Watching Doctor Who no 1. The Time Meddler (1965)

[Talulah, really!]

The Time Meddler: Episode One, "The Watcher."
Originally broadcast 3rd July 1965 at....



Some things to note from that Radio Times preview there, first, the concept of "SPOILERS!" was alive and well long before River Song came along since it makes no mention of "the implausible astronaut."

Actually, here is our first problem, Spoiler policy. Big black blocks of text are ugly brutes aren't they? And we are discussing material that has been available for decades yet might need to assume that not every one has seen the episodes/stories and as surprises are nice, I think it would be best in this instance if people watched first, read later in the same way we do in a current series thread.

Equally if you are familiar with the story try not to give too much away if the discussion hasn't reached later episodes, again it is about trying to maintain the episodic momentum to at least recreate in part the serial nature of the series the original viewers would have.

So if you haven't watched episode one scamper off and do it now before reading any further.




Okay, and breathe.

Where were we? Oh, yes, the Radio Times makes no mention of Steve Taylor, astronaut played by Blue Peter Purves, he came aboard the ship, as they always seemed to call it back then, in the last story "The Chase" the one in which original characters Ian and Barbara left. This is important because it marks a change in the nature of show, previously there was an underlying story, what might these days be called an arc. Ian and Barbara, two 1960s schoolteachers had discovered a mystery around one of their pupils Susan Foreman, following her home one night they had discovered the strange old man she calls Grandfather possess a Time Machine in the shape of a London Police Telephone box, fearful of his secret being discovered he kidnaps them and since the ship is unsteerable they are forced to work together as they try to find their way back home. This version of the Doctor isn't the hero of the show we now know. He is sinister, arrogant, untrustworthy. Over the course of the first two seasons he starts to evolve into the figure we think of today. The Time Meddler is a significant stepping stone in the development of the show for reasons we will come across in the progress of the unfolding story. But it is worth noting here one of the first milestones, The Doctor is now free to travel anywhere in time and space for his own purposes, he has a choice in deciding to travel and from that he has choices in what he does and how he acts which go onto to reveal what sort of person he is to the viewer and a large part of this story revolves around that.

Another thing to notice from the Radio Times preview is the curious, to us, wording of "Tardis has the same kind of technical troubles that would crop up, we feel, if we were to build a time machine ourselves. It's faulty disguising mechanism, for instance:"

Not "The Tardis" but simply "Tardis"[nb]Similar in the way the third Doctor's car is called "Bessie" not "a Bessie" as in a type of model like "a Nissan", it is a bestowed name.[/nb] partly because it fits in with the metaphorical frame that the audience of the time would understand, that Tardis is like a ship or a boat, a vessel, a far more familiar concept then than now (the jet age is just beginning)...

_{Photo of Ilyushin Il-18, HA-MOA, Malev - Hungarian Airlines (MA / MAH) London Heathrow (LHR/EGLL) taken on 3rd July 1965}

...but also there is no need for either definite or indefinite article because as far as the audience knew there was only one Tardis and the Doctor built it. In the first episode Susan says she made the name up out of the initials Time And Relative Dimension In Space something Vicki goes on to explain to Steven at the start of this episode and of course something that has long since been more or less dropped completely. Also the Radio Times refers to "the disguising mechanism" explaining why it looks like a Police Box, then a still familiar sight, and also why it stays looking like that, the disguising mechanism is broken. At this point in the programme a lot of the backstory has still to be invented such as the disguising mechanism is called "The Chameleon circuit." You have to wait until 1981's Logopolis before it was named in the show.
A good  deal of the early show is based around the juxtaposition of the familiar with the unfamiliar and in these early years it was usually the crew of the Tardis, the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara that represented the familiar and the location that represented the unfamiliar, they travelled outward into space and into time encountering the unfathomable on our behalf, later on in the show the unfamiliar would come to us, our recognisable world would be intruded upon by the strange, the alien, the futuristic. This story is the beginning of the transition since a lot of it depends on taking what is familiar, a recognisable version of what the audience might imagine Norman England[nb]Excuse the nomenclature for convenience sake.[/nb] only to disturb it with elements that feel out of place, a modern day wristwatch, a monastery with no monks but a gramophone instead, a radio?

