The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo Grant (Katy Manning)- his assistant- go to the Newton Research Unit at Cambridge University when the doctor’s time detector goes off after he has a dream about his arch-nemesis, The Master (the late and great Roger Delgado).   The Master is posing as a professor at NRU and he is the head of a time project called TOMTIT (who came up with that silly acronym is beyond me) which moves objects between now and… now.    Actually, The Master is trying to control Kronos, a being who controls time.   The Doctor and Jo follow the Master back to Atlantis where the fate of all time may hang in the balance.

The Third Doctor stories had great actors and some inventive scripts even though sometimes the production values show the low budget the series was under at the time.   The Doctor, Jo, and the Master play off each other well as characters and the actors are enjoying playing these characters.  Ingrid Pitt suspected she was hired for her assets (translation- big breasts), but she is powerful as the Atlantean Queen.   David Prowse (the man who played Darth Vader minus the voice in the original Star Wars trilogy) is the Minotaur.   The bird monster form of Kronos isa  letdown and better left unseen (producer Barry Letts tried to convince the story's director to change the monster to no avail).   THE TIME MONSTER is my least favorite of Delgado’s Master stories, but I like the use of science in the story and always Delgado is a good match for Pertwee’s Doctor. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The audio commentary is with John Levene, Susan Panhaligon, Barry Letts, Marion McDougall, Graham Duff, Phil Ford, Joe Lidster, and James Moran while moderated by Toby Hadoke.   The production notes subtitle track is informative while pointing out production goofs since on screen.

BETWEEN NOW… AND NOW!- a feature that looks at the science behind THE TIME MONSTER as cast and Barry Letts in addition to some science guy discuss the science and where it is right (science guy says a couple of things are wrong, but it seems DOCTOR WHO is mostly spot on with the science).

RESTORATION COMPARISON shows before and after of the restoration of the image quality of the story (they had to do a new Reverse Standards Conversion in addition to combing two sources to restore episode six).

The photo gallery is a running eight minute slide show of promotional and behind-the-scenes photos.

The PDF material is accessible via DVD-ROM and features Radio Times listings.

FINAL ANALYSIS:   Another enjoyable Third Doctor tale due to the performances by Pertwee and Delgado.    It’s not my favorite of the Third Doctor stories, but I always love a Doctor vs. The Master tale.

This DVD review is ©7-26-2010 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com