The Myth Makers
Mar. 9th, 2019 09:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quipxoticLet me tell you about the first book I've had to return to Audible.
So, there are all these First and Second Doctor episodes that are lost due to their tapes being overwritten by the BBC. A few stories have surviving soundtracks and are being animated (beware: there are spoilers at that link for "The Macra Terror") to fill in the gaps, but there's a lot that are just gone. Which was why I was really excited to see that Audible carried novelizations for several of these stories. If you're interested, they also have episode audio with linking text describing the action, but I find those really hard to follow since the audio quality varies.
I picked a couple of stories that I've always wanted to see, including "The Myth Makers" which is a First Doctor/Vicki Pallister/Steven Taylor story. I love found families, it's one of my favorite tropes, and this TARDIS team is clearly one. The relationship between Vicki and Steven in particular is written as loving but occasionally argumentative sibling relationship. Plus it's one of the few instances where all of the Doctor's companions are from the future, with Vicki being from the 25th century and Steven perhaps coming from the 24th century (although the stories are a bit vague on that point). This leads to subtle changes in the dialog of episodes - Vicki and Steven don't need as much explanation of technology as say Barbara and Ian (the two school teachers from the 1960s who leave just as Steven joins the crew), but do need lots of explanation of historical events.
"The Myth Makers" is also notable because its Vicki's last story and it's set during the Trojan War. As someone who only lacked a couple of classes in Greek to get a double-major in Classics, the prospect of Doctor Who at Troy has always been thrilling. Which is part of why it's so disappointing that I had to return this audiobook without even finishing it.
First of all, the narrator of this story is Homer who is telling a visitor about events he witnessed as a young man during the siege of Troy.
Sigh. Where to begin...
Okay yes, there's a lot that's not known for certain about Homer or the Trojan War. But Homer's Iliad is generally dated to around 750 BCE and most historians and archeologists think the Trojan War, if it happened at all, was ca. 1250 BCE. While I don't expect complete historical accuracy from Doctor Who, that's quite a gap. To add to that, Donald Cotton (the author of this novelization) makes Homer, who is know in tradition if not in fact as a blind poet, sighted in his youth. Homer is also evidently very aware of 1960-80s English idioms and technologies, both of which he references frequently. It's even implied that he traveled with the Doctor in the TARDIS at some point between his time at Troy and his telling of this story.
These are all choices you can make, of course - this is science fiction not a historical drama. And I might have forgiven it all if the three main characters hadn't been written so OOC that I began to suspect that Mr. Cotton had never actually seen a First Doctor episode in his life. In this telling, the First Doctor is foolish and pompous, which he can indeed be, but is without any of his intelligence and wit. Steven is almost unrecognizable - instead of the kind, intelligent former pilot who is very aware of what he doesn't know we get an utter misogynist who talks down to Vicki and is snide to the Doctor. And poor Vicki gets reduced to a peevish child who, when she isn't getting written out of the early part of the story, screams a lot.
I have read many (many, many) fan fiction stories with more accurate characterizations. So no...back it goes.
So, there are all these First and Second Doctor episodes that are lost due to their tapes being overwritten by the BBC. A few stories have surviving soundtracks and are being animated (beware: there are spoilers at that link for "The Macra Terror") to fill in the gaps, but there's a lot that are just gone. Which was why I was really excited to see that Audible carried novelizations for several of these stories. If you're interested, they also have episode audio with linking text describing the action, but I find those really hard to follow since the audio quality varies.
I picked a couple of stories that I've always wanted to see, including "The Myth Makers" which is a First Doctor/Vicki Pallister/Steven Taylor story. I love found families, it's one of my favorite tropes, and this TARDIS team is clearly one. The relationship between Vicki and Steven in particular is written as loving but occasionally argumentative sibling relationship. Plus it's one of the few instances where all of the Doctor's companions are from the future, with Vicki being from the 25th century and Steven perhaps coming from the 24th century (although the stories are a bit vague on that point). This leads to subtle changes in the dialog of episodes - Vicki and Steven don't need as much explanation of technology as say Barbara and Ian (the two school teachers from the 1960s who leave just as Steven joins the crew), but do need lots of explanation of historical events.
"The Myth Makers" is also notable because its Vicki's last story and it's set during the Trojan War. As someone who only lacked a couple of classes in Greek to get a double-major in Classics, the prospect of Doctor Who at Troy has always been thrilling. Which is part of why it's so disappointing that I had to return this audiobook without even finishing it.
First of all, the narrator of this story is Homer who is telling a visitor about events he witnessed as a young man during the siege of Troy.
Sigh. Where to begin...
Okay yes, there's a lot that's not known for certain about Homer or the Trojan War. But Homer's Iliad is generally dated to around 750 BCE and most historians and archeologists think the Trojan War, if it happened at all, was ca. 1250 BCE. While I don't expect complete historical accuracy from Doctor Who, that's quite a gap. To add to that, Donald Cotton (the author of this novelization) makes Homer, who is know in tradition if not in fact as a blind poet, sighted in his youth. Homer is also evidently very aware of 1960-80s English idioms and technologies, both of which he references frequently. It's even implied that he traveled with the Doctor in the TARDIS at some point between his time at Troy and his telling of this story.
These are all choices you can make, of course - this is science fiction not a historical drama. And I might have forgiven it all if the three main characters hadn't been written so OOC that I began to suspect that Mr. Cotton had never actually seen a First Doctor episode in his life. In this telling, the First Doctor is foolish and pompous, which he can indeed be, but is without any of his intelligence and wit. Steven is almost unrecognizable - instead of the kind, intelligent former pilot who is very aware of what he doesn't know we get an utter misogynist who talks down to Vicki and is snide to the Doctor. And poor Vicki gets reduced to a peevish child who, when she isn't getting written out of the early part of the story, screams a lot.
I have read many (many, many) fan fiction stories with more accurate characterizations. So no...back it goes.
