N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

Coming into this marathon, The Time Meddler was my favourite First Doctor story.

Why? Wearing my objective reviewer’s hat I can see that there are many preceding stories with more going for them (although possibly few that are as well-directed – thanks to the ever-excellent Douglas Camfield). Even if you’re only looking at some of the historical stories to date, I’d probably say An Unearthly Child has more suspense, The Aztecs a tighter script, and The Romans a sharper wit – yet despite this I’ve always preferred The Time Meddler.

“There’s more to this time-travelling than meets the eye.”

Steven, Checkmate

Watching it in context immediately after The Chase, it’s good to see that the huge loss of Ian and Barbara is tempered by the establishment of an immediate rapport between the Doctor and Vicki and Steven. The Doctor himself is also endearingly batty in this story, seemingly finding everything ‘very, very, very, very interesting’.

The story is set in 1066 – a date ingrained in every British child’s schooling – which, whilst not preventing the odd bit of bludgeon-like expository dialogue, does mean everyone in the audience can quickly appreciate the degree of havoc the Monk is trying to wreak.

But it’s the moments rather than the whole that makes me like The Time Meddler so much.

It’s how the Monk grabbing his wrist – in a way that anyone who’s ever misplaced a wristwatch would recognise – informs the viewer that he’s not from the eleventh century. It’s in the lovely touch that is the Monk playing a record of Gregorian chanting to fool the villagers there’s more than just him kicking around up at the monastery. It’s that it is indeed Peter smegging Butterworth playing the Monk (and he is just brilliant in the role).

And it’s of course that it has one of the all-time great Doctor Who cliffhangers: when Vicki and Steven discover the Monk’s TARDIS. This seemed pretty special to me the first time I watched the story twenty-plus years ago. I can’t imagine how revelatory it would have been to someone watching in 1965: the TARDIS is no longer unique and the unnamed Monk is from the same as-yet-unnamed planet of as-yet-unnamed people as the unnamed Doctor.

There is more indeed to this than meets the eye.