Moderator's Note: This is Mike's original Monk summary:

I liked the Monk, because he was more of a dark mirror of the Doctor than the Master was. The Monk had the same whimsical view of the universe, but with no moral center. He gets a different name in the NA "No Future", where he's also known as Mortimus.



I may be wrong, but I recall reading somewhere that the Monk and the Master are the same person. Can anyone confirm?

That's a new one. As far as I know, they are two distinct individuals. Even allowing for the vagaries of regeneration, their personalities are different. The Monk has a somewhat playful attitude, while the Master is only interested in world/galactic domination. The Monk has also been slower to kill others (except in the NA "No Future"), while the Master is a cold-blooded killer (even before he turned evil; c.f. the MA "The Dark Path").

In the Monk's first appearance, The Time Meddler, the Doctor guessed that the Monk was from Gallifrey, 50 years later. (I know, it wasn't called Gallifrey yet.)

In The Master's first appearance and in later episodes, it was established that the Doctor and the Master went to school together.

Both of these stories are probably on tape if someone wants to check the exact wording.

I think it's far more likely that the War Chief and the Master might be the same person, but I haven't seen War Games in years, so there might be dialogue which contradicts that idea.

The Master makes the comment about school in "The Five Doctors."

The Doctor guesses that date about the Monk after seeing his TARDIS.

If you include the NAs, it seems unlikely that the War Chief and the Master are one and the same. The War Chief returns in "Timewyrm: Exodus", hideously mutated when his regeneration goes wrong.

Look...you don't want to take Master=Monk or War Chief=Master ideas too seriously. I've heard theories (jokes, I hope) that the Master=a future regeneration of the Doctor. The Master is, of course, blissfully unaware of this fact, but his subconscious won't allow him to kill his former self and thus commit suicide.

I've also heard the most absurd rumour that the Doctor=the Valleyard, but lets just forget about that one, shall we? In fact, lets just forget the whole of Season 23, just to be on the safe side.

Lord knows, I've certainly tried to forget that season, or at least the Doctor-Valleyard connection. But it just seems to stick like glue on my brain. I hate the idea, it is totally insane, but since it is part of the series I have to accept it. Ztupid writers couldn't think of anything better, even though it would've more logical that the Valleyard was the Master. Maybe they lied.

PS. Why is ztupid (mispelling intentional) a forbidden word?

I talked to Phil, the chief nitpicker, and he says he has the censor setting pretty high. I guess he's trying to forstall name-calling fights.

It's quite possible that the Monk isn't even a Time Lord, that he is actual a member of the priest caste of Gallifreyans that K'Anpo and I.M. Foreman (from 'Interference') belong to.

That's a point...it's not as if the words 'Time Lord' were used in connection with the Monk (or even the Doctor, until The War Games). Can anyone remember enough of No Future to say whether he was referred to as a Time Lord?

I didn't realise that K'Anpo was a priest as well. I thought he was just a common-or-garden Time Lord. Wouldn't he have been betraying his beliefs (whatever beliefs Gallifreyan priests have) by turning Buddhist?

Maybe Galifreyan priests go to various worlds for a regeneration or two to study the religion.

I always thought the Timelords were a quasi religious society. There schools and ranks of status seem to be based on Catholic organizations. Having to deal with advanced beings such as the Daemons, the Celestials, and especially the two Guardians the Timelords don't have to believe in God or Gods. They've got their phone numbers.

Which is not surprising. The Timelords have the ability to mess with the entire cosmos, because of their power and time travel. It is only a matter of time some deity who claimed to have brought the cosmos to existence would come knocking on Galifrey's door. Or that some Timelord would manage to get in a deity's way.

In a sense, and somehow strengthening my argument, all Timelords are priests. It's a job requirement.

Luiner - I couldn't disagree more. For a start,
the Time Lords don't 'deal' with beings like the
Guardians - in fact, when the White Guardian
appeared to Romana, he even disguised
himself as her President, so as not to upset
her. There's no evidence of them encountering
Daemons, Osirians, etc (what are Celestials,
btw?) which is just as well, given the Doctor's
remark that the Time Lords couldn't possibly
stop Sutekh (or however you spell it). The
Doctor's the only Time Lord on first name
terms with deities. Well, and I M Foreman I
suppose, since as a bottled-universe-creator
s/he IS god.

