When the TARDIS materialised in 11th Century Northumbria, the Doctor discovered evidence of anachronistic technology at a remote monastery. The solitary monk who resided there turned out to be a member of his own race. The Monk had left their home planet some fifty years after he had. Rather than explore the universe, he instead wanted to exploit it - for financial gain, and simply for fun.
The Doctor branded him a time-meddler.
His TARDIS was disguised as a Saxon sarcophagus in the monastery chapel, and contained many treasures he had looted over the course of his travels.
His diary revealed that he had helped ancient Britons to build Stonehenge with the help of anti-gravity lifts; had given Leonardo da Vinci ideas for powered flight; and deposited money in a bank in 1966 so that he could collect a fortune in compound interest 200 years later.
He was in the north-east of England at this time in order to subvert the course of history. He wanted to ensure that King Harold won the Battle of Hastings by preventing him from having to travel north to fight the Vikings at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. He would lure the Viking fleet into a trap - destroying it with an atomic bazooka.
The Doctor and his companions were able to turn the local villagers against him and he was forced to abandon his plans. The Doctor sabotaged his TARDIS - removing the dimension control so that the interior matched the size of the exterior shape - leaving him stranded in 1066.
He succeed in bypassing the sabotage and set out to pursue the Doctor and gain his revenge. On the volcanic world of Tigus he sabotaged the TARDIS lock so that the Doctor would be stranded as he had been. However, the Doctor was able to use the light of the planet's sun, focussed through the crystal in his ring, to make a temporary repair.
He then followed the Doctor to ancient Egypt, where his TARDIS materialised in the form of a stone block at the building works for the Great Pyramid. Unfortunately, he was not the only one hunting the Doctor. A Dalek time machine had also arrived, containing a pursuit group accompanied by the villainous Mavic Chen. They sought the Doctor to retrieve the vital Core of their Time Destructor weapon which he had stolen. The Monk was forced to help them locate him.
His attempts to flee in the Doctor's TARDIS all failed. When he tried to waylay the Doctor in the pyramid's tomb, he found himself bound up in wrappings and deposited in a sarcophagus.
Captured by the Daleks along with Steven and Sara Kingdom, the Monk tried to benefit from the situation by claiming that he had actually delivered the Doctor's companions as hostages to them.
Freed as part of an exchange, the Monk fled to his TARDIS - only to find that the Doctor had altered its appearance to look like his own ship to distract the Daleks. On leaving Egypt, he found himself on a bleak ice planet - and discovered that his TARDIS had been sabotaged once again. This time its directional control had been taken by the Doctor - leaving him unable to navigate.
Played by: Peter Butterworth. Appearances: The Time Meddler (1965), The Daleks' Master Plan (1965-66).
- Butterworth (1915 - 1979) is best known for his regular appearances in the Carry On... series of films. His first was Carry On Cowboy - made soon after first appearing as the Monk - and his last was the series' final regular entry in 1978, Carry On Emmanuelle.
- A POW in WWII, he had been held at Stalag Luft III where he met the future writer of the Carry On's, Talbot Rothwell. The camp became famous for the 'Wooden Horse' escape. When he learned later that this was to be made the subject of a movie he auditioned - only to be rejected on the grounds that he didn't look like a POW...
- In 1946 he married Janet Brown, the impressionist best known for her comic portrayals of Mrs Thatcher.
- Butterworth died whilst on tour as Widow Twankey in pantomime, suffering a fatal heart attack in his hotel room. One of his movies - The First Great Train Robbery, starring Sean Connery - had just been released in the cinemas at the time.
- Apart from an emergency call-back to help launch the Second Doctor, Dennis Spooner moved on from Doctor Who after The Daleks' Master Plan, so we were denied a third meeting with the Meddling Monk. The character has, inevitably, returned in other media - joining forces with Ice Warriors in a DWM comic strip for instance. On audio he has been played by Graeme Garden and Rufus Hound, and even David Tennant.
- In spin-off material he has been named Mortimus.
"Mortimus" from the spin-off media is not the same character that Peter Butterworth played on television.
ReplyDeleteNeither is the Garden/Hound imbecile from the Big Finish Audios.
Butterworth's character was not actually a monk, nor called "the Monk". he was a time traveller, who attempted to alter history to his own wishes.
EARTH History, that is. he never showed any interest in any other planet's history nor events. His entire collection of artworks etc. is from Earth. And, nothing is aid about him being "the same race" as the Doctor. only that they came 'from the same place"
Why? because he is a HUMAN BEING. the same as the Doctor was presented as being before Robert Holmes got involved. A Gallifreyan Time Lord called "Mortimus, who is actually called "The Meddling Monk" the way the Doctor is called "the Doctor" is totally incompatible with the character we saw in The Time Meddler and The Daleks' Master Plan.