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{{Rename|[[The Monk (The Time Meddler)]]. Justification for naming him the first incarnation was tenuous, and now sources have been found determining him to be the Monk's fourth incarnation.}} | |||
{{ImageLink|Butterworth Monk}} | {{ImageLink|Butterworth Monk}} | ||
{{Infobox Individual | {{Infobox Individual | ||
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|alias = {{csl|The Time Meddler|Robert Bertram}} | |alias = {{csl|The Time Meddler|Robert Bertram}} | ||
|affiliation = Celestial Intervention Agency | |affiliation = Celestial Intervention Agency | ||
|species = Time Lord | |||
|origin = [[Gallifrey]] | |origin = [[Gallifrey]] | ||
|first = The Time Meddler (TV story) | |first = The Time Meddler (TV story) | ||
|appearances = | |appearances = {{appears}} | ||
|actor = Peter Butterworth | |actor = Peter Butterworth | ||
|clip = A Surprise for the Monk - Doctor Who - The Time Meddler - BBC | |clip = A Surprise for the Monk - Doctor Who - The Time Meddler - BBC | ||
}} | }}{{Meddling Monks}}{{Mastertemplate}}{{Deca}} | ||
{{Meddling Monks}} | In his '''first incarnation''', ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Mutation of Time (novelisation)|The Mutation of Time]]'') '''Mortimus''', ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') often dubbed as '''"the Monk"''', ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') a time traveller of [[the Doctor]]'s own kind, who by most accounts was a [[renegade Time Lord|renegade]] [[Time Lord]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'', ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') adopted the name, or at least the ethos, of '''"the Time Meddler"'''. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story)|4-Dimensional Vistas]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[The King of Terror (novel)|The King of Terror]]'') | ||
In his '''first incarnation''', '''Mortimus''', ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') often dubbed as '''"the Monk"''', ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') a time traveller of [[the Doctor]]'s own kind, who by most accounts was a [[renegade Time Lord|renegade]] [[Time Lord]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'', ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') adopted the name, or at least the ethos, of '''"the Time Meddler"'''. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story)|4-Dimensional Vistas]]'') | |||
He travelled in [[The Monk's TARDIS|a TARDIS of his own]] throughout [[Earth]]'s [[history]], "meddling" with it in a manner the Doctor denounced as reckless and counterproductive. After an encounter with the [[First Doctor]] in [[1066]] [[Northumbria]], the Monk attained his moniker through the Doctor and his companions due to his choice of disguise. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') | He travelled in [[The Monk's TARDIS|a TARDIS of his own]] throughout [[Earth]]'s [[history]], "meddling" with it in a manner the Doctor denounced as reckless and counterproductive. After an encounter with the [[First Doctor]] in [[1066]] [[Northumbria]], the Monk attained his moniker through the Doctor and his companions due to his choice of disguise. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') | ||
According to a dream about his childhood in [[the Deca]] that the [[Fifth Doctor]] experienced under the influence of [[Celestial Toymaker|the Toymaker]], Mortimus had once been a friend of [[the Doctor]]'s on [[Gallifrey]] until he fled to meddle in history. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') | According to a dream about his childhood in [[the Deca]] that the [[Fifth Doctor]] experienced under the influence of [[Celestial Toymaker|the Toymaker]], Mortimus had once been a friend of [[the Doctor]]'s on [[Gallifrey]] until he fled to meddle in history. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') | ||
[[Celestial Intervention Agency]] files indicates that this Monk, in the context of his encounters with the First Doctor, was the sixth incarnation of the Time Lord later known as [[the Master]], marking the beginning of his time as a renegade. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[CIA File Extracts (novel)|CIA File Extracts]]'') | |||
== Biography == | == Biography == | ||
==== | === Origins === | ||
{{Main|The Monk's early life}} | |||
Prior to becoming the first meddling time traveller known as "the Monk", this Monk came from [[Planet (An Unearthly Child)|the same place]] as the [[First Doctor]] at a time fifty years after the Doctor left. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') One source depicted the Monk "crossing his heart with his fingers", ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Mutation of Time (novelisation)|The Mutation of Time]]'') possibly indicating him to have [[Binary vascular system|a single heart]] much as the First Doctor did; ([[TV]]: ''[[The Edge of Destruction (TV story)|The Edge of Destruction]]'') later sources indicated this was a feature of Time Lords who had not yet [[Regeneration|regenerated]] ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Man in the Velvet Mask (novel)|The Man in the Velvet Mask]]'', etc.) although having a single heart was also a known marker of [[human]] biology. ([[TV]]: ''[[Spearhead from Space (TV story)|Spearhead from Space]]'', etc.) | |||
Most sources indicated the Monk's original identity had been as a [[Time Lord]] named "Mortimus" on [[Gallifrey]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'', etc.) By one account, the Monk first encountered by the [[First Doctor]] was in his fourth [[incarnation]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|Dark Secrets of the Time Lords (feature)}}) | |||
By another account, the Monk had lived five prior lives and was the sixth incarnation of the Time Lord later known as [[the Master]], being the first incarnation to leave Gallifrey and break the laws of the Time Lords. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|CIA File Extracts (novel)}}) By this account, the Monk was actually two incarnations of the Master; his first encounter with the Doctor caused him to regenerate into his seventh incarnation before their second encounter, who looked identical due to the Master's ability of [[controlled regeneration]]. ([[PROSE]]: {{cs|The Master (reference book)}}) | |||
==== As Mortimus on Gallifrey ==== | |||
Like all [[Time Lord]]s, Mortimus was taken from his family at the age of eight for the selection process in the [[Drylands]]. Staring into the [[Untempered Schism]] as part of a Time Lord initiation rite, he was driven mad by what he saw in the Schism. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'') | Like all [[Time Lord]]s, Mortimus was taken from his family at the age of eight for the selection process in the [[Drylands]]. Staring into the [[Untempered Schism]] as part of a Time Lord initiation rite, he was driven mad by what he saw in the Schism. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'') | ||
According to | According to one account, Mortimus and the [[First Doctor]] (then "[[Theta Sigma]]") were both part of [[the Deca]] in the [[Time Lord Academy]], alongside [[Koschei]], [[Magnus (Divided Loyalties)|Magnus]], [[Ushas]], [[Drax]], [[Jelpax]], [[Vansell]], [[Millennia]] and [[Rallon]]. He once tried to ask Ushas out, but was so harshly rejected that he came to believe that she wasn't interested in dating at all, for which reasons he was, to Magnus's amusement, oblivious to the affair which later developed between Magnus and Ushas. | ||
When the Doctor uncovered Time Lord files regarding the Guardians, Mortimus was one of the first to delve into their secrets. He dropped out of the Academy after the Doctor, [[Rallon]] and [[Millennia]] took an illegal trip away from Gallifrey to the [[Celestial Toyroom]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') Other accounts concurred that Mortimus was an Academy contemporary of the Doctor. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Goth Opera (novel)|Goth Opera]]'', [[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Rani Elite (audio story)|The Rani Elite]]'') | |||
