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| The Meddling Monk |
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 Name: AKA The Meddling Monk
Format:
Television show, Book and Audio.
Time of Origin: Gallifrey, 50 years later then The Doctor
Appearances: "The
Time Meddler", "The
Daleks' Master Plan", "No
Future", "The Book of
Kells", "The
Resurrection of Mars", "Lucie Miller", "To the Death"
Doctors:
First
Doctor, Seventh
Doctor and Eighth
Doctor
Companions:
Vicki,
Steven
Taylor,
Sara
Kingdom,
The
Brigadier, Sergeant
Benton, Captain
Mike Yates, Ace, Bernice
Summerfield,
Susan Campbell,
Lucie Miller and Tamson Drew.
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Divided Loyalties
(Gary
Russell) |
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History: A Time Lord like The Doctor, Mortimus
originates from Gallifrey, where he and the First
Doctor were friends at
the Academy, as revealed in a flashback of the Fifth Doctor's in "Divided
Loyalties". Mortimus, however, is different from The Doctor, but not
really on The
Master's scale of evil - at least, at first. Although just
trying to improve some things in "The
Time Meddler", in his next
appearance in "The Dalek's Master Plan", he was determined to
get at The Doctor for ruining his plans, and in their final battle in "No
Future", The Monk changed history in The Doctor's past to stop him
dealing with an invasion of Earth, having finally gone over the edge, because
The Doctor meddled with history here and there was seen as a hero, while
all the monk had wanted to do was improve history, and was viewed as a
villain.
The Monk made his debut in Doctor Who in the First Doctor
television show "The Time Meddler", when the First Doctor
and Vicki, just after the departure of Ian and Barbara, land at the
Northumbrian Coast in 1066, just before the Battle of Hastings, and
realized that Steven
Taylor, a man they met during "The
Chase",
has stowed away on the TARDIS. Although Steven dismisses their claims
that they have travelled in time, especially when he finds a modern
wristwatch lying around, dropped by The Monk. The Monk eventually
captures The Doctor to prevent him interfering with his plans, which,
as Steven and Vicki discover while rescuing The Doctor, involves
altering history - specifically, changing the outcome of the Battle
of Hastings by destroying a fleet that weakened Harold's army before
the Battle. The Monk has already messed about with history by this
point, having already taught DaVinci about powered flight and collected
a fortune in a bank due to the interest. After The Doctor's companions
rescue him from The Monk, The Doctor manages to stop The Monk's plans
by removing the dimensional circuit from The Monk's TARDIS, so that
its insides are the same size as its outsides, and therefore useless.
In the First Doctor’s next battle with The Monk,
The Doctor, Steven, and new companion
Sara
Kingdom are confronted by The Monk while on a newborn planet while
escaping the Daleks ("The Dalek's Master Plan"). The Meddling Monk attempts to trap
The Doctor and his friends there by destroying the TARDIS lock, but The
Doctor is somehow
able to use his ring to open it. When The Meddling Monk
tracked The Doctor to Egypt, along with the Daleks, The Doctor managed
to trick the Daleks into moving The Meddling Monk's TARDIS by locking its
Chameleon Circuit in the form of a Police Box and
stealing its directional unit. This allowed The Doctor to
defeat the Daleks, at the cost of Sara's life, and also trapped The Meddling
Monk on an ice world.
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No Future
(Paul Cornell) |
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After
this, The Monk decided to try a new strategy, as revealed in his next appearance
in the New Adventures book "No
Future", driven to the brink of
rage and despair at the fact that he was seen as a villain simply for trying
to improve history while The Doctor - now in his seventh incarnation -
had reached a point where he even left messages for his past selves to
aid them in solving the current crisis, meddling in history wherever he
saw fit (The fact that, on many occasions, The Doctor’s involvement
appeared to have been part of history originally seems to have had no impact
on The Monk’s anger). By this point, the Seventh
Doctor, Ace and
Bernice
Summerfield had been tracking a mysterious foe who had not only altered events
in The Doctor's actual past by preventing The Doctor from stopping the
creation of a beast called the Garvond, anchored The Doctor to a creature
called the Left-Handed Hummingbird, preventing the Second
Doctor from destroying
the Land of Fiction, had a punk singer apparently save the Earth, but,
worst of all, created a whole new timeline by managing to kill the Third
Doctor in his encounter with the Silurians. The source of The Monk’s
enhanced time-manipulating abilities - rather than his original approach
of simply visiting the original date in history and ‘tweaking’ the
circumstances in person - was swiftly revealed to be a Chronovore ("The
Time Monster") known as Artemis, who, since Chronovores exist outside
of Time, is immune to the laws of cause and effect, allowing the Monk to
make whatever changes he saw fit. The Monk used Artemis to break the Time
Loop around the Vardan's homeworld that the Fourth Doctor had put there
after he'd defeated them in "The
Invasion of Time", The Monk
subsequently suggested they invade Earth to avenge their defeat at the
hands of The Doctor and the Sontarans - Earth being a strategically important
world to the Sontarans as well as being precious to The Doctor - simultaneously
changing various elements in The Doctor's past to prevent him investigating
after his attempt to simply kill the Third Doctor only created an alternate
timeline. While establishing himself as Robert Bertram, a scientist who
had invented the CD a decade ahead of schedule, The Monk provided UNIT
with virtual reality equipment to serve as a training program that hypnotized
the soldiers, with only The
Brigadier and Sergeant
Benton retaining their
own minds.