Yes, I know that Time Lords dreamed some
Eternals into being Gallifrey's goddesses of
Time, Pain and Death, but let's face it...no-one
except the Doctor seems to have
acknowledged their existance (and even HE
only bothers with them in Paul Cornell books).
Any need to grovel to a Higher Being is
satisfied by the devotion to Rassilon and
Omega, and the constant invention of new
heroes - even Borusa for god's sake.

We're talking about people who dismissed the
Eye of Harmony as a myth (Deadly Assassin)
even though it powered the whole of Time
Lord civilisation. If they're THAT sceptical, how
can they possibly be a quasi-religious
society? Did you notice any gods being
invoked in the Doctor's Presidential
inaugeration? OK, they use 'Cardinal' as a
title, but it's clearly a secular position.

Come to think of it, I'm grossly shocked to find
that Gallifrey DID once have a priestly caste.
But if I remember Interference correctly, it's
long since been wiped out.

Kevin, I'm pretty sure that Gallifrey didn't
approve of anyone jaunting off into the
universe (with very rare exceptions, like their
envoy Braxiatel) even if their purpose was
educational rather than meddlesome. They
observed outside events, but they did so from
the comfort of their own planet. (Though
actually it _would_ explain how so many
dozens of renegades got their hands on their
TARDISes...The Master: I think I'd like to
dedicate my life to becoming...a priest! So if
you wouldn't mind lending me a nice modern
TARDIS, I'll be on my way for a couple of
regenerations' worth of peaceful study of
comparative religions...)

In 'No Future' Cornell says the Monk was once a professional meddler of sorts in the employ of High Council, and a member of an unspecified scholarly caste (presumably the priest caste).
Later, in 'Shadows of Avalon' we learn of the existence of the Interventionists, which, considering that book was also written by Cornell, is probably the group the Monk worked within as a servent of the High Council.

If the Time Lords observed everything from Gallifrey, why did they build so many TARDISes and keep upgrading them?

That's a question I've wondered too: what were TARDISes originally for? What do the non-renegades use them for? I've always assumed they were temporal maintainance, but there must be many, many TARDISes in service if they can afford to miss as many as have been stolen.

And if they keep upgrading them, can't they install a recall device that'll return any rogue TARDIS?

Of course they could. So I have to assume they want all these renegades running around the universe. Even the Master.

I'm of the opinion that the Time Lords are NOT able to keep track of renegades. Otherwise they wouldn't have bothered trialing the second Doctor and they'd be aware of Salyavin/Chronotis on Earth with their precious book.
Anyway, any of the times that the Time Lords contact the Doctor are all taking place *after* 'The War Games', which is when, of course, the Doctor finally contacted them and they were able to find him.

If I were going to steal a TARDIS, the first thing I would do upon breaking in would be tear out the recall circuit. I suspect all the renegades would try to do this, even the Doctor. But...okay, being a renegade how did the Sixth Doctor get recalled so easily in Trial. The only other recall I can think of is the Master, in the Five Doctors when they must of have recalled him to help the Doctor.

If I keep thinking along these lines then I could only assume the Doctor, the Master, Rani, Monk, etc are actually part of the Timelords' plans for the universe.

As far as an earlier comment, Emily, I am not saying the Timelords worshipped these so-called deities (or beings so far advanced as to make no difference). Just that they are aware of them and have to plan for eventual conflicts with such deities. This is religion without faith and worship. More of a practical theology, like How to deal with deities when you come across them in your work 101. I believe you are correct when the Timelords seemed only to worship (albeit grudgingly) Rassilon and Omega. Though it appears from the series, especially during the 7th regeneration, that only the Doctor seems to have more than passing aquaintance with those two.

The Doctor (and the Master, since they went to school together) appears to be one of the oldest Timelords. He stole an old Type 40. I don't remember anywhere in the series that he stole it from a museum of old Timelord artifacts. It must have been brand new at the time. The Master's TARDIS, though of a more recent model, has a dematerialization circuit very similar to the Doc's TARDIS. Maybe it was a Type 50 or something. This is all archaic stuff, since the modern Timelord just appears out of thin air as Terror of the Autons and Genesis of the Daleks. Where I am going with this, I don't know. Sorry about the rambling.