Mortimus considered the Academy to be very dull, and so never paid attention to any lectures. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Wrong Woman (audio story)|The Wrong Woman]]'') | Mortimus considered the Academy to be very dull, and so never paid attention to any lectures. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Wrong Woman (audio story)|The Wrong Woman]]'') | ||
On [[Gallifrey]], Mortimus was an initiate of one of the colleges of scholars in the [[Capitol]], trusted with keeping secrets | On [[Gallifrey]], Mortimus was an initiate of one of the colleges of scholars in the [[Capitol]], trusted with keeping secrets; ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') the [[Fifth Doctor]] would later recall how members the "[[monkish coven]]s" which worshipped [[Rassilon]] and studied his thinking had "gone wrong before". ([[COMIC]]: {{cs|Blood Invocation (comic story)}}) Mortimus went on to work for the [[Celestial Intervention Agency]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Quantum Archangel (novel)|The Quantum Archangel]]'') During this period, he was responsible for the [[Legion]]s' imprisonment. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Crystal Bucephalus (novel)|The Crystal Bucephalus]]'') According to {{Ainley}}, Mortimus "crossed and double-crossed" the CIA. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Quantum Archangel (novel)|The Quantum Archangel]]'') | ||
After becoming an agent provocateur for the [[High Council]], Mortimus found an interest in intervening in history. Becoming aware of other worlds where everything he believed in was meaningless, Mortimus turned to politics, attempting to "create a purpose out of nothing". Finding politics to be full of betrayal, he retreated into [[hedonism]], out of a desire for harmless fun. Through "some sort of controversy", the High Council betrayed Mortimus. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') | After becoming an agent provocateur for the [[High Council]], Mortimus found an interest in intervening in history. Becoming aware of other worlds where everything he believed in was meaningless, Mortimus turned to politics, attempting to "create a purpose out of nothing". Finding politics to be full of betrayal, he retreated into [[hedonism]], out of a desire for harmless fun. Through "some sort of controversy", the High Council betrayed Mortimus. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') | ||
Fifty years after the Doctor and other members of the Deca left Gallifrey, the Monk escaped in [[The Monk's TARDIS|a Mark IV TARDIS]] and decided to become a renegade as well, meddling with history for amusement. ([[ | Fifty years after the Doctor and other members of the Deca left Gallifrey, the Monk escaped in [[The Monk's TARDIS|a Mark IV TARDIS]] and decided to become a renegade as well, meddling with history for amusement. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') After he left Gallifrey, [[Irving Braxiatel]] heard that Mortimus had headed in the direction of [[Earth]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Empire of Glass (novel)|The Empire of Glass]]'') | ||
=== Early renegade activities === | |||
The Monk worked as an advisor to both the [[Morok]]s and [[Yartek]], leader of the [[Voord]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') Mortimus encountered the [[Celestial Toymaker]] at one point, and the Toymaker took a liking to him due to their similar personalities. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') | The Monk worked as an advisor to both the [[Morok]]s and [[Yartek]], leader of the [[Voord]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') Mortimus encountered the [[Celestial Toymaker]] at one point, and the Toymaker took a liking to him due to their similar personalities. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') | ||
The Monk lent mechanical assistance to the builders of [[Stonehenge]] by providing [[anti-gravity]] lifts | The Monk lent mechanical assistance to the builders of [[Stonehenge]] by providing [[anti-gravity]] lifts, ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') possibly being aware of the [[Pandorica]] beneath it and possibly being opposed by a group of [[adventurers (Adventures in Time and Space)|adventurers]]. ([[GAME]]: {{cs|The Time Meddler (game)}}) | ||
According to [[The Monk's logbook|his logbook]], he gave [[Leonardo da Vinci]] tips on [[Aeroplane|aircraft]] design, and he placed [[pound sterling|£200]] in a [[London]] [[bank]] in [[1968]] and then travelled forward [[2168|two hundred years]] to pick up a fortune in [[compound interest]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') At some point, the Monk encountered the [[Dalek]]s and developed a fear of them. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story)|The Daleks' Master Plan]]'') | |||
=== The Battle of Hastings plot === | |||
Still in his first incarnation, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Mutation of Time (novelisation)|The Mutation of Time]]'') the Monk went to [[1066]] [[Northumbria]] trying to prevent the [[Norman]]s from winning the [[Battle of Hastings]] as part of a plan to guide [[England]] into an age of technological prosperity when the [[First Doctor]] encountered him, using a [[progress chart]] to keep track of the proceedings. After the Monk's plans were prevented, the Doctor sabotaged the [[dimensional control]] of his TARDIS, making it the same size inside as outside. With his TARDIS interior reduced to dollhouse proportions, the Monk was seemingly stranded in [[11th century]] [[England]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') | Still in his first incarnation, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Mutation of Time (novelisation)|The Mutation of Time]]'') the Monk went to [[1066]] [[Northumbria]] trying to prevent the [[Norman]]s from winning the [[Battle of Hastings]] as part of a plan to guide [[England]] into an age of technological prosperity when the [[First Doctor]] encountered him, using a [[progress chart]] to keep track of the proceedings. After the Monk's plans were prevented, the Doctor sabotaged the [[dimensional control]] of his TARDIS, making it the same size inside as outside. With his TARDIS interior reduced to dollhouse proportions, the Monk was seemingly stranded in [[11th century]] [[England]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') | ||
==== Further battles with the Doctor | === Alliance with the Daleks === | ||
[[File:Cornered.jpg|thumb|The Monk is cornered by the [[Dalek]]s. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story)|The Daleks' Master Plan]]'')|alt=|left]] | |||
The Monk ran into the First Doctor again on the [[volcanic]] [[planet]] [[Tigus]]. The Monk sabotaged the lock on [[the Doctor's TARDIS]], though that did not stop him from getting inside. The Doctor stole the Monk's direction controls to use in his effort to stop the [[Dalek]]s. | |||
The Monk's TARDIS landed in [[Distant past|ancient]] [[Egypt]]. Knowing of the [[Dalek]]s, the Monk decided to help them regain the [[taranium]] core to avoid being exterminated himself while trying unsuccessfully to convince the Doctor and his [[companion]]s of his honourable nature. The Doctor overpowered the Monk and placed him in a sarcophagus, where he was found by [[Steven Taylor]] and [[Sara Kingdom]]. He caused them to be captured by the Daleks but was also held by them. The Doctor tinkered with the [[chameleon circuit]] of the Monk's TARDIS, making it take various shapes, finally that of a [[police box]]. The Doctor was forced to give the taranium to [[Mavic Chen]], enabling his companions and the Monk to escape the Daleks. | |||
