The Time Monster Episode Two

The one where Stuart is aged by more than 50 years...

I do like the way that time is treated in this story. Just look at the time distortion affecting the outside of the laboratory: Bessie speeds to a halt but only the Doctor is able to move, as Jo is held motionless in time's embrace (although her hair and clothes flap in the breeze quite freely!). The Doctor is able to move through distorted time like he's wading through treacle, because he's a Time Lord of course. He runs in slow-mo until he reaches the epicentre of the distortion in the lab and turns off TOMTIT by - what else? - reversing the polarity.

Sadly, Stuart was caught in the "time blast" and has been aged by over 50 years, from 25 to 80, and the make-up by Joan Barrett is pretty impressive, giving Ian Collier huge bags under his eyes, white hair and wrinkled skin (but no beard, oddly). It's quite a challenge for Collier, and the moment where he wakes from his aged stupor and bellows "KRONOS!" into camera, his red-ringed eyes blazing, is very startling (scary even, for kids?).

It's also rather sombre that the Doctor cannot promise he'll be able to reverse the ageing process, meaning poor Stuart may remain old for the rest of his now very much shorter life. I find this aspect of the story quite dark, and I'm glad it's not treated flippantly. The life and prospects of a promising young scientist have been wiped away. Who knows what Stuart would have achieved in his career if he'd lived out his years at the proper pace? I genuinely cannot remember what happens to Stuart by the end of this story, but I hope what's happened isn't brushed under the carpet.

The Pertwee era had a rather laid-back attitude to medical treatment, often choosing not to send injured or ailing people to hospital, but preferring to allow them some bed-rest before subjecting the patient to the rigors of getting the right treatment (see also the unhurried treatment of the poor window cleaner in episode 1!). Here, Stuart is installed in an uber-70s apartment to rest before being sent to hospital, and so that he can be questioned by the Doctor about his experience. Stuart sensed the presence of Kronos, a Chronovore, or Time-Eater, which inhabits the void outside of space/ time.

The Doctor says that the people of Atlantis attempted to control Kronos using the quartz crystal, and that is what the Master is trying to do once more. It's stated that in Greek legend, Chronos had a child called Poseidon, god of Atlantis, but actually it was Cronus who fathered Poseidon (there's a subtle difference, but the two are often confused or conflated). Interestingly, Chronos also had an offspring called Chaos (the void state preceding the creation of the universe). Mingling Doctor Who with Greek mythology really works.

Apart from Stuart ageing, not a lot else happens in episode 2. The Master hides in Dr Percival's office to do his sums, although why he thinks UNIT will not look for him there is baffling (the fact that they don't is equally as baffling!). The Doctor does a lot of piecing ideas together with Dr Ingram, whose feminism seems to have given way to a standard Doctor Who companion role of asking questions and generally acceding to the Doctor. Dr Ingram accepts the Doctor's sudden and unannounced presence without question, and happily falls into line as his assistant. She's basically being Jo Grant in this episode while the real Jo tends to the withered Stuart, and it's a failing of the writers (the credited Robert Sloman and the uncredited Barry Letts) for not pulling focus on Ruth's strong personality.

The Doctor also locates the Master's TARDIS, which feels like a major achievement at first, but then he promptly ignores it. He doesn't try to get inside it, steal from it, disable it, or even have it guarded. Surely the one place the Master will want to return to is the TOMTIT lab, where the crystal of Kronos and his TARDIS are?

Oh, and the idea that the crystal isn't really there, because it's linked through time with its earlier "self" in ancient Atlantis, is fascinating and crazy all at once. Benton cannot lift the crystal because the crystal isn't really there, it's jumped through interstitial time to Atlantis. I'm not altogether sure that makes sense, but, rather like the idea that time is made up of "minute present moments", I'll go with it because it sounds so cool.

You have to admire Benton here though, for refusing to be fooled by the Master's impersonation of the Brigadier (and since when could the Master do that anyway?). He concocts an elaborate ruse to make it look like he's left the lab unattended, but actually goes round the back and climbs through a window ready to leap out on the Master when he walks in. Unfortunately, the Master distracts him ("the oldest trick in the book") and knocks him out, which rather punctures Benton's "big moment". That the 5ft 7in Roger Delgado could fell and incapacitate the 6ft 2in John Levene (playing a trained soldier) is really rather silly, but then Jo Grant clobbered Mike Yates in Terror of the Autons, so anything seems possible in the Pertwee era.

The cliffhanger sees the Master revving up TOMTIT again to call upon someone who can help him harness the crystal's power, who turns out to be an elderly man from the soft-focus land of Atlantis. The close-up on Donald Eccles's face melts very well into the end titles.

As an aside... Jo says: "A merry Michaelmas to you too!" to Benton on the phone, which seems a bit random, but Michaelmas - which takes place on September 29th - is also known as the Feast of the Archangels. And wasn't Stuart babbling about angels when he woke...?

First broadcast: May 27th, 1972

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The aged make-up for Ian Collier is impressive.
The Bad: It's only episode 2 but already the plot has stalled, not getting going again until the arrival of Krasis at the very end.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 19
Neck-rub tally: 8 - the Doctor rubs his neck at 9m 22s when trying to explain Kronos to Ruth.

NEXT TIME: Episode Three...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Three; Episode Four; Episode Five; Episode Six

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-time-monster.html

The Time Monster is available on BBC DVD as part of the Myths and Legends box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Legends-Monster-Underworld/dp/B002SZQC98