By the way, I used the word 'celestials' when I really meant 'eternals'. I just couldn't remember the name from the story Enlightenment. I was just too lazy to get out of my chair and look at the blurb on the back of the video, last night.

As far as regulated use of the TARDIS's by non renegades, I don't know. I suspect they are used for a variety of reasons. Historical research, covert actions against hostile interstellar societies, moving entire solar systems (which would require a really huge TARDIS, on the order of several hundred AU in size), etc. Makes me wonder if the TARDIS's were developed by the CIA.

I think assuming that a scholarly caste is a priestly caste is making a big jump. I'm assuming the literacy level on Gallifrey is pretty high - there must have been plenty of groups dedicated to learning that didn't feel a simultaneous desire to believe in some deity.

By Shadows of Avalon, the Time Lords have finally foreseen the future War with the Enemy, hence their sudden interest in intervention. I doubt the Interventionists (as distinct from the Celestial Intervention Agency) existed before Romana decided she was the War Queen, Mistress of the Nine Gallifreys, etc etc. So I'd be surprised if the Monk had been a member back in the Hartnell days.

What else had the Time Lords got to do but build TARDISes? This is an incredibly static society. I'm assuming they built them at first because they were young and adventurous and wanted to travel in space and time, and then they kept on building them for the next 10 million years (with the occasional improvement) because they couldn't think of any other way of occupying themselves, and wanted to hang on to their supremacy and go on calling themselves Lords of Time, even if they did absolutely nothing with it. But then, in Power of the Daleks, the Doctor says that his 'renewal' is 'part of the TARDIS and I couldn't survive without it' so maybe the TARDISes are vital to Time Lord survival in some way.

Don't ask me why the Time Lords left dozens of renegades running around wrecking havoc for so long. Perhaps they just couldn't be bothered to bring them in and put them on trial (let's face it, they don't have a terribly successful record in trying people), maybe they just get a bit of excitement out of watching the adventures of the Master, the Rani, the Monk etc (don't we all?) or maybe they consider grabbing them to be the kind of interference they want to avoid.

Luiner, I consider that religion requires the existence of faith and worship. If the Time Lords are merely aware of aliens with bigger powers than them, then that's not religion or 'practical theology', that's just fact. Monkeys are aware of OUR existence, but that doesn't make them religious.

Buddhism doesn't require worship, and that's the religion that K'Anpo seems to fit in with the most.
The scholarly caste and priest caste may not be the same thing, but they do point in the same direction, and he was called the 'Monk'.
As for the Interventionists, considering both 'Shadows' and 'No Future' were written by Paul Cornell it is highly likely that this is what he meant by the Monk being a meddler for the High Council, as having three seperate groups for interference (including the CIA) seems a little much, especially with two of them created by Cornell.
Also, it was said in 'Shadows' that the Interventionists were an ancient group and that they were founded by the Other, so they can't be a relatively new group.

Emily, for all I know, monkeys do consider us Gods. We have magical powers (in other words our science is so advanced as to be like magic to them, thank you Arthur C. Clarke). We have the power to destroy them all for no good reason at all. And we don't have to get very close to them to do it.

I mainly consider the two guardians. They are two equal but opposite deities very similar to Zorastrianist belief. They are the foundations of the universe. Whether or not they are gods or EXTREMELY advanced beings doesn't make any difference. The Timelords are very advanced compared to us. They are advanced enough to know how advanced these deities are, which is about as advanced as one can get, all knowing, all powerful, all whatever. The Guardians make the Eternals look pathetic. The Timelords, out of necessity have to develop a way of dealing with these immortals.

However, if religion requires faith and worship, I guess you're right. I have a slightly different idea of religion. If Jesus knocked on my door and turned all my bottled water into single malt scotch, I don't have to have faith in him, but I will certainly believe he exists.

As far as Buddhism goes, Luke, it does require a certain amount of faith. It may not have any Gods at it's core belief (Zen does, because it brings in the Shinto paganism of Japan into it), but it does maintain the eightfold path as the way to Nirvana.

