330 The Three Doctors: Episode One

EPISODE: The Three Doctors: Episode One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 330
STORY NUMBER: 065
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 30 December 1972
WRITER: Bob Baker & Dave Martin
DIRECTOR: Lennie Mayne
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 9.6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who Revisitations 3: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Three Doctors & The Robots of Death
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 video

"Oh, so you're my replacements - A dandy and a clown!"

For no obvious reason it had been a few years since I last saw the Three Doctors before I watched it this time for the blog....

At the Minsbridge Wildlife Sanctuary, Warden Arthur Ollis is guarding a crashed experimental balloon. Doctor Tyler arrives to collect his equipment, speaking to Mrs Ollis and waving at her husband as he parks. However there is a crackling and Mr Ollis vanishes before Doctor Tyler reaches him. A concerned Doctor Tyler calls UNIT. He explains to the Brigadier, Doctor & Jo what has happened and that his cosmic ray monitoring device has been producing odd results. He's left to develop the latest results but when he opens the box containing the device he vanishes and a glowing substance emerges. Coming out of the drains it attacks a returning Doctor & Jo, who've been to see the crash site & Mrs Ollis, causing Bessie to vanish. They shelter inside UNIT HQ. The Doctor finds the developed photographic plate from the device which Doctor Tyler had been working on. On it is a distorted picture of the missing Mr Ollis. The Doctor concludes that the thing is hunting him and has taken first Ollis, then Tyler and finally Bessie by mistake. Blobby clawed creatures appear and attack UNIT HQ. The Brigadier orders a withdrawal but Sergeant Benton is trapped in the lab with the Doctor & Jo when the original thing returns. They retreat into the Tardis. Trapped, the Doctor sends an SOS to the Time Lords..... The Time Lords, however, are suffering a massive power drain on their resources. Unable to help him directly they summon the Second Doctor. Our Doctor, the Third, hears a materialisation noise and finds a recorder moments before the Second Doctor appears, whom Sergeant Benton recognises from The Cyberman Invasion. The Third Doctor telepathically explains situation to the Second. They argue, and the Time Lords decide to send the First Doctor to supervise. He becomes trapped in the space time vortex but appears on the monitor screen advising them that the thing is a space time bridge and they should cross it. Tossing a coin to decide who gets to go, the Third doctor leaves the Tardis, pursued by Jo and they vanish.

There's some good stuff in here. It seems like it's a fairly standard Doctor Who story until the moment when the Second Doctor arrives and acts everyone else, his successor included, completely off the screen. There's an energy to him.

THIRD DOCTOR: That's odd. Nobody touched anything did they?
BENTON + JO: No.
THIRD DOCTOR: But you heard it though, didn't you?
JO: Yes, and felt it too. Could it be that stuff outside?
THIRD DOCTOR: No, I don't think so. Hello, what's this? It seems strangely familiar. Is it yours, Jo?
JO: A flute? No.
THIRD DOCTOR: Well, properly speaking it's a recorder.
SECOND DOCTOR: Thank you. I was wondering where that had got too. You haven't been trying to play this have you? Oh. I can see you've been doing the Tardis up a bit. Hmm. I don't like it!

A little sly reference there to this being the debut of the revamped Tardis set.... which actually takes it back to much closer it's original appearance than what we saw in The Time Monster!

SECOND DOCTOR: Oh my word. Oh dear, we are in trouble, aren't we. Just as well I turned up!
JO: Doctor, who on earth...
BENTON: Doctor! Where did you spring from?
SECOND DOCTOR: Now don't tell me. Corporal Benton, isn't it?
BENTON: Sergeant Benton now.
SECOND DOCTOR: How do you do, my dear fellow.
BENTON: Nice to see you.
SECOND DOCTOR: I haven't seen you since that nasty business with the Cybermen.
BENTON: It happened all those years ago.
JO: Who is he and how did he get in here.
THIRD DOCTOR: Well it's a bit difficult to explain, Jo.
JO: He's not one of them, is he?
THIRD DOCTOR: Well, not so much one of them as one of us. One of me to be precise.
SECOND DOCTOR: Oh no, no, no, no. I'm sorry, my dear, I hate to be contrary but I can see he's a little bit confused, poor old chap, and I do feel you should have the correct explanation. You don't mind, do you.
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes.
SECOND DOCTOR: I didn't think you would. You see, Jo. I may call you Jo, mayn't I? You see, he is one of me.
JO: Oh, I see. You're both Time Lords.
SECOND DOCTOR: Well quite. Well, not quite.
JO: Oh.
SECOND DOCTOR: Not, not just Time Lords. We're the same Time Lord.
THIRD DOCTOR: Now please, you're only confusing my assistant. Jo, it's all quite simple. I am he and he is me.
JO: "And we are all together, goo goo ga joob?"
DOCTORS: What?
JO: It's a song by the Beatles.
SECOND DOCTOR: Oh, how does it go?
THIRD DOCTOR: Oh, please be quiet.
JO: Look, is he really you?
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes, yes, I'm afraid so.
BENTON: I think he is Miss Grant. You see, when the Brig and I first met the Doctor, he looked like him.
JO: How?
THIRD DOCTOR: Yes, that's what I'd like to know. You've got no right to be here.
SECOND DOCTOR: Perhaps
THIRD DOCTOR: What about the First Law of Time?
SECOND DOCTOR: Perhaps I could explain?
THIRD DOCTOR: Perhaps you could.
SECOND DOCTOR: Well, our fellow Time Lords out there are just as much under siege as we are.
THIRD DOCTOR: What?
SECOND DOCTOR: And they couldn't send anyone to help you. But they did summon up enough temporal energy to lift me out of my bit of our time stream and pop me down here, into my own future, so to speak.
THIRD DOCTOR: Why?
SECOND DOCTOR: My dear fellow, you are being a bit dim, aren't you? Your effectiveness is now doubled!
THIRD DOCTOR: Halved, more like.
SECOND DOCTOR: Now, now. There's no need to be ungracious. Suppose we have a look at our problem, shall we? Er, you don't mind, do you?
THIRD DOCTOR: Oh, be my guest.
SECOND DOCTOR: Oh, thank you.

