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CLASSIC Dr Who Essentials Discussion


Antilles
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Well hope you all enjoyed The Chase last week. So to end Season 2 Hartnell & Co. ended up in 1066 England. Not a purely historical story as we see the introduction of another of the Doctors race, not yet named as Time Lords, the meddling Monk played by comedian actor Peter Butterworth (for more of him check out the 'Carry On...' series of movies, youll love em.)

 

Plot

 

The TARDIS arrives on an English coastline in the year 1066. Exploring, the Doctor discovers that one of his own people, the Monk, is conspiring to wipe out the Viking fleet and thus allow King Harold to face the forces of William of Normandy with a fresh army at the Battle of Hastings. The Doctor succeeds in thwarting the Monk's plans and leaves him trapped in England.

 

Thoroughly loved this story purely for Butterworths appearance, Hartnell himself played in the very first 'Carry On' film...Carry On Sergeant probably due to his role in 'The Army Game' prior to Dr Who. The chemistry between the monk and the Doctor was fantastic, almost feels like a budget version of the Master. The part when the Doc throws water out of the prison cell into his face is just hilarious and really showed the funny side to the time lord.

 

I also enjoyed the historical Viking period, having lived in York for so many years and quite interested in history, especially the Vikings/Romans.

 

Peter Purves as a companion, I dunno he just didnt do it for me, a bit of a thicky, Vicky too, sometimes appeared very intelligent but most of the time just a stereotypical screaming/needing rescuing female companion.

 

The audience must have been left reeling until season 3 to find out if theyd see or find out any more about his race and if anyone else had a TARDIS, it was certainly a turning point in the series I think and one step closer to finding out about the Time Lords and how powerful and potentially dangerous they could be, but I guess we dont see that until The War Games. Incidentally, correct me if Im wrong, The Monk shows up in Daleks Masterplan, dont know for sure how he managed to fix his TARDIS after the Doctor took his dimensional stabiliser. Anyone know that one?

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well to answer your question about the monk 1st in showing up in the dalek masterplan I am about to embark on rewatching that show this weekend .I will let you know

 

as for the time meddler , very interesting on how he interferes in time but unlike the Master it was generally in a potentially positive way .I would say the most telling thing about interfering in time is that the things that the Monk did were just accepted as having been that way all along . Back in the 1st part of the show , up to this point the Dr had said that Time could not be changed and that anything that was done would fail to alter the course of time . Here for the 1st time we get the time as bieng fluid and changeable outlook .

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The Monk is in the Dalek Masterplan, I'm not sure if they explain how he fixed his TT Capsule, he tries to strand the Doctor somewhere in revenge for what the Doctor does to him here.

 

The Monk is great fun and I think he is just interfereing to see if he can do it. Steven and Vicky were both supposed to be from the future, apparently humans get dumber in the future. The Doctor is beginning to shine; he's no longer in self presevation mode, his time with Ian and Barbara has given him a respect for humanity and a desire to protect the universe from those who would subjugate or alter it. This story marks the point where the histroricals began to change; no longer are the crew just observers but now they're participants. This is the beginning of the end for the pure historical.

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I recently downloaded this one. Hadn't seen it since the late 80's I guess.

Steven was OK in this one, trying to get his head around time travel. Kinda difficult to convince a skeptic that you're in 1066 when you find wristwatches, cannons, and phonographs lying around! :)

 

The revelation that the Monk had his own Tardis was pretty cool.

 

I enjoyed this one. No need for special effects really, some pretty decent acting, a couple (obviously staged) fight scenes, and a mighty invasion horde of 2 Vikings! :) Overall good stuff, especially considering the 60's eps could be a bit lame IMO. Oh, and another example of the production team giving a lead actor the week off with Hartnell only there for a few voice overs in episode 2.

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Until Baker 2's stories which were mostly 'purely hysterical' lol

 

Sorry couldnt resist!

 

Watching the trial of a Timelord was indeed a 'trial'...

 

I think around this time though Hartnel's health was starting to deteriorate, which could explain why he was given only voice overs and didn't appear in 2.

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Same goes in The Celestial Toymaker, he appears mostly as a voice in the final 2 parts pretending to be in some wierd game with the Toymaker...to which Michael Gough played fantastically.

 

Still, we were fortunate several years later just to see him in the time bubble in Three Doctors and even more fortunate to find a suitable replacement in Richard Hurndall for the Five Doctors. If you wish to watch something else with Hurndall try a classic episode of Steptoe & Son titled 'Any old Iron. UKNova hosted them over a year ago and I think UK Gold tv still show them occassionally, I recognised him instantly considering the time difference between the 2 shows.

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LOL! That was him? Well I never!

 

I knew he looked familiar! rofl! classic!

 

Yes we were indeed fortunate to find a suitable replacement, and I was extremely impressed with his performance - he got the cantankerous old man down perfectly.

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Either that or they got caught by RL Potato. It's nice, however small the discussion that we can provide some insight into the old episodes - they'll never be as popular for the new fans than the old fans like us though.

 

I also happen to know that a few of the older fans just don't post into forums, or they post very rarely.

 

I always like reading RS's synopsis of the shows though.

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lol potato .

 

I will also say this about The Monk (having now rewatched the Dalek Master Plan ) he was indeed a fun character during the time .The Time Meddler helped set up the later show quite nicely .what was also interesting is how Galifrey was such a well hidden secret at the time . It only gets mentioned as the Drs and the Monks planet a few times and not by name . you also get the feeling that though the Daleks were close in technology to these two timelords that they still had the edge . They also knew about Daleks . but this is getting a bit ahead in the discussion .. the Time Meddler was truly a great show for its time

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