I didn't say anything about faith - i said Buddhism requires no worship (though it does happen)

Luke: Re: The Time Lords contacting the Doctor after The War Games... unfortunately a few stories now contradict this, namely The Three Doctors, where they able to pluck the First and Second Doctors from their timestreams (and must have known where they were to do that) and The Two Doctors, where the Doctor is on a mission on The Time Lords' behalf.

chris why is that a contradiction what happened was simple when they did have no idea where the first and 2nd doctor where when they caught the 2nd doctor at the end they simple downloaded where and when the doctor was from the memory bank.

The Two Doctors takes place for the 2nd Doctor *after* 'The War Games'.

if it does chis then why was jammie there?

Because even the Time Lords could see what a great Companion he made for the Doctor. What's more puzzling is why is Victoria there? Or rather, why do the Doctor and Jamie _think_ that Victoria is around? Did the Time Lords kidnap her from her boring life in the Twentieth Century - and if so, why? Or have they messed with the Doctor and Jamie's minds so that they THINK they're back in the pre-Zoe adventuring days?

Look..why don't we just blame Faction Paradox for the fiasco that is The Two Doctors? It's simpler than inventing all this season 6b stuff.

The Five Doctors would also seem to indicate the Second Doctor is from after The War Games, given his knowledge of his trial.

Which memory bank, omnidragon? The TARDIS' or did they probe the Doctor's mind... no, not the mind probe!

Actually, both would be the obvious choice for the Timelords. The 2nd Doctor was in no condition to refuse either.

Chris, in The Five Doctors, Troughton said that
'_For once_ I was able to steer the TARDIS
properly' which suggests to me that he was in
a completely different situation than in The
Two Doctors, where he seemed to have
effortless mastery of his time machine, not to
mention a remote control.

This knowing-his-future-trial business could
have occurred because he was in close
proximity to other Doctors - there was bound to
be some telepathic leakage (I mean, in Alien
Bodies the Eighth Doctor was in
communication with his future CORPSE for
god's sake!)

On the other hand, when in his on-screen
adventures was Troughton ever
Companionless for long enough to go off on a
visiting-the-Brigadier jaunt? (And why bother,
anyway? To the Second Doctor, the Brigadier's
just some military bloke who's helped him out
with a couple of alien invasions.) I suppose
it's _possible_ that he left his Companions
snoring away in the TARDIS whilst he visited
his old pal, but I doubt it.

And if it was pre-The War Games, he would have had to drop off his companions and be able to pick them up again. Is it possible Borusa guided the TARDIS on this occasion with the Timescoop?

MIKE in The Time Meddler section:

I got the impression that the Monk was pretty much helpless without his advanced weaponry. Also, by the time he would have traveled to the site of the battle of 1066, it would have been over.

This is a man of enormous skill, knowledge, mischief and - after the Doc's sabotaged his TARDIS - bitterness. The Doctor's not to know that he'll go off and make alliances with the Daleks, but he SHOULD have realised that the Monk wasn't likely to settle down quietly in some medieval hut for the next few centuries. He was going to INTERFERE.

And I think the Monk would have had plenty of time to get to King Harold before either of the battles - Stamford Bridge OR Hastings. As things stand at the end of Time Meddler, Harald Hardrada's fleet is approaching - King Harold still had to get his army all the way up North, fight Hardrada and Tostig, and drag everyone all the way back down to the coast, before he could fight William. One man on horseback (I assume that nicking a horse would be well within the Monk's capabilities, even if they don't teach it at the Academy) could move a lot quicker than an army. And the Monk's already up North, close to where Hardrada will land and Harold will arrive. He shouldn't have that much trouble getting access to the King, either in his guise as a monk ('God's just sent me a divine revelation about your future') or - using any high-tech equipment like a gramophone record he's still got lying around - as a beware-the-ides-of-March type soothsayer (I mean, the Second Doctor and Jamie accidentally manage to convince Oliver Cromwell - who may not be the brightest of creatures but who had a few centuries' advantage on King Harold - that THEY'RE soothsayers in The Roundheads, so how difficult can it be?). The Monk can meet up with Harold - say just after his victory at Stamford - tell him that William is about to land (which as messengers will shortly arrive to this effect will prove the Monk's prophetic credentials) and give him a few words of advice, i.e. DON'T go rushing hundreds of miles to fight William with an exhausted army; consolidate your position - probably in London - and make him come to you; steer clear of Hastings; and if you're going to ignore all the other advice, for God's sake make sure that every man in the army knows that they are to HOLD THE SHIELD WALL and NOT abandon it under ANY circumstances, ESPECIALLY if they see William and co running away because that is a FEINT and running after them will condemn MILLIONS to serfdom and the north of England to GENOCIDE and France and England to several CENTURIES of war. Hopefully that should do the trick. Well, it's what _I'd_ have done in the Monk's position, and stuff the advanced weaponry.

