The Time Monster: Episode Six

Review of all 6 episodes:

This 6 part story can be roughly described as having a largely unimpressive opening 4 parts (including a poor 3rd part) and a more decent final 2 parts. The overall story is a mess with some very poorly thought through ideas in a jumble with only the final 2 episodes reaching more of a quality you would expect from the average Doctor Who adventure. Episode 3 of this story is among the worst Doctor Who episodes yet there are some decent, fun aspects throughout the story, particularly in episodes 5 and 6 to thankfully stop the whole thing from being a disaster.

The story has The Master, well played as usual by Roger Delgado, using a special crystal to try to contact and control an immensely powerful being from 'outside time'. This being, Kronos, is the basis of the mythical Greek God and is the most dangerous example of a 'time eater' (which in 2 different revised forms later appear in audio adventures and the 2005 story 'Father's Day). He wishes to use Kronos' powers to control the universe but the dangers are that Kronos could destroy the known universe entirely. The Doctor tries to stop him in contemporary Britain with UNIT but also following The Master to the ancient civilization on Atlantis.

The script and story are muddled and silly until finally reaching a greater quality in episodes 5 and 6. There are some good aspects in episodes 1 and 2 but they are silly in some ways. The Doctor's precognitive dream being one strange and inexplicable plot point but also racing along in Bessie, quoting of Venusian measurements and clumsy plot setup. It is below the standard of dialogue and story you expect from Doctor Who but is saved by some decent touches mostly thanks to The Doctor, Jo, the Brigadier, Benton and The Master all being acted enjoyably by the great regular cast.

Things get worse though in episode 3 which is often embarrassing in its nonsensical dialogue and ridiculous ideas such as the Doctor's home made contraption and the Master bringing attacks by knights on horseback and cannonfire. The production is also below par with the manifestation of Kronos not great. It is one of the weakest episodes of Doctor Who with its fun/camp qualities being outweighed by badly thought through ideas and disappointing scripting.

Episode 4 is not as bad but is also below par by the high standards of the show. Once things settle down in Atlantis with great guest characters Galleia and Dalios beautifully played by Ingrid Pitt and George Cormack the story finally manages to get more to a quality level you would expect and there is an enjoyable final third to the adventure. The Minotaur idea and its attack scene is not good but it looks pretty OK for the day and is played by Darth Vader actor Dave Prowse before he became known in Star Wars so that is kind of fun.

Taken as a whole this is clearly the weakest Pertwee era story but has quite a bit of fun along the way with some decent stuff that partly counteracts the sillier bits.

My ratings: Part 1 - 6.5/10, Part 2 - 6/10, Part 3 - 3.5/10, Part 4 - 6/10, Part 5 - 7.5/10, Part 6 - 7/10. Overall - 6.08/10.

Following on from another disappointing story The Mutants this season got dragged down after a good start. The normally consistent quality of the Pertwee era was let down with these 2 stories, particularly The Time Monster. Therefore Season 9 stands as the lowest Pertwee season for me but is still a mid table season thanks to the strong first 3 stories.

My Season 9 Average Rating: 8.21/10.