The Beatles song Jo quotes is I am the Walrus, released five years prior to this story but two years after the Beatles appearance in The Chase.

Then the First Doctor pops up, distant, removed but with a better grasp of the situation than either of his successors. Fabulous.

SECOND DOCTOR: Well, you've been fiddling with it, haven't you?
THIRD DOCTOR: It was perfectly all right until you touched it. Now if only you'd leave things to me.
SECOND DOCTOR: If we were to leave things with you, my dear fellow, we'd be in a fine pickle, wouldn't we.
THIRD DOCTOR: Look, you lost the image, not me.
BENTON: There they go again.
SECOND DOCTOR: I did not loose the image!
THIRD DOCTOR: I set this thing up
JO: Doctor, look. Both of you!
THIRD DOCTOR: What?
JO: Look.

FIRST DOCTOR: Ah, there you are. I seem to be stuck up here. Hmm? Hmm? Oh, so you're my replacements. Huh. A dandy and a clown. Have you done anything?
SECOND DOCTOR: Well, we've, er, assessed the situation.
FIRST DOCTOR: Just as I thought. Nothing.
THIRD DOCTOR: Well it's not easy, you know.
SECOND DOCTOR: It's not as if we know what that stuff is.
THIRD DOCTOR: No.
FIRST DOCTOR: Then I'll tell you. It's a time bridge.
SECOND DOCTOR: It's a what?
THIRD DOCTOR: I see.
FIRST DOCTOR: Now, what's a bridge for, eh?
SECOND DOCTOR: Well, er
THIRD DOCTOR: Crossing?
FIRST DOCTOR: Right. So stop dilly-dallying and cross it!

I saw this scene many many years ago on Blue Peter, in 1981 or earlier, and watched it trying to figure out which of the men I could see on screen was the Doctor.... Little did I know!

The Doctor's got a new lab in this story, replacing the old brick one, last seen in Day of the Daleks, and this seems likely connected to a move for UNIT HQ at some point.. The Unit headquarters we see here appears to be out in the country whereas the older one, seen during the first few Pertwee years might of been in central London. Both of the UNIT regulars in this story, Mike Yates being absent, get some fine stuff to do starting with the famous reaction from the Brigadier having realised the Doctor's just given a scientist he met five minutes previously the run of the place!

DOCTOR: Tell me, Professor, is this machine of yours functioning properly?
TYLER: Far as I can tell. Haven't developed that latest plate yet, of course.
DOCTOR: Then I suggest that you do so immediately and let me know the result of your findings. Jo, you and I are going to take a look at the scene of the crime.
JO: Right.
DOCTOR: I think you'll find everything you need here.
TYLER: Oh, right. Er, thanks Oh, I can manage now, thank you.
BRIGADIER: I'm delighted to hear it. Make yourself at home. We're only supposed to be a top secret security establishment. Liberty Hall, Doctor Tyler. Liberty Hall.

That's an odd fluff by Jon Pertwee in this episode: Everyone else refers to Tyler as Doctor Tyler yet he calls him by the more senior academic rank of Professor.

DOCTOR: Right, force field on.
JO: You were going off without me, weren't you?
DOCTOR: Well, Sergeant, aren't you going to say it that it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Everybody else does.
BENTON: It's pretty obvious, isn't it? Anyway, nothing to do with you surprises me anymore, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Oh, thank you for the complement.

Benton's reaction to the inside of the Tardis is fabulous though, refusing to say that it's bigger on the inside because it's obvious and nothing to do with the Doctor surprises him any more. Interestingly the Brigadier who hasn't been shown to go into the Tardis on the screen yet: His sergeant gets there first.

The story put about for several years was that the genesis for the Three Doctors came about when William Hartnell stuck his head round the Doctor Who production office door while looking for work at the BBC. In fact Barry Letts & Terrance Dicks had had many letters over the years wanting a multi Doctor team up so decided to celebrate the program's tenth anniversary by doing so. The anniversary itself was still nearly a year away but this was the start of the show's tenth season so..... They rang Hartnell at home and asked him to take part and he agreed. However his health wasn't good suffering from a condition called arteriosclerosis which limited what he could do. His wife rang Barry Letts, concerned at what her husband had agreed to do and the script was crafted accordingly. In the event Hartnell's appearances are limited to him appearing on the monitor screen where he's sat in a chair and reading his lines off of cue cards but somehow this ends a remote gravitas to his performance. He, Troughton & Pertwee are in the same place just once: for the publicity session and cover photograph for The Radio Times which are now believed top have been taken at Ealing Studios, probably on Monday 6th November 1972 when Hartnell's filmed inserts were shot along with a fight scene featuring Jon Pertwee for episode three. Barry Letts had learnt from his experience with the Terror of the Autons Radio Times cover, featuring Roger Delgado's Master in the middle which earned the show's star's wrath, and had a quiet word with the photographer placing Pertwee in the centre of the picture.

Of the guest cast in these episodes we'll assume you know who William Hartnell & Patrick Troughton are......

