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“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.”

Once upon a time, there was an outcast from the 49th century who, with his granddaughter, stole a travel craft he barely knew how to use - but may have built - and took flight from a galactic war into the depths of Time and Space. After a series of adventures, he eventually landed in 1960s London, in a junkyard, where he took in new friends Cliff and Lola…and began a whole new series of travels…

...At least, that’s how it might have been. In July 1965, the background of the lead character in Doctor Who was still very much in doubt. On television screens, he was enigmatic about his past, coming simply from “another time [and] another world”; details such as those listed above had been abandoned either in early story drafts or in the unbroadcast version of the very first episode. Throughout the William Hartnell era, the Doctor gave frustratingly clashing clues, often calling himself “human” but “not from Earth.” It didn’t help that in August 1965, a film would be released - and Dr. Who and the Daleks would say, conclusively, that Peter Cushing’s version of the character was an eccentric, oddball, but totally modern-day human scientist.

But back to the show. With Doctor Who at the end of its second season, change was already in the air. The last of the Doctor’s original fellow travelers, Ian and Barbara, had departed the TARDIS in the previous story, “The Chase,” to be replaced by space pilot Steven Taylor. The next adventure, “The Time Meddler” found the crotchety old Doctor taking more of the lead role in his own show than he ever had before - so it’s interesting that, at this stage of transition, the production team decided to finally pit him against another time traveler with his very own TARDIS. No, they weren’t revealed as Time Lords - that would wait until 1969, long after Hartnell left the lead role - but the first seeds were sown that the Doctor, in fact, came from a whole race of time travelers with TARDISes, whose motives weren’t always pure…and the rest, as they say, is history. (Thanks, I’ll be here all weekend.) 

“The Time Meddler” finds the Doctor, Vicki and Steven landing in 1066 - a year of extreme importance to British history - just as the Vikings are preparing to invade the Northumbrian coast. There, they find evidence of time traveling, including a 1960s wristwatch, a toaster, and a gramophone, and soon deduce that the local monk is, in fact, meddling with the proper course of history. Although it may not have seemed it at the time, this fundamentally changes the structure of Doctor Who: previously, it was only the Doctor and his friends who had to tread lightly in history, but now, for the first time, the Doctor has to play the guardian of time and stop an outside influence from changing events. And the show, quite frankly, never looked back; by the mid-1970s these “pseudo-historicals,” as fans named them (meaning stories set in the past, but with a heavy sci-fi element) had become part of the very language of the program, and by the new Who of the 2000s, they were taken as given without a second thought. Gone were the proper historicals of the 1960s, to be replaced by past adventures filled with ghosts, trans-dimensional witches, and giant killer wasps.

Fortunately, if you enjoy the William Hartnell era of the show, you should find “The Time Meddler” very entertaining indeed. Hartnell himself turns in one of his most fun performances, with a number of great lines, and a giddily righteous attitude; you come away with the idea that he’s enjoying his battle against the Monk. Peter Purves, as Steven, easily acquits himself as the successor to Ian and Barbara, while Maureen O’Brien is certainly dependable - if less memorable - as Vicki. Carry On film star Peter Butterworth has almost as much fun as Hartnell with the concept, playing the comic villain for all he’s worth. Everyone had such a good time, apparently, that Butterworth was invited back for the next year, with the Monk attempting to ingratiate himself into “The Daleks’ Master Plan” - and thus becoming the first returning humanoid villain of the Doctor Who universe. Really, the only downfall of “The Time Meddler” is the extremely small scale of the Saxon and Viking conflict. With each group only being represented by a handful of actors, it’s hard to find it all too threatening; the lack of fight co-ordinating doesn’t really help, either. Still, the actors are giving it their all, and Alethea Charlton, at least, will stick in your mind as the Saxon woman who is traumatized by a Viking attack.

Doctor Who: The Time Meddler comes to DVD from 2entertain and BBC Video (through Warner). Completely aside from its significance in Doctor Who‘s history, this release is especially poignant because it marks the last contribution of original Who producer Verity Lambert, who oversaw the first two seasons of the program (and nominally the start of the third). In an odd touch of coincidence, she died on the 23rd of November, 2007 - Doctor Who‘s 44th anniversary - just as the final touches were being made to this, the DVD of her final story as hands-on producer of the show. As a result, there is a dedication to Lambert at the end of episode four, and a pair of brief additions have been made to the special features platter (more on this below).

