The Time Monster is a story with a quirky idea and many memorable moments, but its awkward second half and some hammy acting also give it the questionable honour of one of the worst Pertwee stories among fandom.
Story: 6
This story begins as a pretty typical Master story but quickly turn into something more elaborate, which helps it stand out. It puts more focus on dimensional travel and therefore is something more than your average Earth invasion story.
It's great how we see the Master act under his alter ego of Professor Thascalos for quite some while before revealing his true intentions. He gets some nice interactions with the two scientists.
I love the way this story plays with different aspects of time. It's another rare example of the show utilizing its basic premise in a very special manner. It gives this story an edge that makes it memorable and fleshes out the otherwise quite simple premise. Without it, this would just be another The Mind of Evil (1971). Now, it's more of a Third Doctor version of The Mind Robber (1969).
The script suffers somewhat from the scenes set in Atlantis, that feel out-of-place and are pretty badly acted. Luckily, those scenes only form a small part of the story. The Atlantis sequences ate the end are among the most embarrassing scenes in Doctor Who history. The strongest elements are those that play around with the concept of time. such as how it plays around with the generic UNIT fight sequence by pitting the soldiers against all kinds of unexpected foes.
Episode 4 is where this story truly gets interesting and creative. Having the Master's TARDIS materialize inside the Doctor's TARDIS is a great idea that hasn't been utilized much since. And after that, the story just keeps getting better and better (apart from Episode 5 and its Atlantis sequence). This story bears a bad reputation among the fandom, and while it is embarrassing in many ways, I also admire its creativity.
Acting: 6
Wanda Moore and Ian Collier make for a lovely couple of scientist. They seem very 70s in their manners but somehow I find them fascinating. They have great chemistry together, so they must be more than colleagues. I haven't seen such chemistry on the show sine Ian and Barbara travelled in the TARDIS. Both actors portray their characters very well.
Roger Delgado is amazing, as is Jon Pertwee. They make up for some of the hammy actings this story contains. Donald Eccles is too theatrical as Krasis and Ingrid Pitt and Aidan Murphy in Atlantis are among the five worst actors to ever appear on the show. The entire Atlantis sequence in Episode 5 arguably contains the worst bunch of actors to ever appear on the show.
The Doctor: 8
Once again, I love the warmth and friendly relationship between the Doctor and Jo. It's certainly very different from the early stories of season 8.
One of the greatest moments for the Third Doctor arrives in Episode 3, where he builds the ridiculous contraption using everyday items. You can see Pertwee is struggling to keep a straight face when talking about it.
The Doctor and the Master going at each other in the TARDIS is a memorably funny, if slightly childish, moment.
The Companions: 6
Benton has another great time here, finally being able to stand up against the Master's trickery (at least for a short while).
Jo starts strongly but remains underused throughout this story. Ruth partially takes her place here.
The Monster/Villain: 6
I love the Chronovores as a concept. They make perfect sense, and it's a shame they haven't been used more since this story. That being said, Kronos is pretty laughable here, particularly the way it has been realized (literally a man running around under a white blanket, like a child playing a ghost). The cinematography and visual trickery help somewhat to make Kronos feel more extraordinary.
The Master is once again back, as suave, calculative and evil as ever. This time it's not enough for him to take over the world or even the Universe, he wants power over time itself. If that isn't the ultimate goal, then I don't know what is.
Production: 7
The terrible Kronos design and the lacking Atlantis set decoration aside, this story has pretty solid production values. Director Paul Bernard uses some well-placed camera trickery to hide the fact that Kronos is, in fact, a man in a suit.
The ending sequence of Episode 6 is pretty well-done and looks fine even today.
Pacing: 6
Once again, this story suffers slightly from its length. While it has an interesting idea, it doesn't do much with it throughout its runtime, so four episodes would have suited the script better.
Atmosphere: 7
This story isn't trying to be scary or overly exciting as some other Master stories, but pure fun. And in that sense, it largely succeeds.
The Atlantis sequence at the end is where the story falls apart and turns awkward, mostly due to the terrible acting and very childish story.
Impact: 6
The Time Monster isn't fondly loved among fans of the show, but it did provide some memorable moments for the Third Doctor and was yet another attempt at playing around with the concept of time.
Replay Value: 6
Despite its ideas and many of the things it does very well, I hardly see this as a serial worth particularly many replays. It's a fun one to rewatch now and then.
Random Observations:
The Time Monster present yet another theory as to what happened to Atlantis. It's the third one following the ones in The Underwater Menace (1967) and The Daemons (1971).
I don't know why, but I always giggle when I hear the name TOMTIT. It's such a hilarious abbreviation. Certainly sounds less menacing than WOTAN, BOSS or Keller Machine.
Stephen Thorne might be the more famous actor to appear as Omega (in The Three Doctors, 1972-1973), but Ian Collier, who plays Hyde in this story, portrays Omega in Arc of Infinity (1983) as well as the Big Finish audio story Omega (2003).
This story is the first and only appearance of the lauded "washbowl" redesign of the TARDIS interior, overseen by designer Tim Gleeson. It caused such an uproar among fans that the interior was redesigned yet again for Season 10. Thank God for that, this design truly looks terrible.
From the file marked 'Actors Shared With Other Major Science Fiction Franchises': The Minotaur in Episode 6 is played by Dave Prowse, who most people associate with his appearance as Darth Vader's body in the original Star Wars films.
The hermit mentioned by the Doctor in the final episode is K'anpo Rimpoche, who appears in Pertwee's final serial, Planet of the Spiders (1974).
Doctor: "This is Jo. Jo Grant.". Dalios: "Welcome miss Jojo Grant".
