| Chapter The 209th, has two for the price of one, covering the newly animated Galaxy 4 as well as the Doctor and friends' subsequent Trojan trip. |
Plot:
[The plot of Galaxy 4, as well as lots of other details about the story and my reaction to it as an audio / reconstruction is already available in the blog post on the story from last year. For the write up of the BFI event, and the animated version, scroll down to the Deeper Thoughts section below.] Immediately following their adventure on an exploding planet near but possibly not in Galaxy 4, the Doctor, Steven and Vicki arrive outside the besieged walls of the city of Troy around 1184 BC. The Doctor, followed shortly by Steven, ventures out; both end up captured by the Greeks and taken to their camp meeting Achilles, Odysseus, Menelaus and Agamemnon. Meanwhile, the TARDIS is found by the Trojans and - with Vicki inside - taken in to Troy where she meets Priam, Paris and Cassandra. The last of these believes Vicki to be a spy or a witch or both, but Vicki is able to charm Priam for a while. He doesn't like the name Vicki, so dubs her Cressida. As Vicki has taken a shine to another Trojan, the young Troilus, that renaming is pretty handy in a dramatic irony type of way (dramatic irony in an Ancient Greek Tragedy, whatever next?!).
Odysseus puts the Doctor to work on a plan to break the siege; Steven disguises himself as a Greek soldier and engineers a situation where Paris can capture him and bring him into Troy. His plan is to rescue Vicki, but unfortunately he just ends up getting both of them imprisoned. Meanwhile, the Doctor - after trying to avoid the inevitable for a while - gives the Greeks the idea for the Trojan Horse. When the Greeks appear to have fled the field, the Trojans - apart from Cassandra - put this down to Vicki / Cressida bringing them good luck and she is released (and she then secretly frees Steven). Paris brings a giant wooden horse - in which Odysseus and the Doctor, as well as many Greek soldiers, are hiding - into the city. The Greeks sneak out, open the gates and let the rest of their army in. Troy is sacked and almost all the Trojans massacred. Steven gets injured, but escapes in the TARDIS with the Doctor and one of Cassandra's handmaidens Katarina. Vicki decides to stay behind with a similarly injured Troilus.
Context:
Sunday 7th November 2021 was a crisp, bright autumn day, and I was travelling by train to London for the BFI Southbank screening of the animated Galaxy 4 (see Deeper Thoughts section below). I had anticipated that the event and the animation itself would be worth blogging about, but had already covered Galaxy 4 last year; so, I overrode the random selection of stories and selected this neighbouring story to blog next, so that I could cover both here. Despite the one episode in between where the action cuts away, if you will, to some Dalek shenanigans, The Myth Makers follows on directly from the Drahvin / Rill dust-up for our heroes (Vicki's ankle, twisted at the end of Galaxy 4 is still injured when the TARDIS lands outside Troy). I listened to the first couple of episodes of the BBC audio version of The Myth Makers, with narration by Peter Purves, on my journey up. The trains were a bit disrupted by engineering works that day, though, so I saved my phone's battery on my way home, and didn't finish the story that day. The following Monday saw me back at the day job until the afternoon, then making the kids their tea, then watching the latest episode of Flux that I'd missed while at the event. After that, I was too knackered to listen to any more of The Myth Makers, and went to bed. I finished my listen on the Tuesday. It would be good for the BFI events to return to Saturdays, so exhausted oldsters like me can get a day to recover from the excitement!
First Time Round:
I was a somewhat sickly child, and lazy. There were four different times that I had a multiple night stay in the children's ward of a local hospital, as my asthma was very bad. But, as I could never maintain the keeping of a diary for more than a few weeks during childhood, I have scant detail of when they exactly were. I have a clear memory, though, of one stay (I think in Southlands Hospital in Shoreham-by-Sea) having the Target novelisation of this story to read, which cheered me up no end. The novel differs from the televised story quite a bit, as it features Homer - the poet, not the Simpson - getting involved in the action, and is framed as his retelling of the events sometime afterwards. It's my favourite Target book, wittier and more interesting than the TV version, with a striking cover illustration by Andrew Skilleter. This must have been after September 1985 when the book was first published. I went into hospital after an asthma attack a few months later in December of 1985 (see First Time Round section of the Night Terrors blog post earlier this year for details), and I'm almost 100% sure that wasn't the stay where I read The Myth Makers - I was in a Chichester hospital that time, and was rushed there in an ambulance; I didn't have the book with me, nor do I remember asking anyone to bring it for the couple of days I was kept in. I don't think I went into hospital twice in quick succession in the autumn / winter of 85 either. As such, I suspect that I read it sometime in 1986 when ill again on a different occasion. This would fit with the normal lag time after a book was published before I could obtain it. I didn't have a huge amount of pocket money, and access to the books in shops immediately after their release was not a given, as distribution could be erratic. Many years later, I would have listened to the audio version (probably very soon after its release in January 2001 - distribution and my finances being much better by then), but the prose version is the default in my heart.