The familiar form of early Doctor Who is that the crew arrive somewhere and as they find out where they are, they get caught (often literally) up in some sort of situation that becomes the ongoing story. The exploring the where and when is as important an element as the situation that follows, this Doctor isn't a great intergalactic know it all who strides out the Tardis and confidently knows not only where he is, when he is and the history of each and every person he meets, he is the sort of time traveller who has to try and surreptiously ask a local who the Prime Minister is so he can get his bearings. In this episode we see him do just that and manage to introduce necessary facts for the plot whilst passing on some educational hard facts in way that any new showrunner will have to if he wants to keep his job in the new Michael Gove era when the all encompassing Department of Education expands its remit at the behest of the Great Adjucator to all kids' shows that dare to take money taxed from hard working families™.

Anyway back to the episode, it starts with just such a juxtaposition, a close up of an antique clock that is revealed to be situated in a futuristic spaceship, this also subtly hints that time is going to play a part in the upcoming story.

Also, alas, it has to be noted that the pace of the programme in this era is glacially slow. There are a number of reasons for this. One, there was no way for the audience of the time to record a TV show (short of the hold a tape recorder, still an expensive item back then, up to the speaker for audio, a subject with a history of its own), once an episode was broadcast it was gone, disappeared and then there was a whole week inbetween until the next one. There were no online repositories of accumulated knowledge to check back with. If you didn't catch an episode or weren't paying attention necessary details would be missed irretrievably. As a consequence, the script would both painstakingly point out important plot points to ensure the audience took them in and would then reiterate them over and over again in ensuing weeks. Allied to this, the technical resources of the time were more limited, these days a director has far more ability to tell a story using subtler visual clues, a quick cut during a dialogue scene can reveal if a character is untrustworthy, in those days the director couldn't be so sure the audience would be looking at the actor at the right moment and so the script might overcompensate. Things are spelt out a lot more than they would be to a modern audience as there wasn't the luxury of rewinding/rewatching.

This is why it is useful to spread out the watching of old stories, it makes the effect less pronounced and is more true to way the original makers believed the show would be seen. Equally old tv screens were the crystal clear sharp 40"+ things we might be watching an episode that has been months in production but smaller black and white screens with lower resolution watching a broadcast of a show shot and edited that week.

So the first half of the episode is a slow moving info dump. Incidentally this story was actually the end of the second season and as is often the case before a show goes off the air for a while it spends more time setting the scene and creating a brand new setting off point than closing down storylines something that Steven Moffat has elevated to even higher heights. So the new Tardis crew is set in place with Vicki and Stephen, who introduces one of the new tropes of the series, the sceptic who refuses to believe that the Tardis can travel in space and time and is given an introductory trip to convince them which sets off a new round of adventures.

Worth pointing out, as it may not be immediately obvious but both Vicki and Stephen are actually meant to be from the future from the perspective of the audience. I'll return to this point later along with an alternate explanation of why the historical story fell from grace in a later post if someone reminds me.

So the first half of the episode is an end season reboot and recapitulation for the casual viewer though with a wonderful piece of dialogue "That is the dematerializing control, and that, over yonder, is the horizontal hold. Up there is the scanner; those are the doors; that is a chair with a panda on it..... Sheer poetry, dear boy! Now please stop bothering me." that could slip inside a Matt Smith episode with ease.

Note also that "horizontal hold", one of the incidental pleasures of retrospectively reading/watching science fiction seeing the future explained through dated contemporary metaphors. Sixties Who is often caught comparing things to television which was still new and exciting then, no doubt in forty years time, people will enjoy rueful chuckles at all the endless mentions of nanotechnology that belabour so much TV SF these days.