Review by Theo KallströmVIP 6BlockedParent2020-06-15T11:58:50Z
The Time Monster is a story with a quirky idea and many memorable moments, but its awkward second half and some hammy acting also give it the questionable honour of one of the worst Pertwee stories among fandom.
Story: 6
This story begins as a pretty typical Master story but quickly turn into something more elaborate, which helps it stand out. It puts more focus on dimensional travel and therefore is something more than your average Earth invasion story.
It's great how we see the Master act under his alter ego of Professor Thascalos for quite some while before revealing his true intentions. He gets some nice interactions with the two scientists.
I love the way this story plays with different aspects of time. It's another rare example of the show utilizing its basic premise in a very special manner. It gives this story an edge that makes it memorable and fleshes out the otherwise quite simple premise. Without it, this would just be another The Mind of Evil (1971). Now, it's more of a Third Doctor version of The Mind Robber (1969).
The script suffers somewhat from the scenes set in Atlantis, that feel out-of-place and are pretty badly acted. Luckily, those scenes only form a small part of the story. The Atlantis sequences ate the end are among the most embarrassing scenes in Doctor Who history. The strongest elements are those that play around with the concept of time. such as how it plays around with the generic UNIT fight sequence by pitting the soldiers against all kinds of unexpected foes.
Episode 4 is where this story truly gets interesting and creative. Having the Master's TARDIS materialize inside the Doctor's TARDIS is a great idea that hasn't been utilized much since. And after that, the story just keeps getting better and better (apart from Episode 5 and its Atlantis sequence). This story bears a bad reputation among the fandom, and while it is embarrassing in many ways, I also admire its creativity.
Acting: 6
Wanda Moore and Ian Collier make for a lovely couple of scientist. They seem very 70s in their manners but somehow I find them fascinating. They have great chemistry together, so they must be more than colleagues. I haven't seen such chemistry on the show sine Ian and Barbara travelled in the TARDIS. Both actors portray their characters very well.
Roger Delgado is amazing, as is Jon Pertwee. They make up for some of the hammy actings this story contains. Donald Eccles is too theatrical as Krasis and Ingrid Pitt and Aidan Murphy in Atlantis are among the five worst actors to ever appear on the show. The entire Atlantis sequence in Episode 5 arguably contains the worst bunch of actors to ever appear on the show.
The Doctor: 8
Once again, I love the warmth and friendly relationship between the Doctor and Jo. It's certainly very different from the early stories of season 8.
One of the greatest moments for the Third Doctor arrives in Episode 3, where he builds the ridiculous contraption using everyday items. You can see Pertwee is struggling to keep a straight face when talking about it.
The Doctor and the Master going at each other in the TARDIS is a memorably funny, if slightly childish, moment.
The Companions: 6
Benton has another great time here, finally being able to stand up against the Master's trickery (at least for a short while).
Jo starts strongly but remains underused throughout this story. Ruth partially takes her place here.
The Monster/Villain: 6
I love the Chronovores as a concept. They make perfect sense, and it's a shame they haven't been used more since this story. That being said, Kronos is pretty laughable here, particularly the way it has been realized (literally a man running around under a white blanket, like a child playing a ghost). The cinematography and visual trickery help somewhat to make Kronos feel more extraordinary.
The Master is once again back, as suave, calculative and evil as ever. This time it's not enough for him to take over the world or even the Universe, he wants power over time itself. If that isn't the ultimate goal, then I don't know what is.
Production: 7
The terrible Kronos design and the lacking Atlantis set decoration aside, this story has pretty solid production values. Director Paul Bernard uses some well-placed camera trickery to hide the fact that Kronos is, in fact, a man in a suit.
The ending sequence of Episode 6 is pretty well-done and looks fine even today.
Pacing: 6
Once again, this story suffers slightly from its length. While it has an interesting idea, it doesn't do much with it throughout its runtime, so four episodes would have suited the script better.
Atmosphere: 7
This story isn't trying to be scary or overly exciting as some other Master stories, but pure fun. And in that sense, it largely succeeds.
The Atlantis sequence at the end is where the story falls apart and turns awkward, mostly due to the terrible acting and very childish story.
Impact: 6
The Time Monster isn't fondly loved among fans of the show, but it did provide some memorable moments for the Third Doctor and was yet another attempt at playing around with the concept of time.
Replay Value: 6
Despite its ideas and many of the things it does very well, I hardly see this as a serial worth particularly many replays. It's a fun one to rewatch now and then.
Random Observations:
The Time Monster present yet another theory as to what happened to Atlantis. It's the third one following the ones in The Underwater Menace (1967) and The Daemons (1971).
I don't know why, but I always giggle when I hear the name TOMTIT. It's such a hilarious abbreviation. Certainly sounds less menacing than WOTAN, BOSS or Keller Machine.
Stephen Thorne might be the more famous actor to appear as Omega (in The Three Doctors, 1972-1973), but Ian Collier, who plays Hyde in this story, portrays Omega in Arc of Infinity (1983) as well as the Big Finish audio story Omega (2003).
This story is the first and only appearance of the lauded "washbowl" redesign of the TARDIS interior, overseen by designer Tim Gleeson. It caused such an uproar among fans that the interior was redesigned yet again for Season 10. Thank God for that, this design truly looks terrible.
From the file marked 'Actors Shared With Other Major Science Fiction Franchises': The Minotaur in Episode 6 is played by Dave Prowse, who most people associate with his appearance as Darth Vader's body in the original Star Wars films.
The hermit mentioned by the Doctor in the final episode is K'anpo Rimpoche, who appears in Pertwee's final serial, Planet of the Spiders (1974).
Doctor: "This is Jo. Jo Grant.".
Dalios: "Welcome miss Jojo Grant".
Score: 64/120