The Randomiser: The Time Monster

[purplecat]

The Time Monster is widely considered the worst Pertwee story. I warned Tame Layman of this before we settled down to watch and we braced ourselves and... well it's not actually that bad. It has its flaws, but there is a great deal of far less watchable Doctor Who out there.

Its worst problem is probably the amount of padding. The Doctor spends a good ten to fifteen minutes of the story building a technobabble device out of a wine bottle, cork and some forks only for it to break instantly. This is followed by an episode which consists mostly of the Doctor and the Master trying to out-psych each other during a conversation conducted via Tardis screens. However, even this, as padding goes, is at least fairly novel. We do not get a lot of running down corridors or capture-escape.

It's odd that there is quite so much padding in the middle since, in the final two episodes, the action moves to Atlantis and events happen at a bit of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it pace. No sooner has the Master arrived and met the Queen (sporting a push-up bra that would make Helen Cutter from Primeval jealous) than a coup takes place, just like that. A whole load of political intrigue of some kind happens off screen while the Doctor and Jo faff around in a labyrinth or are locked up in a cell. One feels that, if you had to stretch the story to six episodes, why not have more Atlantean politics and less of the Doctor playing with corks.

To my surprise Tame Layman spent some time admiring Jo Grant's Atlantean frock and speculating about why the Atlanteans happened to have a suitable wig lying around for her to wear.

I wasn't particularly keen on the character of Dr. Ingram who struck me as a rather cardboard straw-feminist. However Tame Layman thought she was great and commented a couple of times about what a good companion she would have made. It's not hard to imagine since she's in many respects a cross between Liz Shaw and Sarah Jane Smith, but I still felt she was a little too much of a cariacature.

Benton also spends two episodes as a baby which was a lot less embarrassing than I'd thought it would be, though possibly only because nothing was really done with it. Benton gets turned into a baby. At the end of the story he gets better. The end. It makes the event seem a little pointless, on the other hand we were spared nappy jokes or Dr. Ingram suddenly discovering her maternal instincts.

I was actually quite suprised how well the effects for the Chronovore monster worked. In still pictures it looks exactly like your typical man-in-suit-forced-to-move-slowly-as-a-result type monster. However the reality in which it is overlaid by an image of a bird made it seem a lot less human-like and gave the impression of swift movement.

The resolution is a deus-ex-machina cop-out but at least makes a kind of sense. The worst that can really be said of it, is that it strongly suggests that matters would have resolved in largely the same way whether the Doctor had been involved or not.

As I said at the start there is a lot less watchable Doctor Who out there. Tame Layman was quite happy to watch along with this which he has not always been with Randomiser inflicted stories. There is certainly a lot better Doctor Who out there, and this is not a story I'd contemplate showing to anyone who didn't have a basic fondness for the show and a tolerance for 1970s TV Sci-Fi. If it is the worst Jon Pertwee then that says a lot for the baseline competance of the show during that era.

Comments

[nostalgia]

Weirdly I have found that male fans really like Dr Ingram and think she's great and makes good points. Women do tend to think she's a bit strawy though. That may mean something deep but idk.

Anyway I like this story though I am not sure why and I have only vague memories of the later episodes which I assume means I usually give up partway through.

[purplecat]

As is pointed out below - it is terribly Doctor/Master shippy - though you need to get to episode 4 for the shippiness in its full glory.

[elisi]

Its worst problem is probably the amount of padding. The Doctor spends a good ten to fifteen minutes of the story building a technobabble device out of a wine bottle, cork and some forks only for it to break instantly. This is followed by an episode which consists mostly of the Doctor and the Master trying to out-psych each other during a conversation conducted via Tardis screens.
I don't understand. These sounds like hooks to me (especially the Doctor/Master stuff), and I am now quite keen to watch this story!

[selenak]

*random by network by-flyer*

And she didn't even show you the screen cap of the Doctor's phallic Master detector device. Or that their TARDISes, well, "time-crash" into each other. Or the Brig rolling his eyes because the Doctor insists on telling him about his dreams featuring the Master. (Too much information, Doctor, you can hear the Brigadier thinking.) Or the Master on his knees for the grand climax.

Also, this one has a classic Jo line re: the Master, addressed to him. It's when the Doctor and Jo show up in Atlantis after the Master left them in the usual lethal situation.

DOCTOR: Good afternoon. Now where have I seen that face before? Can't think of anything to say?
JO: How about curses, foiled again.