Normally, a 1960s Doctor Who would be subjected to VidFIRE, the process that replicates the frame rate of video to bring the studio-bound “video look” to telerecorded films (which is how early Doctor Who was archived). However, it was felt that the “Time Meddler” episodes returned to the BBC were of too low a quality for VidFIRE to benefit. Although “Tomb of the Cybermen” was released on DVD before VidFIRE was perfected, “The Time Meddler” therefore becomes the first full release to intentionally not feature the process (although one episode of Doctor Who: Lost in Time, “The Lion,” was similarly left as film because of quality issues). Instead, the Restoration Team relied on the masters prepared for the story’s 2002 VHS release. For the DVD, attention was mainly given to cleaning up and improving episode one, the strongest of the lot. You can certainly tell: episode four looks particularly quite weak in comparison.

To be honest, though, the whole “quality” issue needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The loss of VidFIRE would be terribly apparent if you, say, watched this disc directly after “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” or “The Web Planet,” but on its own, the grainy, slightly smeary film look actually has its charms; if nothing else, it actually helps to sell the numerous studio-bound “outdoor” shots. Many fans, especially those who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, always saw the black-and white stories as films, so for us it’s even a bit nostalgic. A few things do stick out: the pristine, remade credits are incredibly jarring against the grain and noise of the films, and there’s a very obvious repaired scratch on the left side of the screen throughout episode three (it’s especially apparent in the final scene). Still, this is not the worst a ‘60s Who has looked - I think that award actually goes to “The Lion,” episode one of “The Crusade,” which was recovered in very poor quality indeed - but it probably will prove to be the weakest-looking complete ‘60s story.

Audio is, as usual, the original mono track, and English subtitles are provided for all four episodes and the video-based extras.

An information subtitle track is provided by Richard Molesworth, and as is typical of his tracks, the result is very technical, focusing on cut bits of script, actor filmographies, studio set layouts and…yes…studio recording schedules. Molesworth’s infamous predilection for lists marches on! This is an informative if dry track, although one or two entries do seem awfully trite, such as the note (for younger viewers?) that the Monk is smoking snuff and not some “other substance.”

The audio commentary for this release features actor Peter Purves, producer Verity Lambert, designer Barry Newbery and script editor Donald Tosh, moderated by former Doctor Who Magazine editor Clayton Hickman. This is a wonderful track, with a lot of variety; easily the best 1960s track we’ve had yet. Purves is pleasant, forthright and has a lot to say, as he already proved on his single-episode commentary for Lost in Time. Most memorable is how he wants to return as Steven on the new Doctor Who, having become “an absolute despot”! He and Lambert carry the bulk of the track, though Hickman manages to pull Newbery and Tosh more into the conversation as time goes on. Special praise must go to Hickman, in fact: he is far, far, far more effective as a moderator than Gary Russell, who took the job on for the The Beginning and Lost in Time sets. For one thing, Hickman isn’t flirting with the guests, thank God, but he’s also simply better at asking nice, open-ended questions that aren’t going to end in simple “yes” or “no” answers. I think his participation probably went a long way to getting some really interesting, new comments out of Verity Lambert, who previously appeared on several commentaries but was never so erudite. A great send-off for her and a great treat for the listener.

Some fans are going to be disappointed at the lack of a making-of featurette, or really any supplemental video material to do with the story’s production. It is disappointing, to be sure, particularly when there are topics that could be discussed: the transition from the original producer, Verity Lambert, to her successor John Wiles, and the various issues of series continuity to which this story contributed. There’s even some archive material that would have been welcome: Britain’s UKGold channel included a nice little ten-minute documentary on this one when they ran it as part of their Doctor Who @ 40 weekend in 2003, and BBC2’s 1992 repeat continuities would have been a pleasant addition (after all, they were included on the discs for “The Mind Robber,” “Genesis of the Daleks” and “Revelation of the Daleks”). However, this is considered a budget “vanilla” release in Region 2, and while the features may be the most sparse we’ve seen in some time, they’re certainly nice in their own way.

The Verity Lambert Obituary is the first of two extras that were hastily added following her death. This is the first text extra we’ve seen in some long time: a brief but affectionate tribute to a very accomplished lady, geared toward fans’ existant knowledge by actually skimming over her Who participation. I suspect the obituary was composed especially for this DVD release. Following this is a Verity Lambert Photo Gallery (2 mins.), a simple slideshow of professional headshots and behind-the-scenes production photos from several of her series, including Doctor Who, Adam Adamant Lives! and Eldorado. I do wish there were some credits to these photos, particularly the later ones, to put them in context. That said, what I really want - and I suspect many fans will agree - is a full documentary on Verity Lambert and her career for a future Who DVD extra. She deserves no less (and, in fact, probably quite a bit more).