Rex Robinson, playing Doctor Tyler, will return as Gebek in The Monster of Peladon, and Dr. Carter, also in The Hand of Fear. All 3 of his appearances are directed by Lennie Mayne who evidently takes the Camfield/Letts approach to casting actors he knows and is comfortable working with! He was also in The Professionals as the Superintendent in Cry Wolf and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace as the Subway Engineer.

Rex Robinson is married to Patricia Prior who plays Mrs. Ollis!

They'd worked together several times before including on the Mickey Dunne episode No Flowers by Request where they play a Man & a Woman. This is once again directed by Lennie Mayne and also features Laurie Webb, who plays Mr. Ollis in The Three Doctors as Lennie Carson and John Scott Martin, one of this story's Gell Guards, as Sergeant Lowther! Robinson & Prior appear again together in the Mogul episode - Some of the Mud Is Bound to Stick, also directed by Mayne, as Roshida & the Secretary respectively - I see Hand of Fear's Renu Setna in the cast there. Robinson & Webb appear together in the Brett episode The Trump Card (director L Mayne!) as a Prisoner Officer and Senator Loman respectively - Our Time Lord President Roy Purcell is in that as is David Billa, a regular extra and UNIT soldier here! Robinson has a recurring role in Warship as Lieutenant Commander Junnion: he meets Webb in Hot Pursuit, where he plays a Customs Officer, and Prior in A Standing and Jumping War where she's Diana Bennett. No prizes for guessing who directed those episodes! Many years later Robinson & Prior make a final acting appearance together in One by One where they play Charlie & Elsie Gates in Changing Places. No Lennie Mayne there, but the series creator Anthony Read, episode writer Johnny Byrne and director Andrew Morgan all have Doctor Who form! You can hear Prior & Robinson interviewed together on Toby Hadoke's Who's Round #45

As we've said Laurie Webb plays Mr. Ollis. In addition to his collusions with Mayne, Robinson & Prior listed above he appears as the Dog Owner in the surviving Doomwatch episode The Inquest which you can see on the The Doomwatch DVD. Yes, it was directed by Lennie Mayne! You can hear him interviewed in Toby Hadoke's Who's Round #156

The speaking UNIT soldier in this story in Corporal Palmer played by Denys Palmer. Under him are a number of soldiers played by regular extras Pat Gorman, David Billa Leslie Bates, Terrance Denville, David Melbourne and Terry Sartain.

The majority of the locations used in this story feature in this episode with most found near Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire where filming took place between 7-9 November 1972.

Springwell Lock & Springwell Lake are seen on Doctor Tyler's journey to find his weather balloon and he talks with Mrs Ollis at Summerfield Bungalow.

The UNIT HQ scenes were filmed at Denham Manor on the 10th November 1972. The same location serves as UNIT HQ over ten years later for the Five Doctors, the 20th anniversary story.

This episode was repeated as part of the Five Faces of Doctor Who on Monday 23 November 1981 at 17:40. Immediately following that on BBC2 at 18:05 the fourth episode of series 2 of The Adventure Game aired. The guests for this episode were Tessa Hamp, Nerys Hughes & Derek Griffiths. Then on BBC One at 19:20 was the ninth episode of Blake's 7's fourth season Sand.

329 The Time Monster Episode Six

EPISODE: The Time Monster: Episode Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 329
STORY NUMBER: 064
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 24 June 1972
WRITER: Robert Sloman (and Barry Letts uncredited)
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Myths & Legends: The Time Monster, Underworld & The Horns of the Nimon
EPISODE FORMAT: 625 low band video colour restored using 525 ntsc video

"There's so little time. So little. I tell you the vision of a dying man. Atlantis was doomed. You are a true philosopher. The world must be, must be saved. And you are the one to do it. The only one!"

The Doctor rescues Jo from the Minotaur but returning to the surface they find Atlantis ruled by the Master who summons Kronos, destroying Atlantis. The Master takes Jo prisoner and flees in his Tardis, but the Doctor Time Rams it with his own Tardis to stop him escaping with the crystal to control Kronos. Kronos itself, now back in it's right mind and freed from the crystal's control, saves both Tardis and intends to punish the Master, but he manages to escape. The Doctor & Jo return to Earth where Stuart & Ruth unfreeze the Unit troops and return a now naked Sergeant Benton to adulthood.

Oh it's over. Thank the Lord!

First up we get an all too brief struggle with the Minotaur, complete with The Doctor waving his cape like a Spanish bullfighter!

The Doctor and Jo then spend most of this episode banged up in a cell with the Doctor telling twee stories about his youth!