[elisi]

Or the Master on his knees for the grand climax.
I have seen that SO OFTEN in vids, never knew which story it was from. OK, it moves to the top of the list!! :D :D :D

Who decides these 'best & worst of' lists? Clearly not shippers...

[selenak]

Clearly. All kidding aside, the kneeling scene is also a sort of precedent to Missy and Twelve when she asks him for her life in that you have the Master about to die due to fucking with the wrong super powerful people/cosmic being, the Doctor in a position where he can let that happen (or not), and the Master going directly from trying-to-kill-him-but-not-really mode to "please save me", because that's how they roll. (Except when he's Simm!Master, obviously.) (On the Doctor's side, the one time when he doesn't is when he's Five, but Ainsley!Master was particularly revolting in the lead up to this so I can understand why Five just stares, numbed, and doesn't do anything.)

[purplecat]

Ainley!Master is my least favourite. I don't think he has any real on screen chemistry with the Doctor and spends way too much time chuckling.

[nostalgia]

I only really enjoy AinleyMaster in Survival.

[selenak]

Well, there's always Roberts!Master to disdain more, but otherwise... Though I will say I felt like apologizing to Ainsley when seeing his introduction not as the Master but as Tremas in The Keeper of Traken. I had watched some of his Master episodes before and had not been impressed, but lo and behold, Tremas proved he can act well and with subtlety. (And I think it's a shame the show never used the fact the Master stole Nyssa's father's body again after the introduction. The sheer angst potential!

[purplecat]

You know, I'd completely forgotten the Roberts!Master - but I still think I like Ainley's less - there's more to dislike in a way...

[purplecat]

And yes, the angst potential with Nyssa is strangely underused. I mean, obviously the show wasn't much into arc plotting or character continuity in the 1980s but even in Logopolis where it is a plot point it's kind of glossed over once the reveal has happened.

[purplecat]

Who decides these 'best & worst of' lists?

Twelve wise men, obviously. Though the twelve slowly change over time, I think.

I think it will be interesting to see as the generational shift of fans who have come into the show via NuWho and become established, how much of this accepted wisdom survives and how much gets thrown out (and whether some wise women are allowed in among the wise men). The whole fracas over DWM's new Time Team line up is, I think, a sign of the generational shift finally catching up with another of the fan institutions.

[purplecat]

I'd say it's a good Jo story too - except if anything this randomiser thing has shown me, it's that Jo is a vastly under-rated companion. She gets lots of wonderful stuff throughout her time and really a lot less kooky silliness than fan wisdowm makes out.

[selenak]

I had the very same reaction when I started to watch the Pertwee episodes. By the time I was done, Jo had become one of my all time favourite Companions.

[purplecat]

*Doh!* Yes the Doctor/Master stuff is ridiculously shippy (I don't know why that didn't occur to me until now) and probably explains why Liz Myles from the Verity podcast is so fond of this story.

If you're remotely into Doctor/Master then this is definitely worth a watch.

[jesuswasbatman]

Oh, there are much worse Pertwee stories.

[purplecat]

I'm not sure about much worse (though there are several we've yet to see) - but I would agree there are a fair few UNIT run-arounds which rather outstay their welcome and Nation's Dalek stories are a bit tired, but I'd say which you prefer among them is probably quite individual.

[nostalgia]

The one with the space miners!

[purplecat]

Colony in Space? - I like that one, but I imprinted on the novelisation at a young age so it's not a story I think I can evaluate in a very unbiased way.

[nostalgia]

Is that the one with the scary-hands robot? Cos that is the one.

[purplecat]

Yes, that's the one.

[nostalgia]

I do not like them robots.

[liadt]

I think non-fans like 'The Time Monster' more than fans. Looking at the Atlantians' hairstyles they could be investing in wigs instead of faffing with their hair everyday.

[purplecat]

Oh yes! Perhaps it is some kind of wig-based economy.

[daniel-saunders.livejournal.com]

I don't like it much! It's not the worst story ever, though.

I think the stuff with the wine bottle was added late when things were under-running, so by that stage it was too late to add anything substantial in Atlantis.

I have long wanted to see a spin-off flat share sitcom with Jo, Benton, Ruth and Stu sharing student digs with the Brig as their landlord and the Master as their grumpy neighbour. It would be like Friends, only with added time paradoxes and people being turned into babies.

[purplecat]

Yes, the interactions between the Benton, Ruth and Stu (in particular) are great. I particularly liked the comedy sneaking up on the Master's lab - though I imagine it would have been irritating if I had been in a less accommodating mood.