Having
apparently won The Doctor's companion Ace to his side, taking advantage
of the current hostility between her and The Doctor due to such actions
as The Doctor allowing Ace’s old lover Jan to die ("Love
and War"), The Meddling Monk then managed to get himself named as UNIT's
Scientific Advisor and declare The Doctor and his allies a ‘Foreign
Hazard’ to be shot on sight. After Ace had apparently stabbed The
Doctor, The Monk subsequently took him to the ice planet where The Doctor
trapped The Meddling Monk after their last fight, intending for The Doctor
to use up all his remaining regenerations as he starved to death on that
planet. However, The Doctor managed to escape - using a piece of paper
that had fallen off the desk that was the current form of The Monk’s
TARDIS due to a flawed chameleon circuit to send himself into The Monk’s
ship - and save Benny from a fake trap Ace set up. With the aid punk band
Plastecine, The Doctor was able to broadcast a signal that would trap the
Vardans in a carrier wave and banish them from Earth. As The Doctor and
The Monk came face-to-face at last, although The Doctor was outraged at
The Monk’s actions, he was nevertheless able to gain the upper hand
by revealing Ace’s role in his escape. The furious Monk prepared
to use Artemis to erase this defeat from history and try again, but before
he could do so, Artemis snapped free of her containment, having been freed
by Ace; Artemis had blocked The Monk’s attempts to win Ace to his
side from the beginning, and Ace had simply decided to string
him along until she could find a way to stop him. Artemis,
now free, nearly destroyed the world in revenge, but The Doctor convinced
her to show mercy,
although The Monk rejected his offer to come to some reconciliation
despite The Doctor having made his peace with Ace for their recent arguments.
The
Monk tried to escape, but Artemis captured him and took
him away to make him pay for her imprisonment.
Having somehow escaped Artemis,
The Monk returned to The Doctor’s
life when he somehow managed to convince the Eighth Doctor’s ex-companion
Lucie Miller to travel with him, subsequently acquiring the mysterious
Book of Kells from Ireland in 1006 for his collection ("The Book
of Kells"). However, he abandoned Lucie on Deimos after an argument,
subsequently tampering with Ice Warrior history to create a new timeline
where they would re-terraform Mars to take it back from the humans. The
Doctor was able to set history on its proper course and rescue Lucie,
but his actions resulted in him becoming estranged from his new companion
Tamsin Drew, who abandoned him to side with The Monk as she felt that
The Monk’s more ‘pro-active’ approach to time travel
was better ("The Resurrection of Mars"). Although The Monk
was able to trick Tamsin into helping him collect human artefacts from
museums in the 22nd century while he helped the Daleks launch a new invasion
of Earth - using a Dalek virus he had acquired in the far future -, she
rejected him after his role in the invasion was revealed ("Lucie
Miller"). After the Daleks destroyed the Monk’s collection
while trying to kill The Doctor, The Monk saved The Doctor and Susan Campbell - The Doctor’s granddaughter and one of the leaders against
the Dalek invasion - from the bomb that destroyed the Daleks, but The
Doctor, disgusted at The Monk’s role in the invasion, simply ordered
his old friend to leave his sight. Whether The Monk is
still alive after the Time War mentioned in the latest series remains
to be seen.
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| The Time Meddler |
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| The Time Meddler |
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| The Time Meddler |
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| The Daleks' Master Plan |
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