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The Time Monster (TV story)

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The Time Monster was the fifth and final story of Season 9. It featured another explanation of the destruction of Atlantis (1967's The Underwater Menace and 1971's The Dæmons also offered explanations). This was also the second last story to feature Roger Delgado as the Master and was the last story to feature the Master on "present day" Earth against the Doctor and UNIT.

Synopsis

The Master, in the guise of Professor Thascalos, has constructed at the Newton Institute in Wootton a device known as TOMTIT - Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time - to gain control over Kronos, a creature from outside time. The creature is summoned but proves to be uncontrollable.

Plot

Episode 1

The Doctor sits before the Master, who stands next to a crystal, laughing. Explosions resound.

In UNIT HQ, Jo wakes the Doctor. He enquires if there have been any reports of volcanic eruptions or earthquakes lately.

The Master - or Professor Thascalos, as he calls himself - holds the crystal the Doctor saw in his dream. He's in a laboratory at the Newton Institute, working with Dr. Ruth Ingram. The crystal, the Master claims, is no different than any other piece of quartz, yet it is. Stuart Hyde, a co-worker, enters. The Master leaves them to conduct further experiments. After he has left, Ruth says she doesn't know which is more annoying: "his dictatorial manner or that infernal courtesy of his."

At UNIT HQ, Mike Yates points out the Thera islands, where the quakes have struck. Jo mentions Atlantis, telling the Doctor that Thera is reputedly its location. The Doctor talks to the Brigadier on the phone and tells him to put out a warning to every UNIT section and HQ, because of a dream he had about a half hour ago. He says he is too busy to see the TOMTIT demonstration at the Newton Institute, so Benton is asked to go instead.

At the institute, the Master hypnotises the Director, Dr. Charles Percival, into believing him about his TOMTIT experiments and his credentials. In the lab, Ruth and Stu decided to run the test without "the Professor". Outside, a window cleaner observes their efforts, having been distracted from his work.

 
The Master apologises to Ruth Ingram and Stuart Hyde for his outburst.

At UNIT HQ, the Doctor uses a time sensor to detect the Master. It shows a TARDIS in use. The experiment at the Institute shows the jar at one end disappearing and reappearing at the other. Looking at the clock outside his window, the Master notices it has slowed down. The experiment is causing an overload, but Ruth and Stu contain it. Outside, the window cleaner falls from his ladder.

The Doctor and Jo decide to follow the signal. They set off in Bessie. Back at the institute, the Master confronts Ruth and Stu, berating them for their foolishness. They tell him about the overload and he tells them they were drawing power from outside time itself. Stu looks out the window; a convoy is approaching with a UNIT Jeep in it. The Master tells Ruth and Stu to leave him to his work.

The Doctor and Jo realise that the signal must be coming from Wootton, where the institute is. Using Bessie's super-drive function, they speed along. UNIT arrive at the institute and find the window cleaner, alive but injured.

The Brigadier, Benton, Dr. Cook, his aide Proctor and Percival enter the control room with Ruth at the research station. Cook complains about his pheasant lunch and expenditures. The Master enters in a radiation suit, his features hidden.

The test begins and Ruth warns the Master that the power is overloading. Stu is in the crystal room. He gets too much power and can't control it. He calls to them to switch off. Ruth shouts the warning at the Master. The Master only yells out, "Come, Kronos, come!!!"

Episode 2

 
Stu aged into an old man.

The Doctor and Jo arrive in Bessie. Jo seems to freeze. The Doctor runs to the laboratory, where he orders Ruth to reverse the polarity and cut the power. They go to help Stu, only to find he has been aged to an eighty year old man.

Different theories are suggested - radiation and a change in metabolism, both of which the Doctor denies. The Brigadier points out that the only thing that makes people age naturally is the passing of time; the Doctor realises this is the explanation - Stu's personal time has been vastly accelerated. They learn that Professor Thascalos is the Master - Thascalos is Greek for Master.

