Synopsis
The Doctor hopes to trick his Greek captors by having them return him and Steven to the TARDIS, but he is shocked to learn that his ship has vanished...
They go to the plain where the ship had landed and confirm its disappearance. Steven's initial fear is that Vicki has somehow dematerialised it, but the Doctor rejects this. Agamemnon believes that he has been lied to, and as he returns to his camp he orders Odysseus to execute the Doctor and Steven.
The Doctor is forced to admit the truth. It is clear from the plaque that has been left behind that the TARDIS has been dragged off to the nearby city.
The Doctor tells Odysseus that, whilst he may not be a god, he can give the Greek army their victory.
In Troy, the TARDIS is presented to King Priam by his son Paris. He claims it as a spoil of war, but his sister Cassandra warns that the strange object is a portent of doom. She has foreseen the fall of Troy through a gift by their foes. She is particularly angry at her brother's suggestion that the TARDIS be placed in the temple she oversees.
Priam, as usual, finds himself having to mediate between his argumentative offspring.
Vicki is observing this from within the ship, where she has had the foresight to change into appropriate costume in expectation of joining the Doctor and Steven. On hearing that Cassandra plans to have the TARDIS burned as an offering to the gods, to which Priam agrees, she decides to show herself.
At the Greek camp, Odysseus has accepted some of the Doctor's story of being a time-traveller, and has ordered him to use his abilities to find a way to take Troy.
Priam is very taken with Vicki, though he dislikes her name. He decides to rename her Cressida. When she suggests that she knows of Troy's future the spiteful Cassandra is immediately jealous, as prophesy is one of her gifts (though no-one ever believes her).
Steven asks Odysseus if he can go to Troy to find Vicki, and he consents. He is given a set of armour - that of the recently deceased Diomedes - and sets off alone for the city.
Paris has returned to the plains to patrol and comes across Steven, who pretends to be the dead Greek warrior. Paris only reluctantly challenges him to fight - and is relieved when Steven offers his immediate surrender. To avoid immediate execution, Steven suggests he be taken prisoner to Troy to prove how powerful a soldier Paris is - an idea that goes down very well indeed with the Prince.
Vicki is dining with Priam and his court. On hearing that the Trojans worship the Great Horse of Asia, and are a horse-obsessed society, she lets slip that she has heard of a story concerning Troy and a horse.
Before Priam can hear more, Paris arrives with his captive.
When Vicki sees Steven she calls him by his name - immediately alerting the Trojans that the pair obviously know each other.
Cassandra, who has been lurking nearby, takes this as proof that she is a Greek spy, and should be put to death...
Next episode: Death of a Spy
Data:
Written by: Donald Cotton
Recorded: Friday 24th September 1965 - Riverside Studio 1
First broadcast: 5:50pm, Saturday 23rd October 1965
Ratings: 8.1 million / AI 51
Designer: John Wood
Director: Michael Leeston-Smith
Additional cast: King Priam (Max Adrian), Barrie Ingham (Paris), Frances White (Cassandra)
The episode title is a typical example of the sort of punning which Cotton intended to use throughout his story and which he'd also employ for The Gunfighters, which just happened to be the final story to feature such individual titles (though I doubt Cotton can be held responsible...).
All four instalments had similarly witty titles, but John Wiles put his foot down and made him change some of them. Donald Tosh helped fight to retain this particular episode's title. It is likely that last week's "Deus ex Machina" was vetoed because the average viewer would not have understood the term and so not got the joke.
(The phrase "small profit, quick return" derives from commerce, and refers primarily to new businesses (e.g. start-ups). By selling a lot of product / services for a small profit, an organisation can operate whilst it builds its business for later bigger sales / profits further down the line).
The Temple of Secrets had seen some humour in its verbal interplay between Agamemnon and Menelaus, and between Odysseus and everyone else.
With the introduction of the dysfunctional Trojan royal family the humour quotient is increased. They bicker and argue like a sitcom family. Prince Paris is presented as a bit of an upper class twit - though more Bertie Wooster than Tim Nice-But-Dim. He is a bit of a coward, keen to avoid fighting. The sequence where he encounters Steven on the plain is pure comedy.
King Priam is a typical world-weary parent, disillusioned with the way the kids have turned out.
There's a clear parallel between him and Agamemnon, as both are keen to see a relative prove their honour in single combat, only to be sadly disappointed.
Being played somewhat for laughs, we see Priam wearily put up with his argumentative children - despite the fact that his son and heir has just been killed, his body dragged through the dirt around the city walls by Achilles. He hardly mentions the death here, merely urging Paris to go out and get revenge as though sending him on an errand. In the legends of the Trojan War, Priam is inconsolable at the death of his son and heir, and risks going to the Greek camp to plead for the return of his body.