DOCTOR: Any luck?
JO: Funnily enough, they didn't include Atlantean chains in my escapology course. No, it's no good. Doctor, what are we going to do?
DOCTOR: Well, we'll just have to play it by ear, won't we.
JO: What happens if the Master wins?
DOCTOR: Well, the whole of creation is very delicately balanced in cosmic terms, Jo. If the Master opens the floodgates of Kronos' power, all order and all structure will be swept away, and nothing will be left but chaos.
JO: Makes it seem so pointless really, doesn't it.
DOCTOR: I felt like that once when I was young. It was the blackest day of my life.
JO: Why?
DOCTOR: Ah, well, that's another story. I'll tell you about it one day. The point is, that day was not only my blackest, it was also my best.
JO: Well, what do you mean?
DOCTOR: Well, when I was a little boy, we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain. And behind our house, there sat under a tree an old man, a hermit, a monk. He'd lived under this tree for half his lifetime, so they said, and he'd learned the secret of life. So, when my black day came, I went and asked him to help me.
JO: And he told you the secret? Well, what was it?
DOCTOR: Well, I'm coming to that, Jo, in my own time. Ah, I'll never forget what it was like up there. All bleak and cold, it was. A few bare rocks with some weeds sprouting from them and some pathetic little patches of sludgy snow. It was just grey. Grey, grey, grey. Well, the tree the old man sat under, that was ancient and twisted and the old man himself was, he was as brittle and as dry as a leaf in the autumn.
JO: But what did he say?
DOCTOR: Nothing, not a word. He just sat there, silently, expressionless, and he listened whilst I poured out my troubles to him. I was too unhappy even for tears, I remember. And when I'd finished, he lifted a skeletal hand and he pointed. Do you know what he pointed at?
JO: No.
DOCTOR: A flower. One of those little weeds. Just like a daisy, it was. Well, I looked at it for a moment and suddenly I saw it through his eyes. It was simply glowing with life, like a perfectly cut jewel. And the colours? Well, the colours were deeper and richer than you could possibly imagine. Yes, that was the daisiest daisy I'd ever seen.
JO: And that was the secret of life? A daisy? Honestly, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Yes, I laughed too when I first heard it. So, later, I got up and I ran down that mountain and I found that the rocks weren't grey at all, but they were red, brown and purple and gold. And those pathetic little patches of sludgy snow, they were shining white. Shining white in the sunlight. You still frightened, Jo?
JO: No, not as much as I was.
DOCTOR: That's good. I'm sorry I brought you to Atlantis.
JO: I'm not.
DOCTOR: Thank you.

We'll meet this Monk in Planet of Spiders where he's played by George Cormack, who appears as King Dalios in this story.....

..... and at that precise moment King Dalios gets shoved into their cell!

DOCTOR: Dalios! Dalios!
DALIOS: Who would have thought it. My sweet Queen.
DOCTOR: Is the Master responsible for this?
DALIOS: Aye, but tis no matter. Come closer.
DOCTOR: What is it?
DALIOS: There's so little time. So little. I tell you the vision of a dying man. Atlantis was doomed. You are a true philosopher. The world must be, must be saved. And you are the one to do it. The only one. Who'd have thought it? My lovely Galleia.
DOCTOR: Dalios! We won't fail you, Dalios.

Now yes Dalios is hundreds of years old. But right up until he appears in the cell he seems to be in pretty robust health so for him to suddenly dies feels a little odd!

We then cut to the expected main event, Kronos going on a rampage and destroying Atlantis, which is what we've been expecting all story.

It's a little bit of a damp squib on screen, a bit of falling masonry and the blurry bird man fluttering around in mid air on a harness and Kirby wire but that does make it clear why stuntman Marc Boyle is playing Kronos. But there's no flood waters sinking the city and no volcanic eruptions like the first episode promised.

The major problem here is that Atlantis has been destroyed not once but twice in Doctor Who before in The Underwater Menace and The Daemons! The Underwater Menace presents little problem: we know that's set 1968 or later and we know the Atlanteans there are survivors of a post cataclysm Atlantis. From Underwater Menace episode 2:

ZAROFF: And so you see, my friend, it is all so simple. When Atlantis was submerged at the time of the flood, some life continued in air pockets in the mountain's caves, thanks to the natural air shaft provided by the extinct volcano.

However The Daemons presents more of a problem, where Azal claims to have destroyed Atlantis:

AZAL: I shall appear but once more, so be warned. There is danger. My race destroys its failures. Remember Atlantis!

Forgetting the Atlantis reference in The Daemons is especially unforgivable as this story's writers, Robert Sloman and the uncredited Barry Letts, had also written that story! I think therefore we must assume that following one catastrophe, and due to the lack of floods and volcanos we'll say Kronos' visit happened first, Atlantis rebuilt on the surface only to be sunk by Azal & The Daemons at a later date and the survivors from that founded the underground Atlantis seen in The Underwater Menace!

Post catastrophe we end up with more arguing between the Tardises which I'd had enough of in episode four!

MASTER: Doctor! Why, you must be as indestructible as that wretched Tardis of yours! And how exactly do you propose to sort me out?
DOCTOR: By making you see reason, and making you destroy that crystal.
MASTER: Oh? Why should I? I have my Tardis, I have Kronos and I have Miss Grant. Now, my reason tells me that I hold all the cards.
DOCTOR: Ah, but there's one card that you've forgotten.
MASTER: Oh?
DOCTOR: The trump card. I can stop you whenever I please.
MASTER: You are bluffing, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Am I? How about time ram?
MASTER: Time ram? You couldn't do it in that old crock.
DOCTOR: The two Tardis's are operating on the same frequency, and our controls are locked together. See for yourself.
MASTER: Stop!

DOCTOR: You know what'll happen if that control goes over the safety limit, don't you. Tell him, Jo.
JO: The two Tardis's occupy exactly the same space and time, and that means that you go
MASTER: I know very well what it means.
DOCTOR: Do you?
MASTER: Yes! Oblivion.
DOCTOR: Top of the class. Extinction, total annihilation, for you, the Tardis and the crystal.
MASTER: And for you and Miss Grant.
DOCTOR: Oh yes, of course. But by then, Kronos will be free, and the universe will be saved.
MASTER: Very well. Go ahead.
DOCTOR: What?
MASTER: Go ahead. Time ram!
JO: You can't be serious?
MASTER: Do you think I'm going to dance to the Doctor's tune like some performing poodle? Look, Doctor, you want to stop me? Try!
DOCTOR: Very well. Goodbye, Jo.
MASTER: Well? Why have you stopped?
DOCTOR: To give you one last chance.
MASTER: Nonsense! You can't bring yourself to destroy her. Now admit it! It's that fatal weakness of yours, Doctor. Pity, compassion. You know, for a moment there, you almost had me believing you.
JO: Don't listen to him, Doctor! Think of all those millions of people who'll die. Think of all those millions of people who'll never be born. Do it, Doctor, quickly!
DOCTOR: But Jo, there may be another way.
MASTER: Of course there is. The way to immeasurable glory!
JO: Goodbye, Doctor!
MASTER: No!
DOCTOR: Don't do it!
JO: Too late!
MASTER: No!

