DOCTOR WHO, SEASON 3 SERIAL 2:

THE MYTH MAKERS

Doctor: First (William Hartnell)

Companions: Vicki, Steven

And introducing...Katarina

May 2023

Man, I have mixed feelings about The Myth Makers.

On the one hand, there’s compelling drama, the party being split and forced to deal with opposite sides of a war, and all that jazz. On the other hand, it’s entirely missing from the archives, meaning you can only watch it via audio and mostly still-image reconstructions, not to mention the fact that it has a companion departure that feels mostly shoehorned in and awkward, and a companion arrival that feels even more so. It also, for what it’s worth, manages to be one of the most unfaithful adaptations of the end of the Trojan War I’ve ever seen, but this is Doctor Who so it doesn’t really matter that much.

It starts out well enough, albeit in an interesting state: we skip over the material covered by the Iliad to go straight to the end of the Trojan War, and the TARDIS arrives just as Achilles is killing Hector. Then the Doctor shows up, is briefly mistaken for Zeus (haha nice), and is immediately carted off to the Greek camp. Steven tries to sneak out and follow him, and then the Trojans cart off the TARDIS to the city and Vicki exits there. So we have this nice setup: the Doctor is solidly stuck in the Greek camp, Vicki is solidly stuck in Troy (where she is given the name of Cressida—more on that later), and Steven is oscillating around the middle, accused of being a spy in both. I like this! This is a good setup!

It also works where each side has sympathetic and unsympathetic characters towards the travelers: in Troy, we have Priam, who instantly takes in Vicki as a sort of foster child (Priam, you have like 6 kids, aren’t your hands full??) and Cassandra, who due to the fact that she (correctly) prophesizes that Vicki is a harbinger of Troy’s destruction (we’ll get to that later). Meanwhile in the Greek camp, we have Achilles, who is big on the Doctor being Zeus (and then promptly gets written out for the majority of the story), and Odysseus, who is incredibly suspicious of him.

Let’s talk about those characters that they chose to have be the antagonists, because it’s sort of weird to me. Odysseus is very much portrayed as a villain here: he’s constantly berating the Doctor, gets him to come up with the Trojan Horse instead of Odysseus himself, and has a line or two near the end about how if only Agamemnon or Menelaus would die then there would be more loot for him in Troy. Which is weird, right?? Like, I’m used to Odysseus being a heroic figure: a conniving one, sure, but that only adds to his general heroism, because it makes him an underdog in a world of strong fighting types. His schemes are instrumental to both the Greeks’ victory in Troy and his continued survival in the Odyssey. So it’s odd to have him portrayed as an aggressive blowhard in these episodes.

Also, to be clear: I’ve never read the Odyssey, nor the Iliad. And I do not intend to for the sake of an hour and a half of weird old TV! I am not a scholar on this topic, nor in fact on the topic of any of these historical settings: I know the most about the Romans compared to the other ones, but I am in no way an actual historian, nor am I intending to examine these stories primarily through a lens of historical accuracy. It’s just that these things have to be taken into account.

It’s also interesting to note how Cassandra becomes an antagonist. There’s an uncomfortable misogynist undercurrent running through a lot of little lines—Menelaus bemoaning his wife Helen, for example, in a manner that feels very in line with the victim-blaming of saying that the entire Trojan War was her fault when in fact she was kidnapped. Helen doesn’t actually appear in this serial, but Cassandra does, and when she does...no one likes her. Look, this is in line with the legend, where she’s cursed to prophesize doom and have no one believe her. But considering that the TARDIS crew literally knows she’s right and also that she’s the only major female guest star (I’m not including Katarina—more on that later), she comes off really rather harshly.

I feel like every time I write one of these, I end up overfocused on the negatives: to be clear, The Myth Makers is by and large quite a fun and funny story. Paris as comic relief works surprisingly well; the drama inherent to having Vicki and the Doctor placed on opposite sides of this war is compelling; even the love story (well, such as it is) between Vicki and Troilus is fine (and the faux-love triangle with Steven is funny!). I’m not going to go so far as to say it’s great, or even necessarily good, but it is carried out serviceably, and better (it feels) than Susan and David last season. For example, there’s a scene where it’s noted that Vicki and Troilus are about the same age, neatly sidestepping the entire debacle about how old Susan actually is. Also, the dynamic between Vicki and Steven continues to absolutely fucking rule as a couple of bickering siblings, even though it’s only in the last two episodes really, and I’m very sad we won’t be seeing more of them together.

It does lose something, however, in comparison to other “decent” Doctor Who stories, like The Keys of Marinus or Planet of Giants: The Myth Makers is entirely missing from the archives, and does not have any sort of animated (or live action) reconstruction. It only has the audio and some short (a few seconds) video clips remaining. I watched the recreation from Loose Cannon productions, notable for having created still image reconstructions for every single missing episode in the archives. It also stitches in the remaining video clips, as well as providing linking captions for when things get too visual (like a few swordfighting scenes). And it’s not great! Let’s be real: it’s good for what it is, and they did the best they could with what they had to work with. But it is nowhere near as compelling a visual experience as, like, every single one of the remaining episodes. As such, I highly recommend that you don’t sit down to watch it with your family: instead, it’s the perfect sort of mostly-audio story that you can watch while, say, doing a jigsaw puzzle. It’s practically an audio story a lot of the time. This isn’t to say it can’t be worth watching! But if you sit down for a formal screening, you’re probably going to end up bored.

A last note: let’s talk about Katarina, who despite being a new companion, isn’t even introduced until episode 4 of this 4-part serial. Katarina...doesn’t really get to do anything here. This is, maybe, fine? It’s regularly the case that new companions don’t get shit to do in their first new serial. Steven, for instance, didn’t get a chance to shine until The Time Meddler. But when it came to The Time Meddler, Steven really shone. Knowing about how long Katarina will be traveling with us (and it’s not long!), I’m quite concerned about how much of a character she’s even going to be given.

Overall Thoughts:

The Myth Makers isn’t a bad story. It’s not great, but it’s all right! There’s some cool stuff here. Watch it if you’re interested in the premise, or in historical stories, or if you want to try the Loose Canon recreation format. Watch it also if you’re interested in seeing Vicki’s departure (did she deserve a better one? Yes. But it’s not the worst one we’ve seen, so I’ll give it that, I guess? I just. I really question how happy “revolutionary girl from the future” Vicki will be living out the events of the Aeneid), or a last gasp of the relationship between her and Steven. Don’t watch it if you want an accurate retelling of part of the Iliad, even remotely, or if you don’t like the format.

EDIT 5/23: You know, the more I think about this story, the softer I am on it. It feels in many ways like a story stymied by its format, what with the missing episodes: it makes me wish I could have acquired the all-audio version with linking narration, or that an animated version had been made. Hopefully one will be, because I could see The Myth Makers up there with the top historical stories, up with Farewell, Great Macedon (though not quite as good). It's certainly better and more interesting than Galaxy 4!

Next up...whoo boy. Next up is the motherlode. Next up is The Daleks’ Master Plan. It may be a while before I write up my thoughts, as this is Doctor Who’s longest uncontested story. A new companion, another companion changeover, five hours of story, and a whole lot more still image reconstruction. But I’m looking forward to it! I really hope I can recommend it, because it is a milestone in so many ways.