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?We'll meet this Monk in Planet of Spiders where he's played by George Cormack, who appears as King Dalios in this story.....
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.
..... and at that precise moment King Dalios gets shoved into their cell!
DOCTOR: Dalios! 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!
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.
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?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!
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!
JO: Doctor? Doctor?At which point the Master makes a break for it, just like in The Daemons again, only here he does get away!
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.
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.
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