{"id":230,"date":"2017-10-27T00:07:32","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T04:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/?p=230"},"modified":"2023-07-15T22:27:57","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T02:27:57","slug":"the-myth-makers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidredd.com\/doctorwho\/first-doctor\/the-myth-makers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Myth Makers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is not Troy. This is not even the world. This is the Journey through the Beyond.\u201d – Katarina<\/em><\/p>\n

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This missing story requires a few listenings to appreciate. It\u2019s a historical drama but an oddity in that the characters of Greek myth are treated as historical realities. To his credit, Donald Cotton makes the mythic situations more down to earth (Achilles is a regular soldier rather than a divinely protected being, Cyclops is a man with an eyepatch, Odysseus is an unlikeable pirate) so that it actually is just a story of warring kingdoms. You can say that it\u2019s intended that these real individuals are the ones that become bigger legends in the future; Cotton spells this out more explicitly in his novelized version of the story (referencing why the title is the \u2018myth makers\u2019). Of course, you could argue that it\u2019s actually the Doctor and his crew that are the ones making the myth, because it is they who introduce the larger than life idea of the Trojan horse and it turns out that Vicki is the future legendary Cressida. (Not to mention that the Doctor seems to confirm that he is Zeus as his TARDIS temple fades from sight.)<\/p>\n

The writing of the story seems serious at first\u2014Achilles and Hector\u2019s battle is full of big, boasting words. However, the story takes a lighter turn after that with many of the interactions full of witty dialogue and some of the characters like Paris being almost comical in tone. Some of my favorites are:<\/p>\n