The Time Monster (TV story)

The Time Monster was the fifth and final story of Season 9.

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.

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The Doctor has a foreshadowing dream in which he sees the Master, a trident-shaped crystal, and images of ancient Atlantean culture.

The Master, adopting the alias of Professor Thascalos, uses his cover to tap into the resources of the Newton Research Unit at Cambridge University to conduct time experiments. His TOMTIT (Transmission of Matter through Interstitial Time) experiment, assisted by Ruth Ingram and Stuart Hyde, is focused around transmitting matter by breaking it down into light waves. Having hypnotized Dr Percival, the Director of the Institute, into doing his bidding, the Master’s cover is maintained. He is particularly interested in examining a trident-shaped crystal in his possession, which he uses to power the TOMTIT device, attempting to summon an entity called Kronos.

The Doctor and Jo Grant visit the Institute following a signal from a time-field detector. He finds time moving slowly as the TOMTIT experiments disrupt the normal flow while Hyde, who is caught in the field of the experiment, ages to more than eighty years. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who also witnessed the TOMTIT experiment, has the project evacuated and begins to hunt for the Master, whose cover has now been blown. The Doctor explains to Ruth and Jo that Kronos is a powerful Chronovore, a creature from outside time that feeds on time itself, who was once attracted from the vortex to ancient Atlantis using a crystal trident larger than the one used by the Master. That one remains in Atlantis. The Doctor suspects capturing the Chronovore is the Master’s aim too, forecasting such a step to be a danger to the entire created universe.

Meanwhile Krasis, Atlantean High Priest of Kronos, is transported through interstitial time by the Master to the present. The Master seizes the Seal of Kronos from the priest and uses it to summon the chronovore. A white, feathered, bird-like figure, Kronos exudes power and devours Percival without compunction. It is contained briefly by the Master, but breaks free and Krasis surmises this is because the Master only has the smaller fragment of the original crystal.

The Doctor and his allies have been alerted by the actions of the Master and he builds a time flow analogue to interrupt his rival’s experiments. The two enemies attempt to outwit each other, often with strange consequences: historical characters (and a V1 flying bomb) are transported into the present; Stuart Hyde is restored to youth, though Sergeant Benton is reverted to a baby when he is caught in TOMTIT’s flow; and several UNIT troops, led by the Brigadier, are frozen in a time bubble. The two Time Lords even pit their TARDISes against one another, and the Doctor is ejected into the vortex, but survives thanks to Jo and his TARDIS.

In ancient Atlantis the aged and wise King Dalios is troubled by the disappearance of Krasis and the threat to the true crystal of Kronos, which is guarded by the Minotaur at the heart of a maze. The Master has traveled to Atlantis in search of the true crystal and soon inveigles himself at the Atlantean court, wooing the vain and gullible Queen Galleia and embroiling her in plots and schemes. Dalios warns of the dangers of the time when Kronos served Atlantis, but his wife is not moved by his pleas or his suspicions of the Master, whom he knows not to be an emissary of the gods. When the Doctor and Jo arrive, the old King – far older than he looks, since Kronos gave him the power of longevity – forms a bond of trust with the Doctor. The Doctor then faces the Minotaur to rescue Jo, duped into the maze by Krasis, and the creature is destroyed. The crystal is now produced from the maze – but the Master’s plotting with Galleia has borne fruit and he has usurped the throne, with Dalios deposed and arrested. Jo and the Doctor are soon detained too, and witness Dalios' sad death after mistreatment and torture.

When the Council of Atlantis meets, Galleia's faith in the Master is broken when the Doctor informs her of Dalios' death. Krasis, however, is still in his thrall and uses the great crystal to summon Kronos to Atlantis once more. In the resulting melee the Master flees in his TARDIS with Jo Grant in tow. The Doctor heads off in his TARDIS in pursuit while Kronos destroys the city and people of Atlantis.

In the Vortex, the Doctor threatens their mutual destruction by causing a Time Ram by which both TARDISes would occupy the same space/time co-ordinates. The Master, knowing the Doctor could never cause Jo's death, calls his bluff. Jo, however, has no such hesitation, and initiates the Time Ram. Kronos is set free and, thankful for this action, saves the Doctor and Jo and returns them to their TARDIS. Kronos intends to subject the Master to endless torment for his imprisonment, and the Master begs for mercy. The Doctor appeals successfully for the Master's life, who then flees in his own TARDIS. The Doctor and Jo return to the Institute as Ingram and Hyde operate the TOMTIT machine one last time, thereby returning the UNIT men to normality, albeit leaving Benton in a nappy. The machine then overloads, its time experiments at an end.

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

The Doctor

 * The Doctor's reaction times are ten times faster than those of a human.
 * The Doctor talks to Jo (while they're tied up) about his home; "When I was a little boy, we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain. Behind our house, there sat under a tree an old man. A hermit, a monk. He'd lived under this tree for half his lifetime, so they said, and had learned the secret of life. So, when my black day came, I went and asked him to help me.'"

The Doctor's items

 * Bessie has brakes that absorb inertia, resulting in an instant, safe stop, even at high speeds.

Earth locations

 * Atlantis is destroyed.

Governments

 * The Seventh Enabling Act allows the Brigadier to take over from government forces.

Individuals

 * Kronos knows of the Doctor.
 * The Chronovore spares the Master.

The Master

 * The Master is capable of flawlessly imitating the voice of another, such as the Brigadier.

TARDISes

 * Jo uses The Master's TARDIS to Time Ram the Doctor's (both the Doctor and the Master hesitated to start the Time Ram).

Temporal theory

 * The Doctor makes a Time flow analogue from a Moroccan burgundy bottle, spoons, forks, corks, keyrings, tea leaves and a mug.
 * The Doctor gets ejected into the time vortex and speaks to Jo through the TARDIS telepathic circuits.
 * The Doctor has built a time sensor which detects disturbances in the time field.
 * The effect of the crystal ages Stuart by over fifty years. Despite this, his nails and hair do not grown out to match his rapid aging.

Transport technology

 * The TOMTIT machine works with assistance from the Master.

Story notes

 * During the Doctor's vision, the volcano stock footage used in the title sequence of the parallel Earth story DW: Inferno is re-used.
 * 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. He was also well-known for playing the Green Cross Code man in 70's ITV public information films.

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

Production errors

 * In episode one, the interior of the police box prop is visible.
 * The V1 is black and white.
 * 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.
 * The Doctor mentions a "crack in time", which appears again in DW: The Eleventh Hour.

Timeline

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

DVD releases

 * This story was first released on DVD in the UK on 29th March 2010 as part of the Myths And Legends Boxset. The one disc set includes a restored version of the story, as well as the following special features:
 * Commentary by John Levene (Benton), Susan Penhaligon (Lakis), Barry Letts (Producer), Marion McDougall (Production Assistant), Graham Duff (Fan/Writer), Phil Ford (Fan/Writer), Joe Lidster (Fan/Writer), James Moran (Fan/Writer) and Toby Hadoke (Moderator).
 * Between Now… And Now!
 * Restoration Comparison
 * Coming Soon Trailer
 * Radio Times Billings
 * Production Subtitles
 * Photo Gallery


 * Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.

VHS releases
Released in the UK as Doctor Who: The Time Monster in November 2001 (As part of the Master box set which also contains Colony in Space)

Novelisation and its audiobook

 * Main article: The Time Monster (novelisation)


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