Doctor Who: The Time Meddler

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The Time Meddler is the ninth and final serial of Season 2 of the classic Doctor Who television series. It was originally broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 3 to 24 July 1965. It was written by Dennis Spooner and directed by Douglas Camfield. It stars William Hartnell as the Doctor, Maureen O’Brien as Vicki, and Peter Purves as Steven Taylor.

Set on the Northumbrian coast in 1066, this playful historical begins when the Doctor, Vicki, and new traveller Steven find odd clues (a wristwatch, a gramophone) that shouldn’t exist, leading them to a mischievous monk with a time machine of his own who plans to change the course of English history.

The adventure blends mystery, comedy, and rising danger as Vikings and Saxons close in and the Doctor pits wits against a fellow time-traveller who treats the past like a toy.

Episode 1: The Watcher

The TARDIS lands on a rocky coast. Steven wakes inside the ship, confused after Mechanus, and does not believe in time travel. The Doctor laughs and opens the doors. Sea birds cry. A small monastery sits on the clifftop. Curious, the Doctor goes to examine it while Vicki tries to convince Steven they are in the distant past, not modern England.

On the shore, Vicki and Steven find odd clues. A modern wristwatch lies in the sand. Footprints lead inland. They climb to a Saxon village where a kind couple, Edith and Wulnoth, give them food and warn them about the monks on the hill. Steven still doubts, but Vicki points to the clothes, the houses, and the fear of raiders as proof.

The Doctor reaches the monastery. He hears monks chanting, but the sound is too perfect. He finds a small gramophone spinning in a side room. A smiling monk in brown robes watches him from a doorway and quickly locks him in a cell. The “chant” continues to play from the machine.

Back in the village, Vicki and Steven decide to search for the Doctor at first light. Above them, the mysterious monk stands on the wall and looks down at the TARDIS through a hidden spyhole, planning his next move.

Episode 2: The Meddling Monk

The Doctor stays locked in a cell inside the monastery while a gramophone plays fake chanting outside his door. The smiling monk brings him food, denies all knowledge of the TARDIS, and checks a modern wristwatch before hurrying away. He keeps notes, measures the tides, and quietly prepares something on the nearby cliffs.

Vicki and Steven follow the coast path to look for the Doctor. In the village, Edith and Wulnoth warn them that the monk is odd but helpful; he gives gifts and asks men to carry wood and stones to the headland. Steven still doubts time travel, yet the clues feel wrong for the eleventh century.

They reach the monastery and slip inside. The “chant” comes from a gramophone hidden behind a curtain. In side rooms they find candles beside electric cables, food tins, maps of the coast, and a ledger marked with precise times. The monk appears friendly when he meets them, but he lies about prisoners and steers them away from locked doors.

At dusk, Vicki and Steven watch him climb to the cliffs with a bundle and a metal box. He sights the sea through a small scope and smiles. Below, the Doctor tests his cell and listens to distant hammering. The monk’s plan moves forward, and the friends realise he is meddling with history.

Episode 3: A Battle of Wits

The Doctor escapes his cell in the monastery and confronts the smiling monk. They trade quick jokes and sharp questions. The monk acts friendly, but the Doctor learns he has a detailed plan for 1066. He measures the tides, watches the coast, and prepares a secret weapon on the cliff. He says he will “improve” history by removing delays and helping England along faster. The Doctor warns that changing one battle can change a whole world.

Down in the village, Vicki and Steven hear of raiders near the shore. They follow tracks to the headland and find fresh timber, cables, and a metal barrel hidden under canvas. They realise the monk is building a powerful gun. When villagers arrive with more supplies, Steven distracts them while Vicki slips closer to study the controls.

Viking scouts land and skirmish with Saxons in the woods. Fear and rumours spread. The monk flatters Wulnoth and asks for more men to drag heavy stones to the cliff “for a beacon.” He then lures the Doctor to the headland to prove his cleverness. The canvas lifts to show an advanced weapon aimed at the sea. A lookout cries that longships approach. The monk’s hand hovers over a switch. The Doctor steps forward, calm but urgent, and says the blast must not happen.

Episode 4: Checkmate

The Monk prepares to change history on the coast. He aims an atomic bazooka at the Viking fleet so King Harold will not march north, leaving him fresh to defeat William later. The Doctor argues this will twist futures. The Monk smiles and stalls, trying to trigger his plan.

Steven and Vicki warn Wulnoth’s villagers that raiders are near. Saxons clash with Viking scouts in the woods. In the confusion the Monk tries to lure the Doctor to the cliff to watch the ‘improvement of history’. The Doctor sabotages the weapon and frees himself.

Searching the monastery, Steven and Vicki find a sarcophagus that is bigger inside: the Monk’s TARDIS. Steven finally believes. The Doctor joins them, opens the control panel, and removes the dimensional control. Without it, the Monk’s ship cannot function.

At dawn, word comes that Harold will fight at Stamford Bridge as history demands. The Monk returns to the monastery to escape. He opens his TARDIS door and gasps. The interior has shrunk to the size of a doll’s house. He cannot get in. Stranded, he shouts after the Doctor. The travellers say farewell to Edith and Wulnoth, reach their TARDIS, and depart the eleventh century. For now.

Themes

As the series’ first true “pseudo-historical,” The Time Meddler” feels both playful and pivotal. Across all episodes, the show swaps straight history for a chess match between time travellers, tightening up after the baggy exuberance of The Chase.

It isn’t as morally weighty as The Aztecs or as courtly and precise as The Crusade, but it’s sharper than The Web Planet. It lands in the upper-mid tier of the Hartnell era. Steven beds in fast, Vicki sparkles, and the Monk (proto-Master mischief and all) gives the Doctor his first mirror.

Its threads bind past to future with intent. Steven’s stowaway leap from The Chase pays off at once, while the Doctor’s old warning from The Aztecs about not rewriting history is tested and affirmed on a grander scale. The Monk’s stranded fate seeds his return in The Daleks’ Master Plan, and the very idea of rival TARDISes foreshadows later rogues.

From here, the team pivots into the new season’s opener Galaxy 4, and the show keeps refining this blend of historical setting with sci-fi interference through The Myth Makers and beyond. As a story, it earns a strong rating for inventing a template the series will use for decades.

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This is a chapter from Craig Hill’s book “Doctor Who – The First Doctor”, chronicling every episode featuring the First Doctor. It is available on Amazon.

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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

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