Stu wakes up and starts rambling. The Doctor demands he tell what he saw. With difficulty, Stu replies "Kronos!" The Doctor and Ruth go back to the laboratory whilst the Brigadier orders troops from UNIT, as well as the Doctor's TARDIS. He tells Percival to order an evacuation of the building of all but essential personnel by 3 o' clock.

Meanwhile, Ruth shows the Doctor the crystal. He explains that outside space-time live creatures called Chronovores, time eaters. Kronos is the most fearsome of the lot. The crystal is the original from Atlantis, which summoned Kronos.

Percival finds the Master in his study, and panics. The Master hypnotises him into not worrying and continues with his sums. Both the Doctor and the Master are confused about the earlier power build up, which logically shouldn't have happened. The Doctor discovers that the crystal has been moved through interstitial time. This means it really is the original crystal used to summon Kronos in Atlantis.

The Master tricks Benton out of the laboratory by faking instructions from the Brigadier. Benton, however, climbs back in through the window, having seen through the Master's ruse. The Master knocks him out and summons an Atlantean priest called Krasis.

Whilst the Master orders Krasis to give him the secret to controlling Kronos, Benton escapes and warns the Doctor. Kronos is summoned and devours Percival. The Brigadier, Benton and Ruth all begin to run in slow motion, so the Doctor pulls them out of the time field. Stu's ageing is suddenly reversed, returning his age to twenty-five. The Doctor orders them all back inside.

The Master returns Kronos to the crystal, which Krasis claims is but a portion of the original. In Atlantis, Hippius asks Lord Dallius if the time has come for Kronos to return at last. Dallius is old enough to remember the time of Kronos and fears his return. He shows Hippius the true crystal, which is guarded by a creature "too horrible to imagine".

 
The Doctor constructs a device out of assorted items.

The Doctor cobbles together a time flow analog, which works like jamming a radio signal. He claims he made them at school to spoil his fellow student's time experiments. It works, until the Master uses the TOMTIT device to overload it. He sets about delaying the convoy from UNIT, using a medieval knight, a troop of Roundheads and a Doodlebug (a German bomb).

The Doctor, Jo and the Brigadier go to meet the convoy. Fortunately they are unharmed. Ruth, Stu and Benton go to the laboratory to stop the Master. The Doctor and Jo follow in the Doctor's TARDIS, using the time sensor as a homing device and placing the Doctor's TARDIS inside the Master's.

The Doctor explains that if the frequency of the two TARDISes is too high, even by a fraction, a Time Ram will occur - utter annihilation. This does not dissuade Jo, so they take off. According to the Doctor, the time the journey seems to take (it really takes no time at all) depends on the mood of the TARDIS.

 
The Doctor's TARDIS inside the Master's TARDIS.

They end up stuck in a space loop with the Master's TARDIS - if they enter one, they come out into the other. The UNIT convoy arrives at the Institute, but the Master freezes them in space-time. Krasis and he escape into the TARDIS, leaving Benton, Ruth and Stu trapped inside the building. As this is going on, the Master taunts the Doctor, pointing out that he could easily throw his enemy into the Time Vortex and refusing to listen to the Doctor. When the Doctor forces the sound of his voice through to the Master's TARDIS, the Master feeds the words back to him and makes them come out as garbled nonsense.

With no other options, the Doctor orders Jo to close the door behind him when he steps into the Master's TARDIS. Yet again the Master refuses to listen to reason and summons Kronos, who devours the Doctor. The Master sends Kronos back into the crystal and breaks the lock on the Doctor's TARDIS, sending Jo and it tumbling through the Vortex.

Jo hears the Doctor calling to her, along with many other whispering voices. He explains they are his subconscious thoughts and tells her not to listen too closely. The TARDIS is relaying his thoughts to Jo; she follows his instructions and pulls a red handle on the third control panel, allowing the TARDIS to pull the Doctor out of the Vortex.

