Episode 79: The Meddling Monk

Synopsis:

The Doctor has discovered 20th Century objects in an 11th Century Northumbrian monastery. As he looks around, a wooden barrier suddenly drops from the roof - trapping him - and he is confronted by the Monk...

He is locked in one of the cells and the following morning the Monk cooks him breakfast. However, when he takes it to him, the ill-tempered Doctor throws it back in his face - demanding to be released.

In the forest, Steven and Vicki have had to sleep rough. Steven forages for berries for their breakfast, then they set off to find the Doctor.

They have been watched, however, and are captured by Eldred and some of the other villagers - accused of being Viking spies.

The Norsemen are approaching the coast - observed via binoculars by the Monk from a nearly cliff.

At Wulnoth's home, Edith vouches for Steven and Vicki after they reveal that they are friends of the Doctor. The headman allows them to go free, and Edith tells them that their friend was last seen heading for the monastery.

The Vikings land on the beach and their leader sends a trio of raiders - Sven, Ulf and Gunnar - to scout out the local villages and assess their strength.

At the monastery, the Monk tells Steven and Vicki that he has not seen the Doctor. Suspicious, Steven tricks him into revealing that he must have done, as he is able to describe what he looks like.

As evening falls, the Viking scouts attack Edith at her isolated home. Luckily her husband and his friends arrive soon after. They pursue the Vikings into the forest. In a fight, Gunnar is killed and the other two run off. Eldred is left wounded.

Steven and Vicki have been looking round the monastery exterior and find a window which will give them access. They spot the 20th Century objects which the Doctor had earlier noticed.

Before the Monk can trap them as he had the Doctor, Wulnoth turns up at the main door with Eldred, insisting that his friend be looked after.

Entering the Doctor's cell, Steven and Vicki see a form huddled on the bed under some furs. Pulling them back, they find only a pile of bedclothes. The Doctor has vanished...

Next episode: A Battle of Wits

Data:

Written by: Dennis Spooner

Recorded: Friday 18th June, 1965 - Television Centre TC3

First broadcast: 5:40pm, Saturday 10th July, 1965

Ratings: 8.8 million / AI 49

Designer: Barry Newbery

Director: Douglas Camfield

Additional cast: David Anderson (Sven), Norman Hartley (Ulf), Ronald Rich (Gunnar), Geoffrey Cheshire (Viking Leader)

Critique:

When Steven Moffat included a story involving Vikings in Series 9, he took great pains to point out that he was well aware that the Norse raiders did not wear horns on their helmets - but had okayed them as they were what the audience expected. (Something similar would happen with Barry Newbery's research into period US buildings for The Gunfighters. The houses of Tombstone, Arizona, resembled the brick-built terraces which can still be seen in parts of London today - so the decision was made to go for buildings which matched those seen in cowboy movies and TV series, as that is what the viewers would expect to see).

Vikings did not use ornate helmets on a day to day basis - they were reserved for ceremonial purposes only. They would not have worn horned helmets on regular raiding business. The image of the horn-helmeted warrior really derives from Scandinavian artists of the Romantic school in the 1800's.

Even if this was widely known about in 1965, the production team would have still gone with the "space helmet for a cow" look, as it provides a (tele-)visual shorthand for the audience. 

You see a helmet with horns, you automatically think "Viking".

The ones we see here are an advance scouting party for King Harald Hardrada of Norway who had entered into an alliance with Tostig Godwinson to invade Britain. Tostig was the unpopular younger brother of King Harold, and had held the Earldom of Northumbria. He had been deposed and exiled after rebelling against King Edward (the Confessor), travelling first into Scotland and then over to Norway. He had earlier attempted to forge an alliance with William of Normandy - but he had his own plans for Britain...

Around the time that this story is set - early September 1066 - Tostig will be heading for the river Tyne, whilst Harald will be making for the Ouse near York. They would then join forces and take York, after Hardrada had won a victory against an English force at Fulford.

The popular image of Vikings is one of bloodthirsty marauders, who attacked coastal communities and killed anyone who crossed their paths. They were pagans, and the Christian religious houses - which were often to be found in remote coastal regions - were particularly hard hit. Their bad reputation was no doubt enhanced by surviving monks, as they were the only people at the time who could read and write. It wasn't just the victors who got to write the history books - the victims could as well in the Anglo-Saxon period. A lot of what we think of as Viking behaviour derives from monkish anti-Viking propaganda - though it was all based on actual events.

