The Time Monster Episode Four

The one where the Doctor's TARDIS is inside the Master's TARDIS, which is inside the Doctor's TARDIS...

The V-1 explodes somewhere near to the UNIT convoy, but seemingly nobody is killed. The TARDIS is overturned into a ditch, and Captain Yates has a nasty-looking cut to the head, but otherwise all seems well. It's mentioned in passing that a doodlebug bomb fell on the same spot in 1944, so the Master must have brought the bomb forwards through time (but does that mean the bomb didn't hit in 1944 after all, seeing as it has been sent to the future?). The Master is scathingly evil here, asserting that the Doctor's TARDIS "can't be destroyed. But people can."

Meanwhile, Dr Ingram's feminist streak has returned with a vengeance as she tries to get Benton and Stuart to join her in trying to switch off TOMTIT. It's interesting to note that Ruth's strident feminism almost completely disappeared while she was in the presence of the Doctor in episodes 2 and 3, but now he's gone, she's back to her bolshie self, belittling Stu and Benton. Mind you, Stuart is something of a wet lettuce, or as he might say: "Lovey, I'm not 'men'. I'm Stuart Hyde, registered, card-carrying, paid-up coward!" Real men certainly don't say "lovey"...

Ruth and her boys spend this episode switching TOMTIT off, switching TOMTIT on, or debating whether to do one of these two things. It's nice that Benton comes across as quite independent here, which is good for John Levene, who's probably enjoying his most characterful story yet. It's surprising that Benton is being so pro-active though, seeing as he was hoping for a weekend's leave before all this happened. Benton is pushed to the fore in this story, becoming the face of UNIT while Yates is hospitalised (we don't see him again now until The Green Death) and the Brigadier is trapped in a time hiatus, like a fly in amber!

The less said about the moment Benton is regressed to a baby, the better.

I find it rather too coincidental that the Doctor has redecorated his TARDIS so that it matches precisely the new look interior of the Master's TARDIS (he's ditched the filing cabinets full of evil plans). The only difference is the Master's time rotor, which is not housed within a glass column, but both refreshed TARDISes have walls full of pudding bowls, which is, er... different.

By now it's clear that Krasis is a pointless character, whose usefulness lasted about 30 seconds, serving only to bring his special seal from Atlantis to the 1970s. He now floats about like a bad smell, although he does get his own "companion moment" when he discovers the Master's TARDIS is bigger on the inside.

Most of the scenes involving the Doctor, the Master, Jo and Krasis take place in their TARDIS control rooms, bickering via video-coms. I do love the concept of the Doctor's TARDIS being inside the Master's TARDIS at the same time that the Master's TARDIS is inside the Doctor's, it's a wonderfully crazy notion (which Christopher H Bidmead picked up and ran with years later in Logopolis). It's a fanboy's dream to see Doctor Who iconography squished together like this, two images you'd never normally see simultaneously (the interior and exterior of the same thing).

I'm not 100% clear on how that is possible, but it's great fun to see the Doctor walk out of his own TARDIS and into the Master's, and then out of the Master's and back into his. It's a paradoxical loop... which makes it even harder to understand how the Master can get out of his TARDIS in order to fiddle about with TOMTIT in the lab. How come the Master's TARDIS portal leads to the outside world, and the Doctor's doesn't? It doesn't quite work, but then paradoxes don't tend to, which is why they're so attractive.

Also, how come the Doctor can suddenly fly his TARDIS, when he's supposed to be exiled on Earth? All of his previous TARDIS journeys have taken place because the Time Lords have allowed (or instigated) them, but here he just hops in and does what he wants, which is a pretty blatant flouting of the programme's own rules!

I've said before how I enjoy the treatment of time in this story, but plot-wise, The Time Monster is an unfocussed, wayward mess. Too much of this episode is taken up with nonsensical silliness such as the Master reversing the Doctor's speech, and the Doctor and the Master whiffling on about Jo's coccyx ("I'm sorry about your coccyx, Jo, but these things are sent to try us," smirks the Doctor, followed by the Master's "I'm sorry about your coccyx too, Miss Grant"). For heaven's sake, get on with the story!

All this, plus baby Benton and some rubbish about thraskins and plinges, and things have basically taken a very nasty turn for the ridiculous. Where is the plot going? Where is anybody going? It all seems so pointless. It's like writers Barry Letts and Robert Sloman left the plot on autopilot while they nipped out for tea and cakes. All this bickering in TARDISes, the Brigadier in suspended animation because there's nothing else for him to do, an Atlantean high priest wandering about with nothing to do, a brief and pointless reappearance by the squawking Kronos... Jo's bruised coccyx! What is it all for?

The climax sees the Master command Kronos to strand the Doctor in the time vortex, a "living death" (an accurate summation of this story), and Jo and the TARDIS are flung off into the vortex too (Jo faints at one point, but recovers so quickly that her fainting was barely worthwhile).

What a load of plinge.

By the way... the pseudonym Walter Plinge is often used in London theatrical circles for when an actor does not want their name in the programme. In this case, I wouldn't blame them.

First broadcast: June 10th, 1972

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: It's a tiny thing, but I do like the mournful moan the TARDIS makes while in flight, like a very sad and distant wind. I've no idea if it's been used before now, but I know it's heard quite prevalently in Pyramids of Mars too.
The Bad: Thraskin; plinge; coccyx.
Overall score for episode: ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 20 - The Doctor says "Now listen to me, Jo" when he's about to leave the TARDIS.
Neck-rub tally: 9 - The Doctor rubs his neck at 19m 40s when risking leaving his TARDIS to enter the Master's.

NEXT TIME: Episode Five...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Three; 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