks a little sinister on the first episode. Well, I sure he's meant to be sinister but of course in retrospect, after years of seeing him in the Carry On movies, we know Butterworth so well, this sinister quality is a little diluted. We've come to think of him as a funny character, but as the Doctor puts it, he's utterly irresponsible and clearly not worried about wiping out a fleet of invading vikings with an atomic cannon... 

I'm writing about favourite stories, not what is regarded as best of course, and in the recent Doctor Who Magazine poll, The Time Meddler came second to the Dalek Invasion of Earth, which is way down this list at no.53. Both are hugely influential stories when you consider the future of the series but there's a bleakness to the Dalek Invasion of Earth that's absent here. 

I've often wondered (and referred to this question in the podcast) why did they choose this one to repeat in 1992? I have a theory... 

This has everything you'd expect from the early years of Doctor Who; William Hartnell of course with Maureen O'Brien as Vicki, and newcomer Peter Purves joining as Steven. Fans often wax lyrical about their favourite Doctor/Companion combinations and I think these three together are hugely underrated, probably because they only had three stories together before Maureen's dismissal after the Myth Makers. I love that Vicki is now the seasoned time traveller and Steven the novice despite his space Pilot background. I imagine many viewers were nodding when Vicki implores Steven "will you listen to me for once?"

Also, with Ian and Barbara back in (all together now!) "London 1965!" Hartnell's Doctor - despite being on holiday for episode two - is now fully centre stage with younger companions, who will gradually be seen in a more supporting role over the next few years. William Russell and Jacqueline Hill were just as much the stars in the early days as Hartnell was. But now with younger co-stars, who can (and unfortunately will!) be dropped from the series pretty quickly, the Doctor now is the sole star of the show, a format that continues up until the series returned in 2005. This story therefore would be more in keeping with the general public's memory of the show, with the Doctor over his companions in less prominent roles. 

Dennis Spooner, outgoing script editor and writer of this writes the regulars very well and his innovative mix of history and science fiction is one that the series will return to again and again from Terileptils causing the Great Fire of London to Cybermen inspiring Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It's also a very funny script, Spooner in his early career had written jokes for comedian Harry Worth and would also write the bizarre episode of the Avengers "Look, stop me if you've heard it before, but there were these two Fellers..."

It's also got one of the classic series' best directors Douglas Camfield at the helm and although this historical story lacks the grit and action of his later instalments, it's tightly directed with the wonderful innovation of the back screen effect with the clouds. A simple effect, they rarely used again.

So I've chosen this as it features a wonderful TARDIS team, a great director and writer, plus Peter Butterworth. Sheer poetry dear boy, sheer poetry!

Next Time : You can't change the past but you can learn from it!