The Art of... The Time Meddler

The Time Meddler novelisation was written by the Target range editor Nigel Robinson who, with Ian Marter before his untimely death, was adapting the outstanding Hartnell stories.

The cover depicts the Monk - looking a lot more sinister than he ever did in the episode - against an atmospheric crepuscular coastal backdrop. There's a beacon fire on a cliff top - despite the fact that these are never actually lit in the story. The Monk wants one built, but the villagers are too suspicious to ever carry out his instructions. 

Other than their respective Doctors (and even these were absent from most Davison and all of the Colin Baker books) very few actors' likenesses are ever used on these covers. Maybe it's because, whilst they could capture a perfect Dalek or Cybermen, the artists struggled sometimes to get a good likeness. (It would also have entailed getting permission from the actors, with possible costs). There's only just a hint of Peter Butterworth here.

The artist is Jeff Cummins, and the book was published in March 1988.

When the book was reissued in May 1992, to tie in with the story's recent repeat screening on BBC Two, the cover image was reversed. This one was given the McCoy logo banner.

The story was released on VHS towards the end of the range in November 2002, as part of the First Doctor Box Set (with The Sensorites and The Gunfighters).

The Monk does not feature on the photomontage cover, and the main image is of the Doctor posing with the Viking helmet found on the beach. Vicki also gets a look in. The background is of a massive ruined abbey filling the whole horizon, rather than the small monastery that we actually see on screen. 

The US tape was released in October 2003, again as part of a box set.

The Region 2 DVD followed in February 2008, with one of Clayton Hickman's photomontage covers. The Monk is back, and there is a different image of Hartnell posing with the Viking helmet. Barry Newbery's monastery exterior set from the TV episodes appears in the background behind the Doctor, with a longship in the distance off to the right.

Once again, the Region 1 version of the cover is, to my mind, superior to the UK one, as the image isn't constrained by the block of grey roundels which takes up the upper third of the Region 2 covers. Instead, we have a gloomy storm-wracked sky. The only thing I don't like is the tinting.

The audiobook, read by Steven Taylor actor Peter Purves, was issued in 2016, using the original unflipped version of the Cummins' cover, zooming in on the Monk and omitting the lower background detail.

Finally, the story was released on Blu-ray as part of The Collection - Season 2 box set in January 2023. The disc itself featured a photomontage - an image of Steven and Vicki in the forest coupled with the same Hartnell / Viking helmet photo used on the VHS cover. The accompanying booklet featured the monochrome work of Lee Binding, with an image of the Doctor - horn of mead in hand - and with the TARDIS and a longship behind, within the silhouette of the Monk.