Serial U, in 4 parts
Written by: Donald Cotton
Produced by: John Wiles
Directed by: Michael Leeston-Smith
"Bill kept getting angry because he was struggling with his lines in the scene involving Agamemnon's feast and this was holding everything up. Felix de Wolff was supposed to say, "Come in Doctor, sit down and have a ham bone," but he turned to Bill and said, "Come in Doctor, sit down, ham, and have a bone." Everyone collapsed but Bill went puce." - amusing anecdote from Who's There? The Life and Career of William Hartnell by Jessica Carney (Virgin: 1996)
"This story scores over The Romans in that although it too is humorous, the humor is more sophisticated and arises out of the drama rather than being grafted on." - review from The Handbook: The First Doctor by Howe, Stammers, and Walker (Virgin: 1994)
The Myth Makers is yet another Hartnell adventure that, in its original form, has been lost to the winds of time (that is, the BBC burned it). The good news is that the complete soundtrack of the story is available on CD from our old friends at the Beeb. Thanks, BBC - at least you did something to make up for the mistake!
To be brutally frank, I was dreading this episode for a while. I had the soundtrack but I didn't listen to it, because I had no desire to hear bad Doctor Who. Hartnell's episodes got sillier and weaker as time went on, and I thought this one would be a total farce.
And it is... The Myth Makers is the great-grandaddy of Hercules and Xena, containing the same dizzy blend of irreverent nonsense, myth-mangling, anachronisms, and silly jokes. But I've got more nice news - it's actually good. The humor somehow, miraculously works.
I laughed myself silly as I listened to the Doctor, in conference with Odysseus, propose building giant paper airplanes to launch over the walls of Troy with catapults. Almost as funny is the scene when the Trojans capture the TARDIS and bring it into their city. One of the Trojans is paranoid - there could be Greeks hiding in that thing, she suggests, but everyone just laughs at her and says that the TARDIS is too small to hold soldiers (the joke being, of course, that the Police Box is the perfect Trojan Horse because it could hold millions of soldiers inside).
The Myth Makers contains interesting elements aside from the humor, though. The episode features a lovely romance between Vicki and Troilus (once again, the myth of Doctor Who's chastity goes boom - just check out that picture at the bottom of this review). Steven takes center stage for a long time as he disguises himself as a Greek soldier and infiltrates Troy. The Doctor has a decent but less prominent role; it's no wonder that Hartnell's pride was pricked a bit when he filmed this serial.
Overall, The Myth Makers is good fun, full of sly in-jokes for all the viewers who are familiar with the mythological tradition the episode spoofs. That said, I have one complaint; the Doctor, who is apparently a pretty smart cookie, suggests that Homer made up the Trojan Horse as an exciting literary device. You fail college literature, matey - Virgil created the Trojan Horse for his Aeneid.
Mini-Reviews and Quotes:
The Brian Review:
OVERALL RATING: B
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