Another of the other problems with watching old Doctor Who is the accretion of details that the sheer length of its run accumulates and how that alters the perspective, some details are missed, some gain in poignancy and others take on entirely different responses. It is hard to hear them talking about Daleks on the top of the Empire state building without a modern viewer thinking of Daleks in Manhattan and mention of New York brings to mind other recent stories. Doctor Who rewrites itself back and forth through the decades, one will uncover details that later got glossed over or glory in first appearances of characters, places and phrases that would not have resonated to the original casual viewer. The significance of the Monk is a totally different experience to a modern viewer.

The theme of the unfamiliar introduced into the familiar works for the locals too, with their explanation of how a large wooden box appears on a beach. It makes a familiar symbol to the original viewer alien and strange again re-emphasising its nature as a magical box appearing and disappearing, we are looking at it through fresh eyes with people unfamiliar with both what it looks like and what it actually is.

Who is the mysterious monk, "The Watcher" of the title? Piece by piece we are going to find out...


Now as well as discussing Doctor Who, had hoped to add in some context to the time of the stories original broadcast.
So what was the television of the time like, well there were just three channels BBC1, ITV and the little over a year old BBC2. Here's a link to a complete copy of the TV Times for the week.


TV Times for 3rd to 9th July 1965

Amidst approximately 400 hundred adverts for cigarettes there is also an article on Spike Milligan by Neil Shand which might be of interest to comedy loving CookdandBombers.

It was also Wimbledon Ladies final day won by Margaret Court (nee Smith) who for one reason or another is still causing waves in Tennis today.

[heretical error]

It is also worth pointing out that this story follows six weeks of budget stretching, resource shattering, jaw dropping and head scratching madness that was The Chase, in particular a really good punch up between the Daleks and the bizarre, yet sweet Mechonoids, with lots of explosions, screaming Daleks, and alien fungoids.  Suddenly, the pace grinds to a halt as we have a more budget pleasing, sedantary paced exploration of the Northumbrian coast.   I can imagine a sense of disappointment from the audience that once again, we're in history, and not on some marvellous alien world.  It is a gentle episode, a chance for the regulars to shine which is just as well as the locals aren't much to write home about.  Good on beards, not much else, yet. 

With the introduction of a new companion, six months after the last debut, we get the explanations of what the TARDIS is, and why it is stuck as a police box, and so on, which we will get every six months or so for the next few years.  This time the explanation is greeted with blatant sceptism, and we, the audience, can gently shake our heads at Steven's belligerence. 

One thing that does strike you about this particular episode is just how gorgeous it looks.  Real attempt at atmosphere, from the various sound effects played in of the coast, and the woods at night, to the music, all sourced from stock, and frankly all the better for it.  Lots of library film of the sea, and the sky, all add to a genuinely creepy atmosphere. 

William Hartnell, he's my favourite Doctor, and you'll see why when you watch this episode.  He's bad tempered, quick witted, unable to admit faults, casually walks into someone's home and has a good look round, charming as a fox to the lady Saxon, makes sure he gets seconds when his drink runs out, talks to himself as he slowly works out where and when he is, nips off for an investigation, not giving a monkey's as to what his companions are getting up to, a bit more tresspassing and then giggles at what he finds at the monastery before glaring at his equally giggly captor. 

Will that do?

[biggytitbo]

For those that don't have it, all 4 episodes are on Dailymotion.

[biggytitbo]

So the first half of the episode is an end season reboot and recapitulation for the casual viewer though with a wonderful piece of dialogue "That is the dematerializing control, and that, over yonder, is the horizontal hold. Up there is the scanner; those are the doors; that is a chair with a panda on it..... Sheer poetry, dear boy! Now please stop bothering me." that could slip inside a Matt Smith episode with ease.

He's great in the first episode - funny, sarcastic, devious - and has a ton of good lines, the mountain goat one and the space helmet for cows, could as you say, slip into a contemporary episode seamlessly.   