The Monk entered his TARDIS before the Daleks could recapture him. However, the Doctor had stolen its partially compatible [[directional unit]], and as the Monk arrived on [[Planet (The Daleks' Master Plan)|an ice planet]] he realised he'd have to wander in time and space as lost as the Doctor was. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story)|The Daleks' Master Plan]]'') By some accounts this was true, and the Monk left the ice planet without a directional unit, only able to go to random locations until he dealt with the problem in his {{Garden|n=next incarnation}}. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Book of Kells (audio story)|The Book of Kells]]'') Other accounts indicate the Monk became stranded on the ice planet as he constructed new circuits and repaired his TARDIS. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'', ''[[A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)|A Brief History of Time Lords]]'') | |||
As recorded in the ''[[Dalek Survival Guide]]'' an [[anachronism|anachronistic]] [[monk]]'s [[habit]] was found nearby a [[hieroglyphic]] record of a Dalek presence at the Great Pyramid. It was the guide's supposition that the Daleks knew the pyramids to be burial structures and so brought with them a [[Dalek duplicate]] of a religious figure, but misjudged the [[time period]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Dalek Survival Guide (novel)|Dalek Survival Guide]]'') | |||
Several of the Monk's subsequent encounters with the Doctor would be perceived by both as the first time they encountered each other after the Daleks' master-plan, ([[COMIC]]: ''[[4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story)|4-Dimensional Vistas]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'', [[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Book of Kells (audio story)|The Book of Kells]]'') with some accounts indicating this incarnation of the Monk never met the Doctor again. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Book of Kells (audio story)|The Book of Kells]]'', [[PROSE]]: ''[[CIA File Extracts (novel)|CIA File Extracts]]'') This could be attributed to later Monks meddling with their own past and erasing parts of their history, ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Secret History (audio story)|The Secret History]]'', ''[[The Wrong Woman (audio story)|The Wrong Woman]]'') although another account indicated several of these events were directly continous. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') | |||
=== Further battles with the Doctor === | |||
[[File:4-Dimensional Vistas.jpg|thumb|The Time Meddler works with Ice Warriors. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story)|4-Dimensional Vistas]]'')|alt=]] | [[File:4-Dimensional Vistas.jpg|thumb|The Time Meddler works with Ice Warriors. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story)|4-Dimensional Vistas]]'')|alt=]] | ||
Now calling himself "the Time Meddler", the Monk later allied himself with the [[Ice Warrior]]s and battled the [[Fifth Doctor]] in a complex scheme involving [[alternate timeline|alternative Earths]] and a giant [[Sonic]] weapon. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story)|4-Dimensional Vistas]]'') | Now calling himself "the Time Meddler", the Monk later allied himself with the [[Ice Warrior]]s and battled the [[Fifth Doctor]] in a complex scheme involving [[alternate timeline|alternative Earths]] and a giant [[Sonic]] weapon. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[4-Dimensional Vistas (comic story)|4-Dimensional Vistas]]'') | ||
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Sometime in the [[21st century]], the Monk tried to rig elections in what may have been the [[United States]] to stop President [[Sinatra]] from winning a third term of office. As he began this mission, he landed his TARDIS on a busy freeway. The [[Sleeze Brothers]], [[El Ape]] and [[Deadbeat (Sleeze Brothers)|Deadbeat]], collided with it, damaging their vehicle. At the same time, the [[companion]]-less [[Seventh Doctor]] landed his TARDIS in the same area. | Sometime in the [[21st century]], the Monk tried to rig elections in what may have been the [[United States]] to stop President [[Sinatra]] from winning a third term of office. As he began this mission, he landed his TARDIS on a busy freeway. The [[Sleeze Brothers]], [[El Ape]] and [[Deadbeat (Sleeze Brothers)|Deadbeat]], collided with it, damaging their vehicle. At the same time, the [[companion]]-less [[Seventh Doctor]] landed his TARDIS in the same area. | ||
Besieged by the angry brothers and an irate Doctor, the Monk slipped back into his TARDIS and took off. The Brothers hijacked the Doctor's TARDIS at gunpoint and ordered him to follow the Monk's TARDIS through time. A chase ensued, and the two TARDISes flitted to several famous mysteries in [[Earth]]'s history. Finally, the Doctor and the Sleeze Brothers made the Monk's TARDIS implode, apparently causing the creation of the [[Bermuda Triangle]]. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Follow That TARDIS! (comic story)|Follow That TARDIS!]]'') | Besieged by the angry brothers and an irate Doctor, the Monk slipped back into his TARDIS and took off. The Brothers hijacked the Doctor's TARDIS at gunpoint and ordered him to follow the Monk's TARDIS through time. A chase ensued, and the two TARDISes flitted to several famous mysteries in [[Earth]]'s history. Finally, the Doctor and the Sleeze Brothers made the Monk's TARDIS implode, apparently causing the creation of the [[Bermuda Triangle]]. The Doctor rescued the Monk from the implosion and apprehended him on behalf of the Time Lords. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Follow That TARDIS! (comic story)|Follow That TARDIS!]]'') | ||
=== Death's Champion === | |||
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According to some accounts, the Monk constructed a new directional unit while stranded on the ice planet after allying with the Daleks. Now using his real name, Mortimus spent decades planning his revenge, accumulating information and stealing useful devices, and financing his operations by taking on discreet commissions across the universe. While Mortimus and the Doctor believed they did not encounter each other in this time, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') by one account Mortimus' period as Death's Champion occurred after his alliance with the [[Ice Warrior]]s. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'') | |||
He made a deal with the [[Eternal]] [[Death (mythology)|Death]] to become [[Death's Champion|her champion]], thinking it wouldn't be too demanding, and also met the Eternal [[Vain Beauty]] in [[Paris]], exchanging [[gold]] for his [[blood]]. He also killed the [[Minyan]] [[Antokh]] to obtain his blood, regretting that the required poison was expensive, along with blood from a [[Mandrel]], [[Silurian]], and [[Dalek]], and collected spheres from the [[Sisterhood of Karn]]. Using all this in a ritual performed on the [[edge of the universe]], he summoned the [[Chronovore]] [[Artemis (No Future)|Artemis]] and captured her with Vain's blood, which she thought was [[human]]. | |||
In his explorations of the universe, he found [[Varda]] and broke the [[time loop]] with Artemis's power, freeing the [[Vardan|Vardans]]. Forming an alliance, he began to interfere in the Seventh Doctor's past, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') allowing [[Morka]] to kill the [[Third Doctor]] without regenerating during [[Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)|their encounter]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Blood Heat (novel)|Blood Heat]]'') though he admitted he should've realised this would only [[Silurian Earth|create an unstable mini-universe]]. After reading about it in the [[Red Book of Gallifrey]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') he resurrected the [[Garvond]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Dimension Riders (novel)|The Dimension Riders]]'') and then empower [[Huitzilin]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Left-Handed Hummingbird (novel)|The Left-Handed Hummingbird]]'') feeling a sort of empathy with the creature. Finally, since he considered it such an interesting place and "couldn't leave it to fizzle out," ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') Mortimus restored the [[Land of Fiction]], ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Conundrum (novel)|Conundrum]]'') removing the [[Jason (Conundrum)|Master of the Land]] from his [[Time stream|timestream]] and giving him infinite power, in order to gain more time and remove any future notes and escape clauses the Doctor [[Laws of Time|left for himself]]. | |||
