I am deep into recon territory now. It looks to me like it will be nine more days before I watch another non-reconstructed episode, and fully nineteen of the next 24 stories I watch will be either fully or partially reconstructed. As for today's story, it was the first half of The Myth Makers. We did the Romans in the second season, so it's only fitting that we should do the Greeks in the third. More specifically, the story is centered on the climax of the ten-year siege of Troy. It does help, when watching the story, to be familiar with The Iliad, since all of the major characters are there and some are played against type for irony. But it is another pure historical, and those are my favorite type of First Doctor stories.

Let's talk about that.

Temple of Secrets / Small Prophet, Quick Return

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Honestly I am not enjoy writing recaps of these stories, since I am watching/writing on daily basis and can't do a proper job of it. So I am going to start linking to the very excellent TARDIS Data Core for these. In a nutshell, this story takes all of the great Greek characters from the Trojan War and sets them to life. Achilles, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Menelaus, Paris,... they are all there. Clearly, from the writing, it is expected that the children watching the story are already familiar with them, especially when some characters are presented with a twist.

For example, the Cyclops shows up in the story. But instead of a giant one-eyed beast, Cyclops is simply a Trojan spy who lost an eye to some previous battle and who is also mute due to an unfortunate meeting between his tongue and a knife. I grew up loving these characters (although, granted, I was more taken by The Odyssey since that's the one with all the monsters), and it is fun to see them presented here. Odysseus here is played not so much as a hero, but as a rough-and-tumble soldier, which suits him well. Similarly, the scene between Agamemnon and Menelaus is delightful, with the latter clearly being a coward of the first order.

My favorite performance, though, was that of Paris. He is also a coward, yes, but mostly because he is just so dang vain and handsome. He steals every scene he appears in. There comes a point where he is shamed into calling out for Achilles to come face him in battle, and he is astonished when Steven shows up to fight him instead. Doubly astonished, because Steven does a deliberate pratfall to lose the fight, and then asks Paris to take him prisoner and bring him back to Troy. (Steven is on a mission to rescue Vicki, who has wound up within the walls of Troy with the TARDIS.)

As for Vicki, for anyone up on their Greek literature you know exactly where the story is headed for her, when Priam (the king of Troy) declares that the name Vicki is silly and unfitting, and he decides to call her Cressida instead. What are the odds that she is going to meet Priam's youngest son, Troilus, and fall in love? Pretty dang good, I should think.

I presume that the back half of the story tomorrow will prominently feature a giant wooden horse, the fall of Troy, and a heartfelt goodbye. I'm looking forward to it. More so because I am really not looking forward to yet another Dalek story, and a twelve-part one at that. But that's for Monday, and I'll trudge though it then.

STATS:

Doctor(s): First
Companion(s): Vicki, Steven Taylor
Episode(s): Temple of Secrets / Small Prophet, Quick Return
Pratfall(s): One, for old times' sake
Steps Walked: 6,896 today, 305,473 total
Distance Walked:  3.27 miles today, 139.25 miles total
Weight: 292.54 lbs (five day moving average), net change -14.76 lbs