I thought it was quite interesting how the new show is credited with bringing with emotion and the companions relationship more to the fore, and here's an episode from 1965 that opens with a 5 minute chat about emotions and companion relationships.

The actual plot is the absolute blue print for all the aliens meddling in earth history stories to come isn't it? The Meddling Monk is a great character too, if not just because he's played by the immense Peter Butterworth, who instantly makes anything 10 times better.

Loved the gramophone of the monks chanting, that's such a new Who style plot twist that Mark Gatiss nicked it for the Crimson Horror. Spotted a clanger though, Hartnell realises something is amiss when the chanting seems to distort like a tape, yet it's a record...Lambert must go!

[daf]

The Meddling Monk is my all time favourite Dr. Who character [nb](Until we discuss something else, and then I'll probably claim it's Duggan, or Barbara)[/nb]

I can see someone like Rob Brydon playing him in the modern series.

[morgs]

It seems strange that the Monk hasn't made it to the new series. It's far less overt than yet another evil Time Lord blah blah blah and could be used to big effect - fixed points in time? Bollocks to them, I'm the Monk!

The way Peter Butterworth plays him is pretty Doctorish, a twinkle in his eye and therefore really likeable. Moffat should nick him for a season long arc or two...

[morgs]

Obviously with a less dead actor.

[biggytitbo]

I'm afraid I watched all of this in one go aswell. Is that against the rules?

Peter Butterworth's

Spoiler alert

mini Tardis

[close]

is probably one of my favourite moments in the whole of Who.

[Danger Man]

I'm afraid I watched all of this in one go aswell. Is that against the rules?

Not as bad as you screaming at your TV set to stop reporting the assassination of JFK so you can start watching the first episode of Dr Who....[nb]If you were alive in 1963[/nb]

[Catalogue Trousers]

As a sidenote, it may interest some readers to know that the Monk plays a HUGE role in one of McGann's Big Finish audio seasons, and he's there played (rather magnificently) by

Spoiler alert

Graeme Garden.

[close]

[heretical error]

Well?  Have we watched part two yet?  Hartnell's on holiday, the silences are getting longer, the Monk does a good double take, the Vikings are... less than impressive, the Saxons are... less than impressive.  Adult themes raise their head to give older fans a chance to say 'Not for children!' and some nu-Who fans are burbling 'OH MY GOD!!!  Rape!  At tea time!  On a Saturday! Where's the fun?  Where's the tinsel?'  A very bad fight sequence, some lovely stock footage, Steven is having a larf, Vicki has grown a pair of balls, and next week's episode has a nice title. 

[biggytitbo]

Haha I love it when Hartnell goes on holiday. Weird now to think the program was in production virtually continuously in those days, was that normal even then?

[morgs]

The Viking ship from the stock footage is permanently parked down the road from me. Boring fact.

http://www.panoramio.com/m/photo/55509176 and boring link.

Can't imagine many shows doing a continuous run like that without a bigger cast. When the cast go on holiday individually, they nearly always end up locked up, don't they?!

[biggytitbo]

Why was it filmed for 48 weeks a year? That was pretty unheard of even then wasn't it, especially for a sci if show? The only thing I can think of with a similar schedule is soap operas but soap operas aren't set on alien planets or distant history.

[Mister Six]

Um. So where can I actually watch this, then?

[olliebean]

For those that don't have it, all 4 episodes are on Dailymotion.

That's where I found it.

[Zetetic]

I hope this falls on the right site of legally tolerable. It can't imagine it's any worse than just providing instructions.

[heretical error]

The Viking ship from the stock footage is permanently parked down the road from me. Boring fact.

http://www.panoramio.com/m/photo/55509176 and boring link.

Can't imagine many shows doing a continuous run like that without a bigger cast. When the cast go on holiday individually, they nearly always end up locked up, don't they?!

