#the meddling monk

[cynicalclassicist]

In Big Finish the meddling Monk has also been a nun.

the master has been a man and a woman

the doctor has been a man and a woman

come on, romana and the rani, trans your fucking genders

[carefulzombie]

what

[the-1-foxy]

Those mysterious men with time machines

[the-all-seeing-salmon]

What if they did The Time Meddler Colourised and also just play the Master's theme every time the Monk is on screen

[hartnellwho]

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A post shared by Hamish Steele (@hamishsteele)

I absolutely love this! Go check out the artist on instagram. He's brilliant!

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 36

The Eighth Doctor has referred to Time Lord society as "bitchy" before. (Audio: Seasons of Fear)

Maximelos and the Three Ogrons was a children's fairy tale on Gallifrey that the First Doctor heard as a child before being initiated into the Academy. (Short Story: Nothing O'Clock)

Peri once turned the song "Wild Boys" up in order to drown out the Sixth Doctor's opera singing. (Short Story: A Star is Reborn)

Susan failed her maths exam because she had forgotten that Britain hadn't moved to the metric system yet (despite the fact that the First Doctor had tried to get her to remember at least that). (Short story: Extracts from the Doctor’s 500 Year Diary)

The Doctor had a bear when he was young but had to release it when it started eating all the furniture. (Audio: Cuddlesome)

Jo and Cliff Jones frequently work with David Attenborough (Short Story: Greyhound)

The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler got caught in 1914 Belgium in a battle between Germans and an alien Warfreekz. Rose stopped the war by singing "Angels" by Robbie Williams, which made all sides think she was the Angel of Death come to take their dead to Heaven. (Comic: Warfreekz!)

When the Fifth Doctor broke his spine and was subsequently paralyzed, he thought he would regenerate. (Audio: Devil in the Mist)

The Toymaker once turned the Eighth Doctor into a doll. (Audio: Solitaire)

Chancellor Delox was a lecturer at the Academy who expelled the Doctor from her class after discovering he had not returned to his House for Otherstide. (Novel: Divided Loyalties)

The Second Doctor remembered being something of an acrobat in his First body before age had taken its toll. (Novel: Heart of TARDIS)

The Doctor's TARDIS has an entire snowy mountain range inside of it. (Audio: The Settling)

The console room of the Monk’s TARDIS has a comfy chair covered in comic books in it. (Audio: The Black Hole)

The Tenth Doctor recovered from his regeneration in part because of tea but also in part because he took energy from his Third incarnation, who was nearby. (Short story: The Christmas Inversion)

The Sixth Doctor continued to try to fix the TARDIS chameleon circuit after Attack of the Cybermen. This caused the outer shell to shift to all sorts of odd forms, such as Nelson's column, a giant strawberry, a train engine, a clock, a Christmas tree, a giant Radio Times, and more. (Comic: Quick Change)

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[agenderhyde]

twelve and missy: oh, the meddling monk! sometimes we can still hear his voice the monk: stop telling everyone i'm dead!

[roxannepolice]

One of those "one moment you're toying with an idea, next you realise it makes way more sense than the author ever intended" things, but-

Like, between rolling eyes at Fifteen claiming he would recognise Susan everywhere after a score of not recognising the Master when they're right in front of them and Tensimm junkyard sniffing, I think RTD's handling of Time Lord recognition of each other makes a whole lot more sense once we ask ourselves a simple question:

Is the Ainley!Master situation the norm or the anomaly?

Ok, considering his run was the longest, he did in many ways establish the "norm", and that norm is a Santa Claus beard seamlessly fooling three consecutive Doctors. But, if instead we look at earlier interactions things get a bit more complicated.

The Time Meddler may not be very definite on the subject, but One isn't, like, completely and utterly confused at who the Monk is, and the conversation between them flows rather seemlessly, like between two countrymen meeting abroad, and that a good deal before the Doctor sees the Monk's TARDIS. Next, regardless of whether War Chief=Master or not, the point still stands: he and Two recognise each other the second they meet. But it is with Threegado that things get really interesting. For all that Delgado!Master loves dress ups, these are not actually used at the Doctor. Like, correct me if I'm wrong, but there is no scene where the Master shows up in cheap ass plastic Graucho Marx eyebrow-glasses-moustache set and Three starts congratulating him on A Night at the Opera, at least not in the strict tv canon?

What I'm driving at, is that with this established history of Time Lords being able to recognise each other on sight and no direct contradiction in Threegado, Fivey consistently falling for the Master's Halloween aisle catwalk comes off as less to be expected.

But here's the thing: there's a very good explanation for why Ainley!Master would be harder/almost impossible to recognise for the Doctor. His Trakkenite body.

