The , or simply the '''Monk''', is a
Fictional Character in the
British Science Fiction Television series ''
Doctor Who ''. He was played by the British comic
Actor Peter Butterworth . He appeared in two stories (''
The Time Meddler '' and ''
The Daleks' Master Plan '', written and co-written by
Dennis Spooner ), respectively, and was an adversary of the
First Doctor .
The Monk was the first other member of the
Doctor's race apart from
Susan to appear on the programme, and the first ''Doctor Who'' villain, aside from the
Dalek s, to make a return appearance.
The Monk was the possessor of a Mark IV
TARDIS and said he left the Doctor's (then unnamed) home planet some fifty years after the Doctor did. This information would reasonably indicate that he was probably a
Time Lord , although it was never stated at the time since the concept of the Doctor's race had not yet been devised.
He liked to meddle in history and to change it for his own amusement and for what he considered to be the better — lending mechanical assistance to the builders of
Stonehenge ; giving
Leonardo Da Vinci tips on aircraft design; and, when the Doctor first encountered him, attempting to prevent the
Norman Conquest as part of a plan to guide England into an early age of technological prosperity. On that occasion he wore the guise of a
Monk in order to gain the trust of the 11th-century locals, hence the name by which is most often referred to. (His actual name was never revealed in the series.)
Unlike the Doctor's other Time Lord adversaries, such as
The Master , the Monk was presented as a comic figure: a well-meaning but childish man who was not half as clever as he thought he was, and who never seemed to realise the seriousness of what he was doing. The fact that his plans always failed to come to fruition, at least on screen, also helped maintain the comic tone and allowed the audience also to avoid thinking too much about how dangerous a person like the Monk could really be.
In ''
The End Of The World '' the Doctor stated that his homeworld had been destroyed and that he was the last of the Time Lords. Whether the Monk was present on
Gallifrey and killed with the others is uncertain.
This section concerns the appearances of the Monk in various Spin-offs , which are of unclear Canonicity .
For some time, there was speculation among fans that the Monk was actually an earlier regeneration of the Master (see also
The War Chief ), propagated mainly by the
1980s ''Doctor Who''
Roleplaying Game published by
FASA . However, this theory has not been as widespread in recent years, and has been contradicted by the spin-off novels.
In the ''
Doctor Who Monthly '' comic strip ''4-Dimensional Vistas'' (DWM #78-#83), the Monk teamed up with the
Ice Warrior s in a complex plan to build a giant sonic weapon. In this portrayal, the character (who piloted a TARDIS also shaped like a
Police Box ) did not wear a monk's habit, and was referred to as "the Time-Meddler"; however, it was clearly the same character. The Monk was easily defeated by the
Fifth Doctor .
The Monk also turned up in the
New Adventures novel ''No Future'' by
Paul Cornell , in which he was given the name "Mortimus". The novel was the last of a story arc published to coincide with the series' thirtieth anniversary in
1993 , in which the Doctor encounters various alternate realities that have been created due to the Monk's meddling with time.
In the
Past Doctor Adventures novel ''Divided Loyalties'' by
Gary Russell , a young Mortimus is portrayed as a friend of the Doctor's, and a member of a cabal of rebellious young Gallifreyans at the Academy known as "the Deca". The group also included the Doctor, the
Master , the
Rani , Azmael (from ''
The Twin Dilemma ''), the War Chief and Drax (from ''
The Armageddon Factor '').
