Cold Open

We begin with the rage of Achilles, as the opening lines of Iliad predicates, and – in media res – the brutal and bloody battle of Hector and Achilles on the plains of Troy outside the walled city, which is the turning point of that story in that it begins to turn the epic to its final, bloody resolution after a decade of stalemate. The fight between these heroes looks to be culminating in the defeat of Achilles – until…. We hear the strangled sounds of the TARDIS materialising.

PART ONE 

Orientation

After the opening credits, we return to the TARDIS interior where we borrow the scene taken from “The Rescue” in which, a while after landing, the Doctor enters the console room and calls for Susan only to realise that she is not there anymore before Barbara and Ian steps in to comfort him.

In the fractions of a moment immediately after the TARDIS materialising on the plain of Troy, it is Achilles who reacts decisively first, slaying the still-distracted Hector. Achilles reclaims his armour from Hector and claims his vengeance for the death of Patroclus at the hands of Hector while standing over the body of the Trojan prince, at which point first Barbara, then Ian, and then the Doctor, holding his cane, emerge from the TARDIS. Achilles presumes Barbara is his patron goddess, Athena, Ian her half-brother, Apollo (who was said to favour Hector and the Trojans, meaning that Achilles instantly distrusts Ian even as he admires him), and the Doctor, whom Achilles at first takes to be Zeus, but to which the Doctor protests that he is most certainly not Zeus. 

At that point, the Greeks – who have been watching the battle and the ensuing arrival of the gods in their blue temple – swarm the victorious Achilles and the TARDIS team. The Doctor, Ian, and Barbara are celebrated for their intervention on the Greeks’ behalf, and there is a celebration in their and Achilles’ honour that night (after Achilles returns from his desecrating of Hector’s body by dragging it behind the Trojan’s horse three times around the walled city…)

Exposition

At the celebration that evening, Barbara is able to quickly tell Ian and Barbara of where and when they have arrived, while the Doctor worries about how delicate a situation they have walked into and that they must get away immediately. It’s during this scene that the audience, via the TARDIS team, meet each of the Achaean heroes; the kings Agamemnon and Menelaus, the two Ajaxes, Diomedes the warrior, Nestor the consul, Machaeon the physician, etc. – and finally Odysseus.

Cut to the royal court on the grand terrace of Troy looking out over the plain to the sea, where we meet the Trojans in turn: Hector’s parents, King Priam and Queen Hecuba; his brother Paris and the stolen Helen; the now-widow Andromache cradling their infant son Astyanax; Priam’s brother, the old warrior, Anchises, and his son Aeneas; Hector’s best friend Polydamas; Priam’s trusted advisor Antenor, and his son, the great warrior Glaucus; Pandarus the archer; the priest Chryseus and his daughters Chryseis and Briseis (check which one is currently held by the Greeks); and, the seer Cassandra. All have watched on as Hector was slain by Achilles, and then as the dead body of their prince was distressingly paraded in front of them by Achilles in revenge for Hector’s killing of Patroclus.

Back among the celebrating Greeks, it is Odysseus who very quickly sees through the guise of the gods given by the Greeks to the travellers. Introduced as Zeus, the Doctor again disputes the claim, to which Odysseus immediately agrees that he is not. The uncertain tension is broken when Agamemnon decides that the Doctor, who walks carrying a cane, must instead be Hermes wielding the caduceus – and that in arriving at such a critical moment which has now galvanised the Greeks – he must have a message for them, willing to extract from the Doctor a divine decree that they will now go on to win the war. Thinking quickly, it is Barbara who speaks, as Athena, saying that it is true that Troy will soon fall and that the Greeks will at last be able to return to their homes, victoriously. Whilst everyone cheers to kick off further celebrations, Odysseus holds the gaze of the Doctor; an unspoken understanding that both know the old man is neither Zeus nor Hermes and that the travellers are not gods.

At that moment, Achilles returns to the Greek camp but is in no mood to celebrate, other than to give his thanks to Athena for her intervention, as well as to Hermes and, reluctantly, also to Apollo. Before leaving for his tent, Achilles calls to Athena, saying that she is unexpectedly as beautiful as she is wise, to which Barbara cannot help but blush while Ian silently fumes, before whispering something into Agamemnon’s ear that surprises and delights the old king.

While the Greeks have been celebrating, a party led by Anchises, and containing Polydamas, Glaucus, Pandarus, and Aeneas, amongst others, go to retrieve the body of Hector so that he may be honoured before being cremated – but his body is missing and must have been taken by the Achaeans. Aeneas asks Anchises what they should do with the gods’ blue temple, the only remaining object left at the site that marks Hector’s death, which the Greeks have left behind on the beach, obviously too heavy to move. Distractedly, Anchises instructs the party to carry it back to Troy and into the Temple of Ares (which creative licence allows us to here replace the real Temple of Athena).