Episode 3

to be added

Episode 4

to be added

Episode 5

to be added

Episode 6

The Bull faced man, a giant of a man, raises its horns at Jo. Lakis comes into Dalios and the Doctor. She is taken out by Cretin who tried to stop her. But the Doctor hears her. Jo hides from the monster man but it is searching for her. Krasis orders a guard with a trident to seize the Doctor at the doors. The Doctor uses Venusian Karate to get the spear against both the guard and Krasis's necks, "Sorry to hold you up like this, Krasis, but I need that key!" He gets the key from Krasis's neck chain and snaps the trident in two. He gets into the doors and calls for Jo.

Jo finds herself at a dead end and turns as the Minotaur rushes at her. The Lordling Hippias comes at it with a flaming torch but is thrown down. He attacks it again and it picks him up bodily to throw him threw some glass. The Doctor arrives and uses his red cape and jacket to bull fight the Minotaur, uttering Spanish. It falls. The Doctor gets to Jo but moves her out of the way as it charges them both now. It goes through a smoking ravine or pit and a bit of glass too. Hippias is dead. The broken glass held a room where the crystal is kept. Jo tells the Doctor it is beautiful but at the same time it gives her a funny, horrible and creepy feeling. The Doctor thinks the Master's little game is at an end. Krasis is there with his guards. The Doctor orders Krasis to take him to see the King.

He does. The King is the Master now. The Master chuckles that Krasis is a jolly, funny fellow who loves a joke... as Krasis stands there with a scowl. The Palace Revolution has been a complete success. Galleia arrives and tells them the King is still the King. The Master thanks them for getting the crystal for him. Their reward tomorrow: a suitable meeting with Kronos, "And this time Doctor, there will be no mistake!" Dalios is supposedly being treated with honour. The Doctor and Jo are taken away. The Master tells the Queen that he has a lot to do and she must leave him alone too. He tells her she must learn to obey to his will and carry out his commands like a soldier. Galleia tells him, "Like a servant girl. And you must learn, my love, that Galleia is a Queen." Nevertheless, she leaves.

The Doctor and Jo are in a cell tied up with their backs to a stone pole and sitting on hay. Jo is nervous but the Doctor remains calm. If the Master wins the whole of creation is delicately balanced in cosmic terms. All order and structure will be swept away and nothing left but chaos. Jo feels it seems sort of pointless. The Doctor then tells her about his meeting with K,ampo a hermit

Dalios is shoved into the cell even though he wants to see the Queen. He tries to shove the guard out of way but the guard hits him in the head with the trident and he falls. The guard shuts the door. Dalios falls, horrified that that his sweet queen would betray him. He asks them to lean close to him. The vision of a dying man... Atlantis is doomed, the Doctor is a true philosopher, Dalios says. The world must be saved and the Doctor is the only one to do it. He falls down onto his back and dies. Jo cries. "We won't fail you, Dalios," the Doctor says after he calls out to his friend Dalios.

The next morning, Galleia is announced with horns. Galleia now speaks to the brethren of the counsel. Now they will have the holiness, the most venerable lord Master. He stands at her side and Cretin orders silence. The counsel is small but the few who put him here are to claim their just reward. Kronos the most terrible will come and the Master's assistant Krasis operates the machine. Jo and the Doctor ask about the rest of the counsel. They tell Galleia that Dalios is dead. She laments this and asks if this is true. Just moments ago calling him an old man, she now demands an answer. The Master gives it and will also give her power to reach her most ambitious dreams. He was an old man and he was stubborn, the Master says. Galleia hits him or tries to as he grabs her arms. She tells her guards to seize the Master but before they can do anything, Krasis operates the machine. Kronos appears and begins destroying Atlantis. The columns collapse. Krasis is killed. Kronos will not obey the Master. The Master runs to the crystal and grabs it. In the chaos of screaming people, the flying and screeching Kronos, Galleia unties Jo. Jo runs and jumps the Master from behind, trying to stop him. The Master, Jo on his back and her arms around his neck, enters his TARDIS. Galleia unties the Doctor, too. The Master's TARDIS vanishes, still in the form of a computer bank. And with the Master, Jo, and the crystal. The Doctor dashes into his TARDIS leaving behind the wings of Kronos beating to the sight of dead people and a stunned Galleia. She bows her head in sadness.

