Started 11 JulyThis is very good.
Great premise, well shot and directed, excellent performances from the regulars.
But it's slow, studio bound and has some problems.
The Viking attack on the village and its apparent effect on Edith is not very nice at all (or appalling if you're not bending over backwards to make excuses...).
Plus the village population does not seem very realistically balanced. (Few women and no children... ?)
There's a strange scene in ep2 when Vicki and Steven come across the old fashioned gramophone in the monastery. They're both meant to be from the far future yet they have no curious questions or qualms about finding a 7 minutes a side 78 rpm lo-fi gramophone "set" to simulate absent chanting monks.
The monk's fry up breakfast is a bit anachronistic. The snuff sniffing is too. It's definitely snuff. It's not....er, cocaine or amyl nitrate... is it?
Fuddy duddy old fashioned funny "Dad" performance from Peter Butterworth as the Meddling Monk is great but outta date by even 60's standards. Maybe 1965 was too early for a way out cool hippie monk but it would have worked just as well IMHO.
What's new here is the idea of combining historical setting with a sci fi plot. It is a template for some excellent DW's in the future (The Masque of Mandragora, The Visitation, The Eaters of Light to name just 3). What's weird is the number of years it takes to follow up on this concept. (i.e. The Time Warrior in 1973)
I reckon this could be remade as quite a good movie. You'd change a few things to update it but to see a well directed modern version of this would be a delight.
And so the end of Series 2 is reached. This only ever had meaning in the UK since the serials were shown in Australia and elsewhere as 'Sales Blocks' (I should look these up again and find out what was grouped with what) and repeats and out of order showing was commonplace. Likely Time Meddler was grouped with a set that sold less well and this accounts for its initial unavailability in the first 1978 archive audit. Series 3 was never grouped together wholly. A large chunk is missing from overseas viewings since Masterplan is not included.
UK ratings were well off the peak of Web Planet back in Feb 65 (avg 12.5 million) since this went out in July. Superficially the ratings had seemed to tail off since Crusade in March but this would likely have been viewed as normal since approach of summer meant longer daylight hours and less viewers generally.
ABM Rating 3.5/4
SPJ Rating 7.5/10
LJM Rating 4.5/5
Peak Ranking No. 1 (out of 17)
Link to Cumulative Rankings
Link to Rankings Scoreboard
This story must have been very exciting when it first came out especially the part 3 cliffhanger - another TARDIS!
ReplyDeleteI like the portrayal of the Doctor by William Hartnell in this story. He seems more in dominant and not reliant on the other characters (especially Ian).
There is a nice pace in the first episode. This one is better than I remembered it. I give it 7.5 out of 10
This is fun, I enjoy this story of old :D
ReplyDelete4 out of 4 ( too high??)
From Quickflix
ReplyDeleteThis Dr Who is a bit of a landmark on several fronts. It's the final story of the second series, the first without any of the original companions and of course the first time we see the Doctor encounter anybody who could be said to be from the same place he is. Noted 60's comedy actor Peter Butterworth (you've seen in him in nearly every Carry On movie) plays the The Time Meddler in this story where the twist is that The Doctor meets another one of his kind who is up to the same thing as he is (wandering around in time and space) except he's a little less strict about the interfering in time idea. This one is written by Dennis Spooner who wrote many 60's and 70's British TV shows including The Avengers, Professionals, Thunderbirds, and sparkles throughout with wit and nuance. The direction by Douglas Camfield is his first effort in a run of 13 stories which is a record still yet to be equalled. Douggie is responsible for some of truly fantastically well directed Dr Who's like Terror of the Zygons (1975) and would doubtless much more famous today if it weren't for his tragic early death from a heart condition in 1980. Despite the obvious studio bound limitations of this production, the pace is steady enough. To sum up, this is vintage TV. It's B&W and creaky and won't stamd up to today's fast paced. cgi fuelled space fantasies. But it's a quality product fashioned by people who knew what they were doing and even cared a little bit too.