Yet another similarity with The Daemons as Jo sacrifices herself to save everything! This time however she's not saved by the monster going "does not compute" and exploding it's Kronos herself that saves them!

JO: Doctor? Doctor?
DOCTOR: Jo. Are you all right?
JO: I'm fine. Dead, of course, but I'm fine.
DOCTOR: Dead? What are you talking about? You're no more dead than I am.
JO: Well, that's just it. Well, I mean, that's what I mean. I mean, you're dead too, and so's the Master.
DOCTOR: And I suppose we're all in heaven?
JO: Yeah, or somewhere. Hey, come take a look. Come on. Groovy, isn't it?
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes, it's fascinating, but somehow I don't think we're in heaven.
JO: Well, where are we then?
DOCTOR: Well, that's just it. I don't know myself. You shouldn't have put us into time ram, Jo. In any case, I was just about to do it myself.
JO: Oh, really?
DOCTOR: Now look, Jo, I. No, not really...... Greetings.
KRONOS: Your courtesy is always so punctilious, Doctor.
DOCTOR: You know me?
KRONOS: Of old.
DOCTOR: Well, you must forgive me, but I can't quite place you.
KRONOS: I am Kronos.
JO: You? But you're a girl.
KRONOS: Shapes mean nothing.
JO: But a little while ago you were a raging monster and an evil destroyer.
KRONOS: I can be all things. A destroyer, a healer, a creator. I'm beyond good and evil as you know it.
DOCTOR: Where exactly are we?
KRONOS: On the boundary of your reality and mine. You brought yourselves here.
DOCTOR: Yes, the time ram.
KRONOS: At the moment of impact, I was released. That saved you and took you to the threshold of being.
DOCTOR: Well, what now?
KRONOS: I owe you a debt of gratitude nothing could repay. What would you wish?
JO: To go home.
DOCTOR: In the Tardis.
KRONOS: You shall.
DOCTOR: Thank you.
JO: But what about the Master?
KRONOS: He stays.
JO: And what will happen to him?
KRONOS: Torment, of course. The pain he has given so freely will be returned to him, in full.

MASTER: No! Doctor, please. Please help me. I can't bear it. Please, Doctor, please.
DOCTOR: Mighty Kronos, may I ask one last favour of you?
KRONOS: Name it.
DOCTOR: His life. His freedom.
KRONOS: He made a prisoner of me.
DOCTOR: Yes, I know. But would you allow us to deal with him in our way?
KRONOS: I do not understand you, but if that is your desire, so let it be.
MASTER: Thank you, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Don't thank me. You're coming back to Earth with us.
MASTER: Yes, of course.

At which point the Master makes a break for it, just like in The Daemons again, only here he does get away!

After which it's just mopping up the hanging plot points of the frozen in time Brigadier UNIT soldiers and Baby Benton from episode 4!

As per the last time I watched this story to write about it I found the end of the story, and indeed the later half of this season quite dreadful. Sorry, it's done nothing for me. As we've been saying, large chinks were ripped off from the Dæmons. I know the Time Monster was a replacement for an earlier storyline, Daleks in London, which was junked when Barry Letts & Terrance Dicks decided to use the Daleks in Day of the Daleks but still....

The Minotaur is played by Dave Prowse, famous as the body, but not the voice, of Darth Vader in Star Wars and as the Green Cross Code Man during the 70s. Another Green Cross Code film featuring the acronym SPLINK was hosted by Third Doctor Jon Pertwee!

Regular Stuntman Terry Walsh acts as the Stunt Double for the Minotaur having previously appeared as the Window Cleaner earlier in the serial

She only appears briefly but Ingrid Bower is the Face of Kronos in this episode.

I can't 100% work out where he's used but Valentino Musetti is the Stunt Double for Hippias in this episode, making his last appearance on the program. He had been a Sentry & Mongol Bandits in Marco Polo, a Saracen Warrior in The Crusade, an Egyptian Soldier in The Dalek Masterplan episodes 9 & 10, The Golden Death & Escape Switch, a Pirate in The Smugglers, a prisoner in Mind of Evil and a primitive & colonist in The Colony in Space. In Space: 1999 he is the Spirit Mateo in The Troubled Spirit and in The Professionals he plays Valerii in Kickback. He did stunt work on TV for Inspector Morse and also in the cinema working on The Italian Job, Superman II, An American Werewolf in London, Alien³ and the James Bond films Never Say Never Again, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill & Tomorrow Never Dies.

Although the end of the broadcast ninth season of Doctor Who, production of Doctor Who continued filming a serial for the tenth season, The Carnival of Monsters. The tenth recording block opened with The Master's return in Frontier in Space and then The Three Doctors, the anniversary story which would launch the 10th season and be seen before either of the two stories made before it.

