A Helmet for a Space Cow?

Sunday 11 November 2016

Our meander through classic black and white stories reached The Time Meddler last night. We saw the first two episodes, which were incredibly slow by modern standards.  The initial scene in the TARDIS and the scene-setting in 11th century Northumbria would have been over  in about 2 minutes these days.

There were some good lines, nevertheless.  I think  that Steven's introduction to the TARDIS remains one of the best ever: "that's the horizontal hold...and that's a panda on a chair."  I suspect that the original script didn't say "horizontal hold." (For younger readers, horizontal hold was something you occasionally had to adjust on an old-fashioned TV, possibly while dancing around holding a set-top aerial to see where the best position was.) 

I will let them off having a Viking helmet with horns on it, purely because it allowed them to have the line "what do you think it is, a helmet for a Space Cow?"

It is very difficult though to watch episodes with Steven in without thinking it's Peter Purves from Blue Peter and wondering what he has done with Valerie Singleton and John Noakes. Peter Purves is also incidentally one of the few famous people I have seen and recognised in real life - he was on the platform at Euston Square Station. I'm the person who had to travel in the same train to Marylebone Station with Geoffrey Palmer, who lives in my hometown before being sure it was him! Luckily no one collapsed from plague on arrival.

This evening we will find out what the mysterious Monk is up to.