He was supposed to be about 80 years old at the time of these events, and had fathered some 50 children.
Some legends have Paris (also known as Alexandros) a much older figure. It's difficult to see the figure as presented here as the great lover, prepared to bring down the wrath of the Greek states over a woman.
(Talking of which, Helen is completely absent from this story - according to one rumour because any casting might prove inadequate).
The roots of the conflict, according to myth, are that the Goddesses Athena, Hera and Aphrodite asked Zeus to declare which of them was the most beautiful. Rather than provoke the wrath of two of them, he selected Paris as a neutral judge. The trio of divines tried to bribe him, and Aphrodite won by offering him Helen.
Cassandra was a devotee of the god Apollo, who gave her the gift of prophesy - but fated her never to be believed. The legend goes that Apollo gave the gift out of love for her, only for her to spurn him. As he had committed to giving her the ability he could not take it back, and so turned it into a curse. It is claimed that snakes whispered her visions in her ear as she slept in the temple.
Diomedes was the King of Argos. Along with Achilles and Ajax he was among the most valiant warriors of the Achaean forces, despite being the youngest ruler present. The myths all have him survive the Trojan War, so this may be another Diomedes whom Steven impersonates.
After his issues with Francis de Wolff the previous week, William Hartnell now had to contend with Max Adrian joining the cast. The two had worked together quite happily in the past, but now the star felt intimidated by the guest actor. For many years a myth persisted that Hartnell refused to play any scenes with Adrian because he was both Jewish and gay, but this is a nonsense. The Doctor and Priam simply never had any scenes together.
Hartnell noted how everyone was treating Adrian like he was the big star, which upset his ego. Rather than make an embarrassing scene in front of such guest artists, Hartnell opted to simply keep his head down. Adrian then noted how Hartnell avoided him and, thinking he had done something to offend, he approached Peter Purves to ask what the trouble was.
The situation deteriorated further for Hartnell when his aunt Bessie died. She had helped raise him as a boy, and he was unable to attend her funeral due to the production schedule.
It's a pity that the Doctor and Priam never meet, as Hartnell often raised his game when confronted by strong performers.
On the evening of recording there was a mishap over some of Ivor Salter's lines. He had two different speeches close together which ended on the same line: "Who are you?". This confused both Hartnell and Purves, and caused them to omit a number of lines which, fortunately, were not key ones.
John Wood introduces his Troy sets this week, chief of which is the city square where much of the action takes place (see below). This made use of false perspective, along with clever camera angles, to depict a huge palace building in the relatively cramped studio.
For many years it was claimed that Frances White had asked for her name to be removed from the credits, and fans took this to suggest that she was embarrassed at having this on her CV. In fact, her name was only omitted from press releases and Radio Times. She was credited on screen.
In 2022 she gave an interview with DWM in which she dispelled the fan myth. She was unaware of the withholding of her name and assumed that it was the work of her agent.
- The ratings dip slightly, by 0.2 million, whilst the appreciation figure rallies to over 50 once again.
- Helen of Troy did appear in the original drafts of this story.
- There was a minor cut at the end of the scene where Cassandra wants the TARDIS burned, and Paris objects as it was he who found it. Priam sides with his daughter.
- Three off-air 8mm scenes exist, courtesy of an Australian fan. These are: Vicki in the TARDIS observing the Trojan royals; her exit from the TARDIS; and the Doctor and Steven on the plain from the start of the episode.
- For this episode only, Tony Pearce took over costumes from Daphne Dare. He did not receive a credit.
- Barrie Ingham had only recently played the Thal hero Alydon in the Aaru production Dr. Who and the Daleks.
- Max Adrian is well-known to genre fans for playing a vampire doctor opposite Donald Sutherland in the Amicus anthology Dr Terror's House of Horrors. For comedy fans he is best remembered for playing the head of household in Frankie Howerd's BBC sitcom Up Pompeii. (The role in the movie version went to Michael Hordern).
- Composer Humphrey Searle had contributed scores for a number of films, including The Abominable Snowmen (Hammer's adaptation of a now lost Nigel Kneale TV play, which can be seen as an influence on the later Doctor Who story of the same name) and The Haunting (whose highly effective scares are all atmospheric and aural).
- In recent years Frances White has been voicing Grandma Pig in the children's TV series Peppa Pig - opposite Dalek voice-man David Graham as Grandpa Pig.
- Below, a shot of the Troy set at Riverside Studio 1. Note the false perspective used for the palace atop the steps - a trick John Wood will later use for the city gates.
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