Mortimus then aided the [[Vardan]]s' scheme to avenge themselves on the Doctor and the Sontarans by conquering Earth in [[1976]], since it was of continued strategic value to the Sontarans and of importance to the Doctor. His plan was undone thanks to the Doctor's [[companion]] [[Ace]], who pretended to side with him until she could free Artemis. The vengeful Artemis subsequently took Mortimus away to make him pay for her imprisonment. | |||
[[ | |||
While the Doctor believed that Artemis' revenge meant the Monk was permanently gone, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') one account describes an unseen encounter between the Seventh Doctor and a Monk calling himself Mortimus and acting as he did as Death's Champion. Mortimus took [[Antonio Salieri]] back in time to [[Salzburg]] to kill Mozart when he was still a child, intending to cause damage to the [[Web of Time]]. Mortimus left before the murder took place and Salieri was stopped by the Doctor and a [[Tramp (The Tramp's Story)|tramp]]. Mozart escaped unharmed. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Tramp's Story (short story)|The Tramp's Story]]'') | |||
=== | === Fate === | ||
According to the [[Celestial Intervention Agency]]'s files, the Monk was found by the [[Dalek]]s soon after allying with them and [[Extermination|exterminated]] for his failure to aid them in their master-plan. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[CIA File Extracts (novel)|CIA File Extracts]]'') Another account portrayed an apparent death of Mortimus as he was trapped in his TARDIS with a furious [[Artemis (No Future)|Artemis]], with the [[Seventh Doctor]] assuming as much upon hearing Mortimus' agonized scream amid [[Vwoorpy|the TARDIS dematerialization]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'') | |||
The aforementioned CIA files indicated that this Time Lord's subsequent (and overall seventh) incarnation abandoned the name and habit of the "Monk" and began calling himself [[the Master]], staying in synch with the Doctor's chronology until they met each other again as the {{Delgado|n=Twelfth Master}} and [[Third Doctor]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[CIA File Extracts (novel)|CIA File Extracts]]'') However, many other accounts showed the Monk and the Master to be separate individuals. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[No Future (novel)|No Future]]'', ''[[Divided Loyalties (novel)|Divided Loyalties]]'', [[AUDIO]]: ''[[Too Many Masters (audio story)|Too Many Masters]]'') | |||
Another account indicated [[The Monk (The Book of Kells)|the Monk's next incarnation]] was an older man who faced the [[Eighth Doctor]], the two meeting each other for the first time since the Daleks' master-plan. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Book of Kells (audio story)|The Book of Kells]]'', ''[[The Resurrection of Mars (audio story)|The Resurrection of Mars]]'', et al.) | |||
A third possibility of the Monk's next incarnation was [[The Monk (The Black Hole)|a mustachioed trickster]] whom some sources indicated to exist in sync with the Doctor's early timeline following the Dalek's master-plan. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Black Hole (audio story)|The Black Hole]]'', ''[[The Blame Game (audio story)|The Blame Game]]'', ''[[How to Win Planets and Influence People (audio story)|How to Win Planets and Influence People]]'') However, other sources showed that Monk to exist later in the Monk's overall timeline. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Rise of the New Humans (audio story)|The Rise of the New Humans]]'', ''[[Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated (audio story)|Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated]]'', et al.) [[The Nun]], a female incarnation of the Monk, was uncertain of how many regenerations she had gone through, as her chronology was complicated by her meddling with her own past, erasing parts of her history. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Wrong Woman (audio story)|The Wrong Woman]]'') | |||
== | == Other realities == | ||
In | In a [[parallel universe]] made by the [[Quantum Archangel]], the Monk cooperated alongside [[the Master]], [[the Rani]] and [[Drax]] to try to destroy the world using a [[DNA recombinator]], turning the [[human]] race into a gestalt [[consciousness]] which could be used as a [[weapon]] to conquer the universe. | ||
In another | In another Archangel universe, Mortimus was accepted back into Gallifreyan society during a [[War in Heaven]] fought against [[Dalek]]s and worked as an elite executive for the [[Celestial Intervention Agency|CIA]]. He conducted an undercover mission behind Enemy lines, discovering the horrible secret of [[Skaro]]'s timeline. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Quantum Archangel (novel)|The Quantum Archangel]]'') | ||
== Personality == | ==Personality== | ||
The | The First Monk was amoral and enjoyed meddling actively with history to his own selfish ends. He was also incredibly careless when it came to time travel. Unlike other Time Lords, the Monk didn't seem to care about the potential damage to [[Fixed point in time|fixed points]] or to the [[Web of Time]]. He also showed the habit of leaving behind anachronisms like a [[quartz]] [[wristwatch]] and an [[atomic cannon]] on a cliff where anyone could find it. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (novelisation)|The Time Meddler]]'') | ||
Despite his experience as a Time Lord, the Monk's attitude typically demonstrated a very short-term view when making his plans, intending to alter the outcome of the Battle of Hastings with only vague ideas of how things would work out later. The Monk also showed a childish and petulant side to his nature, although he did have a temper, and he could get annoyed and exasperated easily, usually when he was disturbed during his plans like he frequently was in 1066 when his disguise as a monk led to him being forced to tend to injured Saxons even if the role was necessary since the Saxons were a part of his plans. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') | Despite his experience as a Time Lord, the Monk's attitude typically demonstrated a very short-term view when making his plans, intending to alter the outcome of the Battle of Hastings with only vague ideas of how things would work out later. The Monk also showed a childish and petulant side to his nature, although he did have a temper, and he could get annoyed and exasperated easily, usually when he was disturbed during his plans like he frequently was in 1066 when his disguise as a monk led to him being forced to tend to injured Saxons even if the role was necessary since the Saxons were a part of his plans. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') | ||
The | The First Monk had a boastful side, and he sought praise and liked to think of himself as clever. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (novelisation)|The Time Meddler]]'') He would boast about his plans and he oft enjoyed mocking the Doctor during their meetings. This bragging would extend to [[The Monk's TARDIS|his TARDIS]], lauding its superiority when compared to [[the Doctor's TARDIS]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') | ||
== Appearance and clothing == | ==Appearance and clothing== | ||
The | The First Monk wore the [[robe]]s of a [[1066]] [[Northumberland]] [[monk]], initially as part of a disguise. He was a middle-aged, chubby, white-skinned man with a lined, clean-shaven face, a gap in his top front teeth and dark hair ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') with grey streaks ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (novelisation)|The Time Meddler]]'') cut into a bowl cut, ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'') and he had blue eyes. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (novelisation)|The Time Meddler]]'') | ||
