Much like the Thunder Dome, on Doctor Who when one companion leaves another companion must soon come aboard. In these early days, the swap is clearly in service to future stories already written -- teenager Susan leaves, and so teenager Vicki slots right in. Man of Action Ian leaves, and so Man of Action Steven slots right in. Arguably Barbara fails this mold, to which I would say: 1) Barbara was a goddess, and cannot be replaced, and 2) More likely, whatever future scenes had been written for Barbara could have been picked up easily by Vicki, so the same principle still applies. And so, with today's departure of Vicki also comes today's arrival of Katarina. Of course, Katarina won't be around all that long... But that's a conversation for another day (specifically: Wednesday). But today we have Trojan horses and Achilles tendons to discuss.

So let's talk about that.

Death of a Spy / Horse of Destruction

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

There is just so much goodness to be had in this story. There is a delightful scene in which Cressida and Diomedes (a.k.a. Vicki and Steven) have been thrown into neighboring dungeon cells, and Troilus brings food for Vicki but none for Steven. The two young lovebirds flirt with each other endlessly as Vicki eats her delicious meal, while poor Steven has to listen to the whole thing and contemplate the table scraps he may or may not be given later. Of course once Troilus leaves it turns out that Vicki has secretly saved extra food for Steven, because of course she did.

Out in the Greek battle camp, there are a number of scenes in which the Doctor is hoist upon his own petard. He suggests to Odysseus that they build a catapult and a flying machine in order to send soldiers over the wall, and then blanches when Odysseus insists that the Doctor be the first test pilot. The Doctor quickly alters his suggestion, saying they should (tell me if you've heard this one) build a giant wooden horse, and hide a squad of soldiers inside.

Kind of like this, but -- you know -- a horse.

Of course, when the Doctor suggests it (while still privately protesting that it didn't really happen, that the Trojan Horse was invented by Homer), he didn't anticipate that Odysseus would insist that the Doctor be among the men hidden inside. There is just something so enjoyable about seeing the Doctor, who is a waspish prick, be forced to endure the results of his own chicanery.

The climax of the story has a great deal of action that I really wish I could have seen as more than just still images and audio recordings. Of course there is the battle inside the walls of Troy, and then there is the duel between Troilus and Achilles (complete with Achilles stumbling on a stone, injuring the tendon in his ankle). There is Steven himself being seriously injured in the battle of Troy, and being helped into the TARDIS by an unsuspecting Katarina. Most touchingly, there is the reunion between Vicki and Troilus after an emotional goodbye to the Doctor. Just lots and lots of good stuff, and everything that makes the pure historicals of the First Doctor era so enjoyable.

In the end we are left with a wounded Steven, a confused Katarina (who believes herself to have been transported to limbo by Zeus himself), and an emotionally wounded Doctor who has had to say goodbye now to four different traveling companions in rapid succession. Unfortunately for him, the churn is going to continue. Unfortunately for me, that churn is going to include more Daleks in the single-longest serial in Doctor Who history. Yay?

STATS:

Doctor(s): First
Companion(s): Vicki, Steven Taylor, Katarina
Episode(s): Death of a Spy / Horse of Destruction
Steps Walked: 6,812 today, 312,285 total
Distance Walked:  3.23 miles today, 142.48 miles total
Weight: 291.86 lbs (five day moving average), net change -15.44 lbs