Third Doctor Revisited: "The Time Monster"

As of writing this blog post, I'm still working my way through the Third Doctor era (got slowed down by a couple other projects, like re-watching Wolverine). Regardless, I plough through the classic era, as TJ and I try to figure out when we have time to podcast together and to finish discussing the Second Doctor. In the meantime, I had some random thoughts as I watched "The Time Monster". It didn't make my "top stories" when I watched the Third Doctor years ago, but I definitely enjoyed it this time. So here we go!

This story is one of many that take a myth and make them relatable for me. "The Daemons" was another like this, as was the recent appearance of Sutehk against the Fifteenth Doctor (see also "Pyramid of Mars" with the Fourth Doctor). These are the kinds of stories that still pull me into Doctor Who. Human myth understood in a sense of science and/or aliens. 

This story was especially intriguing after watching/reading Percy Jackson. Like most kids I've learned bits and pieces of Greek mythology through my childhood (if you can count Disney's Hercules). Stories like this make me wish I'd understood more from my Classic Civilization at BYU (it was the only class I failed during my bachelor's degree--Let's just say The Odyssey and The Iliad went over my head). But between Doctor Who stories like this and being pulled into Percy Jackson, it makes me want to learn more about classic mythology. 

While I'm already referencing Percy Jackson, I was surprised by the ending of this story (even though I'd seen it before). Unlike what's portrayed in "The Lightning Thief" (I still need to read "Sea of Monsters"--I've only seen the movie), Kronos wasn't all evil in this story. Go figure. Just in Doctor Who fashion, taking a known creature or entity and flipping your expectations upside-down. 

It was an interesting twist to see different twists on time travel. The Doctor and the Master both had a TARDIS present, but there was also Crystal of Kronos that pulled the Master to Atlantis. To make it even weirder, the Doctor even managed to trap a TARDIS within a TARDIS within a TARDIS...). Time travel's crazy right?

According to IMDB this story is one of the lowest rated among the Third Doctor's adventures. Between the Master, Atlantis, and Kronos, I felt it was engaging and well paced. So why the low ratings? Maybe someone else has watched this tory and can give their review.

The Master's fate in this story demonstrated some of the Doctor's most undeserved compassion, like when the Tenth Doctor tried to keep the Master from dying. But it offers a soul-searching question, which I'll end on, would you wish eternal torment on your worst enemy?