4 out of 5

Directed by: Michael Leeston-Smith

A reconstructed DW, and a historical entry?  Should be enough to make you snooze through it.  And yet… despite some of the most boring reconstruction work yet (rare changes in stills, full text screens filling in a lot of action), ‘The Myth Makers’ ends up being rather grabbing.  There’s a good dose of humor but it doesn’t outweigh the plot, the music keeps the action appropriately lighthearted but still works for battle sequences (that I wish we could’ve seen), and for the most part, once the setup is accomplished, the DW crew tries to just be honest with everyone about being time travelers… and it doesn’t help matters much.  So while the initial “let me just get out and explore” gag is used again to separate everyone, the followup makes it acceptable.  Donald Cotton’s script uses history as a springboard (similar to the equally enjoyable Aztecs) instead of a lecture, making recognizable names and events into important characters and actual aspects of the plot – even taking the time travel taboo step of working the Doctor’s and companion’s decisions into history, hence the sensible title ‘Myth Makers.’  It also helps that we’re dealing with a recognizable, and generally “fun” Homeric Greek tale: The Trojan Horse.

The actress playing Cassandra (a Trojan prophetess), Frances White, is horribly overwrought, her garbled cries of ‘traitor’ against Vicki rather comical, but the rest of the principles – playing King Priam, Paris, Achilles, Hector, and Odysseus – all come across as unique voices.  If footage is ever recovered, hopefully performances match the audio (or not, in Cassandra’s case).

It’s sad to see Vicki go at the end of this serial, and her replacement feels rather rushed in, but it’s another interesting way that Cotton was able to blend DW fiction with the time period.  Overall, ‘The Myth Makers’ is another distraction, where we’re inadvertently cut off from the TARDIS and now must spend X episodes trying to return, but it’s prime entertainment, well acted and well scripted.  This was producer John Wiles first production… and it SOUNDS like there was a lot of work to do.  Maybe one day we’ll get to see.