The Time Monster is the final story of Season 9 and on the whole the series has been a bit of a disappointment. Apart from The Sea Devils the stories haven’t quite matched up with the previous series. This story is a six parter and its vital to make sure that there is enough going on to keep the plot going for that long. Robert Slomon co-wrote this with series producer Barry Letts though due to regulations at the time only Sloman got the credit.
As with most stories featuring the Master, he is pretending to be a high ranking individual who is trying to take over the world. In this he is Professor Thascalos who is using the resources at the Newton Research Unit at Cambridge University to coduct time experiments. Now for me this is a good premise for a story but it starts to go downhill when it brings all the Atlantis drivel into it. True all the stuff initially set on Atlantis does have a very nice film quality to it which makes it look different to the static looking studio filming but that’s not really enough to get through it. The set designs are also something to be amased at. The sets of Atlantis looked like that a lot of money have been spent on them. This helps create the right impression but unfortunately the pacing of the story at this part of the story is where I began to lose interest.
The characters of Ruth Ingram and Stuart Hyde are of their time. Ruth is a feminist and doesn’t like it when she is talked down to. It gets mentioned at the beginning but its not until she meets opposition from Benton and Stuart in Episode 4 that it surfaces again. Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and Ian Leveine are on usual comedic form. Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning are brilliant together and their relationship shows that they care for each other both as the Doctor and Jo and as Jon and Katy.
The Time Monster is penultimate appearance of Roger Delgado who is the best of the actors to have played the Master. Delgado’s version is more straight faced and enjoyable to watch than what we get with Anthony Ainley or John Simm. Delgado is at his finest in this episode using all the things that makes him so damn good as well as a trick in pretending to be the Brigadier. He hypnotises people and like in The Sea Devil he manages to manipulate the most senior person to his will.
There were some things that didn’t quite work. In a 21st Century world the name TOMTIT is only going to creates giggles. But they cant have known that in 1972. The other thing that doesn’t work is Kronos. This bird like figure is quite clearly a man in a white suit. Normally this sort of thing can be defended but this time it cant be. It just looks bad and slightly ruins all the hard work the writers and actors have put into making this work.
When it had all finished I think that this story wasn’t as good as it could have been. There were some nice images and some good ideas with very well made sets but all the stuff with Atlantis was unnecessary. Its not the worst story of Season 9 but its not the best end that it could have been.
As with most stories featuring the Master, he is pretending to be a high ranking individual who is trying to take over the world. In this he is Professor Thascalos who is using the resources at the Newton Research Unit at Cambridge University to coduct time experiments. Now for me this is a good premise for a story but it starts to go downhill when it brings all the Atlantis drivel into it. True all the stuff initially set on Atlantis does have a very nice film quality to it which makes it look different to the static looking studio filming but that’s not really enough to get through it. The set designs are also something to be amased at. The sets of Atlantis looked like that a lot of money have been spent on them. This helps create the right impression but unfortunately the pacing of the story at this part of the story is where I began to lose interest.
The characters of Ruth Ingram and Stuart Hyde are of their time. Ruth is a feminist and doesn’t like it when she is talked down to. It gets mentioned at the beginning but its not until she meets opposition from Benton and Stuart in Episode 4 that it surfaces again. Nicholas Courtney, Richard Franklin and Ian Leveine are on usual comedic form. Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning are brilliant together and their relationship shows that they care for each other both as the Doctor and Jo and as Jon and Katy.
The Time Monster is penultimate appearance of Roger Delgado who is the best of the actors to have played the Master. Delgado’s version is more straight faced and enjoyable to watch than what we get with Anthony Ainley or John Simm. Delgado is at his finest in this episode using all the things that makes him so damn good as well as a trick in pretending to be the Brigadier. He hypnotises people and like in The Sea Devil he manages to manipulate the most senior person to his will.
There were some things that didn’t quite work. In a 21st Century world the name TOMTIT is only going to creates giggles. But they cant have known that in 1972. The other thing that doesn’t work is Kronos. This bird like figure is quite clearly a man in a white suit. Normally this sort of thing can be defended but this time it cant be. It just looks bad and slightly ruins all the hard work the writers and actors have put into making this work.
When it had all finished I think that this story wasn’t as good as it could have been. There were some nice images and some good ideas with very well made sets but all the stuff with Atlantis was unnecessary. Its not the worst story of Season 9 but its not the best end that it could have been.
No comments:
Post a Comment