Hmm.. Okay, I won't attempt to debate your historical knowledge, so I'll just step aside and address the character of the Monk.

The Monk always struck me as a boob on the level of Drax--not enough smart enough to finish the Academy. With his time machine, he would have had access to all sorts of technology, but decided to use nothing but old-fashioned 20th century Earth technology. He was also very smug, since I'm sure he counted on being able to am-scray in his TARDIS once things went wrong. So once the Doctor miniaturised his control console, the Monk's first reaction would probably be to sit around and wallow in his misery. His second (as shown in "The Dalek Masterplan" and his efforts in the NAs) would be to forget about changing history and focus on revenging himself against the Doctor.

The Master is also a boob AND very smug but he's managed a few coups in his time, like wiping out half the universe (albeit accidentally). And the fact that the Monk will be stranded for the foreseeable future (the Doctor was being a bit over-optimistic to think that he could pop back and restore the Monk's circuit whenever he felt like it) makes it all the more important for him to get in with the powers-that-be. What would you prefer - to be a friendless, foodless, hunted ex-monk, or to be the King's favourite courtier? And he spoke so passionately in favour of Harold (God knows why, I really don't think the outcome of the Battle of Hastings had much effect on the invention of TV) that the Doctor shouldn't have expected him to abandon his plans because of one setback.

Whilst normally I'd agree that sticking with 20th century Earth technology when you're from a ten million-year-old civilisation and can acquire technology from anywhere in time and space is a sign of gross mental deficiency, in Doctor Who we've just got to accept that it's the normal way of doing things. For some reason I found the gramaphone thingy (or whatever it was) a lot easier to swallow than that wheelchair in Castrovalva. As far as medical equipment in a dimensionally transcendental time machine is concerned, it left something to be desired.

I guess that line could be taken a couple of ways - 'For once, I was able to steer the TARDIS.' That is, he did it, not the CIA or whoever.
Or, it could be a throwaway so the Brigadier doesn't ask too many questions: maybe this is his cover so he can fiddle with something nearby for some Time Lord mission or another.

I wouldn't worry too hard about the 'Monk=Master/War Chief/whoever' theories. There's nothing to back them up (though on TV nothing to explicitly contradict them), though in most fandoms a while back there was a bit of a rash on 'character Alpha is Character Beta' theories.

Or, it could be a throwaway so the Brigadier doesn't ask too many questions

Like the Brig EVER asks questions about the TARDIS. Years it was sitting in HIS HQ - when it wasn't vanishing with a wheezing groaning sound - YEARS...and he NEVER saw inside it till Three Doctors! Never once just popped his head round the door out of curiosity! And when he DID see it in Three Docs, he accused Our Hero of corruptly diverting UNIT funds to build it!

I wonder if the Monk survived the Time War, or was he even involved.

Unless he chameleon-arched himself, the Monk can't have survived. (At least, if Nine was right and he would have sensed any other Time Lord in existence, though come to think of it, would he really have sensed 'em ACROSS TIME? Nine didn't sense the not-shielded-by-the-Archangel-Network Master from End of Time.)

But I'm willing to bet the Monk was involved in the Time War. If the Time Lords dragged the Master out of his grave - the Master who'd wiped out half the universe AND tried to wipe out Gallifrey - they'd certainly have recruited a renegade whose worst crime was a bit of a King Harold fixation (OK, so he worked for the Daleks in his spare time, but they didn't hold THAT against the Master).