The Master ties Miss Grant's hands and says of the Doctor, "You know, I'm going to miss him." The Master tells her he controls the tiger Kronos. Jo says, "Even a tiger comes when he hears a lamb bleating." The Master tells her that was worthy of the late lamented Doctor. The Master laughs and slaps his hands. He could kick himself for not having polished the Doctor off long ago. No Doctor to ruin things for his control of the universe. Dominion and absolute power for all time and over all space. The Doctor calls on the screen, "I'll soon sort him out for you." The Master tells him that the Doctor must be as indestructible as that wretched TARDIS of his. The Master has his TARDIS, Kronos, and Miss Grant... he holds all the cards. The Doctor tells him he will Time Ram. A bluff, the Master says. The Doctor starts it and his control starts to go over the safety limit. Two TARDISes occupying the same space at the same time. Oblivion. If the Doctor doesn't do this, Kronos will be free. The Master tells him to do it. The Doctor calls the Master's bluff, "Goodbye Jo." The Doctor gives him one last chance. The Master almost believed the Doctor would do it. The Master tells the Doctor he cannot destroy Jo: his weakness: pity and compassion. Jo tells the Doctor to do it: think of all those millions of people who will never be born. The Doctor tells her they will find another way. The Master dreams of immeasurable glory. Jo grabs it and Time Rams the ship, "Goodbye Doctor!"

Both TARDISes appear in a space time void. Jo wakes up untied and goes out to the limbo. She enters the Doctor's TARDIS and finds him on his back unconscious too -- like the Master. Jo thinks they are all dead. The pair go out. He tells Jo he was about to Time Ram them himself, she shouldn't have.

Kronos, a large, giant face of a woman appears over the TARDISes and the limbo landscape. She can be all things: a destroyer, a healer, a creator. She is beyond good and evil as they know it. They are on the boundary of her reality and theirs. They brought themselves here and the Time Ram freed her -- Kronos from the Master. It took her to the threshold of being. She owes them. They wish to go home in the TARDIS. Jo asks about the Master. She wants him to stay for torment. The Master runs out and pleads with the Doctor to help him, on his knees. The Doctor asks one last favour - to spare the Master, his life, his freedom. The Doctor asks if she will allow them to deal with him in their own way. The Master thanks the Doctor. Following behind the Doctor and Jo, the Master shoves Jo into the TARDIS and enters his own TARDIS. He leaves. Kronos tells them they asked for him to have his freedom, he has it.

Ruth and Stu feed baby Benton. Ruth is trying to use the devices to stop the gap for good now. Jo asks the Doctor why he asked. The Doctor convinces Jo that neither of them would condemn anyone to an eternity of torture.. Jo thinks it is terrible... all those people dying. They are about to land back in Cambridge. It all happened three hundred thousand, five hundred years ago.

As Stu countdowns, Ruth increases power. The TARDIS appears and out come the Doctor and Jo. The device works and the Brigadier and men move again. They get down as it blows up. Ruth cannot start it up again... not without the Professor. The Brigadier comes running in and asks where the Master is. He asks what Jo is doing in that getup and asks where Sergeant Benton is. Benton, naked, stands up, fully adult again and asks if someone would mind telling him what is going on around here.

Cast

Crew

References

The Doctor

  • The Doctor's reaction times are ten times faster than those of a human.
  • The Doctor talks to Jo (while they're tied up) about his home: "When I was a little boy, we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain. 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 had learned the secret of life. So, when my black day came, I went and asked him to help me.'"
  • The Doctor asks Jo not to listen too closely to his subconscious thoughts, saying he's "...not all that proud of some of them". At least one of the voices seems to be humming thoughtlessly.