Reaction:
In a clip that went viral recently of UK quiz show Tipping Point, two contestants both answer a question about what Homer described in his epic poems as "the food of the gods" with the answer "Donuts". The social media reaction to the clip in some quarters felt to me to be a bit sneering and downward-punching; if one watches the longer clip, the male contestant is read the question again and realises that he jumped to the wrong conclusion in the heat of the moment, with the stress of being on a national TV show. It does demonstrate, though, that the myths and legends of the Ancient Greeks are not necessarily leaping to the forefront of people's imaginations these days. I wasn't alive to know whether that was different in 1965, but my feeling is that these things had a bit more currency then, perhaps, but not much more than now. Doctor Who in the 20th century never had another full story set as far back in history as The Myth Makers (it had dabbled with pre-history in its first story, and had very brief interludes set in ancient Egypt and Atlantis later on, but that was about it). In the 21st century too, the show has shied away, with only a trio of visits to ancient Rome or its empire outposts, and these all set in years Anno Domini, more than 1000 years after the events of The Myth Makers. The reason is probably the obvious one: how is anyone watching to identify with these characters? One approach would be to play it straight and depict the characters as per the legend; this would risk being a bit po-faced. The other option is to do what The Myth Makers does, in the same way as a later historical comedy Blackadder was to do, and depict the characters with modern manners and mores.
It's a fun idea on paper, and individual character moments amuse, like the bored Menelaus who doesn't particularly want Helen back, or the cowardly Paris always trying to evade any danger. Every performance is on the large side, though. The initial scenes are a hell of a jolt as one hears the guest characters start speaking. It is very stagey, and in the case of some characters (e.g. Ivor Salter as Odysseus) declamatory to the point of shouting out each line. This was clearly a stylistic choice, but the level of artifice is so high that it detracts from the intent to humanise / modernise these age old characters. If one reimagines Blackadder as a very loud panto, you get close to the tone of The Myth Makers. This is doubly a problem when it comes to the climax of the story when everyone starts getting killed. Am I supposed to care or not when many of the characters I've been smiling about (I don't think the script is going for laugh out loud funny) are suddenly being massacred? Am I supposed to be shocked when characters I've been watching lark about for three episodes are suddenly plunging swords into people? Or it could just be a theatrical flourish to round off the action: la commedia e finita! The almost Brechtian alienation of the staging and characterisation, and the tonal shift between lighter and darker material brings to mind some kind of experimental 1960s theatre production. This might not be a coincidence.
Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida is similarly known for tonal shifts, and there are little nods to that play (biggest amongst them that Troilus and Cressida appear nowhere in the works of Homer, but also smaller things like Troilus being jealous of Cressida's behaviour with Diomedes / Steven) in writer Donald Cotton's script. Was this then not a modern take on Homer at all, but a televisual pastiche of the Bard's Trojan play instead? This would almost make it a pastiche of a pastiche, so it is not surprising that it keeps one at a distance as one listens. Of course, I am making these judgements only based on the soundtrack. It's possible that with the visuals the piece would work differently, have more subtleties when one can see the actors' expressions and movements. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to be sure, as The Myth Makers is one of the missing Doctor Who stories with very little evidence to help us imagine what it would look like: there are no-off screen photos, not many production stills, and the fragment of cine footage taken by a fan that exists just shows Vicki in a nice frock, nothing more. There is a photo of the model of the Trojan horse, and it is a fine design - perhaps all the production design was up to this standard, and perhaps that made a big difference. Perhaps.
The regulars don't sparkle as much in this story as they did in The Time Meddler, or even Galaxy 4. Quite a lot of the running time they are kept apart from one another; there's a nice sequence when Vicki is in a cell with Steven, but that's it. The many larger-than-life characters of the story dominate at the expense of the two companion regulars, with only William Hartnell given enough to do to stand out. This is particularly tough on Maureen O' Brien as Vicki as this is her swansong: the sequences where she's using her wiles to get the better of the Trojan men are great, but it's not the sort of big ending plot that an actor could relish. There's the romance with Troilus of course, but it feels so perfunctory: they only share a half a dozen short scenes together. After Verity Lambert left as producer, and John Wiles had a brief tenure in that role (The Myth Makers is his first credited story as producer) before also handing over to someone else, the series entered an era of near constant chopping and changing of the regular cast to fit the views of the person in charge and/or capture some elusive chemistry. Some actors' exits are handled better than others. Vicki's isn't all off-screen like later companion Dodo's, but she still doesn't get to say a proper farewell to the Doctor and Steven, and that is a great shame.
Connectivity:
Both The Myth Makers and Time Heist see the Doctor putting together a plan to break into a seemingly impregnable area; in both instances, there's someone within that place who needs rescuing; also, there are characters in both stories with psychic abilities (unless Cassandra is just making lucky guesses).
Deeper Thoughts:
Rills' Planetary Survey Results: BFI Southbank Galaxy 4 screening and Peter Purves Q&A, 7th November 2021. Justin Johnson of the BFI took to the stage at the start of the event and set the usual tone right up front saying "Those of you who have been to these events before will have noticed that I've got no Dick today". The Dick in question was Dick Fiddy, Johnson's usual co-host, who was unwell. Get well soon Dick. The opening trivia quiz with prizes still can't be reintroduced to these events because of Covid restrictions, but there were further relaxations compared to recent screenings, with audience Q&A allowed again. Instead of a roaming mic, audience members queued by a couple of static audience mics near the stage to ask the guest of honour, Steven Taylor actor Peter Purves, questions (but more on that in a bit). Johnson took the opportunity to pay a brief tribute to Doctor Who writer Bob Baker, who recently passed away, and to jokingly apologise for the BFI's and Blu-ray range exec Russel Minton's lack of precognition powers, failing to anticipate three months ago when it was booked in that the next Doctor Who event (a showing of City of Death to tie in with the Season 17 Blu-ray box set) would clash with the finale of the latest Jodie Whittaker story Flux on the TV. They've obviously had some complaints. Then, the lights went down, and a short filmed introduction by Maureen O' Brien, who couldn't be with us in person, was shown before the animated story started. The pattern was the usual one: the first two episodes were shown, then there was a panel of people interviewed related to the animation, then the final two episodes, followed by the main Q&A.
The animation is created by the same team that did Fury from the Deep last year (which was reviewed in the Deeper Thoughts section of the Galaxy 4 blog post coincidentally). The character designs and backgrounds used are in a similar style to Fury from the Deep, a little more stylised, with slightly cleaner visuals, less lines and shading, compared to the approach of the team that animated Evil of the Daleks earlier this year. The difference with Galaxy 4 compared to Fury - which Gary Russell confirmed later when speaking on the panel was a deliberate choice - is that the Patrick Troughton story was gloomier with overcast skies and cold British sea, whereas Galaxy 4's palette is colourful and bright. It really works. The surface of the planet where most of the action takes place is a vibrant red-orange (based loosely on a area of the Australian outback we were told later), the Rill's ship is a vast pop-art labyrinth, the rusted Drahvin ship a nice contrast. There are some beautiful battle scenes set in space too (some - or maybe all? - of which have been added and weren't in the original script). The characters are uniformly good: the Chumblies seem to have been made for animation, and for once economy serves the narrative, as drawing the cloned Drahvin drones to an identical template is better than the original production where they were portrayed by various actors of different heights. Touches like replacing the sneakers that they wear with long boots are subtle but add up with the other improvements to create a visual feast.
As always when watching with a big audience, the comedy comes more to the fore; this is doubly so with an animation of a missing story where previously we've been robbed of the body language and facial expressions that sell the humour. Galaxy 4 also got some laughs that may not have been intended to be there: Steven's lascivious appreciation on first spotting the Drahvins, for example, and some fluffed lines by William Hartnell (but animated Billy fluffs are the cutest Billy fluffs). The sad little movement and noise of an attacked Chumblie made the whole room go "Awwww!". The destruction of the planet at the end is a great sequence too, and it also got a reaction from the BFI crowd. It's not as epic a visualisation as the work done for The Evil of the Daleks, but that's appropriate to the story. When I reviewed it as a recon last year, I thought that Galaxy 4 was quite a small scale narrative for a season opener; Gary Russell was more frank, describing the story as "cheap". And though the new visuals do a great job opening it out, they can't solve that problem completely. The other main issue with the story is that there just isn't enough plot to fill the running time. Again, the animation improves things greatly, making some moments much more entertaining to watch, but it can't work miracles. The cut-down recon of Galaxy 4 that was an extra on a DVD excised loads of material, but the story remained coherent. Fan sacrilege, I know, but I'd love to see a cut down version of the animated story as it would zip along and look fantastic. There's no such version provided as an extra on the imminent disc release of the story, I'm sure, but from what we heard at the BFI, it still sounds like a great package, and on the strength of this screening I'd recommend everyone to buy it.
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| (L to R) Ayres, Morris, Russell, Johnson |
The panel held in the middle of the screening of the episodes saw Mark Ayres (Audio Restoration), Ioan Morris (Concept Design) and Gary Russell (Executive Production) take to the stage. Another relaxing of the restrictions previously seen at recent screenings is that all the panellists were allowed to sit down this time. Once settled, there was a lot of information and a lot of fun from these three gentlemen. Russell stated that the intention was to give Galaxy 4 a bigger budget than it had originally, and to make an alternative version, rather than an improvement per se. Morris was asked to explain exactly what his role entailed; other than, as he jokingly put it, "doing everything Gary tells me to", he explained that he created the blueprint for the animators to follow. The biggest departure in that blueprint from the original was the Rill's spaceship, which was just a "sheet of polythene" in the original according to Russell, but was now - in Morris's opinion - like the rest of the piece - "lurid in a good way; it really pops now". One maybe surprising inspiration for the look of the animation was Star Trek Original Series episode Spectre of the Gun. Ayres reiterated that the quality of the soundtrack is one of the biggest factors in deciding which stories will be animated, and talked about the young fans in the 1960s that taped the show onto reel-to-reels allowing these stories to survive in some form after the BBC junked the videos and films.
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| Ayres with the home audio tape of Galaxy 4 |
Galaxy 4 is rare in that its best surviving audio copy is not the late Graham Strong's (Strong wired his TV's audio output direct into the tape machine so got a very clean sound compared to those that set up a microphone by the TV's speaker). The recording used to accompany the animation was made by David Holman, and he was in the audience. Ayres encouraged him to stand up, and he got a big, warm round of applause from the assembled throng, with Morris adding "Thanks for getting me a job, David". Even better than that, Ayres had - in a plastic shopping bag he brought on to the stage to everyone's bemusement - the original tape with him. He held it up for all to see. Russell confirmed that he sees the soundtrack as sacrosanct and does not want any part of it to be excised in the animated version, which creates a challenge - and some detective work - to find appropriate visuals to accompany every second. Some of the detective work was helped by Peter Purves, who has a great memory for the details of so long ago, down to the colour of the costumes. The info was coming thick and fast in the conversation, and something was given away that happened in the final part of the animated version, which I think - and the people on the panel who didn't talk about it also seemed to think - is best left as a little surprise, so I won't mention it here, but you will see if you get yourself a copy of the Blu-ray.
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| (L to R) Purves, Johnson |
Purves talked about Galaxy 4 director Derek Martinus, coincidentally the same director as the last story to be animated The Evil of the Daleks. (As an aside, an amazing 14 episodes of lost Martinus-directed Doctor Who have now been animated; as well as those two full stories that includes odd episodes of The Tenth Planet and The Ice Warriors for DVD.) Galaxy 4 was Martinus's first ever directing gig, and according to Purves he hadn't quite got the hang of it. During episode one, recording had to have an unscheduled stop - almost unheard of at the time - as the cables of the cameras and sound equipment had got tangled. A helpful crew member explained to Martinus that the best way to avoid this was to make a cardboard model of the studio and use string for the cables, which he did for the second episode. When that next episode was recorded, everything ground to a halt again as the cables of the cameras and sound equipment had got tangled again. Purves, as he told it, asked his director how it had gone wrong once more when he'd planned everything on the cardboard model, and Martinus replied "Well, you see, the strings kept getting tangled up...". Purves added that he liked Martinus a lot and later employed him as a director when he had his own production company, as he did Chris Barry, who directed his final Doctor Who story The Savages.
Another person that Purves was keen to talk up was William Hartnell, who he said had taught him so much about screen acting. "Without him," he said, gesturing around NFT1, "There'd be none of this", meaning Doctor Who's longevity leading up to things like the Galaxy 4 animation and the day's event. This didn't mean that it was always easy working with Bill, who "fluffed his way through", and who often reduced the work to "Standing around waiting for Bill to get back on script". Purves told what I imagine was a well worn tale, though it was new to me, of Francis de Wolff as Agamemnon in The Myth Makers, a bit frustrated with the standing around and waiting for Bill, who when he had the line to the Doctor "Come on in and have a ham bone", actually said "Come on in, ham, and have a bone". That led to a call of "Cut!" and a retake, but Bill's later fluff "I am not a dog... I am not a God" in the same story stayed in. (It's hard to be sure on the soundtrack, but I think I disagree with Purves here and that the actual words Hartnell says are "I'm not a Doc, I am not a God" which makes perfect sense as a reply to Katarina's line in that moment.) Talking of the Trojan adventure, it was one of the stories that Purves would like to see animated; his first choice would be The Massacre (though he'd rather they actually found it). He talked about his happiness in seeing the recovered episode three of Galaxy 4 when it turned up in 2011, "Because I'm so good in it". He talked of his joy reprising the role of Steven for Big Finish. You may already have noticed that he covered a lot of material; he's such a pro. And afterwards, he signed autographs. I didn't have time or space here to squeeze in everything he covered in an entertaining session that was definitely value for money (as I think will be the Galaxy 4 release itself).
In Summary:
The Myth Makers is like an experimental 1960s theatre production of Troilus and Cressida spliced with Blackadder spliced with a Panto. Galaxy 4's animation is well worth your time and money, but the source material can only be spruced up so much when the story is two episodes too long!).
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