Doctor Who: The Myth Makers (1985) - Plot & Excerpts
A thoroughly silly First Doctor adventure, one of his "history" stories. This time he materializes on the plains outside of Troy and contributes in a minor way to the death of Hector at the hand of god-fearing Achilles, who is convinced that the Doctor is Zeus. Gotta love stories of mistaken identity and circumstances where the Doctor turns out to have played a part in making history (or myth, in the case of The Iliad).The story actually differs significantly from the episode of the show as it aired on TV, but if you don't have access to the show -- and let's be honest, few people do at present because it was a First Doctor one and I'm not sure how much of it is still extant -- you won't notice. The gimmick here is that Homer, the creator of the Iliad, is our faithful narrator and actually had a hand in events himself. He's an amusing narrator and very observant, but some of his turns of phrase were a bit anachronistic in my mind, like when he talks about Odysseus caulking the bilges on his ship, or the Tardis bouncing around N-dimensional space (that was particularly odd). But I did like his descriptions of the stench of the Greek camp (it was the olden days and they didn't have soap, so yeah, B.O. and rotting animals/dead soldiers would be a problem) and his very good pacing. It was also neat how the author wrote the narration to allow for only one guy seeing the events unfold (although later on the poor guy didn't literally see anything...), with presumably either the Doctor filling in the blanks later with regard to names, or Homer himself making a few key deductions after the fact.And I must say Vicki was a somewhat useless companion at points, or at least in this story she was. Poor Steven was a bit better, but still. Perhaps I need to see them in more stories to appreciate their personalities, but for a first outing it was rather bland on the companion front.As for the actual historical/mythological characters, Odysseus was a hoot, all cunning and violent, and Prince Paris seemed very much a Wodehouse kind of upper-class twit. Priam also had a few good lines, like when Paris came in with the Tardis, which he captured -- Paris has a fanfare and crowd cheering him on, and Priam comes out going "What the hell's all this racket?!" Priam is a character to watch, for sure, and Cassandra also gets some good repartee with her brother Paris. And there was some excellent rationalization for how Homer became blind. Poor guy.Overall, this is a very good story if you're in the mood for some light reading and like Dr Who and the Trojan War, and can forgive a few anachronisms in the narration.
The great story of the Trojan war, as told by Homer himself. He put most of the interesting stuff down to Zeus and the Olympians, but of course, it was all the first Doctor, Vicki and Steven.The story is told in a rather quirky way with Homer narrating. He speaks with a few strange "modern" phrases which made me think he must have gone travelling with the Doctor himself at some stage, but there's no indication of that by the end of the story. The thing that really bothered me about this story, though, is that usually, the Doctor is in the business of attempting to stop people from dying or being oppressed. In this case, he basically helps the Greeks to raze Troy to the ground. I don't know the first Doctor that well, but I feel it's not something he would have done. In any case, it was an entertaining way to spend an afternoon. Reading the book, that is, Not sacking and pillaging Troy.
What do You think about Doctor Who: The Myth Makers (1985)?
Perhaps the best Doctor Who novelization. It's a humorous account of the last few days of the Trojan War, told from an anachronistic Homer's eyewitness (pun intended) point of view. Slightly as if Douglas Adams had written for the First Doctor. Great humorous characterizations of Odysseus, Paris, and Achilles. And, of course, who really came up with the idea for the Horse. This is the first novelization I had ever tried reading when I was a kid. Didn't get far with it then, but appreciate the hell out of it now. It might seem it at first, but this isn't a dull historical story, it's a Doctor Who story that could work even in the modern series.
—Sean LeBeau
Some may reject Doctor Who as comedy, but to those critics I remind them that Doctor Who has never shied away from ANY genre. In their fearlessness to touch on anything and everything... they have never failed to commit to the genre they are testing. In this earnest effort, I am always willing to travel with the whims of the different authors who have written for Doctor Who. Donald Cotton, here, did a conceptual story that was successfully interesting, thematic and FUNNY. All told from the perspective of Homer, The Myth Makers brings the Doctor into the center of the story "The Illiad". Again and again, I giggled at the story's framing and one-liners. I recommend this novel because it is both concise and successfully accomplishes its goals. This is truly a dream-come-true kind of Time Travel story that can only be done best within the Who universe.
—Shane Mackenzie
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1026018.html?#cutid1[return][return]Once again, Cotton produces a memorable Who novel through a first person narrative: this time he has the poet Homer telling the story of how he witnessed the Doctor and friends interfering with the outcome of the siege of Troy. Homer didn't appear at all in the story as broadcast (though Cotton has him absorb the silent role of the Cyclops played by Tutte Lemkow); constricting the whole narrative to a single viewpoint character does create some difficulties in telling the story, but basically it is a really good story anyway, and while it's not Cotton at the utter peak of his form, it is surely one of the top ten novelisations. Cotton has taken the opportunity to restore as chapter titles some of the punning episode titles scrapped by the production team (eg "Doctor in the Horse").
—Nicholas Whyte