== Behind the scenes == | == Behind the scenes == | ||
* The title "the Monk" derives more from Steven and Vicki's attempt to call him something within the confines of ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]''. In ''[[4-Dimensional Vistas]]'', the Fifth Doctor refers to this incarnation as "the Time Meddler." | * The title "the Monk" derives more from Steven and Vicki's attempt to call him something within the confines of ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]''. In ''[[4-Dimensional Vistas]]'', the Fifth Doctor refers to this incarnation as "the Time Meddler." | ||
* [[Peter Butterworth]]'s unnamed time traveller in [[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'' had the distinction of being the first compatriot of [[the Doctor]] and [[Susan Foreman|Susan]] to appear on television. There is some difficulty, however, in assigning to him the quality of "first Time Lord other than the Doctor" to appear in the series, as the name of "Time Lord" had yet to make its debut in the series at the time; indeed, it was far from established that the Doctor was a humanoid alien rather than a [[human]] from an advanced future civilisation. | * [[Peter Butterworth]]'s unnamed time traveller in [[TV]]: ''[[The Time Meddler (TV story)|The Time Meddler]]'' had the distinction of being the first compatriot of [[the Doctor]] and [[Susan Foreman|Susan]] to appear on television. There is some difficulty, however, in assigning to him the quality of "first Time Lord other than the Doctor and Susan" to appear in the series, as the name of "Time Lord" had yet to make its debut in the series at the time; indeed, it was far from established that the Doctor was a humanoid alien rather than a [[human]] from [[Planet (An Unearthly Child)|an advanced future civilisation]]. Absent the context of later continuity, ''The Time Meddler'' seems to set itself firmly in the latter tradition, with both the Doctor and the Monk equating "history" and "human history" in dialogue, treating Earth's history as if it were their own; the trinkets and keepsakes collected by the Monk notably all come from various periods of Earth's history, to the exclusion of any other planet. | ||
* A deleted flashback sequence in [[Paul Cornell]]'s novel {{cs|No Future (novel)}} would have given additional context on Mortimus's early life. There, he was explicitly stated to have been an actual [[monk]] in the [[Order of Rassilon]], tying in with the mention of the "[[monkish coven]]s" in Cornell's comic {{cs|Blood Invocation (comic story)}}, before being "recruited" into the newly-formed CIA and made to act as an [[assassin]] on various planets, in accordance with [[Lord President]] [[Morbius]]'s philosophy. The flashback scene itself featured Mortimus being tasked with assassinating "Magnus" (here used as a name for [[the Master's early life|the young Master]]) while he, "Alanir" (implicitly the young [[the Rani|Rani]]) and "[[Theta Sigma]]" (the [[the Doctor's early life|young Doctor]]) were on an extended trip into the [[Drylands]] as part of an old initiation ritual. Mortimus didn't understand why the High Council wanted him to kill Magnus, but still attempted to take the shot, only to predictably miss.<ref>{{cite web | |||
* [[John Dorney]] and [[David Richardson]] initially wanted the Monk to appear in the storyline which eventually became ''[[Daughter of the Gods (audio story)|Daughter of the Gods]]''. They issued [[David K Barnes]] a list of characters from the early years of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and tasked him with writing a story around them as if emulating a "five-year anniversary special" from [[1968 (releases)|1968]]. However, while most of the characters on the list made it into the final work, the Monk was ultimately dropped once the main story began to take shape. | |title=Cut excerpt from Paul Cornell's ''No Future'' | ||
|url = https://doctornolonger.tumblr.com/post/739877412387586048 | |||
|author = [[Nate Bumber]] | |||
|date of source=18 January 2024 | |||
|website name = On the Fringes of War | |||
|archiveurl=https://archive.ph/NwHzq | |||
|archivedate = 9 April 2024 | |||
}}</ref> | |||
{{quote|Mortimus was an agent of the [[Celestial Intervention Agency]], recruited from his contemplations in the [[Order of Rassilon]], those [[monk]]s who kept alive the works of [[the Hero]]. He had intervened on several worlds, diverting them away from the dangerous courses that they had embarked upon with the bullet and the knife.|Cut excerpt from [[PROSE]]: [[No Future (novel)|No Future]]}} | |||
* [[John Dorney]] and [[David Richardson]] initially wanted the Monk to appear in the storyline which eventually became ''[[Daughter of the Gods (audio story)|Daughter of the Gods]]''. They issued [[David K Barnes]] a list of characters from the early years of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and tasked him with writing a story around them as if emulating a "five-year anniversary special" from [[1968 (releases)|1968]]. However, while most of the characters on the list made it into the final work, the Monk was ultimately dropped once the main story began to take shape.<ref>[[VOR 128]]</ref> | |||
=== As the Master === | |||
[[File:FASA Monk Master.jpg|thumb|The sixth and seventh incarnations of the Master were known as "the Monk". ([[NOTVALID]]: ''[[The Doctor Who Role Playing Game]]'')]] | |||
''[[The Doctor Who Role Playing Game]]'' by [[FASA]], which admits to taking liberties with the source material in its opening pages, gives a rundown of the Master's first thirteen [[incarnation]]s in "[[The Master (reference book)|The Master]]" supplement book, which was similar to (but not entirely consistent with) the in-universe biography given for [[the Master]] in FASA's own ''[[CIA File Extracts (novel)|CIA File Extracts]]''. | |||
According to the book, the Master could control the form of his incarnations, and frequently used the same face. In a constant, [[beard]]ed [[aristocrat]] form, the Master worked as a [[researcher]] on [[Gallifrey]] until his fifth incarnation, aged [[The Master's age|over 700-years-old]], attempted to lead a [[rebellion]] on Gallifrey, with [[the War Chief]] among his followers, which ended in failure with the Master himself being gravely [[wound]]ed, forcing him to flee and regenerate. The now [[renegade Time Lord]] decided to completely abandon his familiar form with his sixth incarnation assuming a shorter, heavier and younger but still apparently middle-aged "average" appearance, wearing his [[brown]] [[hair]] short with [[bang]]s hanging straight across a high [[forehead]] above a broad [[face]], with only his piercing [[eye]]s remaining much as before. Adopting the hooded robes worn by [[religious]] orders during [[Earth]]'s [[11th century]], this incarnation became known as the Monk. He regenerated after an accident with [[the Monk's TARDIS]] freed him from Earth, his new incarnation being identical to the last. When the Master's activities as the Monk became known, he chose a new [[disguise]] when a crisis triggered his next regeneration, assuming {{Delgado|n=a more familiar bearded appearance}} in his next five incarnations. | |||
== Footnotes == | |||
{{reflist}} | |||
{{Monk stories}} | {{Monk stories}} | ||
{{ | {{NameSort}} | ||
[[Category:Incarnations of the Monk]] | [[Category:Incarnations of the Monk]] | ||
[[Category:Renegade Time Lords]] | [[Category:Renegade Time Lords]] | ||
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[[Category:Monks]] | [[Category:Monks]] | ||
[[Category:Students at the Time Lord Academy]] | [[Category:Students at the Time Lord Academy]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:TARDIS pilots]] | ||
[[Category:Incarnations of the Master]] | |||
[[Category:The Ones That Went Mad]] | |||
Latest revision as of 04:59, 6 October 2024
The Monk (The Time Meddler). Justification for naming him the first incarnation was tenuous, and now sources have been found determining him to be the Monk's fourth incarnation.
