The Myth Makers

Temple of Secrets

This is the official debut of John Wiles as producer. It's also Michael Leeston-Smith's only appearance as director. It's also, I believe, Humphrey Searle's only appearance doing the incidental music. And, of course, it's Donald Cotton's first script. So there's quite a lot going on there. It's an interesting start, too, as we begin with Achilles and Hector fighting to, erm, interesting music. Or, as the Doctor points out, talking. And the music is, admittedly, noticeably different, which is nice, bringing some variety to proceedings. Vicki's ankle is still hurt from the previous story, which is nice continuity. The scenes between the Doctor and Achilles are quite funny, and the story itself is very enjoyable.

Once again the Doctor's plan to escape involves trying to get his captors to take him to the TARDIS. Well, it was Ian's plan in the Crusade, actually, and this time it doesn't work. It is fun having the Doctor pretending to be Zeus, though. Odysseus does quite well trying to use Steven to trick the Doctor into giving himself away. The cliffhanger is rather good, too. The TARDIS has vanished! Okay, it's a repeat of the Web Planet, but it still works well.

It's an intriguing start. It's not as funny as Cotton's later effort, but it is still entertaining nonetheless. Hartnell does love the comic stories. 7/10.

Small Prophet, Quick Return

That title is enough for me to like this episode. The Doctor admits very quickly to not being Zeus. Agamemnon decides to kill the Doctor and Steven anyway. Whoops. But Odysseus agrees to let them go if they can think of a plan to conquer Troy within two days. Oh well, it's lucky the Doctor isn't against time meddling or anything.

Cassandra starts off slightly promising, but very quickly becomes the cliched "bad guy", wanting the regulars dead because it suits the plot for her to want them dead. Not that Vicki helps herself. "I'm nobody of any importance, I'm just someone from the future". Of all the idiotic things you can say in such a situation, that's right up there. Anyway, Priam says that Cassandra takes a gloomy point of view of everything as an insurance so that if things go wrong she can tell everybody she told them so. As they all do.

Priam and Cassandra not wanting the TARDIS around is quite amusing, too. It's slightly worrying that Vicki is named Cressida. It's at that point that it really hit home that she's leaving. And won't even get the story ground to a halt so we can have ten minutes weeping over her, which is worse. Hmm, more of that later.

The scenes with Paris and Steven are rather amusing, too. When Steven offers himself up as a prisoner, Paris says, "I say, this sort of thing is just not done". Steven calling him, "the lion of Troy", and talking about how feared he is amongst the Greeks is funny. Vicki almost tells Priam about the wooden horse, but thinks better of it. Clearly she's learnt from the Doctor's words, rather than his rather slack example. The cliffhanger is a bit silly, though.

This is an improvement on the opening episode. It's funnier, for one thing. Vicki actually gets to leave the TARDIS, which is also nice. 8.5/10

Death of a Spy

Annoying as Cassandra is, it is funny when Steven has told everybody how great Paris is and Paris moans about how the Greeks respect him more than his own people, she says, "they don't know you as well as we do". Priam is really patronising to his children. Considering Hector has just died it seems quite cold, really!

For some reason the Doctor suggests flying machines to Odysseus as a plan to conquer Troy. Oh well, then he comes up with the wooden horse idea.It had to happen. I find the scenes between the Doctor and Odysseus slightly odd. They're meant to be comic, but it doesn't quite work. Certainly not in the way it will in the Gunfighters, where the comedy works perfectly.

Vicki's departure is set up very obviously here, telling Steven that she could get to be quite happy there! It's a rather bizarre thing for a comapanion to say, really. And then we have Troilus telling her that he hates killing and loves adventure. The cliffhanger is a bit poorly done really. It's Paris making a joke, basically. 7.5/10.

Horse of Destruction

First off, calling an episode Horse of Destruction is just brilliant. I possibly like it even more than Small Prophet, Quick Return, or Is there a Doctor in the horse? The episode itself is a bit messy, though. It's too depressing. The scenes at the beginning, with Vicki persuading Troilus to leave the city, are very sad, though it's good seeing Troilus get revenge on Achilles. It's a shame we have the irritating Cassandra making Katarina watch Vicki. Why is Katarina introduced like this? Two companions in three stories are introduced in the final episode. With the Massacre it makes sense, but Katarina could have taken part more in this story. I like her, though.

Vicki's departure is an interesting one. Though hers isn't on the scale of Susan, Ian and Barbara's, it is still significant. We haven't quite reached companions vanishing in the middle of a story just yet. I do think the scene at the end with Vicki and Troilus is very well played. It's quite a good idea as well to see a companion's departure from a different perspective. We've seen the Doctor say goodbye to companions, why do we need to see that again here? Particularly when we can have that lovely scene between Vicki and Troilus. I think it works beautifully, and they get to share a kiss, which is a very sweet moment.

As usual, Hartnell plays the emotional bit brilliantly, in spite of fluffing! When he says to Katarina, "I am not a Doc...I am not a God". It should be comical, but he plays it with such sadness that it's heart-breaking, particularly after what has been a rather brutal and sad episode. It is quite shocking to have these comedy characters murdered in the final episode. It's almost like Blackadder. 7/10.

Conclusion

I'm not sure what to make of the Myth Makers. It's a good enough story in itself to be entertaining, but I don't think it's silly enough. I know you can't be too silly, considering the massacre in the final episode, but a bit more would have helped. It is an important story, and Vicki's departure is very sad. I loved her enormously. She was so much better than Susan ever could have been. I will miss her greatly. She was always a lot of fun to be with, and thoroughly enjoyed her adventures, and Maureen O'Brien was brilliant. There hardly seems a point in talking about Katarina, since she was hardly in it. I'll leave that for the Daleks' Master Plan. Anyway, as for this story, it fares well, as all historicals do, and it has some great moments, but it's not at the higher end.

Average Rating: 7.5

Old Rating: 8

New Rating: 7.5