Old Skool Tour: The Myth Makers

[rangersyl]

"Your story is probably true otherwise you would not have dared to tell it."

The Myth Makers is a conflicted story, and not because it's about the Trojan War. Or rather, it's problematic in that is is all about the Greeks and the Trojans. When all is said and done, was this really a Doctor Who story? Or did it just use the Doctor & Co. as an excuse for a witty historical romp?

First -- a moment of appreciation for the script. It's clever, not a word wasted, and the characters are well-drawn. The actors are obviously enjoying their turns and giving it their all. The Persians are especially entertaining and I laughed out loud at Paris's antics on more than one occasion.

The story has it all, it seems: a cracking good script, a top-notch company of actors and period verisimilitude with help from the BBC costuming department. The problem is that it doesn't seem like a Doctor Who story. William Hartnell, we're told, felt that the guest cast was upstaging the regulars (and of course the Doctor) and it's clear that he was quite correct.

Things start out promising with the Doctor immediately pretending to be Zeus to get them out of trouble. Considering how natural it was for him to take on the role of a god, the subject was probably covered at the Academy. Notice how he was even arrested reverently. But once the end credits rolled on Part One, the Doctor, Steven and Vicki become extraneous.

From there on out, our heroes are passive and just get bounced around by events they cannot truly influence. This is the fatal flaw of the straight historical. If "you can't change history -- not one line", then that doesn't leave much room for storytelling. As Doctor Who has matured, the Doctor becomes a heroic character. True heroism requires that the hero drives the plot forward. But if the hero can't do anything significant, he's just left to sit on a wooden box and complain about his lot in life. Which is what the Doctor was relegated to by the time the story closed. To add injury to insult, he's even forced to do something that he abhors -- influence events by providing Odysseus with the idea for the Trojan Horse.

Given these limitations, the solution was to write a comedy. Comedies are easy to relate to and humor takes the sting away from a sidelined Doctor. The story romps along merrily until the end, when we run into the other big problem. It's a comedy that ends in a brutal slaughter! And even more incongruous, it's a brutal slaughter of the likable Trojans at the hands of the boorish Greeks.

The most significant event in the story is Vicki's leaving. I find it difficult to come up with any comments on that. It was ... okay. Troilus wasn't a bad guy, and he and Vicki had decent chemistry. I couldn't help but wonder if she stayed behind out of guilt, though. The Doctor seemed to not have any problems leaving her behind. Like most of this story, Vicki's departure was ultimately less than satisfying.

Oh, and as for the addition of Katerina to the TARDIS crew? If she's going to scream like this the whole time, I'm very much looking forward to her death scene.

The Bottom Line: It's all fun and games until you realize that this really wasn't a Who script.