The Time Monster

The Master is at it again, this time in the guise of Professor Thascales, a scientist working on a time travel theory. But the plan goes further, and the Master seeks to control a ferocious creature named Kronos - the most powerful of the Chronovores. The Doctor realizes that the Master is on the move again and takes steps to stop him, chasing him from his laboratory in Wooten to the lost civilization of Atlantis where they key to controlling Kronos lies. But as the name implies, a Chronovore is a creature that feeds on time, and if unleased on Earth it could be the end for everything.

At first I thought that this was a far more complicated plot, but after summing it up there it's not really, is it? It's a six part story so it's long and more or less epic with the switch in episode five to Atlantis. Gorgeous huge set they had for that - must have been leftover from I Claudius or something. In fact it's the visuals which distract from the slow pace of the story and the splintered chunks of cast in their own subplots: in episode four we see the inside of the TARDIS again and it's dramatically been changed, and coincidentally so has the inside of the Master's ship; the only difference between them is where the main doors are and the time rotor. But episode four is also nothing but the Doctor and the Master talking at each other from their console rooms. It's pure padding but it's all ooh ahh look at the inside of the TARDIS so no-one seems to care much. Sadly we never see that TARDIS interior again. And then there's this quick not even two full episodes adventure in Atlantis which it turns out wasn't destroyed by the Daemons after all despite Azal telling the Master it was. Unless Atlantis was a planet in that reference.

UNIT are in the story as well but not all of it; the Brigadier gets frozen in time, Yates gets blown up (almost) and Benton ends up naked. Is it just me or are the UNIT guys starting to be less prominent? They were there at the season opener to battle the Daleks but after that this is all we have seen of them, aside from The Face of the Enemy. Aside from the UNIT crew the supporting cast is quite large, from the Master's unsuspecting assistants at Wooten (and one of them has a bit too much women's lib in her to be taken seriously) to the peoples of Atlantis and Kronos his/herself. And the Minotaur.

Somewhere in episode six we get a fantastic moment with the Doctor speaking of his childhood to Jo, the content of which would be the basis of a novel called Lungbarrow published in 1997; the Doctor remembers being a little boy living in a house halfway up a mountain. This is the third time that the Doctor's past is brought up so far in the series, first being Susan on board the TARDIS and the second being the Doctor's late night chat with Victoria in Tomb of the Cybermen. It's a small glimpse into his life before he left his home planet, just enough to remind anyone that there's more to him than just the exile on Earth and no more.

As for the Master he is shown at his demented best; he wants power and naively believes he can put one of the wildest creatures on a leash and who cares what happens to anyone else. Well of course he cares what happens to the Doctor - he wants him dead and almost succeeds, then tosses Jo into the time vortex for good measure. All the time he is doing this though he still maintains a certain style, and a bit of charm which he uses on Queen Galleia of Atlantis to gain power there. And get her to betray her husband. The bitch. Still, the Master's powers work best on the weak willed and the universe is full of those. Such a shame, though, that this is the second last time we will see this incarnation of the Master.

So the season closes with the ensemble having a good laugh at a naked Sergeant Benton, which is a good time to head back into the expanded universe for some more good times...

NEXT EPISODE: THE MEGA