The Myth Makers

The TARDIS lands on the battlefields of Asia Minor, and within seconds of its landing the Doctor, Steven and Vicki witness on the scanner a brutal fight between Achilles and Hector, resulting in Hector's death. The Doctor is heralded as a manifestation of Zeus and taken in by the Greeks - until Agamemnon doesn't believe him. Steven alternates between captured by the Greeks and then by the Trojans in his attempts to free first the Doctor, and then Vicki, the latter who has been taken into Troy inside the TARDIS and then hailed a the prophetess Cressida when she emerges. Vicki is heading for her destiny, while the city of Troy is headed for trouble.

As with The Romans script writer Donald Cotton has flung the TARDIS crew back into mythology rather than history and is once more writing it as a comedy. It's hard to say exactly how successful this might have been at its original broadcast as none of the four episodes exist on film, so whatever sight gags and physical comedy cues there were are lost. What's left are the audio tracks for the episodes and a few clips here and there to at least capture the dialogue between the characters, as well as some excessive music from the fight scenes. Still, what can be heard is pretty funny, especially when the Trojan prince, Paris, seeks Achilles out for revenge after Hector's death and whispers his challenge rather than yelling it to avoid attracting any attention... and when he instead encounters Steven he tries to avoid a fight by blustering his way out. It's a bit hard to credit that this guy kidnapped Helen and caused the 10 year siege of Troy in the first place - a siege that Helen's husband, Meneleus, is actually bored with as he doesn't seem to want his wife back and is tired of always running after her. But this is about honour, and the Greeks are in it to win, it's just taking a bit of time. The Trojans are feeling a bit cooped up after 10 years but are otherwise coping, but they are always wary of the Greeks trying to get into the city. None is more suspicious than Cassandra, daughter of King Priam, who literally spits her lines out in her hatred of the Greeks, and when Vicki is introduced as a rival prophetess it does not go over well at all.

Awwwwww...

Vicki's presence does go well, however, with young prince Troilus, who is taken with her at first sight. Vicki herself is wooed by Troilus and at first flirts with him shamelessly to get herself in good with the Trojans and then to get Troilus to release her from imprisonment. This draws a bit of ire - jealousy? - from Steven when he sees Vicki using her feminine wiles for her own ends, but really, who knew she had them in the first place? Vicki falls in love with Troilus and at the end of the story stays with him amid the ruins of Troy, pledging to help him rebuild and to stay with him. It's all a bit unlikely and sudden, but Maureen O'Brien's departure from the series itself was sudden as well; she had reportedly mentioned she might be keen to move on from Doctor Who at the conclusion of the previous season's shooting, and when the third season began she returned to discover that she got what she wanted and was out, much to her surprise.

Is the Doctor surprised that she is gone? He hardly sees her the whole adventure; after he is taken in by the Greeks and press-ganged to help them defeat the Trojans within 2 days he does not see Vicki until Troy is being sacked and danger is all around. In revisionist land one of the previous BBC Books Novels has the Doctor realizing that Vicki has her own destiny, so her departure should not come as a shock to him. There is, however, no real departure speech between the two, so we can't know if the Doctor accepts her reasons to leave or if he goes off on a tear like when Ian and Barbara chose to leave him. There is too much going on at the time for him to be worried about it, perhaps; Troy is burning and Steven is wounded in battle, and Vicki gets one of Cassandra's handmaidens, a girl named Katarina, to help get Steven into the TARDIS. The ship leaves with her on board taking Vicki's place, although Katarina believes she has died and the Doctor is taking her to the afterlife.

When I first got to enjoy The Myth Makers it was obviously not on television but in print as a Target novel, with Donald Cotton himself writing the tale down as he did with The Romans. The novel is told from the point of view of the Cyclops character, a one eyed spy who spends his time traipsing back and forth between the Green camps and Troy, seemingly going anywhere unchallenged and witnessing the whole adventure (well, with one eye anyway). It was funny enough on its own in print, and it's just a shame that the whole thing is not available to enjoy. But as it is said of the other missing stories, better the audio than nothing at all, yes?

NEXT EPISODE: FROSTFIRE