With limited resources back in Norway - where they were confined to the edges of the landscape due to the terrain - annual expeditions abroad were essential to seize goods and slaves. They also had an expansionist policy of settling foreign lands, which is why they had their eye on Britain.

A lot more is known today about the more peaceful aspects of their culture, thanks to archaeological exploration in places like Dublin and York, as well as in their native lands.

Expert seamen, it is now widely accepted that they were in the Americas long before Columbus, and traded all the way to the borders of Asia.

One notable element of this episode is the attack by the Viking scouts on Edith. One phrase which has become synonymous with the Norsemen is "raping and pillaging" - and the implication on screen is that Edith has been sexually assaulted. This is strong stuff for an early evening family adventure serial, but it is handled sensitively. We don't see anything - just the aftermath - and there is no specific mention of what has happened in the dialogue. 

In The Snows of Terror episode of The Keys of Marinus, we had seen Barbara come under attack by the fur trapper Vasor. Then, attempted rape had been implied, but here the suggestion is certainly that rape has actually taken place. What is worrying for the viewer is that Edith is seen lying apparently lifeless, with her eyes open and staring, unblinking - making it appear that she is actually dead. This was the impression viewers would have taken away with them for the following seven days.

William Hartnell was enjoying a week's holiday when this episode was rehearsed and recorded. He had pre-recorded his dialogue the week before, and this was played into the studio on the night.

On the afternoon of recording, Peter Purves posed for a number of publicity photographs wearing his cloak.

For its second episode, the story moved studio once again, albeit within Television Centre.

A piece of newsreel footage was used to depict the Viking longship at sea. In July 1949 a group of Danish rowing club members had crossed the North Sea in a replica longship to commemorate the first recorded landing by the Danes in 449 AD. Filmed on 28th July 1949, it was broadcast on the BBC as part of The Land of the Vikings three days later.

Camfield was unhappy with the fight scene between the Saxons and Vikings, feeling the actors looked under-rehearsed. The sequence had been put together in the studio on the day, rather than worked out in rehearsals, and it deviated from the description which Spooner had given.

It wasn't just the director who was unhappy. When the audience research report was compiled for this episode, viewers singled out the fight scene for criticism, describing it as "feeble".

Barry Newbery would have been annoyed to see his sets described by some viewers as "stagey".

Trivia:

• The audience numbers drop only slightly from the previous week - but there is a big drop of 8 points in the appreciation figure, taking the AI to below 50 for the first time since the final instalment of The Space Museum.
• Some viewers were still struggling with the anachronisms in this story, so hadn't twigged that the story might be about a time traveller. One stated in the aforementioned audience research report: "Can't understand what a gramophone etc. has to do with early Britons. It seems just silly". This confusion may have added to the poor audience appreciation figure.
• David Anderson was this story's fight arranger as well as having a speaking role in it. He had been involved in the series since Marco Polo where he had been a warrior extra, and Camfield had noted his work in its fight scenes. He then played the Guard Captain in The Aztecs, on which he had also organised the various combats. Camfield had only recently used him as de Marun in the opening episode of The Crusade.
• His character was originally going to be called "Sweyn", after another of the brothers of King Harold, but it was changed to the more modern Sven late in the day.
• Outside of TV work, Anderson also managed a couple of pop groups and ran a martial arts school in Shepherds Bush, West London.
• This is the first appearance by Norman Hartley, who was one of Douglas Camfield's repertoire of favoured actors. He used him again in Doctor Who in The Invasion as Henlow Downs missile crewman Sergeant Peters.
• His character, Ulf, was named after an uncle of King Harold.
• Ronald Rich was credited as "Gunnar the Giant". Rich would later feature as one of the alien delegates in Mission to the Unknown. He is best known for playing Blofeld's bodyguard Hans in the Bond movie You Only Live Twice.
• Geoffrey Cheshire also featured in a Bond film - On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He also appeared in the second Peter Cushing Dalek movie, playing a Roboman. Camfield would use him again in The Invasion. That's him sitting beside John Levene in the car as they observe the Doctor and Jamie outside the IE offices at the beginning of the second episode.
• The Monk is seen to use snuff - a form of powdered tobacco which was usually taken through the nose, though it could also be rubbed into the gums. It was still being used in the 1960's, though far less commonly than at its height in the 18th and 19th Centuries. The name comes from snuf, short for snuftabak - Dutch for "sniff tobacco".
• The Meddling Monk was the only episode of this story to survive the BBC's purge of its archives. It had been cleared for wiping in January 1969, but a 16mm film copy had been retained by BBC Enterprises. The other three instalments had been wiped early in 1967.