The Monk

All the televised incarnations of the Monk

**"The Monk"** was a time traveller of the Doctor's own kind, who by most accounts was a renegade Time Lord. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*) They travelled in a TARDIS of their own throughout Earth's history, "meddling" with it in a manner the Doctor denounced as reckless and counterproductive. After an encounter with the First Doctor in 1066 Northumbria, the Monk attained their moniker through the Doctor and his companions due to their choice of disguise. (TV: *The Time Meddler*) He could be snappish when referred to as **"The Meddling Monk"**, (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*) another descriptor used for them by the Doctor in Northumbria. (TV: *The Time Meddler*)

## Biographical summary

### Early life

Prior to becoming the meddling time traveller known as "the Monk", the Monk came from the same place as the Doctor at a time 50 years after the Doctor left. (TV: *The Time Meddler*) One source depicted the Monk "crossing his heart with his fingers", (PROSE: *The Mutation of Time*) possibly indicating him to have a single heart much as the First Doctor did; (TV: *The Edge of Destruction*) even though having a single heart was also a known marker of human biology. (TV: *Spearhead from Space*, et al.)

#### On Gallifrey

Some accounts stated that the Monk was an Academy contemporary of the Doctor. (PROSE: *Goth Opera*)

#### Leaving Gallifrey

Fifty years after the Doctor and other members of the Deca left Gallifrey, the Monk escaped in a Mark IV TARDIS and decided to become a renegade as well, meddling with history for amusement. (TV: *The Time Meddler*)

### Early renegade activities

The Monk lent mechanical assistance to the builders of Stonehenge by providing anti-gravity lifts; according to his logbook he gave Leonardo da Vinci tips on aircraft design, and he placed £200 in a London bank in 1968 and then travelled forward two hundred years to pick up a fortune in compound interest. (TV: *The Time Meddler*) At some point, the Monk encountered the Daleks and developed a fear of them, (TV: *The Daleks' Master Plan*) though this later developed into a begrudging respect. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*)

### The Battle of Hastings plot

The Monk went to 1066 Northumbria trying to prevent the Normans from winning the Battle of Hastings as part of a plan to guide England into an age of technological prosperity when the First Doctor encountered him, using a progress chart to keep track of the proceedings. After the Monk's plans were prevented, the Doctor sabotaged the dimensional control of his TARDIS, making it the same size inside as outside. With his TARDIS interior reduced to dollhouse proportions, the Monk was seemingly stranded in 11th century England. (TV: *The Time Meddler*)

### First alliance with the Daleks

The Monk ran into the First Doctor again on the volcanic planet Tigus. The Monk sabotaged the lock on the Doctor's TARDIS, though that did not stop him from getting inside. The Doctor stole the Monk's direction controls to use in his effort to stop the Daleks.

The Monk's TARDIS landed in ancient Egypt. Knowing of the Daleks, the Monk decided to help them regain the taranium core to avoid being exterminated himself while trying unsuccessfully to convince the Doctor and his companions of his honourable nature. The Doctor overpowered the Monk and placed him in a sarcophagus, where he was found by Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom. He caused them to be captured by the Daleks but was also held by them. The Doctor tinkered with the chameleon circuit of the Monk's TARDIS, making it take various shapes, finally that of a police box. The Doctor was forced to give the taranium to Mavic Chen, enabling his companions and the Monk to escape the Daleks.

The Monk entered his TARDIS before the Daleks could recapture him. However, the Doctor had stolen its partially compatible directional unit, and as the Monk arrived on an ice planet he realised he'd have to wander in time and space as lost as the Doctor was. (TV: *The Daleks' Master Plan*)

According to a later incarnation of the Monk, he had been stranded on the planet, and remained bitter at the Doctor's actions until he was "old and grey", indicating that he regenerated on the planet as a result of old age. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*)

### Second alliance with the Daleks

Sometime after regenerating into a younger form and regaining full control over his TARDIS, the Monk came into contact with Davros, and agreed to help him destroy the Thals before the Thousand Year War could begin. He provided the technology to allow the Daleks and Davros to travel back and extended the reach of his TARDIS to allow any Daleks brought back in time to still exist once the Thals had been wiped out. He later privately confided in the Doctor that he intended to lower the reach once again after Davros had been placated to remove the Daleks from time as well.

