N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Whenever I think of the story of the Trojan horse, I’m reminded of Red Dwarf and Dave Lister’s judgment on what we should take from it: that it shouldn’t be “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”; that it should be “Beware of Trojans, they’re complete smegheads.” Homeric it might not be, but as a statement on the gullibility of the Trojans I’ve always thought it pretty accurate.
“That Helen thing was just a misunderstanding.”
Paris, Small Prophet, Quick Return
Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida is often classed as one of the Bard’s “problem plays”, being neither a tragedy nor a history, and in its own way The Myth Makers might fall into Doctor Who‘s equivalent category, being part-history, part comedy – a “problem serial”, to coin a phrase.
It starts out with the Greeks trying to out-roar each other’s dialogue in Temple of Secrets, then becomes rather witty in Small Prophet, Quick Return, there’s Vicki and Troilus’s burgeoning love story in Death of a Spy, but then it settles down somewhat as it heads towards its inevitable (to us at least) and bloody conclusion.
With the historical basis for the Trojan war itself being a subject of debate, I’m tempted to believe our protagonists have travelled sideways to some alternative meta-universe, where the Greek myths we all know and love are for real. (It won’t be the last time this happens with Doctor Who and Greek mythology, so I might stick with this argument in weeks and months to come.)
This might explain why the Doctor doesn’t seem too concerned with his non-interference rule this time around – he quite wittingly gives the Trojans the idea for the horse (albeit after a bit hemming and hawing) – although perhaps not why he was so unconcerned about leaving Vicki.
Indeed, the serial’s conclusion seems more open-ended than usual, with Steven badly injured, Vicki left behind in some uncertainty (for our travellers if not for us, despite the Doctor’s apparent confidence that she will be OK) to lead an alternative mythical reality as Cressida and the beginnings of a potentially complex relationship for the Doctor with handmaiden Katarina – who regards him as a god, and who comes with Cassandra-like prescience of her own doom.
And that cannot end well, can it?