Come to think of it, it's amazing that Gallifrey wasn't convulsed in civil war, what with all these complete nutters being recruited. Yet Gallifrey seemed utterly united behind Rassilon (were Borusa, the Rani, et al THAT scared of being made to stand with their hands in front of their faces...?)

They should have brought back the Monk in the '60s and '70s while Peter Butterworth was still alive.

I know. He was a great villain. Perhaps they thought he competed with the Master too much.

Though when Big Finish resurrected the character for several Eighth Doctor audios they did a fantastic job finding someone (Graeme Garden, whoever he is) who absolultely FELT like the Monk. Nicking TWO of the Doctor's Companions ('a trifle injudicious in my selection of assistant'), smiling like a used car salesman, collecting the whole of Earth's artwork, causing avalanches for the greater good, allying with the Daleks (actually it was a bit surprising he was insanely stupid enough to do THAT, what with not being NEARLY as desperate as when the Doctor stranded him on that ice-planet, but never mind).

Graeme Garden of the Goodies - the Monkees to Python's Beatles.

Ah. I'm not entirely sure what you just said. (Goodies? Monkees? Well, at least I've heard of Python and Beatles...)

Goodies... Goody goody yum yum.

vs

Hey, hey, we're the Monkees!

'To read the Monk, as fans tend to, as a sort of proto-Master is to spectacularly miss the point...The Master comes from taking a Time Lord like the Doctor and making him into a villain. The Monk comes from taking a comedy historical villain from the Spooner tradition...and making him like the Doctor' - TARDIS Eruditorum. That sounds extremely wise, if only I had some idea about what a Spooner tradition of comical villains ENTAILS.

It's not particularly wise; it's obviously a mistake to draw a line of descent to the Master via the Monk but both emerge from the same creative impulse - to double up the Doctor with an evil twin - and surely their differing characteristics are more to do with the differing requirements of the series' formats than any notion of authorial tradition?

Ah. It's AMAZING how much more seriously you take someone's comments when you've paid a tenner to acquire their book. (And are gazing horror-struck into an hideously expensive ten-more-Eruditorums-and-counting future.)

No Future:

'Literally and metaphorically he’s history' - the Doctor on the Monk.

He keeps his TARDIS freezing and icicled for CENTURIES to remind himself that the Doctor stranded him on an ice planet?

He was technical adviser to both the Moroks and Yartek, leader of the alien Voord?

'Mortimus had been planning for decades, accumulating information and stealing useful devices, financing his operations by taking on discreet commissions across the universe' - that's one HELL of a lot of trouble to go to to get an unsuccessful Vardan invasion of 1970s Earth off the ground. What's his PROBLEM?

'Mortimus was not scared by what lay in the void beyond the universe. His quiet hatred extended beyond it, made the vacuum just another distance inside the hand of his ambition' - I don't recall the Monk being one for 'quiet hatred'...

'You have the blood of an Eternal! How?' 'Gold. Some of them are very partial to it. Oh, and I agreed to be the champion of the one who calls herself Death' – look, I didn't find the 'Master' audio's claim that the Master was Death's Champion to be remotely plausible. Still less in the case of the MONK.

'That's always been his problem. Hubris. That's the trouble with omnipotency. Makes you think you can do anything' – since when has THE DOCTOR thought that THE MONK was OMNIPOTENT?

'He used to be an agent provocateur for the High Council. There was some sort of controversy, they betrayed him...He actually was a monk, of sorts, an initiate in one of the colleges of scholars in the Capitol. They don't worship as such, or they pretend they don't. They just keep secrets.' - Oh, PUH-LEASE.

About Time: 'Since we're in an era where we can still have comedy romps like "The Romans", and where the Doctor is an old bloke who giggles hysterically, a blundering Carry On star is a much better sort of arch-enemy than someone who wants to conquer the universe every couple of months.'

'In many ways the evasive little man with the irresponsible attitude to time travel is like a warm-up for the Patrick Troughton version of the Doctor.'

Blimey. The Monk is MUCH more important than I realised.

Look, we all love the monkity-monk-monk (as TennantDoc would no doubt call him) but what exactly is he DOING in Daleks' Master Plan? When exactly did the Supreme Beings Of The Universe (with their own time machines and all!) contact him begging for help? Or, of course, when did HE contact the Daleks offering to betray his own species and universe cos the Doctor stopping him nuking some Vikings had REALLY pissed him off?

