The ongoing tribute to legendary Doctor Who alumni Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen continues with the final episode of Season 9, 1972's The Time Monster, which sees the return of Courtney's Brigadier Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT for the first time since The Sea Devils.
While the Doctor has nightmares of the Master claiming victory, his old nemesis visits the Newton Research Unit at Cambridge University. The Master has built a machine to transmit matter across time and space, and his possession of a large crystal leads the investigating Doctor to conclude that the Master is trying to bring a Chronovore, a powerful entity from outside of normal time, under his control. But the Master needs a larger crystal to subjugate the creature, and the only one exists in a forgotten period of Earth's history, on the island of Atlantis.
Familiar Stories
The Time Monster continues some trends seen throughout Doctor Who's 9th season. The Doctor and the Master still play their cosmic game of cat-and-mouse, with not much by way of change or resolution. Having gleamed that a science fiction show about a time traveler can't really work if every serial is set on contemporary Earth (Seasons 7 and 8), producer Barry Letts bringing back regular characters Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Captain Mike Yates and Sgt. Benton is a good way to finish off Season 9.
Annoying Characterization and Writing
Unfortunately, the serial still suffers. Despite how long Lethbridge-Stewart and Jo Grant have been working with the Doctor, they never seem to trust him: Jo constantly pooh-poohs the Doctor's efforts to get his TARDIS working again, while the Brigadier does his best Worf (Star Trek: The Next Generation) impression by ceaselessly advocating an offensive approach, despite having no idea what he's up against. I know this is all to make the Doctor look good, but does it have to come at the expense of his friends?
The serial relies far too heavily on technobabble. Jon Pertwee's Doctor was well-established as the Scientific Doctor, but the constant back-and-forth about the workings of the TOMTIT machine and the temporal physics of what happens when two TARDISes occupy the same place and moment in space-time works against the story without adding anything to it.
An Entertaining Cast
Fortunately, there are better moments. The Atlanteans are wonderfully camp in the best tradition of 1970s science fiction, while Jon Delgado throws himself into his role as the Master, extravagantly summoning Kronos the Chronovore (yes, really) one minute and abjectly begging the Doctor for mercy the next - on his knees, no less. The chemistry between Dr. Ingram (Wanda Moore) and Stuart (Ian Collier) is enjoyable to watch, even if the undercurrent of women's liberation is met with "That's nice, now be a dear and fetch me some tea".
Ah, the '70s.
Verdict: Guilty
So despite everything, we've still got Jon Pertwee's Doctor tenderly reminiscing about how he dealt with the darkest day of his life (I suppose that was before he killed all the Time Lords) and the Kronos killing off the Atlantean civilization as the best moments of the serial. I found it interesting how the Doctor dances around the question of whether the TARDIS was alive or not, a question definitely answered 39 years later in "The Doctor's Wife".
Until another writer decides on an different response, anyway.
3 / 5: Good elements sprinkled throughout the story, but they don't add up well enough.
Michael Perera - The only rule in writing is honesty. If you're honest, the words will write themselves.
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