noted by Camfield for his work as an extra on Marco Polo, and had returned to work on The Aztecs and star in The Crusade. Cast as Ulf, Hartley was an old friend of Camfield's. The Time Meddler was the first serial to feature Steven Taylor as a full companion. The role of Steven—originally named Michael in the scripts—had not been filled by 13 May, the month before filming began. After witnessing Purves's role as Morton Dill in the recording of The Chase the following day, Lambert and Spooner approached him and offered him the role. Purves accepted the role within days. On 21 May, he was contracted for three stories (13 episodes), with an option for a further 20 episodes by 10 September and another 26 by 4 February 1966. He grew a beard for his role as Steven in the final episode of The Chase, but he wore a fake beard for the first episode of The Time Meddler as Steven becomes cleanshaven partway through. His role as a companion on the show was announced on 18 June 1965. Purves quickly bonded with Hartnell and O'Brien, and they would occasionally have dinner together after rehearsals. Purves was pleased with Spooner's scripts and the development of Steven's character, though O'Brien was unimpressed. Filming The minimal filming required for The Time Meddler allowed additional allocation of production for The Chase. Early 35mm filming took place on 10 May at Ealing Studios on Stages 3A/B, depicting the TARDIS materialising and dematerialising in the first and final episodes, respectively. The remaining film was acquired from stock footage, sourced from the BBC and Pinewood Studios. Recording on the serial was due to take place at Riverside Studios until late May, when it was decided to switch back to Television Centre. Rehearsals for the first episode began on 7 June. By this time, incoming producer John Wiles—set to replace Lambert in the coming months—joined the production. Hartnell found the change unsettling and threw fake tantrums to scare the production team to obey him; he later admitted to other cast members that he was only joking. Weekly recording of the serial began on 11 June in Television Centre Studio 4; recording of the first episode overran by seven minutes as it was discovered that one of the scenes contained more music than had been cleared for use, requiring it to be re-recorded. Camfield was greatly