Classic Doctor Who Review: The Time Meddler · 5:28am Feb 7th, 2014
Finished today watching the classic Doctor Who serial, "The Time Meddler," a First Doctor companion featuring companions Vicki & Steven (the latter in his first proper TARDIS adventure. The podcast Who Back When is going to be reviewing this serial in a week or so, and I opted to submit a review of my own, see if they'll read it on the show.
The Time Meddler opens on the heels of the departure of companions Barbara and Ian. In a sweet moment between the two, the Doctor wonders if Vicki would have preferred to go as well, but she's happy to stay aboard. Also joining this story is Steven Taylor, who managed to survive "The Chase" and stumble his way aboard the TARDIS with his teddy panda.
They arrive in 1066 A.D., just in time for a viking invasion, and gain the attention of a local monk who turns out to be a time traveler from the same place as the Doctor.
In my own opinion, one of the weaknesses of a lot of the older Doctor Who stories, at least compared to modern entertainment in general and modern Doctor Who in particular, is pacing. Because the stories are aired over usually four-to-six weekly serials, the pacing is generally much slower. As a result, some serials can be harder to get through than others in the middle sections.
That said, "The Time Meddler" is better than most about this. While some scenes may drag on a tiny bit, nearly every scene feels like it contributes to the story as a whole, lacking some of the padding seen in some serials such as the extended haunted house sequence in "The Chase."
The Doctor is in good form. Twice escaping capture on his own, in one case before Steven and Vicki arrive to rescue him and stopping the Monk's meddling in a particularly amusing fashion.
Despite how past Who Back When reviews regard her, I don't have a particular issue with Vicki. I haven't seen many serials with her, though it did feel odd having her be the experienced companion next to the initially skeptical Steven. I wonder how it must've been for viewers in the 60s, watching this entirely new pair of time travelers now that all three original companions were gone.
The Monk was probably the best part for me. I got a kick out of the anachronism of watching him use an electric toaster and stove to make him and the Doctor breakfast. Also his growing frustration as he kept getting visitors ("It's as if a man can't call a monastery his own, anymore") was good for a chuckle too. It was also interesting to see two Time Lords interact before we even had the concept of Time Lords in the story. All that's said is they're from the same place.
I'm not entirely certain what to call it for a score. The pacing was slow in some areas, which I tend to find normal for the older serials. There were some issues with the viking characters. They seemed especially dim (they were told to go scout carefully then run up and attack the first person they find, causing them no end of trouble) and unless I missed something we never saw anything of the ship that dropped them off that they were supposed to be reporting to after they got dropped off.
At first, I wasn't going to mess around with the decimals and call it a solid four out of five. On second though, I'm going to give it a 4.5. It was a solid story, no glaring flaws that I could see (but then I tend to be forgiving UNLESS the flaws are very glaring). I'm sure there are good and bad points I missed, but generally unless it interrupts my ability to actually watch the story at the time, I'm not prone to worrying about them.