Black & White film copies of all six episodes of the Time Monster were found in the BBC Enterprises holdings in 1978. Later, in 1981, colour 525 line NTSC broadcast video tapes of the entire series were returned from Canada in 1981. In 1987 it was discovered that the BBC held a "low band" (basically B&W) 625 line video tape on episode 6 of the Time Monster. Labelling indicated that it had been made 1st December 1972, almost certainly for training purposes. Using the same technique that had married B&W film with the colour from off air video tapes Restoration Team member Paul Vanezies built a new version of episode 6 matching the luminance from the BBC's 625 line b&2 tape with the chroma information from the NTSC 525 line tape to produce a new, near perfect, 625 line colour version. The DVD contains a short feature showing this restoration work and that performed on the rest of the serial.

The Time Monster was novelised by Terrance Dicks in 1986. I loved the book when I read it aged 13. It was released on Video in November 2001 as part of The Master tin with Colony in Space. It was released on DVD in March 2010 Doctor Who - Myths & Legends along with Underworld & The Horns of the Nimon, two other stories with ancient Greek influences.

Two day after this episode was broadcast Waiting for a Knighthood, the fourth episode of Doomwatch Season Three and the earliest episode of that season still to exist, was shown on BBC1.

328 The Time Monster Episode Five

EPISODE: The Time Monster: Episode Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 328
STORY NUMBER: 064
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 17 June 1972
WRITER: Robert Sloman
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Myths & Legends: The Time Monster, Underworld & The Horns of the Nimon
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Help me, Doctor. Help me to find a way to stop these evil men. Help me to save Atlantis from destruction!"

The Doctor telepathically contacts Jo and guides her on using the Tardis to retrieve him from the Time Vortex. The Master arrives at Atlantis and attempts to insinuate himself into the royal court. King Dalios dismisses him but Queen Galleia is taken with him. The Doctor & Jo also arrive in Atlantis and find favour with King Dalios. Jo is taken to Queen Galleia but observes her conspiring with the Master. High priest Krasis has her thrown into the vault under the temple where the Minotaur dwells protecting the crystal.

I'm despairing. This story is doing nothing for me and barely holding my attention. Awful.

The best thing in it is the look on The Master's face as he finds out The Doctor has survived being cast into the Space Time Vortex!

And it's nice to see someone resistant to the Master's charms and hypnosis:

DALIOS: But if the high priest saw fit to break a scared trust, you think that good reason for the king to follow?
MASTER: Your high priest saw the crystal in my hands. He saw Kronos himself, saw him dominated by me. Krasis knows that I am the Master of Kronos.
DALIOS: Krasis is but a slave at heart.
MASTER: Maybe, but he has come to learn that it is well to obey me.
DALIOS: You seek to make me fear you?
MASTER: Oh, not at all. But if you will but see, like Krasis, that I am indeed the Master of Kronos, then naturally you will obey me.
MASTER: You will obey me. You will obey me!
DALIOS: A very elementary technique of fascination. I'm too old a fish, too old in years and in the hidden ways to be caught in such a net. You are no emissary from the gods.
MASTER: But you saw
DALIOS: Tell me, then. What of great Poseidon? What did he have for breakfast? Fish, I suppose? And what of Zeus and Hera? What is the latest gossip from Olympus? Do tell me.
MASTER: I underestimated you, Dalios.
DALIOS: I'm no child to play with such painted dolls. Kronos is no god, no titan. I know that and so do you.
MASTER: The king is old in wisdom.
DALIOS: Now you try to flatter me. You'll pull a string and want to see me dance. You shall not have the crystal.
MASTER: I shall go now. I have nothing more to say to you.
DALIOS: You have said nothing to me yet. When you find the true words to speak, I will listen.

We're treated to The Master turning on the charm and romancing the Atlantean Queen Galleia while Jo & the Queen's servant Lakis eavesdrop outside. First time we've seen The Master encounter a powerful woman that he's used this technique to get round! He is laying it on a bit thick though!

GALLEIA: You're a man who knows what he wants, Lord Master.
MASTER: And takes it.
GALLEIA: You want the crystal?
MASTER: I am going to possess it.
GALLEIA: Not without my consent.
MASTER: Of course not. But I am confident that you will give it.
GALLEIA: Why should I help you?
MASTER: For the sake of Atlantis, Lady. Would you not see her restored to her former glory? Rich, powerful, magnificent among the nations of the world? Who would not be ruler of such a country?
GALLEIA: Nothing must happen to Dalios.
MASTER: Why should it? He will rule for many years, the beloved sovereign of a beloved prosperous people.
GALLEIA: But surely you would want to
MASTER: Well, purely because of Lord Dalios' great age, it might be well if he were relieved of some of the more onerous duties of kingship. But the reins of power, Lady Queen, should be in stronger hands. Hands such as yours.
GALLEIA: And yours?
MASTER: It would be a pleasure to serve you. And then, when the end comes for Dalios, as it must come for all men, then perhaps?
GALLEIA: The crystal shall be yours.

The Doctor meanwhile seeks consul with King Dalios and Dalios finds him much more agreeable than his previous visitor!

DALIOS: Kronos. Kronos. Kronos. I am the last alive who has known, who has seen, who remembers with a terror of twisted guts. And these fools would have me bring him back.
DOCTOR: Well, why didn't you destroy the crystal?
DALIOS: We tried and merely split the smaller crystal from it. It cannot be destroyed.
DOCTOR: Yes, of course. It's just like the Tardis. It has its being outside time and its appearance is here.
DALIOS: You are a philosopher, friend.
DOCTOR: Well, if wisdom is to seek the truth, I am, yes.
DALIOS: Then help me, Doctor. Help me to find a way to stop these evil men. Help me to save Atlantis from destruction!

