The Myth Makers by: Donald Cotton

 

The Myth Makers was written by Donald Cotton, based on his story of the same name.  It was the 97^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

The existing audio for The Myth Makers is one of those underrated Doctor Who soundtracks.  It’s quite the humorous serial, only really getting dark at the very end with the recreation of the sacking of Troy.  Donald Cotton wrote another serial in 1966 and ended his connection with his show until the 1980s when he novelized The Myth Makers.  This novelization was published in 1985, only a year after the show began to be released on VHS so it is in this space where it is still being written for an audience who wouldn’t have the chance to rewatch it had it survived the junkings and not yet essentially for the fans.  Yet Donald Cotton clearly decided to take novelization as writing an original novel, something he pivoted to after leaving radio and television.  The Myth Makers is far closer to a traditionally published historical science fiction novel, deciding to present the Doctor, Steven, and Vicki as seen by the epic poet Homer.  This is posited as a special early draft of the Iliad, told orally revealed in an epilogue to the Doctor at some point in the future.  Homer even takes the role of Cyclops from the television story which does make me imagine the narration as Tutte Lemkow which is a fascinating effect.  This makes for a fascinating novel because it’s reformatted from the events of the serial to be a novel, following largely the Doctor for the first half, Vicki only briefly whenever it’s important to establish the relationship between her and Troilus, and Steven in the second half.

 

There is something heightened about the characterization, especially of Cassandra in an attempt to somehow outdo the camp of the television story, as well as make the Trojan characters in particular filling into the camp sensibilities of the story.  The Doctor is also perfectly characterized and just as stubborn, but if there was one point where this novelization failed it would be on Steven and Vicki in the first half.  Vicki in the second half actually gets some focus with Troilus actually providing romantic interest instead of the last-minute relationship of the serial, and having Homer speculate on her inner life means there is at least some justification, however Cotton decides that Steven and Vicki both need to be characters from modern day Earth instead of the future.  Steven in particular suffers because Cotton doesn’t have access to any novelizations featuring the character as this would be the first, Vicki at least had Doctor Who and the Zarbi and Doctor Who and the Crusaders, but Steven is just generic male companion which would bring down an otherwise perfect book.  9/10.