Talk about it here.
In his first incarnation, (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) Mortimus, (PROSE: No Future) often dubbed as "the Monk", (TV: The Time Meddler) a time traveller of the Doctor's own kind, who by most accounts was a renegade Time Lord, (PROSE: No Future, Divided Loyalties) adopted the name, or at least the ethos, of "the Time Meddler". (COMIC: 4-Dimensional Vistas, PROSE: The King of Terror)
He travelled in a TARDIS of his own throughout Earth's history, "meddling" with it in a manner the Doctor denounced as reckless and counterproductive. After an encounter with the First Doctor in 1066 Northumbria, the Monk attained his moniker through the Doctor and his companions due to his choice of disguise. (TV: The Time Meddler)
According to a dream about his childhood in the Deca that the Fifth Doctor experienced under the influence of the Toymaker, Mortimus had once been a friend of the Doctor's on Gallifrey until he fled to meddle in history. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
Celestial Intervention Agency files indicates that this Monk, in the context of his encounters with the First Doctor, was the sixth incarnation of the Time Lord later known as the Master, marking the beginning of his time as a renegade. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts)
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Origins[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: The Monk's early life
Prior to becoming the first meddling time traveller known as "the Monk", this Monk came from the same place as the First Doctor at a time fifty years after the Doctor left. (TV: The Time Meddler) One source depicted the Monk "crossing his heart with his fingers", (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) possibly indicating him to have a single heart much as the First Doctor did; (TV: The Edge of Destruction) later sources indicated this was a feature of Time Lords who had not yet regenerated (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask, etc.) although having a single heart was also a known marker of human biology. (TV: Spearhead from Space, etc.)
Most sources indicated the Monk's original identity had been as a Time Lord named "Mortimus" on Gallifrey. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties, etc.) By one account, the Monk first encountered by the First Doctor was in his fourth incarnation. (PROSE: Dark Secrets of the Time Lords [+]Loading...["Dark Secrets of the Time Lords (feature)"])
By another account, the Monk had lived five prior lives and was the sixth incarnation of the Time Lord later known as the Master, being the first incarnation to leave Gallifrey and break the laws of the Time Lords. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts [+]Loading...["CIA File Extracts (novel)"]) By this account, the Monk was actually two incarnations of the Master; his first encounter with the Doctor caused him to regenerate into his seventh incarnation before their second encounter, who looked identical due to the Master's ability of controlled regeneration. (PROSE: The Master [+]Loading...["The Master (reference book)"])
As Mortimus on Gallifrey[[edit] | [edit source]]
Like all Time Lords, Mortimus was taken from his family at the age of eight for the selection process in the Drylands. Staring into the Untempered Schism as part of a Time Lord initiation rite, he was driven mad by what he saw in the Schism. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords)
According to one account, Mortimus and the First Doctor (then "Theta Sigma") were both part of the Deca in the Time Lord Academy, alongside Koschei, Magnus, Ushas, Drax, Jelpax, Vansell, Millennia and Rallon. He once tried to ask Ushas out, but was so harshly rejected that he came to believe that she wasn't interested in dating at all, for which reasons he was, to Magnus's amusement, oblivious to the affair which later developed between Magnus and Ushas.
When the Doctor uncovered Time Lord files regarding the Guardians, Mortimus was one of the first to delve into their secrets. He dropped out of the Academy after the Doctor, Rallon and Millennia took an illegal trip away from Gallifrey to the Celestial Toyroom. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) Other accounts concurred that Mortimus was an Academy contemporary of the Doctor. (PROSE: Goth Opera, AUDIO: The Rani Elite)
Mortimus considered the Academy to be very dull, and so never paid attention to any lectures. (AUDIO: The Wrong Woman)
On Gallifrey, Mortimus was an initiate of one of the colleges of scholars in the Capitol, trusted with keeping secrets; (PROSE: No Future) the Fifth Doctor would later recall how members the "monkish covens" which worshipped Rassilon and studied his thinking had "gone wrong before". (COMIC: Blood Invocation [+]Loading...["Blood Invocation (comic story)"]) Mortimus went on to work for the Celestial Intervention Agency. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) During this period, he was responsible for the Legions' imprisonment. (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus) According to the Tremas Master, Mortimus "crossed and double-crossed" the CIA. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
After becoming an agent provocateur for the High Council, Mortimus found an interest in intervening in history. Becoming aware of other worlds where everything he believed in was meaningless, Mortimus turned to politics, attempting to "create a purpose out of nothing". Finding politics to be full of betrayal, he retreated into hedonism, out of a desire for harmless fun. Through "some sort of controversy", the High Council betrayed Mortimus. (PROSE: No Future)
Fifty years after the Doctor and other members of the Deca left Gallifrey, the Monk escaped in a Mark IV TARDIS and decided to become a renegade as well, meddling with history for amusement. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties) After he left Gallifrey, Irving Braxiatel heard that Mortimus had headed in the direction of Earth. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)
Early renegade activities[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Monk worked as an advisor to both the Moroks and Yartek, leader of the Voord. (PROSE: No Future) Mortimus encountered the Celestial Toymaker at one point, and the Toymaker took a liking to him due to their similar personalities. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
The Monk lent mechanical assistance to the builders of Stonehenge by providing anti-gravity lifts, (TV: The Time Meddler) possibly being aware of the Pandorica beneath it and possibly being opposed by a group of adventurers. (GAME: The Time Meddler [+]Loading...["The Time Meddler (game)"])
According to his logbook, he gave Leonardo da Vinci tips on aircraft design, and he placed £200 in a London bank in 1968 and then travelled forward two hundred years to pick up a fortune in compound interest. (TV: The Time Meddler) At some point, the Monk encountered the Daleks and developed a fear of them. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
The Battle of Hastings plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
Still in his first incarnation, (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) the Monk went to 1066 Northumbria trying to prevent the Normans from winning the Battle of Hastings as part of a plan to guide England into an age of technological prosperity when the First Doctor encountered him, using a progress chart to keep track of the proceedings. After the Monk's plans were prevented, the Doctor sabotaged the dimensional control of his TARDIS, making it the same size inside as outside. With his TARDIS interior reduced to dollhouse proportions, the Monk was seemingly stranded in 11th century England. (TV: The Time Meddler)
Alliance with the Daleks[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Monk ran into the First Doctor again on the volcanic planet Tigus. The Monk sabotaged the lock on the Doctor's TARDIS, though that did not stop him from getting inside. The Doctor stole the Monk's direction controls to use in his effort to stop the Daleks.
