Day 41 — February 10th 2021
A Battle of Wits and Checkmate
A Battle of Wits (The Time Meddler — Episode Three)
‘Surprisingly little Hartnell,’ I’ve written in my notes for this episode, because in the first half, I honestly wondered if he was still on holiday. He shows up in a single scene back in the village, and we spend most of our time with the other characters. The Episode swings around in the latter half, though, with Hartnell getting some real chances to shine against Peter Butterworth as the Monk.
It’s a new dynamic for the series — Doctor Who actively going off to confront the enemy and tell them to stop what they’re doing. We get shades of it in The Rescue, but somehow this confrontation feels more powerful. It could just be that the two actors work fantastically well together, or it could be that Douglas Camfield’s direction makes all the difference.
Hartnell’s proper arrival in the scene — ‘My dear man, you had me quite worried. I thought you were never coming in.’ — is brilliant, and I sort of wish that it was the first we’d seen of him since Episode One. It’s a really triumphant ‘hero’ moment, and it works well as it is, but imagine if it’s his big reveal after an episode and a half of being missing!
Of course the big thing that everyone says about today’s episode is how brilliant the cliffhanger is — and it really is. It’s somewhat diluted, watching in 2021 as Doctor Who fan, because I know that the Monk has a TARDIS. I can only imagine how brilliant it must have been for the audience in 1965, because it’s a really big shift in the status quo for the series. Until now we’ve only really known of the TARDIS as something that Doctor Who built himsef. Even in The Chase there’s a line implying that he built the ship (although you can retroactively read it to mean he built a specific part of the ship), and now all of a sudden there’s another one out there! Doctor Who isn’t unique in the universe!
I’d never noticed before that this comes right off the back of discovering that other people can time travel in the previous story. We’ve just seen the Daleks running about through history, so perhaps its not as big of a surprise as I’ve always thought it was.
And something else I’ve wondered this time is if kids in 1965 actually realised that this was another TARDIS. That’s certainly the implication given by the dialogue;
Vicki: It’s a Tardis. The Monk’s got a Tardis!
But I’d never spotted before that this episode also sets up the mystery that the regular TARDIS has gone missing. The tide has come in since they parked on the beach, meaning that when Vicki and Steven look over the cliff they can’t see the TARDIS any more. They wonder if it’s been washed out to sea, or if Doctor Who might have even left already.
So when they find a TARDIS at the monastery, did people realise that it was a different ship, or did they simply assume the Monk had taken Doctor Who’s TARDIS, and fixed the Chameleon Circuit? Next episode we’ll get a number of little details to set this Control Room apart from the regular one, but here we only get the doors.
Either way, it is a great cliffhanger, and it holds up well all this time later. It’s another example of why I’m glad Ian and Barbara left when they did — as far as they know there’s only one TARDIS in the universe, and that’s it. I can’t deny that it would have been exciting to see their reaction to finding this one here, but I’m glad that they never got the chance.
8/10
Checkmate (The Time Meddler — Episode Four)
There’s something really interesting about watching our heroes puzzle over the effects of their actions on history. As Steven puts it; ‘there’s more to this time travelling than meets the eye’.
It’s a topic that we’ve dealt with on a few occasions already; with Barbara in The Aztecs, and the futility of their presence in The Reign of Terror, but this is the first time we’ve ever had any discussion of what might happen if history does get altered. The stance up to now has seemingly been that you simply can’t change history. It’s not that you mustn’t, or that there are laws forbidding you from doing so, it’s that however hard you try you simply wouldn’t be able to.
Here, though, history is presented as something which is supposed to happen in a certain way, but can be altered with a relative amount of ease. Even more interesting is the hint that the Monk has already succeeded in altering established history, by crediting Leonardo Da Vinci’s flying machine concepts to his meddling. It’s a bold new approach to the series, and one that carries real impact here. Part of me worries that it spells the end of the ‘proper’ historical adventures, although I know there’s a few more to come yet. In many ways, this episode sets the template for the way the programme will handle the past in the future — by chucking anachronisms at it and letting Doctor Who set things right.
There’s not a great deal else I can say here except to reiterate the praise I’ve heaped on this serial in the other three episodes. The performances, sets and direction all continue to be fantastic, and easily help to carry this story to being my highest rated of Season Two. Indeed, it’s second only to The Aztecs overall so far.
This particular episode takes a dip down to a 7/10 simply because after three solid episodes things seem to wrap up a little quickly and easily for my liking. Stealing the Dimensional Unit to maroon the Monk in 1066 is a fun way to finish things up, but unless I’m misremembering he’s already gotten his atomic weapons out of the TARDIS, so there’s nothing to stop him from continuing with his plan. Doctor Who and his friends seem to think that leaving him here is a solution enough, and I’m not sure they thought it through!
The second season has been a bit of a struggle, I’ve got to admit. I always knew it was my least favourite of the Hartnell seasons, but I don’t think I’ve ever been as negative towards it as I have on this marathon. It’s a shame, because I feel like there’s a lot of great ideas in there which just haven’t quite worked for me. But I’m glad to have reached the end, and I’m looking forward to heading into Season Three, where hopefully I’ll find a lot more to enjoy.