And when did Mavic Chen decide to subcontract his taranium-retrieving duties to A MEMBER OF THE DOCTOR'S OWN PEOPLE?

Why does the Monk leave his TARDIS door unlocked - after what happened last time?

'Let's talk this over like civilised time travellers' – interesting. The Monk seems just as disinclined as ever Hartnell or Troughton was to mention the words 'Time Lords'. Names really DO have power...

HOW does the Doctor overpower the Monk? (And why does he wrap him in bandages...?)

'We can trust him about as much as we can trust the Daleks' 'You mean my performance was that good?'...Bless!

'You don't think I'd take the side of those creatures against you, do you...you do, honestly...this baffles me, destroys my faith in human nature' – SURELY not your faith in KING HAROLD too?

Why is he still in that habit after he leaves eleventh-century Northumbria?

'The Doctor's loyalty to his friends is beyond question' – interesting. I didn't notice the Monk seeing the Doctor interact AT ALL with Steven and Vicki, or Steven and Sara. Ergo, he must have been referring to their Academy days. (Can't be pre-Academy – the snivelling little barn-loving loser obviously didn't HAVE any friends.) And we all know who the Doctor's closest friend at the Academy was – the guy he totally betrayed. (Or who totally betrayed HIM. Either way, Thete n'Koschei aren't gonna be winning any Model Best Pal awards any time soon.)

Why is he still in that habit after he leaves eleventh-century Northumbria?

So m o r o n s would remember who he was?

Well, in that case it was very thoughtful of him, I'm not good with faces.

I suppose Time Lords DO seem to get excessively attached to one costume, and it wasn't as dissimilar from Time Lord robes as the sort of stuff the Doctor ends up wearing.

I'm not good with faces

Neither were any of the artists who drew the DWM comic strip 'Follow That TARDIS!', in which he returns to trouble the Doctor (and, er, the Sleaze Brothers) while looking nothing like Peter Butterworth.

He's still dressed as a monk though.

Neither were any of the artists who drew the DWM comic strip 'Follow That TARDIS!', in which he returns to trouble the Doctor (and, er, the Sleaze Brothers) while looking nothing like Peter Butterworth.

How many artists does it TAKE to draw one comic-strip?!

Are you sure he hadn't regenerated or something?

I'd rather the Monk came back. Have a Time Lord nuisance to pester the Doctor with, rather than an out-and-out trouble maker in the Master/Missy. Then you don't have to worry about "killing him off" at the end of every encounter. Just strand him or lock him up somewhere, just for him to pop up somewhere else, meddling with the time line.

Now that the Master's ADMITTED that 'I just want my friend back' and taken to kissing the Doctor's nose and handing him Cyber-armies rather than trying to kill him, doesn't SHE now fulfil the Monk's as well as the Master's role?

'Do you really believe the ancient Britons could have built Stonehenge without the aid of my anti-gravitational lift?' - Did the Monk not wonder what they wanted Stonehenge FOR? Cos there's very little sign of him treating Hartnell with the seriousness he SHOULD have been treating him were he aware that the doddery old chap was, in point of fact, a nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies.

(And...Ancient Britons? Were they all Autons dressed up as Ancient Britons or something? Did he not get a wee bit suspicious when the Cyberman-guard turned up?)

Butterworth was 60 when he died and Rowan Atkinson has mostly retired Mister Bean because he's getting elderly and an elderly manchild character doesn't work too well. Butterworth would have run into that problem with the Monk, had JN-T brought him back in the 1980s.

Missy Season Two:

I rather like Missy's descriptions of the Monk as 'Everyone's favourite budget bad guy' and 'Vestment-wearing charlatan'. It's a shame the Doctor seldom stoops to giving his opponents nick-names, well, except poor Morbius of course...

'I think this is the beginning of a horrible friendship' - not quite sure how the Monk being Missy's Companion will work but I suppose it'll be fun finding out. He is genuinely shocked at her slaughtering innocent people, which is quite sweet for a guy who was working for the Daleks during the second Dalek occupation of Earth.

Why is he still in that habit after he leaves eleventh-century Northumbria?

