The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Watcher - Checkmate
Doctor Who - The Watcher (03/07/05)
What an interesting episode!
Turns out Steven did escape the city on Mechanus and stumbled into the TARDIS. They've now arrived in 1066 and the Doctor's gone wandering while Steven is determined to prove to Vicki that it's not the 11th Century. Meanwhile, Peter Butterworth (soon to be) from the Carry On films is dressed as a Monk and is wandering about suspiciously.
The episode was quite good because it's set in the past (probably) but towards the end Steven found a 20th Century watch and the Doctor visited the Monastery to discover the Gregorian chanting was coming from an LP on a Gramophone! We've never had a story with anachronisms before and what with the melancholy of Ian and Barbara's departure (they get several mentions, as does Susan) the mellow ambience of the episode, the historical setting and the Monk's suspicious behaviour this is possibly one of the best episodes yet. It's plausible that the Monk is a time traveller too, 'cause he seems very interested in the TARDIS and what with the watch and the record player it would seem to point that way. Plus, at the end of the episode, he captured the Doctor. Really good this week. Hopefully it will stay this way!
Doctor Who - The Meddling Monk (10/07/05)
Not much Doctor this week. In fact you only saw him in the recap from last week, although you did hear him telling the Monk to piss off at one point (not literally - shame).
As the title suggests, this week mainly concerned the Monk, who so far we have no explanation as to how he has all these gadgets from the 20th Century. Vicki and Steven found him highly suss - hardly surprising, really - and snook into the Monastery behind his back only to find the Doctor's cell empty! Clearly Billy has the entire week off and decided not to turn up in the same way as he did in The Search.
Meanwhile, some Vikings have landed and raped Edith (!) - that nice Saxon lady who gave the Doctor mead. It wasn't explicitly stated and definitely not shown, but the state they found her in added to the Vikings' reputation said enough. This story (never mind the episode) is strangely serene, what with the Gregorian chants and the steady pace, plus the Monastery and the woodland settings. Really liking it so far; it goes well with all this ridiculously hot weather we're having. And this episode allowed both Steven and Vicki to develop. Very good.
Doctor Who - A Battle Of Wits (17/07/05)
Bloody Hell! The Monk's got a TARDIS! Okay, so it's not like I didn't already have an inkling, what with the gramophone and all that, but he's got a TARDIS almost exactly like the Doctor's except his works and is shaped like an altar!
Again, this episode was very mellow, even with all the...er...action... It seems the Monk has a plan to prevent the Viking distraction prior to William of Normandy's invasion, using an atomic cannon (which Vicki and Steven found), then somehow have Harold win at Hastings, and meet him (not sure how that'd work, but there you go). The Doctor's come back more pro-active than ever this week, clearly refreshed after a week of fishing, and is bandying about the place like a jumping bean with a sword!
The Monk's actually quite funny, twatting a Viking over the head with a plank, And the locals are quite smart, twigging there's something suss about the Monk's request they light beacons along the coast. Very good so far, though not spectacular until the revelation of the Monk's TARDIS. Does this mean he's from the same planet as the Doctor?!?
Doctor Who - Checkmate (24/07/05)
A rather steady end to the series. The Doctor got the Monk to tell him his plans - he was quite happy to spill the beans - then went to his TARDIS. Vicki and Steven were already there, having gone through his stuff and found he'd done all sorts of other things like discuss the mechanics of flight with Leonardo da Vinci. On leaving the Monk's TARDIS, the Doctor, Vicki and Steven were caught and tied up by a couple of Vikings who then set off to the cliffs with a crate of missiles (the Monk claiming them to be charms) for the gun Vicki and Steven found, ready to sink the Viking fleet and change history so that Harold won at Hastings.
Fortunately, Edith had rallied the villagers who stormed the Monastery, rescuing the Doctor et al. and hunting the Vikings down. The Doctor stole the Monk's Dimensional Circuit, trapping him on Earth as his TARDIS is now tiny inside, and they headed off for more adventures. Leaving the missiles and gun in 1066. Um...
A good story and I hope we get to meet the Monk again; he was an interesting adversary. A nice ending, too, with the Doctor, Vicki and Steven's faces projected over a picture of the stars. The show seems to be going from strength to strength!
What an interesting episode!
Turns out Steven did escape the city on Mechanus and stumbled into the TARDIS. They've now arrived in 1066 and the Doctor's gone wandering while Steven is determined to prove to Vicki that it's not the 11th Century. Meanwhile, Peter Butterworth (soon to be) from the Carry On films is dressed as a Monk and is wandering about suspiciously.