The Doctor's items

  • Bessie has brakes that absorb inertia, resulting in an instant, safe stop, even at high speeds.

Earth locations

Governments

Individuals

The Master

  • The Master is capable of flawlessly imitating the voice of others, including the Brigadier.

TARDISes

  • The Doctor tells Jo the TARDIS has been redecorated. (The Master's TARDIS appears to have undergone a similar redecoration.)
  • Jo uses The Master's TARDIS to time ram the Doctor's (both the Doctor and the Master hesitated to start the time ram).
  • The perceived speed of a journey outside of space-time (i.e. in the Time Vortex) depends, according to the Doctor, on the mood of the TARDIS.

Temporal theory

Transport technology

  • The TOMTIT machine works with assistance from the Master.

Story notes

Ratings

  • Episode 1 - 7.6 million viewers
  • Episode 2 - 7.4 million viewers
  • Episode 3 - 8.1 million viewers
  • Episode 4 - 7.6 million viewers
  • Episode 5 - 6.0 million viewers
  • Episode 6 - 7.6 million viewers

Myths

  • Well-known actress Susan Penhaligon, making an early television appearance as Galleia's handmaiden Lakis, was originally to have been credited as Virginia Mull. (Virginia Mull was a different actress who had a small uncredited walk-on role as a serving girl in the Atlantis scenes of this story. Susan Penhaligon, who was a late replacement for actress Ann Michelle, was always to have been credited under her own name.)
  • The Master's alias is 'Thascales'. (The majority of printed and online episode guides say this. Unfortunately, (a) 'Thascales' isn't the Greek for 'Master', and (b) no-one in the story says 'Thascales'. They all say 'Thascalos', which is the Greek for 'Master'. The error first appears in the second edition of Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke's The Making of Doctor Who, and presumably has been taken from there by all subsequent episode guides without checking against the broadcast episodes. Terrance Dicks, however, has the correct spelling in the novelisation.)

Filming locations

  • Swallowfield Park, Swallowfield, Berkshire
  • Stratfield Saye Park, Stratfield Saye, Hampshire
  • Old Church Farm (road), Hartley Wintney, Hampshire
  • Park Lane, Fair Cross, Berkshire
  • School Lane, Heckfield Heath/Riseley, Hampshire
  • Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
  • BBC Television Centre (Studio 3 & 4), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • In episode one, the interior of the police box prop is visible.
  • Jo is obviously operating a button with her index finger on the time sensor in episode 1 to make the prop spin as it "detects" the Doctor's TARDIS.
  • The crystal moves when Benton tries to lift it, even as he and the Doctor talk about it being impossible to move.
  • The Doctor doesn't close the TARDIS door all the way before taking off with Jo, yet it is completely shut when they dematerialise.
  • The V1 footage is black and white.
  • The Doctor's supposedly backwards dialogue when played backwards is still gibberish.
  • The smashed "mirror" in episode 6 is obviously made of foil.

Continuity

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

  • This story was first released on DVD in the UK on 29 March 2010 as part of the Myths and Legends Boxset. The one disc set includes a restored version of the story, as well as the following special features:
  • Commentary by John Levene (Benton), Susan Penhaligon (Lakis), Barry Letts (Producer), Marion McDougall (Production Assistant), Graham Duff (Fan/Writer), Phil Ford (Fan/Writer), Joe Lidster (Fan/Writer), James Moran (Fan/Writer) and Toby Hadoke (Moderator).
  • Between Now… And Now!
  • Restoration Comparison
  • Coming Soon Trailer
  • Radio Times Billings
  • Production Subtitles
  • Photo Gallery

  • AUS DVD cover

  • AUS DVD Box Set cover

  • US DVD cover

VHS releases

This story was released in the UK as Doctor Who: The Time Monster in November 2001 (as part of the Master box set which also contains TV: Colony in Space).

  • 367px-Limited edition colony in space time monster tin vhs.jpg

    UK & AUS Box Set

  • UK VHS cover

  • US VHS cover

  • AUS VHS cover

External links

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