Production Code U
First Transmitted:
Cast Crew
The Greek army is besieging the ancient walled city of Troy and has been for The war began when Helen of Troy abandoned her husband Menelaus for the Trojan Prince Paris, son of King Priam. Menelaus’ brother, Agamemnon commands the Greek army that surrounds Troy and has besieged it for a decade, seeking to increase his power through war on the basis on this adulterous liaison. On the plains outside Troy the Greek warrior Achilles slays the Trojan Hector, another son of Priam, when the arrival of the TARDIS disturbs Hector’s concentration. When the Doctor emerges from within, Achilles takes him to be the god Zeus disguised as an old beggar and insists he accompany him to the Greek encampment. En route they encounter the sailor warrior Odysseus, who travels with them to the Greek camp. When they arrive there Agamemnon insists the Doctor help him against the Trojans and will not let him depart until his aid is forthcoming. Odysseus is more sceptical, disbelieving Achilles and branding the Doctor a Trojan spy. The Doctor’s companions Vicki and Steven have watched him being led away. She still has an injured ankle from a previous adventure in Galaxy Four, so Steven ventures out alone to try and help the Doctor. He is spotted heading for the Trojan camp by Cyclops, a mute servant of Odysseus, who reports this to his master. Odysseus soon catches Steven and takes him too to the Greek camp, where the two prisoners must pretend they do not know each other in order to maintain a deception. The Doctor eventually persuades the Greeks to spare Steven until the next morning when he, Zeus himself, will strike down the spy with a heavenly thunderbolt. Moments later Cyclops returns to the Greek camp and through sign language communicates that Zeus’ temple has disappeared from the plains of Troy.
The next morning the Doctor and Steven travel with the Greeks to the plains and discover the TARDIS has indeed disappeared. He also confesses that he and Steven are indeed friends and not gods. In response Odysseus decides to let them live, but asks that their powers are used to destroy the Greeks within two days or they will be killed. Steven privately suggests to the Doctor that they use the Trojan Horse of myth, but the Doctor is reluctant. The TARDIS has been taken within the walled city of Troy and presented to King Priam by his son Paris as a prize, but Priam is unimpressed and more interested in getting revenge for the death of his son Hector. The blue box is denounced by Priam’s daughter, the prophetess Cassandra, as dangerous: she has dreamt that the Greeks will leave a gift on the plain which will contain soldiers to attack the Trojans. She demands it is burnt and a pyre is constructed around it, but before it can be set alight Vicki emerges from within the TARDIS and this is taken as a sign from the gods. The King and Paris are enchanted by her, dressed as she is in a wonderful gown, and the King renames her Cressida and makes her a favourite at court. This enrages Cassandra, who believes her to be a rival prophet. Priam sends Paris once more out on to the plains to avenge Hector. He calls for his rival Achilles to present himself and Steven manages to persuade the Greeks to send him in Greek armour instead, hoping he can get himself injured and then taken prisoner to Troy to search for Vicki. Adopting the name Diomede, he engages Achilles in battle and his ruse works when Paris decides to take him as a prisoner back to the city. When he arrives Vicki greets him with his real name and this is taken by Cassandra as a sign they are both spies. She calls for soldiers to kill them both.
Paris intervenes to save Steven and Vicki, prompting Priam to ask Vicki to foretell how the war might be ended soon, as he is tired of conflict. Unless she helps him end the war, however, he warns she will die the following day. Steven and Vicki are taken to the cells to prompt her into prophecy. Whilst there Steven tells Vicki that the Doctor has a similar timescale to win the war for the Greeks. Cyclops appears near Steven’s cell and is given a message for the Doctor, asking him to avoid an attack for two days so that they are not killed for failing Troy. The next visitor to the cells is Priam’s youngest son, Troilus, who has formed a romantic attachment to “Cressida”. She is equally attracted to him, and seems successful in persuading him to try to get them released. When Troilus departs it seems that Vicki has indeed fallen for him, contemplating even staying in this time period indefinitely. Elsewhere Cyclops is slain before he can pass on his message. The Doctor has now come under such pressure to help the Greeks he eventually proposes a wooden horse to Odysseus. The construction will be left on the plains outside Troy and filled with Greeks, who hope the horse will be taken within the city, allowing them to sneak out and attack the population. Agamemnon approves the plan, but it is also decided the Doctor will be placed inside the horse for its fateful journey. The Greeks build the horse during the night and the following morning the Doctor and Odysseus join the soldiers inside. Soon the gift is placed on the plains and, when day breaks, it is spotted by the Trojans and dragged with ropes inside their city. The Trojans respond to the seeming disappearance of the Greek army by rejoicing, and Priam has Vicki released in thanks for her supposed good work. Steven, however, is kept in prison on Troilus’ jealousy. When Vicki reaches the court she then hears from Paris that the wooden horse has been found on the plains and is being brought into the city. Priam interprets the Great Horse of Asia as a sign of their victory, brushing aside Cassandra’s worries. The gates of the city are open and the horse is now within.