Whilst Davros set up his plans, the Monk established them both firmly into the Kaled hierarchy, with the Monk acting as a high priest, and Davros being instated as Grandmaster of the Kaleds. Soon after, the Monk learned of the Eighth Doctor's arrival on Skaro, and went to greet him and take him to Davros, just as Davros allowed the first Daleks into the main city. He eventually revealed himself to the Doctor, and had him and his companions Bernice Summerfield and Norman Manning incarcerated. When Benny and Norman escaped and started a Thal uprising, the Doctor was brought before the Monk and Davros, with the Monk privately interrogating the Doctor on the names of his companions, as well as confiding his plans with the Daleks in the Doctor. However, by the time the Doctor gave the names, the uprising had successfully quelled the Daleks. The Monk was later distracted by Bernice and Norman, who told Davros of his plans of betrayal, allowing the Doctor to sneak into the Monk's TARDIS and lower its reach, scuppering the Monk's plans completely. He left with Davros shortly afterwards, screaming in agony as Davros tortured him once the TARDIS began to dematerialise. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*)

## Personality

### Overall

The Monk was amoral and enjoyed meddling actively with history to his own selfish ends. He was also incredibly careless when it came to time travel. Unlike other Time Lords, the Monk didn't seem to care about the potential damage to fixed points or to the Web of Time. He also showed the habit of leaving behind anachronisms like a quartz wristwatch and an atomic cannon on a cliff where anyone could find it. (PROSE: *The Time Meddler*)

### First Monk

Despite his experience as a Time Lord, the First Monk's attitude typically demonstrated a very short-term view when making his plans, intending to alter the outcome of the Battle of Hastings with only vague ideas of how things would work out later. The Monk also showed a childish and petulant side to his nature, although he did have a temper, and he could get annoyed and exasperated easily, usually when he was disturbed during his plans like he frequently was in 1066 when his disguise as a monk led to him being forced to tend to injured Saxons even if the role was necessary since the Saxons were a part of his plans. (TV: *The Time Meddler*)

The First Monk had a boastful side, and he sought praise and liked to think of himself as clever. (PROSE: *The Time Meddler*) He would boast about his plans and he oft enjoyed mocking the Doctor during their meetings. This bragging would extend to his TARDIS, lauding its superiority when compared to the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: *The Time Meddler*)

### Second Monk

The Second Monk was notably colder and more ruthless than his predecessor, being willing to work with maniacal dictators such as Davros to achieve his own ends. He wholly understood the consequences his meddling had on the web of time, though he did take measures to ensure that people who he was working with would not necessarily be harmed by any alterations to the timeline. He was also aware of the scope of the mayhem that he had the chance to cause, seeming outwardly indifferent towards the notion of the Thals being wiped out, (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*), though he privately admitted to the Doctor that genocide was never the intention of any of his meddling, and only came as a by-product of working with Davros. (PROSE: *Paradox of the Daleks*)

The Monk held a bitter resentment towards the Doctor as a result of his being stranded on an ice planet. (TV: *The Daleks' Master Plan*) He was noticeably icier towards the Doctor after revealing his true identity to him and seemed more cordial in his brief encounter with his companions. Despite this, he still felt comfortable confiding his true feelings about working with Davros in the Doctor, believing that as a fellow renegade, the Doctor would understand where he was coming from. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*)

Despite his public display of ruthlessness, the Monk did have a more noble side that he only showed around those he trusted would understand. He believed that his meddling could genuinely lead to better futures for the planets he dabbled in the timelines of, provided he was given time to do so. As a result of this, the Monk was not averse to striking up partnerships with cruel warlords, with the intention of deceiving them and foiling their plans to bring about a better future, such as his intention to remove the Daleks from existence after they had exterminated the Thals. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*)