Wonderful!  This should be added to every location guide there is. 

[Talulah, really!]

Will that do?

Absolutely! Good stuff.

Not everybody has to be a frightful windbag like me. Anyway been busy recently but will drop off another doorstop this week regarding episode two

[Talulah, really!]

Hands in homework late.

The Time Meddler: Episode Two: The Meddling Monk.

There's a very, very small subset of fandom who find a delight in making connections between what was going on in Doctor Who during its fifty year journey and what was going on in the time and space of British culture it carved a time tunnel down.

One of the most obvious is how a programme that started in the Britain of 1963 at approximately the same time as Beatlemania swept outward from these shores to conquer the world dragging with it an unprecedented wave of creativity that can still headline the stadiums and festivals of the 21st century reflected indirectly that very pop culture.
Just as British pop music took as a starting point simple known forms then broaden them out, began cross pollinating them and made use of the technology of the time to create new possibilities, so too did Doctor Who, it started with a fairly familiar format, what might be called "the arriving adventurer" type of tale where the protagonist and pals turn up in a new locale and lo and behold shenanigans result,  a robust durable format that can at least be traced back to "Gulliver's Travels" whilst also underlying the likes of Sherlock Holmes and that other great British Icon of the 1960s, James Bond, (we'll skirt around the mini for now and, indeed, the mini-skirt) Doctor Who broadened it out, in as much, as not only could, thanks to the genius idea of TARDIS, the Doctor and crew turn up in any country, they could turn up on any planet at any time and perhaps even more meta turn up in any genre. It is at the later we might look at with interest regarding this story, the first time the creative team had attempted a cross pollination of one known genre, the historical TV drama with a stronger element of science fiction, in the series so far the two had been kept apart.

The top 40 of the time marks a similar changing point in the rise of British pop power, it is reaching the ripening point where confidence in knowing what you can do with form meets joyous creativity in seeing what you can achieve when you start to stretch it.
There was plenty of traditional songs, Elvis Presley topped the chart with Crying in the chapel, a pop record that could have been a hit almost any time in the prior previous thirty years.[nb]Assuming you had a time machine naturally since it was written and had been successful in 1953, the form however was a familiar one and Elvis' version could have been done by pre war groups like The Inkspots.[nb]To put it another way, it could have been used between scenes in Dad's Army and many of the audience would be none the wiser.[/nb] Alongside was more fresh, invigorating, full of itself British Invasion[nb]As the cousins insist on calling it.[/i] Pop of The Hollie's I'm Alive, their only No.1 in the entire decade.[nb]biggy knows how they feel.[/nb]. Further down the folk rock influence of Bob Dylan is making its presence felt with not only the lad himself with the gloriously ramshackle blues shuffle of Maggie's Farm but also the British Mini-me Dylan of Donovan with Colours and finally the Byrds with the still thrillingly sparkling Rickenbacker jingle jangle of Mr. Tambourine Man. There is the traditional meat and two veg British take on US R'n'B with Manfred Mann's The One in the Middle and then there is the much more startling Heart full of Soul by The Yardbirds where R'n'B has now absorbed one of the first stirrings of those none more sixties sitar sounds of Indian music. Groovy! _{If you only click on one, make it the Manfred Mann, it's awesome, one of those ".....introducing the band" numbers with gorgeous Hammond organ stylings.}

However it is another twisted take on US R'n'B by the typically British The Who being typically brutish band, with the appropriately enough titled, "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" three words that practically form a manifesto for Doctor Who.

