The Time Monster

The last time I watched this story was on a dodgy VHS copy so first of all let me pay a little tribute to The Restoration Team for the work done on this - and other - DVD releases. There's a short documentary on the DVD, which covers that work on The Time Monster in more detail.

What of the story itself? Well, it isn't one of the best but I don't think it is quite as bad as all that. It is definitely far too long. Huge chunks of episodes 2, 3 and 4 are nothing more than padding whilst the story dribbles along. The story itself follows the pretty bog-standard Third Doctor v The Master pattern.

The Master seems to an intergalactic Baldrick. His 'cunning plans' leave him trapped or requiring the Doctor's intervention to escape and this one, involving a mysterious creature called Chronos, ends precisely as expected. Another round of the Doctor v The Master ends with the Doctor, if not quite victorious, at least undefeated.

O and once again The Master has decided to hang about the Doctor's locality as part of his cunning plan. This time 'disguised' as Professor Thascolos. Once again his alias is a little thin...apparently Thascolos means Master in Greek. I'm sorry but the Master is an idiot really and this is the maddest that Delgado's Master has appeared so far with maniacal laughter and shouty rants. However he's still icily polite when he needs to be.

Jon Pertwee is good in this. Yes, I like the daisiest daisy speech and Pertwee delivers it in a nicely subdued fashion. I quite like how calm the Doctor is throughout this story, in contrast to the Master's more frantic behavior.

The supporting performances are pretty variable. The banter between Stuart (Ian Collier) and Professor Ruth Ingram (Wanda Moore) is a little strained when it is - I think - supposed to be witty and amusing. Whether that's the fault of the actors is a moot point. I think the script is to blame.

The Atlantians are all either a bit wet or a bit doddery with the exception of Ingrid Pitt as Queen Galea. I can't avoid mentioning the Queen's rather impressive...decolletage. I'm not sure the performance is up to much though but The Master does a majestic job of seducing, corrupting and disappointing her in record time.

The Minotaur is OK, although he's dispatched a little too glibly for my liking and this is another story where a lot of people die but no one seems too bothered, which I don't feel helps.

The least effective thing is Chronos itself. I'm not sure what the director Paul Bernard was thinking but it is so clearly just a bloke flapping some wings about whilst dangling on Kirby wires. Therefore Chronos seems as threatening as a chicken.

Credit to John Levene for some nice work in this story as Benton.

But in the end, this is a pretty average story that never quite reaches the heights that it should have done but never plumbs the depths that its reputation might make you think it does.