The episode was quite good because it's set in the past (probably) but towards the end Steven found a 20th Century watch and the Doctor visited the Monastery to discover the Gregorian chanting was coming from an LP on a Gramophone! We've never had a story with anachronisms before and what with the melancholy of Ian and Barbara's departure (they get several mentions, as does Susan) the mellow ambience of the episode, the historical setting and the Monk's suspicious behaviour this is possibly one of the best episodes yet. It's plausible that the Monk is a time traveller too, 'cause he seems very interested in the TARDIS and what with the watch and the record player it would seem to point that way. Plus, at the end of the episode, he captured the Doctor. Really good this week. Hopefully it will stay this way!
Doctor Who - The Meddling Monk (10/07/05)
Not much Doctor this week. In fact you only saw him in the recap from last week, although you did hear him telling the Monk to piss off at one point (not literally - shame).
As the title suggests, this week mainly concerned the Monk, who so far we have no explanation as to how he has all these gadgets from the 20th Century. Vicki and Steven found him highly suss - hardly surprising, really - and snook into the Monastery behind his back only to find the Doctor's cell empty! Clearly Billy has the entire week off and decided not to turn up in the same way as he did in The Search.
Meanwhile, some Vikings have landed and raped Edith (!) - that nice Saxon lady who gave the Doctor mead. It wasn't explicitly stated and definitely not shown, but the state they found her in added to the Vikings' reputation said enough. This story (never mind the episode) is strangely serene, what with the Gregorian chants and the steady pace, plus the Monastery and the woodland settings. Really liking it so far; it goes well with all this ridiculously hot weather we're having. And this episode allowed both Steven and Vicki to develop. Very good.
Doctor Who - A Battle Of Wits (17/07/05)
Bloody Hell! The Monk's got a TARDIS! Okay, so it's not like I didn't already have an inkling, what with the gramophone and all that, but he's got a TARDIS almost exactly like the Doctor's except his works and is shaped like an altar!
Again, this episode was very mellow, even with all the...er...action... It seems the Monk has a plan to prevent the Viking distraction prior to William of Normandy's invasion, using an atomic cannon (which Vicki and Steven found), then somehow have Harold win at Hastings, and meet him (not sure how that'd work, but there you go). The Doctor's come back more pro-active than ever this week, clearly refreshed after a week of fishing, and is bandying about the place like a jumping bean with a sword!
The Monk's actually quite funny, twatting a Viking over the head with a plank, And the locals are quite smart, twigging there's something suss about the Monk's request they light beacons along the coast. Very good so far, though not spectacular until the revelation of the Monk's TARDIS. Does this mean he's from the same planet as the Doctor?!?
Doctor Who - Checkmate (24/07/05)
A rather steady end to the series. The Doctor got the Monk to tell him his plans - he was quite happy to spill the beans - then went to his TARDIS. Vicki and Steven were already there, having gone through his stuff and found he'd done all sorts of other things like discuss the mechanics of flight with Leonardo da Vinci. On leaving the Monk's TARDIS, the Doctor, Vicki and Steven were caught and tied up by a couple of Vikings who then set off to the cliffs with a crate of missiles (the Monk claiming them to be charms) for the gun Vicki and Steven found, ready to sink the Viking fleet and change history so that Harold won at Hastings.
Fortunately, Edith had rallied the villagers who stormed the Monastery, rescuing the Doctor et al. and hunting the Vikings down. The Doctor stole the Monk's Dimensional Circuit, trapping him on Earth as his TARDIS is now tiny inside, and they headed off for more adventures. Leaving the missiles and gun in 1066. Um...
A good story and I hope we get to meet the Monk again; he was an interesting adversary. A nice ending, too, with the Doctor, Vicki and Steven's faces projected over a picture of the stars. The show seems to be going from strength to strength!
An unassuming and therefore somewhat underrated story, which for all the Viking violence (despite there only being a handful of them, and them being quite fey at that) is really a comedy. I agree that it has a nice pace though, in every sense, and Hartnell's holiday is well-timed to give the new companion an early spotlight. At this stage Steven's bullheadedness isn't as grating as it will become and he has quite a bit of promise. Wish Peter Purves had been allowed to keep the beard though! The revelation of the Monk's TARDIS is one of the biggest OMG moments of '60s Who.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered why this story was chosen to be repeated by the BBC in the early 90s when they did their mini-seasons of a-story-per-Doctor. It's a great serial, but incredibly low-key. Something along the lines of The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, The Romans or even The Ark feature much more drama and excitement, and are far more representative of the Hartnell era. I know that this is the first 'Pseudo-Historical' and the cliffhanger in A Battle Of Wits is incredible, but only in the context of reaching the end of the second series. In isolation, this is a rather quiet story which doesn't even feature the Doctor for 25% of its length. It's still great, though, and watching it as transmitted really emphasises how different and surprising the developments of not only having aliens interfering with the past, but encountering another one of the Doctor's people really were!
ReplyDeleteProsaically, it may have been a compromise as the only Hartnell four-parter to merge the typical historical with sci-fi elements.
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