I’ve gone back to trying to watch every single Doctor Who episode ever and it is a chore. I’m not even through the First Doctor’s adventures yet and am somewhere in the beginning of the third season (or the third series, if you please). During this time, few complete serials exist and many of them have been lost forever barring an animated reconstruction or a miraculous find somewhere in a storage closet out there in the world somewhere.
Because of this, a historical loss on par with the burning of the Library of Alexandria at least as far as nerds like me are concerned, all we have are reconstructions using still pictures and audio recorded off of television by fans in the 1960’s. Although it’s better than nothing, sitting through these reconstructions are an absolute slog for me, especially when it comes to action-oriented stories like, “The Myth Makers.”
Taking place during the Trojan War, “The Myth Makers” finds the Doctor mistaken for Zues, Steven disguises himself as a Greek solider, and Vikki is mistaken for a prophet and they all must keep up the charade (with various degrees of failure) as the day of the Trojan Horse grows nearer.
It was extremely difficult for me to keep up with the story with the reconstruction. I know that these are labors of love and I would never criticize them for that reason, but personally, I find them very hard to follow.
As usual, classic Doctor Who is notorious for taking two episodes worth of story and stretching it out to four and this is no different. There was some fun comedy from Paris who got in a few groaner one-liners, but the earnest delivery and dry British comedy won me over when he was on screen.
Mostly, though, “The Myth Makers” is a decent historical episode, slow in far too many places, and characters making illogical decisions as the story demands it.
This serial is also notable for being the final appearance of Vikki who leaves to be with a man she only just met. I know that it was a simpler time, but come on…
My opinion of this serial would probably be stronger had the episodes survived or an animated alternative were produced, for it is serials like these that languish the most by being lost. As it is, this was not a great outing.
Jason Gaston 