## Appearance and clothing

### First Monk

The First Monk wore the robes of a 1066 Northumberland monk, initially as part of a disguise. He was a middle-aged, chubby, white-skinned man with a lined, clean-shaven face, a gap in his top front teeth and dark hair cut into a bowl cut. (TV: *The Time Meddler*)

### Second Monk

The Second Monk was a white-skinned man with a round face lined with stubble. He had greyish-blue eyes, and receding, swept back brown hair. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*) He had a "nasally" voice. (PROSE: *Paradox of the Daleks*)

Initially when meeting the Doctor on Skaro, the Monk wore the brightly coloured robes of the High Priest of Skaro. After revealing himself, the Monk took to wearing clothing similar to a reverend on Earth, with a grey turtleneck jumper replacing the clerical collar. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*)

## Behind the Scenes

### Name

The Monk was almost never actually referred to as "the Time Meddler" or "the Meddling Monk" by themself or others, both of these "names" being taken from the titles of the overall serial and the second episode. However, the Doctor comes close to giving the character these names within the serial, calling him "*a* time meddler" and "*that* meddling monk", and later referring to "the Meddling Monk" in the novelisation of *Shada*, but more as a general epithet than a name.

The title "the Monk" derives more from Steven and Vicki's attempt to call them something within the confines of *The Time Meddler*. The Monk himself would later appropriate the name by the events of *Paradox of the Daleks*, referring to it as his title of choice after the Doctor calls him "the Meddler" to his chagrin.

### The first villainous Time Lord?

Peter Butterworth's unnamed time traveller in TV: *The Time Meddler* had the distinction of being the first compatriot of the Doctor and Susan to appear on television. There is some difficulty, however, in assigning to him the quality of "first Time Lord other than the Doctor" to appear in the series, as the name of "Time Lord" had yet to make its debut in the series at the time; indeed, it was far from established that the Doctor was a humanoid alien rather than a human from an advanced future civilisation. Absent the context of later continuity, *The Time Meddler* seems to set itself firmly in the latter tradition, with both the Doctor and the Monk equating "history" and "human history" in dialogue, treating Earth's history as if it were their own; the trinkets and keepsakes collected by the Monk notably all come from various periods of Earth's history, to the exclusion of any other planet.

In the end, the name of "Time Lord" was not used until TV: *The War Games*, which also introduced a new antagonistic member of the Doctor's own kind; the War Chief. In terms of authorial intent, it could thus be argued that the War Chief was the first true "evil Time Lord" antagonist on television — although one might also make a case for the Celestial Toymaker in TV: *The Celestial Toymaker*, who was, according to Donald Tosh in BBC DVD: *The Time Meddler*, initially meant to be a member of the Doctor's own race, and was, unlike the Monk, clearly presented as nonhuman — although this idea was largely abandoned by later continuity, which instead depicted the Toymaker as either a Great Old One or a Guardian of Time.

Indeed, PROSE: *Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon* explained that the Doctor and the Master were the only two Renegade Time Lords ever to leave Gallifrey, and PROSE: *The Three Doctors* stated that the Master was the only Time Lord the Doctor had ever fought before Omega; both of these books implicitly squared away the War Chief as an earlier incarnation of the Master, which was Malcolm Hulke's personal belief, but they made no mention of the Monk whatsoever (nor of the Toymaker).

Sourcebooks of FASA's *The Doctor Who Role Playing Game* took this to its logical conclusion by presenting Peter Butterworth's character in *The Time Meddler* as an earlier incarnation of the Master, who had been "disguised" as "the Monk", and the War Chief as not the Master himself, but a disciple of his, who had been acting under his guidance. However, stories in the *Doctor Who Role Playing Game* are not considered valid sources on this Wiki due to their branching narratives and interactive elements.

### Other matters

* The Monk is also the first recurring villain after the Daleks, and the first individual foe to return for a rematch.
* The Monk returned in Season 32 of *Doctor Who* at the insistence of Gary Russell, who wrote the episode the Monk returned in. Colin Brake believed the Monk was not necessary for the narrative to proceed, but ultimately relented and allowed Russell to press ahead.