Embedded Files
In this story, the writers realised how much better the past would be if it had aliens in it. And so this guy turned up - The Meddling Monk, a mischievous alien from the Doctor's home planet. He isn't much of a threat - he spends most of his time laughing and pratting about. But he's got a cool "Spectre of Death from a public information film" vibe going on, and he's working that pretty hard.
He's in olden times, doing a bit of light villainy and messing about with history. He's just noticed Doctor Who turning up, and he is not delighted at the prospect. Experience suggests that Doctor Who won't even wait to find out what's going on before he starts interfering and breaking everything he touches.
Doctor Who and Vicki are kicking about on a beach and saying, "Oh, we're in the past." They like going to the past, as the stories tend to be more involving and they don't have to spend all their time trying not to laugh at ridiculous space costumes.
That guy in the back is new. He's Steven, and his main thing is "Being grumpy and not believing you." Right now he's not believing that the TARDIS is a spaceship, or that they're in the past, or that Doctor Who is a competent facilitator for adventures in time and space.
I like how they're all wearing cloaks. That's unusual, and lots of fun. It's like they all got together before the story and went, "Superhero vibe? Yeah?" and then starting playing with the dressing up trunk and jumping up and down in excitement.
Everyone splits up to do an explore. Doctor Who runs into this lady Saxon, and instantly starts drinking her wine. She's thinking, "Who is this incredibly rude old man with an admittedly awesome cloak?"
Doctor Who starts cackling and prodding her and shouting, "Is this the past? I told everyone it was the past, but I've honestly no idea."
She confirms that yes, it's the past, and has he perhaps brought his own bottle to this party he's invented in her house?
Later on, Vicky falls asleep. In these older stories, narrative is a little looser and pretty much anything counts as a plot event, including stuff like this where literally nothing is happening.
It's worth it, though, for a chance to spend some time with Vicki's lovely face. She has probably the second or third best nose in all of Doctor Who.
The Monk goes to visit the townsfolk. They don't know he's a time travelling villain, despite the fact that he spends a lot of his time chuckling to himself while they're only a few feet away, and saying things like, "These primitives will never suspect!"
Lady Saxon from earlier is shouting, "Why are you so weird?" and "Watch out - Doctor Who is wandering about stealing booze."
Doctor Who goes to investigate the abbey where the Monk lives, but gets instantly captured. This is great news for Doctor Who, as it means he can go to sleep for a bit.
Experience has taught him that very little happens for the first couple of episodes of a story, and it's safe to have a lie down. If things go really well, then his companions will find a solution to whatever is going on, and he can wake up just in time to take the credit.
Steven and Vicki get captured by Saxons, and taken to see Saxon lady. She's having quite the story, isn't she? She's met everyone so far. This adventure should be called "The Amazing Adventures of Saxon Lady", and she should get her own title sequence where she's collecting twigs and occasionally spins round to look down the camera.
Everyone reckons Vicki and Steven are Viking spies, but Steven is so furiously outraged at the idea that they soon give up on the concept, and settle on the notion that he's just a very bad tempered non-spy.
Steven and Vicki work out where Doctor Who is, based on Saxon lady's description of a mad old man who drank all her stuff and then ran off to the abbey, laughing and tripping over things.
Suddenly, Vikings happen! These long haired guys charge over the clifftops, shouting about doing an invasion.
That guy in the mad hat is in charge, I would imagine. It takes a lot of confidence to wear something that ludicrous, and I reckon that's the kind of confidence that gets you promoted in Viking circles.
The guy at the back, who looks a lot like Ryan Reynolds but can't be, is super enthusiastic about the invasion, and is already having a great day.
The guy on the left, who looks like Steve Coogan but can't be, seems less sure. I think he's on board for now, but reserves the right to change his mind if something more exciting becomes available, or if it all goes wrong and they start getting murdered.
Steven and Vicki have gone to the abbey and look - they've found a record player. In the Dark Ages! Vicki is super astounded and spends a while pulling a gormless face of astonishment.
Steven, being a bloke, is more interested in what's playing, and is probably half an hour into a very long explanation of when it was released and who produced it, and how Vicki probably hasn't heard the early stuff, which is a shame as that's when they were really good, and how much better it sounds on vinyl, and ooh - this is a good bit, listen to this.
Doctor Who wakes up and gets right in the Monk's face, saying things like, "Don't mess about with time," and "I vow to stop you", even though he doesn't really know what's going on.
The Monk is doing 'innocent' face, and he's saying, "I didn't know it was the dark ages, honest." He does know - it was him who invited the Vikings over and everything.
I don't know why he's so intimidated by Doctor Who - they're both old men, and all Doctor Who has got is a stick. Any altercation they get into will require quite a lot of rest breaks and probably a bit where they stop to have a cup of tea and a moan about how you can't even say anything racist these days.
Vicki and Stephen do a bit more exploring and look - they've found another TARDIS! Turns out the Monk is basically another Doctor Who, which they should have guessed from the weird dress sense and constant chuckling.
Once again Vicki is acting with appropriate amazement. This is an an astonshing revelation, which changes her understanding about the universe.
Steven appears to be wearing expression that says, "Yeah, this is pretty much what I reckoned would happen." No you didn't Steven! You might as well pretend you guessed who Keyser Soze was five minutes into watching The Usual Suspects. There's no way!
Everyone crowds into the Monk's TARDIS and larks around in there for a bit. The Monk is saying, "I just wanted to change history for no real reason, so I invited Vikings over." Doctor Who is doing stern face. Changing history is only cool when he does it.
Vicki is having the best time. In fact, everyone seems in a pretty good mood, to say this is the final confrontation. I think they've all just enjoyed the premise of the story and the excellent guest villain.
Steven's not so thrilled, though, is he? He's thinking, "This feels like enforced fun. I've no time for this." Steven is the kind of person who leaves parties early.
Doctor Who and the posse have won again, mainly by shouting, "Stop it!" at the Monk, and generally getting in his way so he couldn't concentrate and all his plans went wrong.
Vicki is still beaming away. She's so great. Lots of Doctor Who's companions moan and complain all the time, but she's just delighted to be having adventures. Even Steven seems to have cheered up. Maybe he's just heard that all the Vikings got horribly killed by the townsfolk, and he's visualising that. Stop it Steven - it's weird.
Doctor Who, meanwhile, appears to be giving the thumbs up. That's pretty unusual behaviour for him - he's generally quite reserved. Giving thumbs up is basically his equivalent of setting fireworks off in the house.
The Monk's day ends badly, when he returns to his TARDIS and realises that Doctor Who has done a thing to make it go all small. He's not getting in there any time soon, I don't think.
Now he's stuck in the Dark Ages, and he'll have to be a real Monk. If he's anything like Doctor Who, he'll not have done any research into this before choosing his ridiculous disguise, so he'll be in big trouble.
See you later, you Monk. You were a great villain and lots of fun.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse