089 The Myth Makers Episode 3: Death of a Spy

EPISODE: The Myth Makers Episode 3: Death of a Spy
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 089
STORY NUMBER: 020
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 30 October 1965
WRITER: Donald Cotton
DIRECTOR: Michael Leeston
SCRIPT EDITOR: Donald Tosh
PRODUCER: John Wiles
RATINGS: 8.7 million viewers
FORMAT: CD: Doctor Who: The Lost TV Episodes Collection: No. 2 - 1965-1966

"Woe to the House of Priam! Woe to the Trojans!" "I'm afraid you're a bit late to say 'whoa' to the horse. I've just given instructions to have it brought into the city!"

Paris saves Steven & Vicki and sends them to the cells with an ultimatum that Vicki produce a prophecy to end the war. Cyclops visits them and they use him to send a message to the Doctor, but he's slain by the guards at the city gate. Paris' younger brother Troilus visits them and is attracted to Vicki. The Doctor proposes a variety of madcap schemes to the Greeks to get into Troy before in desperation suggesting the Wooden Horse, which he believes is an invention of Homer. The Greeks love the idea. A 40ft Horse, the image of the Horse of Asia, will be treasured by the equine loving Trojans. Inside will be Odysseus, his warriors and the unwilling Doctor. Achilles will hide with the majority of the Greek forces while a small number will create a feint by sailing the Greeks ships away to return after Troy is taken. The next morning the Trojans are delighted at the Greek's disappearance and drag the horse into the city. Cassandra is not impressed believing the horse to be the doom of Troy she saw in a dream:

PRIAM:Oh, Paris! Have the Greeks really gone?
PARIS: Every last one of them, or so it seems.
PRIAM: There you are, Cassandra. I told you so. Oh, do for goodness sake, smile.
PARIS: But, more important, I think I've just found the Great Horse of Asia.
PRIAM: You've done what?
PARIS: Something uncommonly like it, anyway.
PRIAM: What on earth are you talking about?
PARIS: The Great Horse of Asia. Standing all by itself in the middle of the plain, about forty foot high and made of wood.
PRIAM: Whereabouts in the middle of the plain?
PARIS: Near the Grecian line. Look. You can just see it from here.
PRIAM: Great heavens, I do believe you're right. It is the Great Horse of Asia.
CASSANDRA: It's an omen. An omen of disaster.
VICKI: It is the Trojan Horse. But I thought you
TROILUS: What was that?
CASSANDRA: Yes, ask her! Go on, ask her! She knows what it is. It's our doom! It's the death of Troy, brought upon us by that cursed witch!
PARIS: Now understand me, Cassandra. I will not have one word said against that horse.
TROILUS: And neither will I against Cressida.
CASSANDRA: Will you not? Then woe to the House of Priam! Woe to the Trojans!
PARIS: I'm afraid you're a bit late to say 'whoa' to the horse. I've just given instructions to have it brought into the city.

A little light humour in the episode with the budding romance and the Doctor's scheme the only real plot movements. I wonder if any thought was given to hiding the Greeks in the Tardis and it being dragged into the city (as per the start of episode 2) with Homer inventing the horse story to cover up the truth that nobody could believe?

The Cyclops, the spy whose death in the episode title, is a third and final Doctor Who role for Tutte Lemkow who was Kuiji in the episodes 5 to 7 of Marco Polo: Rider from Shang-Tu, Mighty Kublai Khan & Assassin at Peking as well as Ibrahim in The Crusade Episode 4: The Warlords. He would later go on to play the Fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof

This episode introduces us to Troilus, played by James Lynn. His budding romance with "Cressida"/Vicky is one of the major plots in the latter half of the story so you wonder if it might have been an idea to introduce him sooner! Troilus and Cressida's mythical romance has been turned into a book and features competition for Cressida's affections in the form of Diomedes, the alias adopted by Steven!

Peter Day, one of the extras playing a Trojan Soldier, has appearances in The Massacre, The War Machines and Quatermass and the Pit to his just like several of the extras we saw in the first two episodes. Another Trojan Soldier is Steve Pokol who was a Thal in The Daleks 7: The Rescue and is also in the War Machines as well as the War Games. The War Machines is also on the CV of a third Trojan Soldier, Donald Symons. One new Greek Soldier is Norton Clarke who returns in The Massacre 3: The Priest of Death as a Secretary and Doctor Who and the Silurians: Episode 1 (1970) as a Technician while the other, also yet again in the War Machines, is Mike Reid making an early television appearance he'll be back for the Massacre, another story that keeps cropping up on the CV of extras in this tale, before becoming famous as a comedian, Runaround presenter and Frank Butcher in EastEnders.