325 The Time Monster Episode Two

EPISODE: The Time Monster: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 325
STORY NUMBER: 064
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 27 May 1972
WRITER: Robert Sloman
DIRECTOR: Paul Bernard
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Myths & Legends: The Time Monster, Underworld & The Horns of the Nimon
EPISODE FORMAT: 525 video RSC

"Well, there's only one thing I know which makes people old. Anno Domini, Doctor. Age, the passing of time!"

The Newton Institute Bell tolls slowly as the Doctor, and an immobilised Jo arrive. The Doctor tries to cut the power & reverse the Temporal Polarity to halt the experiment. Stuart Hyde has been aged from 25 to 80. He realises Thascales is the Greek for Master and that his old foe is involved. Stuart cries out the name Kronos. The Doctor investigates the TOMTIT machine while the Brigadier summons Captain Yates, some men and the Tardis for the Doctor. The Brigadier tells Jo, Benton & Ruth about the Kronovores who leave outside time one of which is Kronos, linking it to ancient Atlantis. The Doctor finds the Master's Tardis disguised as a computer bank. The Doctor reconnects the power and deduces their crystal is linked to the original trident crystal in Atlantis millennia before. The Master attempts to distract Sergeant Benton by impersonating the Brigadier on the phone. However he makes an error, calling Benton "my dear fellow" which allows the Sergeant to capture him. However the Master overpowers him and uses TOMTIT to bring the high priest from ancient Atlantis to the present day....

Hurrah yet another Reversed Polarity as the Doctor saves the day at the start of the episode!

DOCTOR: Cut the power!
RUTH: I can't. It won't budge!
DOCTOR: Then reverse the polarity!
RUTH: What?
DOCTOR: Reverse the temporal polarity!
BRIGADIER: Is it safe to go in?
RUTH: No, wait.
COOK: What is all this about?
BRIGADIER: Oh, for heaven's sake. There's a man in there.
RUTH: Right, the level should be all right now.

BRIGADIER: Doctor.
RUTH: Stuart!
COOK: If this meant to be some kind of a joke.
PERCIVAL: What on earth is going on?
DOCTOR: Who is this?
RUTH: My assistant. But Stuart's only twenty five.
DOCTOR: Twenty five? This man's eighty or more.

The Brigadier has a good episode, although he's only in it briefly. First he provides the answer for what's happened to Stuart Hyde:

BRIGADIER: How is he?
DOCTOR: Well, what he needs at the moment is rest. We'll get him to the hospital later. He must have been a pretty tough youngster.
RUTH: He was.
DOCTOR: Well, lucky for him. Otherwise the shock of the change would have finished him off.
JO: But will he be all right?
DOCTOR: Yes, he'll survive.
RUTH: Yes, but how long for, Doctor? He's an old man.
BRIGADIER: What caused it, Doctor, some sort of radioactivity?
DOCTOR: No, it was more than that.
JO: A change in metabolism?
DOCTOR: Well, that's more like it, Jo, but it still isn't the answer, even if the metabolic rate had increased a hundredfold.
RUTH: That's impossible.
DOCTOR: Well, of course it is. Even if it wasn't, the change in him would have taken seven or eight months, not eight seconds.
BRIGADIER: Well, there's only one thing I know which makes people old.
DOCTOR: And that is?
BRIGADIER: Anno Domini, Doctor. Age, the passing of time.
RUTH: We all know that.
DOCTOR: Congratulations, Brigadier. I think you've provided the explanation.
BRIGADIER: Well, glad to be of service. What did I say?
DOCTOR: The passing of time. That's the only possible answer. Stuart's own personal time speeded up so enormously that his whole physiological life passed by in a moment. But why? How did it happen?
RUTH: Well, the Professor might know but he seems to have disappeared.
JO: What professor?
RUTH: Professor Thascales. TOM-TIT's his baby.
DOCTOR: Thascales. Really, the arrogance of that man is beyond belief.
BRIGADIER: Well, whose arrogance? Doctor, I wish you wouldn't talk in riddles.
DOCTOR: Perhaps a classical education would have helped you, Brigadier. Thascales is a Greek word.
JO: Thascales? I get it. Thascales is Greek for Master.
DOCTOR: Right, Jo.