The reason however for stopping off at this band in particular is that they were one of the most significant bands in the evolution of British Pop to ROCK!!!!!! For a number of reasons, one of which is that they differed from most of the British bands formed so far which stuck to a musical quartet format, nearly always Lead & Rhythm guitars with Drums and Bass, The Beatles,, The Rolling Stones[/b](for the purpose of the exercise I'm not counting frontmen/singers who don't normally play an instrument on the records/stage),The Kinks and countless others. The Who on the other hand are one of the pioneers of the power trio approach, Guitar, Bass and Drums and there are repercussions musically from the loss of a Rhythm guitarist though that is a topic too far, though one might as well note at this point that the two main British Rock Bands of the 70s[nb]Generally speaking, IMO obviously[/nb] Queenand Led Zeppelin follow the line-up of The Who, power trio with charismatic frontman and that also, at least in my head, mirror The Beatles/Stones dichotomy in that one group are the poptastic masters of any form they turn their hands to whilst versatile as the other is, it is mostly famed for a particularly aggressive take on vintage US blues, though, feel free to take that with a pinch of salt.

What has this to do with Doctor Who, well, this story marks the point where the power trio approach more or less take over Doctor Who for the rest of the sixties. The quartet that drove the first two seasons was abandoned fully with the departure of Ian and Barbara and just as that change from a musical quartet to a power trio changes the dynamics of a band, so the dynamics of Doctor Who start to change in this story.

It is fairly obvious that at a certain level the original quartet, The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan representing three different age groups are meant to map onto the model of a family more familiar to the viewers of the time. Now it's gone, the family model doesn't hold and this is one of the freeing steps that The Time Meddler introduces along with mixing elements from one genre into another. The question is, what are the advantages of this move? One, is it represents a slight stepping away from the soap opera aspect that is there in the first two seasons along with an ongoing underlying narrative, "How do Ian and Barbara get back and who is this mysterious stranger that has kidnapped them?" The pick up companions, struggle to get them back to where they belong storyline begins to fade here, some companions would seem happy enough to travel with the Doctor endlessly and often ended up getting written out rather badly as a result. Equally, the audience know who the Doctor is now, or at least think they do, there's always developments[nb]Turns out he is called John Hurd or summit but that was before he qualified[/nb] but he has moved centre stage in effect, he is now the hero of the show. Even when he isn't in it!

Another useful feature of the powertrio is, and this doesn't really matter so much in the Hartnell era, it dilutes all that tedious will they/won't they sexual dynamic that is more or less inherent in a duo based approach, with Zoe Herriot, space vet of the future, on board we don't have to worry about the Doctor and that nice Scottish boy get up to in the Tardis. Not that that stops the 'shippers *shudders*[nb] "A pleasureable shudder, Talulah?"[nb] "My lips are sealed."[nb]Shit happens when you pick up a jar of glue instead of lube.[/nb][/nb][/nb]

It's odd how recurrent the powertrio crew is, arguably most of Moffat's first 2 and half seasons have a three person team, possibly a reason the latter season 7b seemed thin.[nb]Yes, yes, heresy heresy, but to me it did, it's an opinion.[/nb] Davies dipped in and out especially with Captain Jack who dipped in and out....

Pertwee's plus one depends if you count the Brigadier as a honourary third person, there's a dynamic there of the trio as both Liz and Jo though assistant to the Doctor work for the Brigadier. In the Tom Baker era the first season is a powertrio one and what a great season it is, Harry does add something, mostly a dufflecoat (he rocks that look), for the rest it depends if you count K9 as a character or a plot point which depends a) who is doing the writing and b) were the batteries charged.

Colin Baker's time in the Tardis wasn't a powertrio and it was mostly shit. So, something to think about there.

Having said all that, we don't actually have a trio in action in this episode, just Vicky and Stephen in the foreground as they try to work out where the Doctor's gone. It's fairly slow stuff to be honest, at the end of the last episode the team had been separated and the Doctor had been captured at the end of this episode the team are still separated, the Doctor is still captured (or is he?). On the other hand Michael Palin's turned up....

"It's.............................."