The Monk's TARDIS landed in ancient Egypt. Knowing of the Daleks, the Monk decided to help them regain the taranium core to avoid being exterminated himself while trying unsuccessfully to convince the Doctor and his companions of his honourable nature. The Doctor overpowered the Monk and placed him in a sarcophagus, where he was found by Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom. He caused them to be captured by the Daleks but was also held by them. The Doctor tinkered with the chameleon circuit of the Monk's TARDIS, making it take various shapes, finally that of a police box. The Doctor was forced to give the taranium to Mavic Chen, enabling his companions and the Monk to escape the Daleks.
The Monk entered his TARDIS before the Daleks could recapture him. However, the Doctor had stolen its partially compatible directional unit, and as the Monk arrived on an ice planet he realised he'd have to wander in time and space as lost as the Doctor was. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) By some accounts this was true, and the Monk left the ice planet without a directional unit, only able to go to random locations until he dealt with the problem in his next incarnation. (AUDIO: The Book of Kells) Other accounts indicate the Monk became stranded on the ice planet as he constructed new circuits and repaired his TARDIS. (PROSE: No Future, A Brief History of Time Lords)
As recorded in the Dalek Survival Guide an anachronistic monk's habit was found nearby a hieroglyphic record of a Dalek presence at the Great Pyramid. It was the guide's supposition that the Daleks knew the pyramids to be burial structures and so brought with them a Dalek duplicate of a religious figure, but misjudged the time period. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide)
Several of the Monk's subsequent encounters with the Doctor would be perceived by both as the first time they encountered each other after the Daleks' master-plan, (COMIC: 4-Dimensional Vistas, PROSE: No Future, AUDIO: The Book of Kells) with some accounts indicating this incarnation of the Monk never met the Doctor again. (AUDIO: The Book of Kells, PROSE: CIA File Extracts) This could be attributed to later Monks meddling with their own past and erasing parts of their history, (AUDIO: The Secret History, The Wrong Woman) although another account indicated several of these events were directly continous. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
Further battles with the Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]
Now calling himself "the Time Meddler", the Monk later allied himself with the Ice Warriors and battled the Fifth Doctor in a complex scheme involving alternative Earths and a giant Sonic weapon. (COMIC: 4-Dimensional Vistas)
Sometime in the 21st century, the Monk tried to rig elections in what may have been the United States to stop President Sinatra from winning a third term of office. As he began this mission, he landed his TARDIS on a busy freeway. The Sleeze Brothers, El Ape and Deadbeat, collided with it, damaging their vehicle. At the same time, the companion-less Seventh Doctor landed his TARDIS in the same area.
Besieged by the angry brothers and an irate Doctor, the Monk slipped back into his TARDIS and took off. The Brothers hijacked the Doctor's TARDIS at gunpoint and ordered him to follow the Monk's TARDIS through time. A chase ensued, and the two TARDISes flitted to several famous mysteries in Earth's history. Finally, the Doctor and the Sleeze Brothers made the Monk's TARDIS implode, apparently causing the creation of the Bermuda Triangle. The Doctor rescued the Monk from the implosion and apprehended him on behalf of the Time Lords. (COMIC: Follow That TARDIS!)
Death's Champion[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to some accounts, the Monk constructed a new directional unit while stranded on the ice planet after allying with the Daleks. Now using his real name, Mortimus spent decades planning his revenge, accumulating information and stealing useful devices, and financing his operations by taking on discreet commissions across the universe. While Mortimus and the Doctor believed they did not encounter each other in this time, (PROSE: No Future) by one account Mortimus' period as Death's Champion occurred after his alliance with the Ice Warriors. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)
He made a deal with the Eternal Death to become her champion, thinking it wouldn't be too demanding, and also met the Eternal Vain Beauty in Paris, exchanging gold for his blood. He also killed the Minyan Antokh to obtain his blood, regretting that the required poison was expensive, along with blood from a Mandrel, Silurian, and Dalek, and collected spheres from the Sisterhood of Karn. Using all this in a ritual performed on the edge of the universe, he summoned the Chronovore Artemis and captured her with Vain's blood, which she thought was human.
In his explorations of the universe, he found Varda and broke the time loop with Artemis's power, freeing the Vardans. Forming an alliance, he began to interfere in the Seventh Doctor's past, (PROSE: No Future) allowing Morka to kill the Third Doctor without regenerating during their encounter, (PROSE: Blood Heat) though he admitted he should've realised this would only create an unstable mini-universe. After reading about it in the Red Book of Gallifrey, (PROSE: No Future) he resurrected the Garvond, (PROSE: The Dimension Riders) and then empower Huitzilin, (PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird) feeling a sort of empathy with the creature. Finally, since he considered it such an interesting place and "couldn't leave it to fizzle out," (PROSE: No Future) Mortimus restored the Land of Fiction, (PROSE: Conundrum) removing the Master of the Land from his timestream and giving him infinite power, in order to gain more time and remove any future notes and escape clauses the Doctor left for himself.
Mortimus then aided the Vardans' scheme to avenge themselves on the Doctor and the Sontarans by conquering Earth in 1976, since it was of continued strategic value to the Sontarans and of importance to the Doctor. His plan was undone thanks to the Doctor's companion Ace, who pretended to side with him until she could free Artemis. The vengeful Artemis subsequently took Mortimus away to make him pay for her imprisonment.
While the Doctor believed that Artemis' revenge meant the Monk was permanently gone, (PROSE: No Future) one account describes an unseen encounter between the Seventh Doctor and a Monk calling himself Mortimus and acting as he did as Death's Champion. Mortimus took Antonio Salieri back in time to Salzburg to kill Mozart when he was still a child, intending to cause damage to the Web of Time. Mortimus left before the murder took place and Salieri was stopped by the Doctor and a tramp. Mozart escaped unharmed. (PROSE: The Tramp's Story)
Fate[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to the Celestial Intervention Agency's files, the Monk was found by the Daleks soon after allying with them and exterminated for his failure to aid them in their master-plan. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts) Another account portrayed an apparent death of Mortimus as he was trapped in his TARDIS with a furious Artemis, with the Seventh Doctor assuming as much upon hearing Mortimus' agonized scream amid the TARDIS dematerialization. (PROSE: No Future)
The aforementioned CIA files indicated that this Time Lord's subsequent (and overall seventh) incarnation abandoned the name and habit of the "Monk" and began calling himself the Master, staying in synch with the Doctor's chronology until they met each other again as the Twelfth Master and Third Doctor. (PROSE: CIA File Extracts) However, many other accounts showed the Monk and the Master to be separate individuals. (PROSE: No Future, Divided Loyalties, AUDIO: Too Many Masters)
Another account indicated the Monk's next incarnation was an older man who faced the Eighth Doctor, the two meeting each other for the first time since the Daleks' master-plan. (AUDIO: The Book of Kells, The Resurrection of Mars, et al.)