The Atlantean king Dalios is played George Cormack who'll be back as K'anpo Rimpoche in Planet of the Spiders.

Famed Hammer Films star Ingrid Pitt plays Queen Galleia, in a costume that's barely keeping her cleavage under control. She'll be back some years later in Warriors of the Deep as Doctor Solow.

Her servant, Lakis, is played by Susan Penhaligon who is someone I know more as a name rather than her acting career.

Aidan Murphy plays young Atlantean Hippias. He'd been in UFO as the Room 22 Guard in The Psychobombs.

His friend Miseus, is played by Michael Walker who was a Radar Operator in The Claws of Axos

Derek Murcott, who plays Crito, was in The Tomorrow People as Major Longford in The Doomsday Men. He appears to have moved to the US in the mid/late 70s and I can see many familiar US series on his CV.

The credited guard is Melville Jones who'll return as a Cyberman in Revenge of the Cybermen. Three years into Pertwee and no Cybermen!

But there are lots of others and foremost among them is Nick Hobbs,. He'd previously been a Technician in The Ambassadors of Death, an RSF Sentry in Inferno, an Auton Daffodil Man in Terror of the Autons, an American Aide in The Mind of Evil, the Nuton Driver in The Claws of Axos, a U.N.I.T. Soldier in Day of the Daleks and Aggedor in The Curse of Peladon & The Monster of Peladon He returns as and a Wirrn Operator in The Ark in Space. In Space: 1999 he's a Security Guard in Space Warp while in Blake's 7 he plays a Hooded Figure in Cygnus Alpha before returning in New Doctor Who as Mr Nainby in Amy's Choice.

Laurie Goode was a Mutt in The Mutants, and returns as a Time Lord in The Invasion of Time, a Bandit in The Creature from the Pit, a Tigellan in Meglos, a Peasant in State of Decay, a Tharil in Warriors' Gate, a Sailor on the Shadow in Enlightenment, a Colonist in Frontios, a worker in Trial of a Timelord: Mysterious Planet and a British Unit Trooper in Battlefield. He's in Blake's 7 as a Hi-tech Patient in Powerplay, Survivors as a Looter in The Chosen and Star Cops as a Dealer in Little Green Men and Other Martians. He was also the Jogger in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a Pirate Rat in the The Box of Delights episode In Darkest Cellars Underneath and appears twice in The Sweeney as Laurie in Queen's Pawn and the Supermarket Manager in Trojan Bus.

Christopher Holmes had been a U.N.I.T. Soldier (uncredited in Day of the Daleks. He returns as a Miner in The Monster of Peladon, Muto in Genesis of the Daleks, Peasant villager/Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, Time Lord in Invasion of Time, Citizen in Full Circle, Plasmaton in Time Flight, Ambril’s Attendant in Snakedance, an Orderly in Frontios, a Person in street in Attack of the Cybermen, a native in Trial of a Time Lord 1-4: Mysterious Planet and a Genius. in Time and the Rani. In Blake's 7 he was a Federation Trooper in The Way Back, a Prisoner in Space Fall & Cygnus Alpha, a Mutoid in Duel & Project Avalon, a Star One Technician in Star One and a Hi-tech Patient in Powerplay

Andy Dempsey returns as Lugo's Warrior in The Face of Evil. In Blake's 7 he's a Hooded Figure in Cygnus Alpha and a Federation Trooper in Bounty. He appears in Space: 1999 as a Main Mission Operative in Force of Life, Collision Course, War Games, Death's Other Dominion, Voyager's Return, Alpha Child, Dragon's Domain, Mission of the Darians, Black Sun, Guardian of Piri, End of Eternity, Matter of Life and Death, Earthbound, The Full Circle, Another Time, Another Place, The Last Sunset, The Infernal Machine, Ring Around the Moon, Missing Link, Space Brain, The Troubled Spirit, The Testament of Arkadia and The Last Enemy.

Jamie Griffin returns as an Earth Guard in Frontier in Space and plays a Technician in the Moonbase 3 episode Behemoth. Richard Eden was in Day of the Daleks as a UNIT soldier and returns as an Astronaut in Planet of Evil. Geoffrey Morgan returns as a Wholewhealer/Guard in Green Death.

In amongst the Sedan Carriers we have Francis Williams who played the Master's Chauffeur Mind of Evil and was an African delegate in footage cut from the final program while Peter Johnson was a Saracen Warrior in Crusade and an Egyptian Soldier in Dalek Masterplan.

The Councillors feature Reg Lloyd, who was a Waxworks Visitors/Auton Replicas Spearhead from Space, Edmund Bailey, an Attendant at the waxworks museum in Spearhead from Space, Colin Cunningham, a a Passerby in Spearhead from Space and a Plague Victim in Doctor Who and the Silurians. Another Councillor, Bill Whitehead , returns as a Noble in Androids of Tara, a Logopolitan in Logopolis and a Villager in The Visitation.

Finally serving girl Alison Daumler was another plague victim in Doctor Who and the Silurians and on of the Daleks' Female Technicians in Day of the Daleks.

Two day after this episode was broadcast Say Knife, Fat Man, the third episode of Doomwatch Season Three, was shown on BBC1.

327 The Time Monster Episode Four

EPISODE: The Time Monster: Episode Four
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 327
STORY NUMBER: 064
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 10 June 1972
WRITER: Robert Sloman
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.6 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Myths & Legends: The Time Monster, Underworld & The Horns of the Nimon
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Oh come, Doctor, must we play games? I take it you have something to say to me before I destroy you?"