"Bloody Vikings"

Ah, yes, some Vikings turned up wearing the full Wagner to do a spot of raiding. And Pillaging. And, as heretical error says up thread, what appears to modern eyes to be a spot of rape. It's a very disorientating scene, the actor is quite clearly doing "traumatised" and though it can be explained away as just shock and noticeably her clothes are intact, it still strikes one as much more hauntingly and disturbingly portrayed incident than you would expect to see in a 1960s kids' show, rather as if you discovered a gramophone in a 10th century monastery. I assume even back in the 60s Vikings were associated with the phrase "rape and pillage."[nb]The English, blaming foreign tourists for taking advantage of local amenities since the 10th century. SATIRE![/nb][nb]Though the derivation suggests it is the other meaning of rape that might have been meant in an "aiding and abetting" sort of turn of phrase.[/nb] Of course the past is a foreign country....

Anyway, here's David Mitchell (that one[nb]I.e. the one currently 60 to 1 to be the new Doctor.[nb]Probably, I'm not fact checking this drivel.[/nb][/nb] not the novelist) on the subject...


http://youtu.be/uJqEKYbh-LU

I quite liked the way the dialogue between the Monk and Stephen slightly wrong foots the viewer by being so spell blindingly obvious that Stephen hasn't mentioned what the Doctor looked like then having Vicky point out just that very fact.

Shan't say much about Peter Butterworth, saving it for next time, other than to note he is absolutely marvellous in every scene he appears in, utterly hypnotically watchable doing the slightest bit of business like the scene on the clifftop, he's definitely got the Cribbens factor.

Now, where has the Doctor gone?

PS. More than normal there'll be some errors of fact strewn in, feel free to correct them or use them as jumping off debate points.

[Norton Canes]

No mention of the greatest power trio in the show's history?



[Edit: Ah, I see. Including the Doctor. Sorry...]



I thought these three worked pretty well together from The King's Demons through to Resurrection Of The Daleks. I liked the way Tegan continued to be suspicious of Turlough even after he'd banished the Black Guardian (and with good reason, I guess, given the magnitude of his misdemeanours), but they were also pretty resourceful together, and Tegan seemed to be impressively supportive during Turlough's crisis in Frontios.

A good contrast with the three callow and rather guileless kids that were tagging along in season 19.

[kidsick5000]

The Time Meddler is quite good. These older series can be a drag to watch but the power of Peter Butterworth pushed this through.
Would love the Monk to return. Considering he was stranded in 1066, and the Doctor's never returned to help, he should be suitably bitter by now.
If he's stranded, then maybe he was bypassed by the Time War. It's about time he met another Gallifreyan

[Alternative Carpark]

The Time Meddler is quite good. These older series can be a drag to watch but the power of Peter Butterworth pushed this through.
Would love the Monk to return. Considering he was stranded in 1066, and the Doctor's never returned to help, he should be suitably bitter by now.
If he's stranded, then maybe he was bypassed by the Time War. It's about time he met another Gallifreyan

He did appear in another story a few months later, The Daleks' Master Plan, where he'd escaped from Earth, but ended up missing his 'directional unit', meaning he couldn't control where his TARDIS travelled to.

[heretical error]

Talking of companions, I'm not sure if it has already been mentioned, but Vicki suddenly grows up in this one now that she is out of the shadow of Ian and Barbara and does not have to play the adoptive grand-daughter role any more.  She is clearly marking her scent all over the place in order to put that dashing young astronaut in his place.  She is just as good in Galaxy Four, especially in that episode they recently discovered.  It's a pity they wrote her out as swiftly as they did, just when she was starting to blossom. 

Mind you, she had some good scenes in The Space Museum (organising a revolution) but in that original grouping, she's the kid.  Now, she's a lot older. 

[kidsick5000]

He did appear in another story a few months later, The Daleks' Master Plan, where he'd escaped from Earth, but ended up missing his 'directional unit', meaning he couldn't control where his TARDIS travelled to.

Have caught up with that one. Sadly the Monk is little more than a cameo and is more of a Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon. Irritating, but harmless. He's even ditched in the penultimate episode.

Definitely a character to bring back though.