Production Code: U
First Transmitted
Temple of Secrets - 16/10/1965 17:50
Small Prophet, Quick Return - 23/10/1965 17:50
Death of a Spy - 30/10/1965 17:50
Horse of Destruction - 06/11/1965 17:50
Plot
When the TARDIS arrives on the plains of Asia Minor, not far from the besieged city of Troy, the Doctor is hailed by Achilles as the mighty god Zeus and taken to the Greek camp, where he meets Agamemnon and Odysseus. Forced to admit that he is a mere mortal - albeit a traveller in space and time - he is given just two days to devise a scheme to capture Troy.
Steven and Vicki, meanwhile, have been taken prisoner by the Trojans, and Vicki - believed to possess supernatural powers - is given two days to banish the Greeks and thus prove that she is not a spy.
Having initially dismissed the famous wooden horse as a fiction of Homer's, the Doctor is eventually driven to 'invent' it himself, thereby giving the Greeks the means to defeat the Trojans.
In the climactic battle Steven is wounded by a sword-thrust to his shoulder and Katarina, handmaiden to the Trojan prophetess Cassandra, helps the Doctor to get him back to the TARDIS.
Vicki meanwhile, having adopted the guise of Cressida, elects to remain behind on Earth with the Trojan prince Troilus, with whom she has fallen in love.
Episode Endings
The Doctor has only two days to help the Greeks to capture Troy. Night has fallen on the sandy plains outside the city, but still visible is a Trojan plaque bearing the symbol of a horse's head...
Cassandra denounces Vicki as a spy and orders that both she and Steven be killed. Vicki runs to Steven's arms as the guards draw their swords.
Paris dismisses Cassandra's cries of woe by telling her that it is 'too late to say woe to the horse' and that he has given instructions to have it brought into Troy.
As Katarina tends to the wounded Steven in the TARDIS control room, the Doctor laments Vicki's departure and hopes that the ship will land somewhere where he can get proper drugs to treat the young astronaut.
Roots
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
Virgil's Aenid.
Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.
Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.
Donald Cotton's early 60s adaptations of Greek tales for the BBC Third Programme (starring Max Adrian, with music from Humphrey Searle).
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
Dialogue Triumphs
The Doctor : "How you can sit there so peacefully defeats me. Have you no feelings, hm? No emotions?"
Odysseus : "I was thinking, Doctor... With luck, either Agamemnon or Achilles will not come through."
The Doctor : "Do you think they'll desert us, hm?"
Odysseus : "No - die! That hope... A greater share in the booty for me..."
The Doctor : "That is a most immoral way of looking at life!"
Katarina : "The princess Cressida tells me all will be well." [She looks around the TARDIS control room.] "And I knew it was to come."
The Doctor : "What was to come?"
Katarina : "That I was to die."
The Doctor : "My dear child, you're not dead! That's nonsense!"
Katarina : "But this is not Troy; this is not even the world; this is the journey through the beyond."
The Doctor : "No... Yes, yes, yes - as you wish, child. Now, I want you to keep an eye on that young man, will you?"
The Doctor : [On Hector] "You have killed this poor fellow!"
Achilles : [Thinking the Doctor is Zeus] "Ah, but in your name!"
Dialogue Disasters
Cassandra : "Woe to Troy!"
Paris : "It's too late to say 'woe' to the horse."
Continuity
The TARDIS is light enough to be carried by Paris and his men (cf Full Circle). The Doctor, for the first time, directly influences history (he only hinted at the burning of Rome in The Romans: here, despite thinking the wooden horse to be an invention of Homer's, he tells Odysseus what to do).
QV
Location
Just outside Troy, [1184 BC].
Links
The story follows directly on from Galaxy 4, with Vicki's ankle still sprained.
Trivia
There are fine sets and an excellent wooden horse model courtesy of designer John Wood.
There is a poignant and well-written departure scene for the always underrated Vicki.
During recording of the first episode, William Hartnell was struck on the back by a camera and sustained a bruised left shoulder.
A comment by Vicki in this story implies that she is sixteen years old.
Myth
William Hartnell refused to appear in scenes with Max Adrian as the latter actor was both Jewish and gay. (He didn't. It was coincidental that the scripts contained no scenes in which the two actors appeared together.)
Actress Frances White, who played Cassandra, was uncredited. (She was credited at the end of each episode in which she appeared, although at her own request her name was not included in any publicity for the story, including the entries in Radio Times.)
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - William Hartnell
Katarina - Adrienne Hill from Horse of Destruction
Steven Taylor - Peter Purves
Vicki - Maureen O'Brien
Achilles - Cavan Kendall
Agamemnon - Francis de Wolff
Cassandra - Frances White
Cyclops - Tutte Lemkow
Hector - Alan Haywood
King Priam - Max Adrian
Menelaus - Jack Melford
Messenger - Jon Luxton
Odysseus - Ivor Salter
Paris - Barrie Ingham
Troilus - James Lynn
Crew
Director - Michael Leeston-Smith
The Myth Makers