OOO5 - The Time Monster 5

Finally, finally, finally, the story gets to Atlantis, a destination that has been hinted at and foreshadowed for the first four and a half episodes now. And boy, wasn't it worth the wait? If you thought that the earlier Atlantis scenes were stagy, you haven't seen anything yet.

The low light of all the Atlantis scenes is Aidan Murphy, who gets more and more cringe worthy in his first scene of the episode as he tries to bellow convincingly to the members of the court. Things drag from endless talky scene to endless talky scene, usually transitioned by awkward soft focus pulls and needless zooms from the directorial eye of Paul Bernard.

The only part of this episode that is interesting to watch is the burgeoning relationship between The Master and Queen Galleia (they so did it!). The Master is totally after Kronos, obviously, and knows that the way to Kronos is through the Queen. The Queen, however, is enchanted by The Master and is a cuckolding bitch, but....My. Word. Ingrid Pitt is absolutely enchanting in both the dress and the role of Queen Galleia. There are many great tragedies in the world of Doctor Who, but one of the most dire is the fact that most fans' memories of Pitt is of her lamely trying to dropkick the Myrka in Warriors of the Deep, and not of her dazzling appearance in The Time Monster. This might not be saying much, but Ingrid Pitt is far and away the best thing about The Time Monster, and that's with another episode yet to go.