We've got another Dæmons reference there as the Doctor reveals that Thascales is Greek for Master, just as the Master used Magister, the Latin for Master as his pseudonym in the previous story.

Of course at this point The Brigadier just has Sergeant Benton with him. Time to summon some reinforcements and things that go bang!

YATES: Newton Institute Wootton. Got that, sir. Over.
BRIGADIER: Get two sections over here right away. Over.
YATES: Say again, sir. I didn't quite get that. Over.
BRIGADIER: I said, bring some men with you. I feel as naked as a babe in his bath. I'll want light and heavy machine guns. Oh, and Yates? Shove a couple of anti-tank guns in the boot, will you? Over.

YATES: You've got tanks there, sir? Over.
BRIGADIER: You never know, Captain. You never know. Over.
YATES: Right, sir, and, er, when, sir? I mean, how soon? Over.
BRIGADIER: Oh, the usual, Captain Yates. About ten minutes ago. Oh, Yates? The Doctor wants you to bring his Tardis with you. All right? Over.
YATES: Right, sir. Out.

And then to get rid of any civilians that might get in the way:

COOK: I'm sorry, Charles, but the whole thing smells of bad fish. We'll be well out of it.
PERCIVAL: But I'd stake my reputation on the professor's integrity.
COOK: You already have, Charles. You already have. A foolish gamble gone wrong. Now, it's not surprising that you lost.
PERCIVAL: Please, Humphrey!
COOK: I can see no alternative to a full Whitehall inquiry. I can only hope that we don't have to parade our dirty linen at Westminster, not to mention Brussels.
BRIGADIER: Forgive me. Mister Cook?
COOK: Doctor Cook.
BRIGADIER: I'm so sorry. Doctor Cook. I couldn't help overhearing what you said.

COOK: Well?
BRIGADIER: This affair's no longer in your hands, sir.
COOK: I beg your pardon?
BRIGADIER: It's now a security matter. I've taken over.
COOK: You have no right.
BRIGADIER: I'm sorry, sir, I've every right. Subsection 3A of the preamble to the Seventh Enabling Act. Paragraph 24G, if I remember rightly.
COOK: Oh.
BRIGADIER: So, bearing in mind the Official Secrets Act as well, you'll please make certain that you say not a word about today's events to anybody. Either of you.
PROCTOR: That's all very well, but
COOK: Be quiet, Proctor. You can't possible have sufficient grounds for such high-handed behaviour.
BRIGADIER: This man, Thascales, is a dangerous criminal and an escaped prisoner. Sufficient grounds?
COOK: Oh, well, er, yes. Come along, Proctor, don't stand about. You'll be hearing from us, Charles.
BRIGADIER: Oh, excuse me, sir. Doctor Percival?
PERCIVAL: Yes? What?
BRIGADIER: You feeling quite well, sir?
PERCIVAL: Yes, yes, of course I am. Oh, this whole matter is a shock, but. What did you want?
BRIGADIER: I'd like this whole place evacuated of all but essential personnel at once, please.
PERCIVAL: I can't think, Brigadier, you have the slightest idea of what you're asking. There are projects in train
BRIGADIER: I'm sorry, sir, but it's absolutely necessary. Now Sergeant Benton will keep an eye on this machine of yours until the troops arrive, but I cannot be held responsible for the consequences unless you do as I ask.
PERCIVAL: Brigadier, you may enjoy playing at soldiers
BRIGADIER: By three o'clock, please, Doctor Percival. And if the Master contacts you, don't try to hold onto him. Just let me know at once.
PERCIVAL: Who?
BRIGADIER: I'm sorry. Of course, I mean the Professor.
PERCIVAL: But he'll be miles away by now.
BRIGADIER: I doubt it. There's no reason why he should know we're onto him. He'll be back.

Last episode I linked the Trident shaped crystal with the Greek god Poseidon, who is frequently pictured with a trident, and here that link is made clear: The crystal is something that is controlling/imprisoning Kronos.

