The Time Meddler

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Story Code: S / Season 2 UK Airdate: 3 Jul to 24 Jul 1965 Doctor: William Hartnell
First airings by location UK Repeats / Foreign Cable and Satellite Previous Story / Next Story

This story aired in the following countries. They are listed in chronological order according to known airdate. If no month is noted, the actual airdate is not confirmed, and is a close approximate. (Refer also to Selling Doctor Who for expanded airdates.)

BBC film can for episode 2
Australia Oct 66 b/w
Gibraltar Oct 66 b/w
Singapore Dec 66 b/w
Nigeria Mar 67 b/w
Zambia May 67 b/w
Barbados Oct 67 b/w
Mauritius Mar 68 b/w
New Zealand Nov 68 b/w
Sierra Leone Nov 68 b/w
Jamaica Apr 69 b/w
Nigeria (again) May 73 b/w
  • With the story set in the year 1066, it's truly wonderful that the first two countries to screen it did so in October 1966!
  • Unlike all the previous serials, this was not sold to Ethiopia.
  • Like The Web Planet, this serial was sold 'twice' to Nigeria, but to different broadcasters. The 1973 sale to Nigeria was probably done to make up the non-sale to Ethiopia.
  • New Zealand sent its prints of the serial to Nigeria on 2 March 1973. The prints had been cut by the NZ censors.
  • By 1974, the BBC was still offering this serial in a package of Hartnell stories that included The Space Museum and Galaxy 4.
  • The ABC in Australia returned its prints to the BBC on 4 June 1975.
  • The BBC still had copies of all four episodes by the end of 1976 (possibly the ones returned from Australia, Mauritius, Sierra Leone or Zambia?), but by late 1977 they had junked all bar episode 2, unless that print of episode 2 was a different one that had been subsequently returned to the BBC?
  • A film collector acquired prints of episodes 1, 2 and 3 sometime in the mid-1970s. These would have been a different set to the ones held by the BBC in 1976, and may have been some of the ones returned by Australia or earlier from Mauritius, Sierra Leone or Zambia. These prints were returned to the BBC but not until the early 1990s.
  • The ex-NZ prints were recovered from Nigeria in 1984. It was found that the opening five minutes set in the TARDIS was missing from part one. The cut may have been made in New Zealand to reflect that the previous story The Chase had not screened, although edits of that nature were not common in NZ. If not NZ, the cut can only have have been made by the station in Nigeria for the same reason (although one has to wonder why they would have bothered!). (There were also further edits made to the prints of The War Machines that were retrieved from Nigeria, so these additional cuts could certainly be attributed to the Nigerian station.)
  • NOTE: By this tally, that's three copies of part 2 (out of five in total?) that are accounted for.
  • See Hartnell Junkings


Reissue

  • The newly-recovered serial was quickly released for sale to:
United States from Sep 85 b/w
Canada Nov 89 b/w


US TV Guide descriptions

More Information
Title: The Time Meddler

  • Episode 1: On the English coast in the year 1066, the Doctor meets another time traveler determined to change the course of history.
  • Episode 2: (no plot description)
  • Episode 3: (no plot description)
  • Episode 4: (no plot description)
  • Compilation: On the coast of England in the year 1066, the Doctor and his crew meet up with another time-traveler—who's determined to change the course of history.


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