A third possibility of the Monk's next incarnation was a mustachioed trickster whom some sources indicated to exist in sync with the Doctor's early timeline following the Dalek's master-plan. (AUDIO: The Black Hole, The Blame Game, How to Win Planets and Influence People) However, other sources showed that Monk to exist later in the Monk's overall timeline. (AUDIO: The Rise of the New Humans, Divorced, Beheaded, Regenerated, et al.) The Nun, a female incarnation of the Monk, was uncertain of how many regenerations she had gone through, as her chronology was complicated by her meddling with her own past, erasing parts of her history. (AUDIO: The Wrong Woman)
Other realities[[edit] | [edit source]]
In a parallel universe made by the Quantum Archangel, the Monk cooperated alongside the Master, the Rani and Drax to try to destroy the world using a DNA recombinator, turning the human race into a gestalt consciousness which could be used as a weapon to conquer the universe.
In another Archangel universe, Mortimus was accepted back into Gallifreyan society during a War in Heaven fought against Daleks and worked as an elite executive for the CIA. He conducted an undercover mission behind Enemy lines, discovering the horrible secret of Skaro's timeline. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)
Personality[[edit] | [edit source]]
The First Monk was amoral and enjoyed meddling actively with history to his own selfish ends. He was also incredibly careless when it came to time travel. Unlike other Time Lords, the Monk didn't seem to care about the potential damage to fixed points or to the Web of Time. He also showed the habit of leaving behind anachronisms like a quartz wristwatch and an atomic cannon on a cliff where anyone could find it. (PROSE: The Time Meddler)
Despite his experience as a Time Lord, the Monk's attitude typically demonstrated a very short-term view when making his plans, intending to alter the outcome of the Battle of Hastings with only vague ideas of how things would work out later. The Monk also showed a childish and petulant side to his nature, although he did have a temper, and he could get annoyed and exasperated easily, usually when he was disturbed during his plans like he frequently was in 1066 when his disguise as a monk led to him being forced to tend to injured Saxons even if the role was necessary since the Saxons were a part of his plans. (TV: The Time Meddler)
The First Monk had a boastful side, and he sought praise and liked to think of himself as clever. (PROSE: The Time Meddler) He would boast about his plans and he oft enjoyed mocking the Doctor during their meetings. This bragging would extend to his TARDIS, lauding its superiority when compared to the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: The Time Meddler)
Appearance and clothing[[edit] | [edit source]]
The First Monk wore the robes of a 1066 Northumberland monk, initially as part of a disguise. He was a middle-aged, chubby, white-skinned man with a lined, clean-shaven face, a gap in his top front teeth and dark hair (TV: The Time Meddler) with grey streaks (PROSE: The Time Meddler) cut into a bowl cut, (TV: The Time Meddler) and he had blue eyes. (PROSE: The Time Meddler)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The title "the Monk" derives more from Steven and Vicki's attempt to call him something within the confines of The Time Meddler. In 4-Dimensional Vistas, the Fifth Doctor refers to this incarnation as "the Time Meddler."
- Peter Butterworth's unnamed time traveller in TV: The Time Meddler had the distinction of being the first compatriot of the Doctor and Susan to appear on television. There is some difficulty, however, in assigning to him the quality of "first Time Lord other than the Doctor and Susan" to appear in the series, as the name of "Time Lord" had yet to make its debut in the series at the time; indeed, it was far from established that the Doctor was a humanoid alien rather than a human from an advanced future civilisation. Absent the context of later continuity, The Time Meddler seems to set itself firmly in the latter tradition, with both the Doctor and the Monk equating "history" and "human history" in dialogue, treating Earth's history as if it were their own; the trinkets and keepsakes collected by the Monk notably all come from various periods of Earth's history, to the exclusion of any other planet.
- A deleted flashback sequence in Paul Cornell's novel No Future [+]Loading...["No Future (novel)"] would have given additional context on Mortimus's early life. There, he was explicitly stated to have been an actual monk in the Order of Rassilon, tying in with the mention of the "monkish covens" in Cornell's comic Blood Invocation [+]Loading...["Blood Invocation (comic story)"], before being "recruited" into the newly-formed CIA and made to act as an assassin on various planets, in accordance with Lord President Morbius's philosophy. The flashback scene itself featured Mortimus being tasked with assassinating "Magnus" (here used as a name for the young Master) while he, "Alanir" (implicitly the young Rani) and "Theta Sigma" (the young Doctor) were on an extended trip into the Drylands as part of an old initiation ritual. Mortimus didn't understand why the High Council wanted him to kill Magnus, but still attempted to take the shot, only to predictably miss.[1]
Mortimus was an agent of the Celestial Intervention Agency, recruited from his contemplations in the Order of Rassilon, those monks who kept alive the works of the Hero. He had intervened on several worlds, diverting them away from the dangerous courses that they had embarked upon with the bullet and the knife.
- John Dorney and David Richardson initially wanted the Monk to appear in the storyline which eventually became Daughter of the Gods. They issued David K Barnes a list of characters from the early years of Doctor Who and tasked him with writing a story around them as if emulating a "five-year anniversary special" from 1968. However, while most of the characters on the list made it into the final work, the Monk was ultimately dropped once the main story began to take shape.[2]
As the Master[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor Who Role Playing Game by FASA, which admits to taking liberties with the source material in its opening pages, gives a rundown of the Master's first thirteen incarnations in "The Master" supplement book, which was similar to (but not entirely consistent with) the in-universe biography given for the Master in FASA's own CIA File Extracts.
According to the book, the Master could control the form of his incarnations, and frequently used the same face. In a constant, bearded aristocrat form, the Master worked as a researcher on Gallifrey until his fifth incarnation, aged over 700-years-old, attempted to lead a rebellion on Gallifrey, with the War Chief among his followers, which ended in failure with the Master himself being gravely wounded, forcing him to flee and regenerate. The now renegade Time Lord decided to completely abandon his familiar form with his sixth incarnation assuming a shorter, heavier and younger but still apparently middle-aged "average" appearance, wearing his brown hair short with bangs hanging straight across a high forehead above a broad face, with only his piercing eyes remaining much as before. Adopting the hooded robes worn by religious orders during Earth's 11th century, this incarnation became known as the Monk. He regenerated after an accident with the Monk's TARDIS freed him from Earth, his new incarnation being identical to the last. When the Master's activities as the Monk became known, he chose a new disguise when a crisis triggered his next regeneration, assuming a more familiar bearded appearance in his next five incarnations.
Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- ↑ Nate Bumber (18 January 2024). Cut excerpt from Paul Cornell's No Future. On the Fringes of War. Archived from the original on 9 April 2024.
- ↑ VOR 128
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