DOCTOR: The crystal of Kronos. So I am right.
RUTH: Kronos? Well, that's what Stuart said. Look, Doctor, what is all this about?
DOCTOR: Well, it'll be difficult to accept, I warn you.
RUTH: Well, try me.
DOCTOR: Well, luckily you are already familiar with the idea of stepping outside of space-time.
RUTH: I've lived with the concept for months.
DOCTOR: And I've lived with it for many long years. I've been there.
RUTH: You have?
DOCTOR: Yes, I have. Strange place it is, too. A place that is no place. A dangerous place where creatures love beyond your wildest imagination. Kronovores, time eaters. They swallow a life as quickly as a boa constrictor can swallow a rabbit, fur and all.
RUTH: Are you saying that Kronos is one of these creatures?
DOCTOR: I am. The most fearsome of the lot.
RUTH: But Kronos was a Greek legend. He was the Titan who ate his children, wasn't he?
DOCTOR: Yes, exactly. And what's more, one of those children in the legend was Poseidon, the god of Atlantis.
RUTH: Are you trying to tell us that the classical gods are real?
DOCTOR: Well, yes and no. Extraordinary people, the Atlanteans, you know. Even more extraordinary than their cousins in Athens. Once reality became unbearable for them, they would invent a legend to tame it.
RUTH: You mean like the legend of Kronos.
DOCTOR: Quite so. Kronos, a living creature, was drawn at a time by the priests of Atlantis, using that crystal as its centre.
RUTH: You mean, that that crystal is the original? The actual crystal from Atlantis?
DOCTOR: It is, and your friend the professor, is trying to use that crystal, as it was used four thousand years ago, to capture the Kronavore.
RUTH: So that's what you meant when you talked of terrible danger.
BENTON: Danger to us, you mean, Doctor, or to the whole world?
DOCTOR: Not just danger to our world, Sergeant, or even our galaxy, but to the entire created universe!

Wanda Moore plays Dr. Ruth Ingram. Her character is an early representation in the series of Women's Liberation , a theme which will be explored a lot more with Jo Grant's successor as companion. I can't help feeling how nice it would have been to have had Caroline John's Liz Shaw character returning to fill this role!

Her research assistant Stuart Hyde is played by Ian Collier, in both his younger and aged incarnations. Collier returns much later under a mask as Omega in Arc of Infinity. He can also be seen in The Sweeney as Logan in The Bigger They Are, the second episode of Rentaghost where he plays Maltby, Hi-de-Hi! where he was Inspector Sutcliffe in It's a Blue World and worked with Fifth Doctor Peter Davison in the Holding the Fort episode A Place in the Sun, where he played Simon Dickens, just prior to his Arc of Infinity appearance. After that he's in the 1985 Are You Being Served? The Hold Up as a Policeman, Colin's Sandwich as the Doctor in Enough and Agatha Christie's Poirot ads the Sergeant in The Adventure of the Western Star. His All Creatures Great and Small episode, Old Dogs, New Tricks, where he plays Henry Clintock, is one of the ones not featuring Peter Davison but is written by Arc of Infinity's Johnny Byrne. In House of Cards he's the the Man at Clinic in the third episode and in Jeeves and Wooster he plays Seppings in Arrested in a Night Club (or, the Delayed Arrival).

Dr. Percival, the head of the Newton institute is played by John Wyse. I've not seen a single other thing on his CV and of the typical 60s action shows, like The Avengers, that many actors of his age appeared in the only one that stands out is an episode of Danger Man!

Neville Barber, here as Dr. Cook, is later Howard Baker in K9 & Company: A Girl's Best Friend. He later appears in The Tomorrow People as Dr. Stewart in The Slaves of Jedikiah, The Professionals as the Inspector in an Without a Past and in Edge of Darkness as the TV Presenter in Burden of Proof.

Barry Ashton, Dr Percivl's assistant Proctor, has previous Doctor Who form as a Highlander in Jail in The Highlanders, Scientist Franz Shultz in The Moonbase, the Double for the Doctor’s Hand and The Policeman in the Antique Shop in The Evil of the Daleks, an Auton in Spearhead from Space, a UNIT Soldier in The Silurians, and a Technician in Inferno. He will return as Kemp in Frontier in Space, also directed by Paul Bernard who helms this story. He'd been in Out of the Unknown as Frank in The Counterfeit Man, which you can see on the Out of the Unknown DVD Set, Doomwatch as man in You Killed Toby Wren and The Inquest, both of which are on The Doomwatch DVD

MASTER: Good.
PERCIVAL: You've finished?
MASTER: Yes, at last. Now, back to the laboratory.
PERCIVAL: Yes, well, they'll have somebody on guard.
MASTER: Oh, yes. You don't happen to know who it is, do you?
PERCIVAL: Yes, a Sergeant Benton, I think.
MASTER: Really? Well, I think I know how to deal with him.