The Trojans dismiss Cassandra’s prophecies but in the melee Vicki slips away and rescues Steven from the dungeons. They then head for the square, where a vast crowd has assembled to greet the giant wooden horse, and worry about what will happen when the Greeks hidden inside disembark. Cassandra’s handmaiden, Katarina, arrives in the square to find Vicki for her mistress. This prompts Vicki to leave Steven in a hiding place (his escape in Greek armour having now been noticed) while she mingles with the royal party that has just arrived. She then heads off to the palace where she meets Troilus and, aware of the carnage to come, she tries to persuade him to flee with her from the city by telling him Diomede, his rival, is on the plain. He is persuaded to venture outside. Night falls again and under the cover of darkness the Greek navy returns to the Trojan coast while the Doctor, Odysseus and the Greek soldiers depart the horse. The city is soon besieged and the populace are getting butchered. Priam, Paris and the proven Cassandra are soon the prisoners of Odysseus. The two men are slain and Cassandra is kept alive as a prize for Agamemnon himself. She is taken away in bondage, prophesying death for Odysseus and his people. Out on the plain Troilus finds Achilles and, staggered that the Greek army is back again, engages Achilles and slays him, though he is wounded in the process. The Doctor finds Vicki in the carnage and they hide in the TARDIS while Katarina, who has been trailing Vicki, obliges the Doctor by searching for Steven. She finds him in battle with a Trojan soldier and he is badly wounded, but she helps him return to the Doctor’s blue temple. When Katarina and Steven reach it, both the Doctor and Vicki seem very tense. Odysseus arrives and the Doctor takes the opportunity to dematerialise the TARDIS with Steven and Katarina on board. Vicki, however, has slipped away with his blessing. She journeys on to the plains where she finds Troilus and they declare their love. Moments later Troilus’ cousin Aeneas arrives with reinforcements and helps them escape the area. Aboard the TARDIS, the Doctor explains Vicki has departed with his blessing. He is very concerned that Steven’s wound is now infected and the situation is getting worse. Katarina believes they have already died and are now en route to the afterlife. The Doctor knows they need to secure the right medication to save Steven and hopes their next landing will provide it.
There was one big problem with a story based on Greek mythology. By the mid 1960s very few children were being taught Greek mythology, even in the grammar schools. The scriptwriters showed up a certain lack of understanding of the cultural capital of the average viewer. Many of the 'jokes' played with the traditional story, such as that Achilles killed Troilus not the other way around, were lost on the Saturday night viewer. The question of the 'education' element in the series was never so obvious as in this story. Should they aim to stretch the knowledge of the viewer with high brow cultural references and risk losing them by being TOO highbrow or should they 'dumb down' to the educational level of the 'average' viewer. What, in any case WAS the average viewer? Audience research was already a sophisticated science, and they had some idea that the average audience was upper working class/lower middle class and that families watched together. But neither adults nor children seemed wholly impressed by the myth-makers. Most seemed puzzled that the episode from the previous week did not run onto a Dalek story. Those who did have some understanding of the mythology thought the scriptwriters were debunking classical literature with too much comedy woven into the dialogue. Although a few audience respondents thought it made a change to base a story in history with only human characters the majority seemed to want to return to space and pure science fiction. The original idea of education mixed with science fiction was being eroded.
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