Doctor Who: Series 2, Episodes 36-39 – “The Time Meddler” (1965)

*A few spoilers.*

This one’s a classic:  the first hint of the Doctor encountering one of his own people other than himself and Susan.  Long before the Master, before the word “Gallifrey” or even “Time Lord,” there was the Monk.

Fresh off the departure of Ian and Barbara, the First Doctor, Vicki, and new companion Steven step out of the TARDIS in 1066.  Steven, naturally, refuses to believe they’ve traveled in time (this aspect always kills me—after having seen that it’s bigger on the inside and irrefutably accepting that it can travel in space, why is time still impossible to believe?), and the presence of an enigmatic monk with anachronistic gizmos doesn’t exactly help to convince him.  The Doctor has more important things to worry about, however, than whether or not Steven believes in the TARDIS’s abilities—the course of human history is at stake.

The Monk is a great mildly-recurring antagonist for the Doctor.  I understand why he didn’t get used more, but I do enjoy him whenever he appears.  Rather than a capital-V villain, he’s just an unscrupulous guy using the past as his own personal playground.  Seeing the meddling he gets up to, the Doctor’s lectures to Barbara about history retroactively become a lot clearer—with that much power and unfettered access to history, a Time Lord could cause a great deal of trouble if he doesn’t live by a strict code (*cough* Time Lord Victorious! *cough*)

And come on, who doesn’t love his to-do list involving crushing the Viking invasion and meeting King Harold?  As well as being a great example of the damage an unprincipled Time Lord can do, the Monk is just such an entertaining opponent.  He makes a good thorn in the Doctor’s side, and it’s only fitting that the Doctor combats him more with mischief than with retribution.  (Plus, we get our first look at a TARDIS with a functioning chameleon circuit!)

Our heroes all do pretty well for themselves.  It being Steven’s first time out, he makes a slow start of it, especially with his insistence that this whole 1066 business is just an elaborate ruse, but he gets there in the end.  I love it when Doctors or companions trick people into revealing stuff, and Steven pulls a nice one on the Monk.  Not quite as much for Vicki, but she’s solid throughout, guiding Steven through his first TARDIS adventure and basically showing him the companion ropes.  I love that, too—overlapping companions where the one with more experience can help initiate the newbie.

And the Doctor is just great here.  He plays tricks, he wears disguises, he uncovers secret passageways—what does he not do?  It’s an excellent story for One, a serial in which he feels the most like the quintessential Doctor we come to know over the course of the series.  I know I’ve used this quote from An Adventure in Space and Time a lot when it comes to One, but this is definitely a story where you can see “the twinkle.”