Hello and welcome once again to another review of DrWho. This time we’ll be looking at a journey with the Third Doctor to Atlantis, full of fantastic mythical creatures, mysterious ancient artefacts and a butt tonne of boredom and nonsense!
Yeah, Atlantis in its two appearances in Doctor Who have usually been pretty much the kiss of death for the episode. When last we saw it in the Underwater Menace, a crazy German scientist wants to blow up the world just because. So now when it came to the show’s second attempt at Atlantis, was it an improvement? No….no it wasn’t.

In the Time Monster, the Master has infiltrated a research centre and is now conducting experiments with a machine used time experiments called, ugh, TOMTIT...and yes its pronounced Tom Tit. Did the writers even read what they put down? Um, well anyway, he’s doing this to disrupt the flow of time to summon a creature from a trident shaped crystal, a time eater called Kronos. People grow older and younger, the day never ends and so on. But he finds out that he needs a much bigger crystal that was made long ago in ancient Atlantis, where Kronos was worshipped. The Master first tries kidnapping an Atlantean priest to help summon Kronos, but that doesn’t end well, so the Master travels to Atlantis followed by the Doctor and Jo. While the Master flirts with the Atlantean queen and plots to have the king discredited, Jo and the Doctor search a labyrinth for the true crystal which is guarded by a minotaur. But the crystal is snatched from them by the Master who summons Kronos who destroys Atlantis. The Master escapes in his TARDIS with Jo, followed by the Doctor. Then shenanigans with TARDISes withing TARDISes, Kronos promises to torture the Master, everyone goes home and we end on a Scooby Doo laugh….boo.

The Time Monster ends Doctor Who’s ninth season in 1972. What was the rest of the season like? Well, put brutally not good. There are two good episodes and the rest are mediocre. The Time Monster is probably the worst out of all of this season. Like the debut story of Season 9, Day of the Daleks, it tried doing something new and fresh. But like Day of the Daleks it doesn’t work, the difference between the two being that Day of the Daleks is at least short and fast moving, The Time Monster just drags.
And that is its biggest problem. For a story with such grand visions, its extremely sluggish and everything seems so lax. There’s no urgency, no flare, no imagination in the direction and all the acting from the guest cast is rather wooden. It feels more like a silly romp than the big spectacular end to the season. In fact its not until near the end that you actually see Atlantis, most of the time its just sat around a research centre hoping something, ANYTHING will happen.
Production wise its an okayish story. Atlantis looks quite nice with great Minoan inspired designs, though the direction, especially the lighting, just makes it feel so flat and dull. The science lab looks very bare bones in comparision. But the two biggest let downs are the TARDIS redesign that only appeared in The Time Monster and never again and Kronos’ first appearance. The redesign for the TARDIS’ interior is just ugly and I’m glad it was junked.
Our big threat Kronos who is actually quite a neutral entity, has two forms that we see. The second and most effective is just simply a pair of eyes floating in a mist and an ethereal voice saying how Kronos is neither good nor bad, how gender has no meaning for him/her and that he/she is both a creator and a destroyer. This is really interesting stuff.
But unfortunately the first design we see is….well just take a look:



...its a flailing pigeon wearing a helmet! With fluffy slippers too! What a silly design! I know they were going for some sort of Angel of Death while working in an Ancient Greek vibe, but the design just looks so laughable in realisation.

Ok, positives. There’s only one real positive I can think of and that is this scene with Jo and the Doctor:



You so rarely get scenes like this between the companion and the Doctor nowadays, especially in the Tenth Doctor era. Back then it was mostly blubbering, moping and whining. But here you get so much more mystery and wonder. You don’t see Galifrey but just from the Doctor’s dialogue you get a full image. Also I like how there is a mystery in what his worst day had been. But unlike the New Series which played it up like a universe shattering mystery, oooh! What’s his name?! Oooh! But here, its just the experiences someone had in his life, which is far more interesting than any big prophecy or foretelling.
And on the side note the Minotaur does provide some eye candy for people who like that sort of thing. Even if the mask is so clearly a mask in the floodlit labyrinth.

So the Time Monster. It was kind of bad. Not even in an its so funny way like Horns of Nimon or the other Atlantean episode The Underwater Menace (who’s day will no doubt come), but in a sluggish lumbering way. Its really not a fun watch, but I do give it credit for its imagination and a few good scenes with the Doctor, Jo and the Master. But everything else? Not really up to scratch. A big bloated disappointment.

Well thats another one down. Next up I will offer a mix of New and Classic, just to add variation...and someone told me to do a positive New Who review instead of bashing it. So for next time here are your choices:

New:
-Blink
-Midnight
-World Enough and Time
-Mummy on the Orient Express
-Flatline

Classic;
-Pyramids of Mars; a very violent Egyptian god is awoken ready to turn Earth into a desolate desert.
-The King’s Demons; there’s a robot on the English throne...no its not as good as it sounds
-Castrovalva; A summery, relaxed introduction to Doctor no.5
-The Invasion; Doctor no.2 faces an old enemy
-The Greatest Show in the Galaxy; Altallo’s personally favourite episode, complete with killer robot clowns!