The Time Monster (TV story)

The Time Monster was the fifth and final story of Season 9. It marked the return of the Master after an absence of a year.

Synopsis
The Master, in the guise of Professor Thascalos, has constructed at the Newton Institute in Wootton a device known as TOMTIT - Transmission Of Matter Through Interstitial Time - with which to gain control over Kronos, a creature from outside time. The creature is summoned but the effect proves uncontrollable.

Plot
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
 * Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
 * Sergeant Benton - John Levene
 * Captain Mike Yates - Richard Franklin
 * The Master - Roger Delgado
 * Dr. Ruth Ingram - Wanda Moore
 * Stuart Hyde - Ian Collier
 * Dr. Percival - John Wyse
 * Dr. Cook - Neville Barber
 * Proctor - Barry Ashton
 * Window Cleaner - Terry Walsh
 * Krasis - Donald Eccles
 * Hippias - Aidan Murphy
 * Neophite - Keith Dalton
 * UNIT Sergeant - Simon Legree
 * Kronos - Marc Boyle
 * Dalios - George Cormack
 * Knight - Greg Powell
 * Roundhead Officer - Dave Carter
 * Farmworker - George Lee
 * Galleia - Ingrid Pitt
 * Crito - Derek Murcott
 * Lakis - Susan Penhaligon
 * Miseus - Michael Walker
 * Guard - Melville Jones
 * Minotaur - Dave Prowse
 * Face of Kronos - Ingrid Bower

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Rosemary Hester
 * Costumes - Barbara Lane
 * Designer - Tim Gleeson
 * Film Cameraman - Peter Hamilton
 * Film Editor - Martyn Day
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Joan Barrett
 * Producer - Barry Letts
 * Production Assistant - Marion McDougall
 * Script Editor - Terrance Dicks
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Derek Hobday
 * Studio Sound - Tony Millier
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Michealjohn Harris, Peter Pegrum

Story Notes

 * This is the only appearance of the "washing up bowl" interior for the TARDIS (designed by Tim Gleeson).
 * Dave Prowse, later to play (but not voice) the masked Darth Vader in the Star Wars films, features in an equally incognito role as the Minotaur.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 7.6 million viewers
 * Episode 2 - 7.4 million viewers
 * Episode 3 - 8.1 million viewers
 * Episode 4 - 7.6 million viewers
 * Episode 5 - 6.0 million viewers
 * Episode 6 - 7.6 million viewers

Myths

 * Well-known actress Susan Penhaligon, making an early television appearance as Galleia's handmaiden Lakis, was originally to have been credited as Virginia Mull. (Virginia Mull was a different actress who had a small uncredited walk-on role as a serving girl in the Atlantis scenes of this story. Susan Penhaligon, who was a late replacement for actress Ann Michelle, was always to have been credited under her own name.)
 * The Master's alias is 'Thascales'. (The majority of printed and online episode guides say this. Unfortunately, (a) 'Thascales' isn't the Greek for 'Master', and (b) no-one in the story says 'Thascales'.  They all say 'Thascalos', which is the Greek for 'Master'.  The error first appears in the second edition of Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke's The Making of Doctor Who, and presumably has been taken from there by all subsequent episode guides, without checking against the broadcast episodes.  Terrance Dicks, however, has the correct spelling in the novelization.)

Filming Locations

 * Swallowfield Park, Swallowfield, Berkshire
 * Stratfield Saye Park, Stratfield Saye, Hampshire
 * Old Church Farm (road), Hartley Wintney, Hampshire
 * Park Lane, Fair Cross, Berkshire
 * School Lane, Heckfield Heath/Riseley, Hampshire
 * Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
 * BBC Television Centre (Studio 3 & 4), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * In episode one, the interior of the police box prop is visible.
 * The V1 is on black and white film.
 * Since the V1 is moved forward through time while in mid-air, so that it explodes in the programme's present, how can it be that the local remembers it having fallen in the past?
 * The Doctor's supposedly backwards dialogue when played backwards is still gibberish.

Continuity

 * PDA: The Quantum Archangel is a sequel to this story.
 * Another Chronovore appears in NA: No Future.
 * This features (another) explanation of how Atlantis was destroyed; DW: The Underwater Menace and DW: The Dæmons also featured explanations of this.
 * The Doctor goes for another 'dip' in the time vortex in DW/WC: Shada and BFA: Seasons of Fear.
 * The Doctor builds a similar device to his time sensor in DW: Blink.

Timeline

 * This story occurs after TVA: Who is the Stranger
 * This story occurs before DWA: The House That Jack Built

DVD, Video and Other Releases

 * This story is said to be released on the 1st of February along with Underworld and The Horns of Nimon.

Novelisation

 * Main article: The Time Monster (novelisation)


 * Novelised as The Time Monster in 1986 by Terrance Dicks.