So m o r o n s would remember who he was?

But he does seem rather upset when people treat him like a monk - 'Let he who has never worked for the Daleks cast the first stone. Isn't that what it says in your bible' 'I wouldn't know, NOT A MONK.'

On the other hand, he actually starts PRAYING to 'Him Upstairs' when he's being sacrificed to a giant crab...

He is genuinely shocked at her slaughtering innocent people, which is quite sweet for a guy who was working for the Daleks during the second Dalek occupation of Earth.

Yeah, but you expect Daleks to slaughter innocent people on a whim, Time Lords, Ladies, maybe not so much.

TOTALLY so much, especially when it comes to THE MASTER.

Even the Daleks didn't wipe out half the universe BY ACCIDENT...

Even the Daleks didn't wipe out half the universe BY ACCIDENT...

No, they wiped out almost all of reality by design.

Ooh, when?

In Journey's End.

Nonsense, they just exterminated/dissolved a few dozen people. No actual universes were harmed in the making of that story.

IIRC, they had already wiped vast numbers of universes, and the reality bomb Earth had been made a part of was to be the final blow to wipe out what remained.

Oh! I never understood what the whole stars-going-out thing was all about but I dunno, I assumed it was a future-echo rather than that the Daleks had actually USED their (untested!) Reality Bomb already...Dammit, would a bit of CLARITY be too much to ask?

The Monk was a far less dangerous villain than the Master or Rani was.

Though he does occasionally manage to hold his own against Missy for half an hour...see Divorced Beheaded Regenerated...

Dalek Universe:

'When it comes to meddling with time, there's NUN better than me' - OK, nice way to break the news that it's YOU in female form but...you're not THAT good at it, are you. Have you ever actually...SUCCEEDED?

'Well, if you're going to meddle - meddle in style' - again, I'm very fond of Time Meddler and Masterplan but I'm not sure 'style' is springing to mind. (Ditto for his/her books n'audios. Minus the fondness, obviously.)

But he does seem rather upset when people treat him like a monk

Yeah, he maybe ought to think about not INTRODUCING himself as a monk all the time...

Resurrection of Mars: 'Just call me the Monk. An affectation I know, but one that reflects my philanthropic calling...'

Lucie Miller/To The Death:

'Cut the tenth-rate supervillain backchat' - I bet Big Finish are regretting having the Doctor be so frank to the Monk, now he's practically their favourite returning villain...

'I adored her' - everything indicates the Monk's not lying for once, so...WHY. There is precisely nothing about Tamsin Drew to touch a genocidal maniac's heart, in fact, the genocidal maniac in Nevermore's reaction was spot-on: 'I've gone twenty years without human contact. Congratulations, Tamsin Drew - I'm bored with you already.'

Missy and the Monk:

Shouldn't the Meddling Nun have had more trouble with the sex-change given how her last self was happy to use sexist terms like 'Cheeky sow!' and 'Cunning minx!'?

The Monk thinking that humans are all 'piggy-eyed and pale' is both a) fair enough and b) rather odd in view of the fact some humans have non-pale skin and we look exactly like Time Lords and you were INFATUATED with human Tamsin.

'If I'm not actually pointing a gun at him, I'm definitely thinking about it' - it is WRONG to agree with the Master on this particular issue?

The Monk's trying to cut out carbs?

Missy suggests a holiday romance and 'I think I'm having a panic attack' - OK, now I'm agreeing with the Monk...

'My loyal servant Il Medialatori Monketi' - bless!

'He's not very sentient' - *sympathetic nodding* That WOULD explain a lot...

The Monk's never heard of Malmsey? You'd think anyone with his obsession with English history...

He's very bad with sudden noises?

Doom Coalition 4: The Side of the Angels:

The Monk says he starts anew with every regeneration - 'Judge me on MY actions'? Don't remember him (or any other Time Lord ever) having this attitude? Well, except for the Eight obviously, him being the only NICE one of the Twelve's psychotic personalities...(unless you believe the Twelve that she's totally reformed, honest, which I don't, twinset an pearls or no twinset and pearls...)

Ah, the audios have nicked the novels' name for him (well, Mortimer anyway) whilst continuing to trample all over said novels...