The Monitor was the leader of the Logopolitan people. An ascetic race devoted to advanced mathematics, they had refined the technique of Block Transfer Computation, in which numbers could be made to shape matter and energy.
The Doctor sought out the Monitor and his people when he wanted to overhaul the TARDIS, starting with the long-faulty Chameleon Circuit, which was supposed to alter its external appearance to match its surroundings.
The ship materialised around a real Police Box near London in order that he and Adric could measure it. Despite almost falling prey to a trap by the Master, the Doctor then travelled to Logopolis. He was surprised to see a radio telescope dish - a reproduction of the Pharos Project on Earth - overlooking the community, as the Logopolitans always worked out their calculations mentally, intoning their formulae.
Unfortunately the Master followed and sabotaged the calculations, then attempted to blackmail the Monitor into revealing a great secret he knew them to be hiding.
It turned out that the universe had long passed its natural end due to entropy, and the Logopolitans were extending its life by allowing the passage of energy through Charged Vacuum Emboidments - CVEs. These were portals to smaller pocket universes such as E-Space.
The Master's meddling caused entropy to accelerate and the universe began to crumble to dust. The Monitor died with his people and his planet - but he had prepared for their work to be run from the real Pharos Project in England.
Played by; John Fraser. Appearances: Logopolis (1981).
- Fraser (1931 - 2020) was nominated for a BAFTA for playing Lord Alfred Douglas - "Bosey" - in The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960). Tom Baker, who played Wilde on stage, recalled this role on the Logopolis DVD commentary.
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