I’ve always been a big fan of the various Doctor Who comics, so Stripped for Action - The First Doctor (16 mins.) is, for me, pretty exciting. This is the first of a series of featurettes to focus on the Doctor’s comic strip exploits, with the subject here being (quite naturally) the William Hartnell-starring strips from children’s weekly TV Comic. This a great, fun primer for that world, starting off with a title sequence of animated panels, and continuing with brightly-colored comic-panel backgrounds behind the interviewees. Without the benefit of a narrator - perhaps the one sticking point of the production - the throughline to the piece is provided by interviews with John Ainsworth and Jeremy Bentham, who while credited as “comics historians,” are really more like “professional fans.” (Actually, in a more serious vein, it’s nice to see Jeremy Bentham involved in the DVDs; he was the great steward of early Doctor Who scholarship, and has unfortunately been forgotten by many modern fans.) Together, with occasional comments from former Doctor Who Magazine editors Alan Barnes and Gary Russell, they take us through the early history of Doctor Who comics, touching on all the relevant points: John and Gillian, the Doctor’s grandchildren and comics-only companions; the famous sequel to “The Web Planet”; new Dalek-replacement villains the Trods; and more. So this doesn’t just become a fan retrospective, there is also an interview with Bill Mevin, second of three artists to draw Hartnell’s comic strip adventures. To him, Who was clearly “just a job,” and he’s understandably a bit bemused by its longevity. Neville Main, the original artist, is no longer with us, but I was a little perplexed by the absence of John Canning, Mevin’s successor. Perhaps he declined participation, which is unfortunate, as he’s really taken to task for his style and portrayal of Hartnell’s Doctor; that’s a shame, as I personally think he’s the only one of four Doctors Canning drew who looks like the actor! Oh well. Regardless, this is a fun little talking heads-style featurette, and I look forward to later installments in the series.

The Lost Twelve Seconds (1 min.) is a touch peculiar. Twelve seconds of violence in episode four were cut by Nigerian censors, and naturally were not present when the episode was returned to the BBC archives. Since the off-air audio of the original BBC transmission does exist, this little feature pairs it up with the existing video footage, using a still of the original script to bridge the gap. I suppose it’s nice for completists, but frankly, it doesn’t add anything to the story and most viewers will hardly lament the absence of less than a quarter of a minute of footage.

Restoration (5 mins.) is a restoration comparison between this DVD, the earlier VHS release, and the original films, the first such featurette we’ve had in a very long time. It’s easy to criticize the quality of these episodes, but even a brief look at the comparisons shows they’ve actually been greatly improved, including the repair of a major fault in episode one. I also enjoyed seeing the full 35mm newsreel of the “Viking ship” that was originally shot in 1949. Kudos are really owed the Restoration Team for their great work, and for putting a restoration featurette on this, an admitted problem release, to really show up our preconceptions of a “limited” restoration.

The traditional Photo Gallery (3 mins.) offers up a selection of black-and-white publicity shots from “The Time Meddler” - several of which are variations on more familiar shots - set to the stock music used in the story. Finally, for the DVD-Rom-inclined, the Radio Times Listings are included in a PDF, providing a glimpse into how the show was promoted in Britain’s national listings magazine. Listings are included for “The Time Meddler” and the following adventure, the now-lost “Galaxy Four,” along with the brief articles that accompanied both stories’ first episode. It’s nice to see 2entertain acknowledging the missing stories, and hopefully the Radio Times material for the other lost stories of the ‘60s will show up on future releases.

Unlike the Region 2 release, no “Coming Soon” trailer has been included, presumably because it would have been for “The Five Doctors” (which arrives alongside “The Time Meddler” in Region 1). However, the disc opens with that same, wretchedly omnipresent trailer for Doctor Who: The Complete Third Series on DVD. I’m beginning to wish for that Complete Fourth Series box set to come out just so I won’t have every shot of the trailer memorized.

This is one of those stories I haven’t seen over and over again, only encountering it on VHS last year, so I really enjoyed revisiting Doctor Who: The Time Meddler. The video quality is notably weaker when compared to other ‘60s releases, but it’s still perfectly watchable, and despite a small platter of features, this release has the best Hartnell-era commentary yet. At $24.98 SRP, it’s a bit steep, but you can find it online for well under $20. If you’re a fan of William Hartnell’s Doctor, or ‘60s Doctor Who in general, you won’t want to go without this entry. Recommended.

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