As in, this particular Master has a different biology not only from any of his regenerations, but from any other Time Lord. Add just a bit of psychic shielding, and, like. Cheap rubber masks become much more efficient for a species where visual recognition isn't really an evolutionarily stable solution.

Again, this is me just poking at canon and canon showing little resistance, but this interpretation also sheds a different light on how Three and One interact with the Master in Five Doctors. Three can just tell who this Mephistopheles-Blofeld lovebaby that showed up on Gallifrey is, because it's pretty much the same style he spent so much time with (and not relying mainly on visuals does not mean being completely face blind yk). One, on the other hand? He has no idea who this Trakkenite smelling hottie is.

**

Now, there are two important implications of this non-visual based interpretation: first refers to the Rani dressing up as Mel right after Six regenerates into Seven. Now, this in its own right is an interesting contrast to Five, also in post-regeneration stress, because where Seven at least gets fuzzy impressions something's off about this Mel, Five is just blissfully unaware mr Santa the celery juice bringer might be anything but just that. The second implication regards Eight, who's back on track of recognising the Master - and that a new snatched body Master! - on sight. And well, sorry, this is just where my crack brain kicked in. I'll just share the visions of the Rani rubbing Melanie Bush's sweat all over herself like some musky perfume and Seven breathing in the Master's ashes like Napoleon tobacco to the point Eight can tell the distinct Master smell regardless of biology 🤌🤌

[leelarots]

I thought it'd be really funny to not say anything abt the deca after pride month ended but unfortunately I can't keep my mouth shut. here is my VERY IMPORTANT HEADCANON about mortimus/the monk:

he would fall for hot singles in your area ads. thanks for your time

[is-this-a-sideblog]

Doctor Who really is something because why did Ian and Barbara leave the episode before another renegade timelord was introduced.

One look at the Meddling Monk and his TARDIS, a machine the Doctor told them he built himself just to look cool I guess, and they would have jumped down the Doc's throat in a heartbeat.

[evil-space-villain]

I take it back RTD is NOT allowed to bring back the meddling monk until he can prove he can be trusted with a timelord

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Who is the meddling monk?

Who is the Meddling Monk?

Have you ever thought, 'what would the Master be like if they were a bit more stupid, a lot more childish, and even more hilarious'? Enter the Meddling Monk, a renegade Time Lord with a sitcom coming out soon, I'm sure.

Mortimus, better known as "the Monk" or "the Nun", is a renegade Time Lord who loves to interfere with history just for kicks.

🪐 Origin and Early Life

Along with all the other Academy initiates, the Monk stared into the Untempered Schism as a child, which some say drove them slightly mad. The Monk and the Doctor were part of the same crew, known as the Deca, at the Time Lord Academy. However, the Monk found the Academy and Gallifrey very boring, so got a Mark IV TARDIS and decided that meddling in history was way more fun than following the rules.

💥 The Meddling

The Monk’s idea of fun is changing historical events, often without thinking about the consequences. Picture someone who thinks it's a great idea to prevent the Battle of Hastings or to give advanced technology to medieval peasants just to see what happens.

🤔 Personality and Motivations

The Monk meddles with history purely for good-time vibes, like a frat boy looking for a good party. They change their look frequently with various identities and 'cosplays' and have been everything from a nun to Henry VIII. They can also be very petulant and childish when things don't go their way.

Despite their slightly villainous tendencies, the Monk genuinely believes that their meddling might improve history. Unfortunately, the Monk doesn't think about the implications of their actions, which usually results in chronological chaos that the Doctor has to clean up.

🏫 So ...

If the Master is the final boss, the Meddling Monk is an amusing side quest miniboss. Pick your dialogue options right and you might be able to avoid the fight altogether. Despite all the chaos they cause, it’s hard not to see the Monk as a bit of a wannabe. They dream big but often fail spectacularly, like trying to be the Doctor but without all that pesky moral responsibility. They're the Time Lord equivalent of a kid with a magnifying glass, burning ants for fun and then wondering why everyone’s so upset.

Here, we also have an audio extract from an encounter:

(Link to Big Finish Page)

Related:

💬|👤👑Why is Rassilon everywhere?: Who Rassilon is and why you should care.

💬|👤🧠Who was the Eleven?: Short bio of the Time Lord known for being afflicted by regenerative dissonance.

💬|👤💂Who is Commander Maxil?: Looking at Gallifrey's resident jobsworth.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features: ⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[carefulzombie]

dumb. stupid even

[the-1-foxy]

Just the usual Monk stuff

[anarchopookie]

I'll never forgive Big Finish for making something so fun and chaotic like a Missy story SO INCREDIBLY DULL

[doctorwhoaffirmations]

affirmation #77