Sergeant Benton gets a bit to do in this episode which is always good to see.

BENTON: Hello?
PERCIVAL: Hello. Is that Sergeant Benton?
BENTON: Yes.
PERCIVAL: This is the director. The Brigadier wishes to see you back at the house.
BENTON: But I don't get it. The Brigadier wants me back at the house?
PERCIVAL: Yes, that's right. At once.
BENTON: Yes, but that means leaving the lab unwatched.
PERCIVAL: Oh, but he said to be sure to lock up. Those were his very words.
BENTON: I don't know, Doctor Percival. I mean, you've put me in a bit of a spot. The Brigadier told me to stay here no matter what happened. He'll have my stripes if I don't.
PERCIVAL: One minute.
MASTER: What's the matter?
PERCIVAL: I don't think he believes me.
MASTER: I'm not surprised. I've never seen a more inept performance. Look, tell him to ring the Brigadier for confirmation.
PERCIVAL: But you can't
MASTER: Do as I tell you!
PERCIVAL: Sergeant Benton? I suggest you check with Brigadier Stewart yourself. Er, oh, you want his number? Er.
PERCIVAL: Oh yes, I think you can contact him on five three four. Yeah. Yes, that's right.

The Master's impression of the Brigadier is rather good.... but you'd expect that since it's Nicholas Courtney supplying the voice rather than Roger Delgado! Nevertheless it's an interesting skill for it to be revealed the Master has!

MASTER: Lethbridge Stewart?
BENTON: Hello, Sergeant Benton here, sir.
MASTER: Ah, Benton.
BENTON: Sir, I've just had the most peculiar phone call.

MASTER: Nothing peculiar about it, my dear fellow. Perfectly simple. I need you over here, on the double.
BENTON: Right, sir.
MASTER: Well?
PERCIVAL: No sign of him. Do you think he really will. Ah, there he is.
PERCIVAL: It worked! It really worked!
MASTER: Of course it worked.

However he's made rather a crucial mistake which Benton has seen through, and resourcefully doubled back on himself climbing back in an opening upper story window to gain unobserved reentry to the lab:

That then allows him to ambush The Master. Unfortunately it's also where Benton makes his crucial mistake!

BENTON: Put your hands in the air, both of you. Get them up. Now turn around slowly. Slowly.
MASTER: Well, well, well. The resourceful Sergeant Benton.
BENTON: You didn't really think you could fool me with a fake telephone call, did you? It's the oldest trick in the book.
MASTER: I underestimated you, Sergeant. How did you know?
BENTON: Simple. The Brigadier's not in the habit of calling Sergeants my dear fellow.
MASTER: Ah. The tribal taboos of army etiquette. I find it difficult to identify with such primitive absurdities.
BENTON: Yes, well, primitive or not, mate, you're still in the soup without a ladle, aren't you?
MASTER: Now, Sergeant, you must let me explain.
BENTON: Keep back! Keep back.
MASTER: Yes, of course.
BENTON: Keep back.
MASTER: Of course, Sergeant. You see, Sergeant Benton, the whole point is that. Doctor! What a very timely
(Benton looks behind him and the Master grabs his gun arm, making him drop the pistol and throwing him to the floor. Benton hits his head against a filing cabinet and is out for the count.)
MASTER: You're wrong, Sergeant Benton. That is the oldest trick in the book.

All this Benton action gives us a John Levene solo commentary for this episode. Levene has previously appeared commentating by himself on the Doctor Who: Inferno DVD, which also includes a feature on the actor with Toby Hadoke, and he's back for more commentary on an episode or two in The Invasion of the Dinosaurs in the UNIT Files Box Set. To say that Mr Levene comes across as eccentric on these commentaries is a little bit of understatement.... have a listen and find out!