The Monk

Mortimus (also known as the Monk or the Meddling Monk or the Time Meddler) was a former friend of the young Doctor and later his enemy.

Youth
At the Academy, Mortimus was a friend of the Doctor's, and a member of a cabal of six rebellious young Gallifreyans at the Academy known as "the Deca". (MA: Divided Loyalties).


 * ''However, on-screen the two show no sign of recognising each other and make no reference to a prior relationship.

Reunion with the Doctor
Mortimus was the owner of a Mark IV TARDIS and said that he had left the Doctor's (then unnamed) home planet some fifty years after the Doctor.


 * Despite the two having met before on Gallifrey, the two appeared not to recognize one another. The ages of Susan Foreman and of Vicki, who travelled with him since immediately after Susan left, would seem to contradict Mortimus' claim.

He decided that he liked to meddle with history, specifically the history of Earth, and to change it for his own amusement and for what he considered to be the better &mdash; lending mechanical assistance to the builders of Stonehenge; giving Leonardo da Vinci tips on aircraft design; and, when, the Doctor's first incarnation, encountered him, he attempted to prevent the Norman Conquest as part of a plan to guide England into an age of technological prosperity. On that occasion he wore the guise of a monk in order to gain the trust of the 11th century locals, hence the name by which he is most often referred.

The Monk was at this time a well-meaning but childish man who was not half as clever as he thought he was, and who never seemed to realise the seriousness of what he was doing.

The Doctor sabotaged Mortimus' TARDIS, making it the same size inside as outside.(DW: The Time Meddler)

Ally of the Daleks
Still using the title and costume of a friar, Mortimus rescued himself and decided to work with the Daleks.


 * We do not know if the Daleks' acquisition of space-time vessels had anything to do with him.

The Doctor encountered him again on the planet Tigus and again in ancient Egypt and, after, tinkering with the chameleon circuit from Mortimus' TARDIS, making it assume various shapes, finally that of a police box and also stole its directional unit, leaving Mortimus stranded in a cold, icy location. (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan)

Ally of the Ice Warriors
Mortimus then teamed up with the Ice Warriors and battled the Doctor in a complex scheme involving alternative Earths and a plan to build a giant sonic weapon. Mortimus now preferred his own TARDIS to appear as a police box, did not wear a monk's habit, and was referred to himself as the Time Meddler. (DWM: 4-Dimensional Vistas)


 * Sometime after, he regenerated at least once.

Time's Champion states that Mortimus, refered to by Mel as "The Monk," had an encounter with her and the Sixth Doctor shortly before the events of that novel.

Death's Champion
Mortimus then created a series of alternative timelines (NA: Blood Heat, The Dimension Riders, The Left-Handed Hummingbird, Conundrum) in a scheme employing the Chronovore Artemis. Mortimus now used his real name and posed as a 1976 record executive in England. He had also, at this time, served as Death's Champion in the same way that the Doctor served as Time's Champion. In so doing, he had made himself servant to a being much more powerful and intelligent than himself. (NA: No Future)

Behind the Scenes
There was for some time speculation that the Monk was actually an earlier regeneration of the Master or the War Chief. However, this theory has been contradicted by the novelized depictions (noted above) of the Doctor's other encounters with the Monk. The Monk has the distinction of being the first Gallifreyan other than the Doctor and Susan to be seen in the series.

Patrick Stewart is rumoured to play the Meddling Monk in Series Five.