The Meddling Monks: Monky Business

"I think we're being robbed!"

Writer: John Dorney

Format: Audio

Released: April 2026

Series: Dark Gallifrey 5.01b

Featuring: The Monk, The Nun

Synopsis

A Blinovitch based accident with the TARDIS has curtailed the Meddling Monk and the Meddling Nun's travels together. Now they're trapped on Earth with no means of escape. Or are they? The Nun has a mysterious plan and the first step is for them to buy a house. What could possibly go wrong?

Verdict

Monky Business was another good episode to continue my way through the first part of The Meddling Monks as the opener to the fifth series of Dark Gallifrey! This didn't quite have the charm of the incredible Monky House first episode but that was always going to be a difficult task to live up to! I was intrigued by the follow on and I think it's tremendous that there's going to be new lyrics for the opening theme in each part. It's so cleve and just sets the tone right from the off. The atmosphere is pretty joyous and I like how that is the feeling right from the beginning. It's what you should want! I thought it was good for the Monk and Nun to touch upon their predicament and also look back on their problems in simply buying a house. That obviously didn't go too well but alluding to them having no TARDIS to access was good and just enough of a hint at the real world at this point in the story. We're only a third of the way through and reality is barely seeping through the cracks which is great. That follows the WandaVision format very nicely and I suspect that the next release will really set things alight! I was a little confused by the plot of this episode and I suspect that was actually part of the point. It felt a little like a version of Bargain Hunt in pitting both incarnations of the Meddling Monk against one another but with the prospect of the loser then being fired, it also had a feeling of The Apprentice! But were either of them actually employed from anything that they could get fired from? That felt like a little bit of a disconnect but the fact it was acknowledged makes me think it was intended to be part of the fun. It was good to have jokes again but they didn't seem to quite hit as much as the opening episode of this part, but again the Monk mocking the Nun about it is good natured fun. I am intrigued by his insistence again of being so superior to his female incarnation and his confusion over the words superfluous and sublime was very amusing. The Nun looked at him stupidly as she should! Although would she not have the same vocabulary as him given they're the same person? I thought it was a little bit on the nose to have a reference in the previous episode to the app being a convenient narrative point, but the use here of making a joke of when the story takes place was a tad annoying. I would actually like to know! We had clear timeframes on WandaVision from the attire and the style of sitcom that was being watched, but I don't quite get that sense here. The moment in the shop where the buyer was just referencing 'this much' as an amount of money was a tad frustrating. It was completely baffling and almost too silly though when he came into the shop to buy a balaclava and other items resembling a robber, then return moments later in full garb to rob the place, and then have the cheek to quickly then show back up in an effort to return his items! Talk about rigging the system. That was some effort! Overall, it didn't quite live up to the opener but it was still good fun. Perhaps too much focus on Business as a thing rather than just a word, but still leaves me very excited for the next two episodes to come! Maybe it didn't have the same impact because I actually listened soon after writing the blog for the previous part? Maybe I'll take a break between parts next month. 

Rating: 7/10