Much like Cotton's later "Doctor Who" story, "The Gunfighters", "The Myth Makers" is a smart and sharp historical comedy which displays a deep knowledge of the historical era the story is set in and inspired by. Although it sounds like this story holds more promise than something like "The Romans", which is really a straightforward sort of comedy which mocks the stereotypes and media/literary presentation of ancient Rome, and becomes a far-out romp in the third episode and features Hartnell in combat, "The Myth Makers" lacks the consistency of that tale, resulting in a more uneven and in some places utterly bizarre and slightly tasteless story, but still a far from conventional and hugely enjoyable one.
The humor in "The Romans" was often cruel and likely wouldn't ever be included in the current incarnation of "Doctor Who", but even then never even began to approach the audacity of, on a show which was still more or less purely aimed at a very young audience as far as the BBC were concerned, writing a comedy based around the massacre of Trojan soldiers. Really, going through the Hartnell era in order has caused me to question if the writers, particularly of some of the more experimental historicals such as this one, knew they were writing for something that at the time was really still a kids' show? I never saw "The Myth Makers" as a child, but I doubt I would have gotten ANY of the jokes here at all. It's pretty dependent on knowledge of the whole mythology/story it's based on and attempts some pretty sophisticated things script-wise, and gets so dark at points that its tone seems confused even to an adult (that is actually its main flaw, and the reason it's never more than 'very good').
The Loose Cannon reconstruction is absolutely and utterly brilliant. Although there's not necessarily a lot to work with here, there is enough to make this a hugely enjoyable and easy to watch reconstruction, and it is nice to see how the Trojan horse is realized on a 60's BBC budget, for those of us who had the Target novelization far before seeing the reconstruction. The Target book doesn't feature the wonderful performances and off-beat score that make the TV story so enjoyable, but it is one of the better Target books and really does feel like some effort went into it (Cotton adapted his own script, using an interesting narrative device and some surprisingly solid prose in doing so).
"The Myth Makers" is really a very enjoyable story, if a flawed one. It's unfortunate that Cotton didn't have more time to refine his script as it could have worked better with some adjustments. The sheer darkness and horror of the latter half of the fourth episode doesn't quite fit with what came before and constitutes an utterly absurd and badly handled shift in tone, but it is overall a quality story.
Episode 1: 7/10, Episode 2: 8/10, Episode 3: 8/10, Episode 4: 8/10.
Average: 7.75/10
The humor in "The Romans" was often cruel and likely wouldn't ever be included in the current incarnation of "Doctor Who", but even then never even began to approach the audacity of, on a show which was still more or less purely aimed at a very young audience as far as the BBC were concerned, writing a comedy based around the massacre of Trojan soldiers. Really, going through the Hartnell era in order has caused me to question if the writers, particularly of some of the more experimental historicals such as this one, knew they were writing for something that at the time was really still a kids' show? I never saw "The Myth Makers" as a child, but I doubt I would have gotten ANY of the jokes here at all. It's pretty dependent on knowledge of the whole mythology/story it's based on and attempts some pretty sophisticated things script-wise, and gets so dark at points that its tone seems confused even to an adult (that is actually its main flaw, and the reason it's never more than 'very good').
The Loose Cannon reconstruction is absolutely and utterly brilliant. Although there's not necessarily a lot to work with here, there is enough to make this a hugely enjoyable and easy to watch reconstruction, and it is nice to see how the Trojan horse is realized on a 60's BBC budget, for those of us who had the Target novelization far before seeing the reconstruction. The Target book doesn't feature the wonderful performances and off-beat score that make the TV story so enjoyable, but it is one of the better Target books and really does feel like some effort went into it (Cotton adapted his own script, using an interesting narrative device and some surprisingly solid prose in doing so).
"The Myth Makers" is really a very enjoyable story, if a flawed one. It's unfortunate that Cotton didn't have more time to refine his script as it could have worked better with some adjustments. The sheer darkness and horror of the latter half of the fourth episode doesn't quite fit with what came before and constitutes an utterly absurd and badly handled shift in tone, but it is overall a quality story.
Episode 1: 7/10, Episode 2: 8/10, Episode 3: 8/10, Episode 4: 8/10.
Average: 7.75/10