As a story, The Time Meddler is not really anything special. In terms of its contribution to the overall development of the series, it is crucial. It is the first time we discover that others from the Doctor’s (still unnamed) planet are travelling in time and space and that the TARDIS is not unique – it’s not even the most up to date model. It is also the first time in the series that the two story types: historical and futuristic were combined.

The Doctor, Vicki and surprise arrival Steven, land in Northumbria in 1066. Here they encounter Saxons, Vikings and a Monk meddling with time. The Monk is one of the Doctor’s own race and has a TARDIS hidden in the local monastery. He is planning to aid the Saxons in destroying the Viking invaders so that King Harold is able to fend off the soon to arrive Normans led by William the Conqueror. If Harold wins all of British history would change. The Doctor, with the help of the local Saxons foils the Monk’s plans and leaves him stranded in 1066 after stealing his dimensional circuit.

I have fond memories of taping The Time Meddler off the TV when BBC2 repeated it as part of a repeat season in 1992 (over 30 years ago!!). That said, I don’t have massively fond memories of the story. It was one of the first Hartnell stories I saw (I only became a fan around the age of 13/14 in about 1989) but it has never ranked in my favourites of this era. There are plenty of bits I like, but there are also plenty of bits which are, frankly, a bit dull.

Peter Butterworth as the Monk is brilliant. Mischevious and vaguely amoral he is the opposite to the Doctor and a far more interesting adversary than the straight down the line ‘evil’ Master. He’s enjoying his trips round time and space and bending the rules here and there seemingly for the fun of it. His interplay with Hartnell is wonderful and they are ably supported by Maureen O’Brien and Peter Purves.

The guest cast of Saxons and Vikings are fairly non-descript – saddled a little with silly moustaches, beards and hairstyles – but one stand out is Alethea Charlton (last seen ugging it up as Hur in 100,000 BC) as Edith. Her scenes with the Doctor are lovely. Verity Lambert points out on the commentary that she is very ‘Surrey’ in her hospitality and its true that it may seem a little anachronistic for her to behave in such a way, but there is such charm in Charlton’s performance coupled with some real steel later on. The suggested rape of Edith is all the more powerful for the fact that we care more about this character than we might do, purely down to the performances in those early scenes.

The Vikings are a bit lacklustre and look a little like Swedish 1970s porn stars with long shaggy hair and large handlebar moustaches.

The Saxons, with the exception of Edith, don’t fare much better with even more shaggy hair and beards they fight to get their dialogue past. The acting is passable, but they are not given a huge amount to work with. The best of the rest is probably Edith’s husband – who even gets a topless scene!

Away from the machinations of the Monk, this story encourages us to learn about 1066 and all that. The Doctor gives a massive info dump early in the story (which, according to Donald Tosh on the commentary is a Hartnellisation of the original script which had caused some consternation amongst the production team as he was giving away a lot of the upcoming plot). The Doctor mentions Harold Hadrader, the Vikings, the Normans and 1066, commenting that Barbara would have loved it (Barbara and Ian having departed in the previous story, The Chase).

The sets are very good, something which the commentary guests comment on continually, from the saxon crook house, to the forest and the monastery. The monastery in particular has a sense of scale often missing from the Hartnell stories, limited as they were to small studios and a lack of location filming. It seems that Barry Newbery (also present on the commentary) did extensive research before building the sets and he comments on the fact that the black floor in the crook house – partly necessitated by the studio floor – was in actual fact historically accurate due to the practice of putting ox blood on the ground which would have turned hard and black and make a perfect flooring.

The rape of Edith is another aspect which lends a historical validity to the events unfolding. Although it is unspoken and the scene could be read in a few different ways, the fact remains that rape was something Viking invaders committed. To have it alluded to in a children’s programme is both shocking and commendable.

Less accurate, possibly, is the Viking helmet the Doctor discovers on the beach (leading to one of the Doctor’s best lines – ‘A space helmet for a cow!’). As far as I know, the presence of horns on Viking helmets is an invention of films and TV and, historically, they would have worn no such thing. Intriguingly, none of the actual Vikings are shown wearing anything like this and seem to be decked out in some far more accurate helmets and the like. There is also an effective inclusion of stock footage of a replica Viking longship – which the restored and cleaned up version of the story prepared for this DVD release makes to fit seamlessly into the studio recordings.

The Time Meddler does at times feel a little like a history lesson, and at others seems like a bunch of lacklustre fight scenes strung together by Peter Butterworth and William Hartnell’s battle of words. Peter Purves makes an immediate impact as the cynical Steven and Maureen O’Brien continues to give Vicki more life and vitality than was ever present in her predecessor Susan.

The Monk is easily the best part of this story and it is no surprise the production team brought him back in The Daleks’ Masterplan. It is a shame he didn’t return again on TV although he does appear in a number of comic strips, novels and audio dramas. None of these, however, can hold a candle to Butterworth’s performance.