Yates & his men are injured by an explosion: a local farmer recalls a doodlebug exploding on the same spot in 1944. The Tardis is dragged out the mud by a tractor. The Doctor locks his Tardis onto the Master and dematerialises. The Doctor materialises round the Master's Tardis by accident, but also inside it. The Master uses the crystal to freeze the approaching Unit forces in time. Benton, Stuart & Ruth break into the lab holding the Master at gunpoint before he escapes fleeing into the Tardis and dematerialising. Discovering the frozen Unit troops they decide to turn the transmitter off but it doesn't unfreeze the troops. Trying to unfreeze the troops Stuart & Ruth accidentally regresses Benton to babyhood. The Doctor leaves his Tardis to talk to the Master who summons Kronos which consumes him taking him into the time vortex into which the Master casts the Doctor's Tardis containing Jo Grant.....

Deary Lord I'm struggling with this story. This episode in particular was dire. Lots of standing round talking when we could have just cut to the chase and gone straight to Atlantis. I know lots of people love the exchanges between the Master & the Doctor but I just found it juvenile and a waste of time as first the Master turns his speaker off, then the Doctor broadcasts his words and finally the Master does something using the crystal to scramble them!

And as for this exchange between Jo and The Doctor....

DOCTOR: If the thraskin puts his fingers in his ears, it is polite to shout. That's an old Venusian proverb.
JO: What's a thraskin?
DOCTOR: Thraskin? Oh, it's an archaic word, seldom used since the twenty fifth dynasty, the modern equivalent is plinge.
JO: What does plinge mean?
DOCTOR: Oh, for heaven's sake, Jo, I've just told you. It means thraskin.
JO: Oh, of course.

Pointless. Just wasting time.

Still it gives us a good look at the new Tardis set in both it's incarnations doubling as the Doctor & Master's Tardis.

They're shot using different doors at different ends of the set and with different Time Rotors in place: The Master's Tardis' Time Rotor looks uncannily like a chocolate fountain!

It's been described as the "Washing up bowl" Tardis set due to the three dimensional shape of the roundels and you can see why. One of the roundels holds the Tardis scanner screen, done using CSO, which features heavily in this episode. Unfortunately when the Doctor enters the Tardis you can see the brief woodland set, built outside for background, through the walls!

To me this set looks like the original Tardis set with the roundels taken out and replaced by the washing up bowls: I can see the panels on the outer edge of the doors added for the Master's Tardis in Colony in Space. This is the only appearance of this version of the Tardis set: it was damaged in storage and reportedly not used again. My suspicion is the roundels were replaced again and this is the set we see from The Three Doctors onwards. In particular the Master's Tardis doors resemble internal doors seen in Pyramids of Mars and the panels on the outside of the Doctor's Tardis doors persist for many years.

The "materialising a Tardis inside a Tardis" theme will be returned to many years later in Logopolis!

Things Philip learnt from this Doctor Who episode (albeit many years ago): What a Coccyx is:

JO: What's happening, Doctor?
DOCTOR: We're on our way, Jo. The Master's taken off for Atlantis.
JO: She's never behaved like this before.
DOCTOR: It's because the Tardis is operating out of phase, that's why.
DOCTOR: That's calmed her down a bit. She's very temperamental when she's roused, isn't she.
JO: You know, I never know whether you're joking or not, I, Ow. Oh, I think I've bruised my tailbone.
DOCTOR: Sorry about your coccyx, Jo, but these little things are sent to try us.
JO: My what?
DOCTOR: Coccyx. Your tailbone.
MASTER: I'm sorry about your coccyx too, Miss Grant. How very sociable of you both to drop in.

George Lee, who appears in this episode as a Farmworker, was in the opening third Doctor story the Spearhead from Space as Corporal Forbes, the soldier who sends the poacher on his way and is in charge of the party that shoot the Doctor. He can be seen in Blake's 7: Traitor as Igin as well as appearing in two Fawlty Towers episodes: The Builders as the Delivery Man and Communication Problems as Mr. Kerr.

Stuntman Marc Boyle plays Kronos. He'd been a UNIT Motorcyclist & a Policeman in The Ambassadors of Death, a Stuntmen playing UNIT Soldiers/Auton Daffodil Men/Technicians in Terror of the Autons, a Prisoner/Motor Cyclist/UNIT Soldier in Mind of Evil and a Castle Guard/Sailor/Sea Devil in The Sea Devils. He returns as one of Irongron’s Men in The Time Warrior, which he also helps Fight Arrange, and as an Exillon in Death to the Daleks. He appears in Superman II as a C.R.S. Man, The Professionals as Donatti in Kickback and The Living Daylights as a Blayden Grounds MI6 Man. He did stuntwork on Space: 1999 Space Brain, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi, The Italian Job, the James Bond films You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, Octopussy, Never Say Never Again & Licence to Kill, Superman & Superman III, An American Werewolf in London and Alien³

This episode is actually a significant milestone for the cast: It's the last episode with the entire "UNIT family" in. Captain Mike Yates, played by Richard Franklin, is absent from the rest of this story, his character being hospitalised following the doodlebug attack!

In fact it's not a good episode for the UNIT team all round as well as Yates' ending up in hospital, The Brigadier gets frozen in time and Benton is regressed to a baby!

While Roger Delgado's Master returns for one more appearance after this in Frontier in Space, UNIT do not feature in that story. In fact the last time they were all in the studio together was for recording of episodes 1 & 2, Franklin not being required for other studio blocks and only appearing on location during episodes 3 & 4.

Two day after this episode was broadcast High Mountain, the second episode of Doomwatch Season Three, was shown on BBC1.