The Greeks leave the celebrations upon Agamemnon declaring that Achilles returned with the body of Hector. Ian then takes Barbara away for an urgent, hushed conversation in private, leaving only the Doctor and Odysseus around the campfire. The two mythic figures have a conversation in which they intellectually dance around one another, during which we get a brief overview of the history of the Trojan War to date as shown in flashback, and in which Odysseus drops heavy hints that he knows that the Doctor is not Zeus or even Hermes but that he is unable to do anything about this due to the other Greeks who have afforded the travellers the protection owing to the gods. Odysseus asks about Hermes’ long and many travels away from his home, Olympus, while the Doctor recounts some of the tales of his actual travels in allegorical form. Odysseus pities him, as he pities himself; to be so long apart from his home, its hearth, and his loved ones – so much lost… He can see the pain in the old man’s eyes and delights in it. The Doctor snaps out of the reflective reverie and retorts at Odysseus, knowing enough about the story of the King of Ithaca to warn  that such a fate should be best avoided by the mortals, vaguely threatening Odysseus with what will come to him also, as though to unnerve him. (It is from this point on that the Doctor holds to his guise of Hermes, lest he is also rumbled by the other Greeks.)

First turning Point

Later, high above the plain and atop the walls of Troy in the Temple of Ares, the grieving king Priam mourns the death of his eldest in the presence of the strange blue box that is all that he has to act as a memento of his child’s life. The box is a visual reminder of the events of his son’s death – which we didn’t see in the cold open – but which we see at this point here in flashback, including Achilles’ desecration of Hector’s body by dragging it three times around the Plain of Scamander behind his horse. He beseeches his god, Ares, for revenge and for the rightful return of the body of his son. At that point, we hear the out-of-frame wheezing, groaning sound of the TARDIS engines. We assume that it is the Doctor’s machine dematerialising – but it isn’t. Instead, we cut to see that the TARDIS, still present and solid, now joined by a Corinthian column that begins to emerge from the ether, seemingly in response to the old king’s prayers.  Seconds of silence follow before emerges we hear the voice of the fearsome warrior, who – for all intents – is the god Ares. The offscreen Ares tells a shocked Priam that he has arrived to aid them in achieving the total destruction of the Greeks.

Rising Action

Aware that what Achilles has done to Hector’s body will only enflame the Trojans rather than serve the Greeks by emotionally defeating their enemies after the Doctor expresses that he abhors it, Odysseus has persuaded the Doctor, as Hermes the messenger god, to go to Priam and the royal court of Troy to give them message that the Greeks wish to return the body of their dead prince. The Doctor appears reluctant but he realises that if he is to retrieve his TARDIS then he has little choice but to act as Hermes would and entrust in the observed piety observed by the Trojans towards their gods in common. Odysseus goes to convince Agamemnon and Achilles of their need to return Hector’s body.

Meanwhile, after having communed with Ares, who disappears with the same sound of thunder that was heard when he arrived in his temple and, before that, when the three gods also arrived on the plain, Priam resolves to go to Agamemnon, Achilles, and the other Achaeans as to beseech them for the return of his eldest son and heir. As he prepares, there is a message from his guards that Hermes has appeared at the gates of the city promising safe passage and the protection of Zeus for a small party to accompany him back to the camp of the Greeks, who have agreed to return Hector’s body to the court of Priam, as piety and mutual respect befits both the dead prince and his family. The Trojans remain unmoved, even hostile. The Doctor begins to fear for his life.

We cut back to the Greeks, where Odysseus’ pleas for Achilles to return the body of Hector are being angrily rejected while Agamemnon sits undecided. Odysseus cannot get through to Achilles for his anger at Hector’s killing of Patroclus (which we see in brief flashback), while Agamemnon cannot forgive or forget the havoc Hector had created when he rampaged through the Greek camp and the great battle that ensued that almost defeated the exhausted Greeks. Odysseus then says that the gods have decreed, and that Hermes himself has already left to extend the protection of Zeus to the Trojans who will be called to retrieve Hector’s body. Now Agamemnon turns on Odysseus, distrustful of him as it seems now that schemes of the King of Ithaca are being trained against themselves. Just then, Agamemnon acts against Odysseus, calling for him to be killed for suspected treason in conspiring with Hermes for Trojans to again come to the Greeks’ camp.

Just as Antenor advises the king to kill this presumptuous intruder, an eagle flies through the opened gates of Troy to the left of the Doctor/Hermes and to the right of those of the royal court. Chryseus immediately recognises its meaning, which in the auguries is always interpreted as a favourable sign. Hecuba, worried, calls for Priam to pray to Zeus for safety and protection, to which the Doctor as Hermes says that his presence is that guarantee. Priam calls for a simple cart, which he insists be loaded with treasure that he understands must be offered in return for his dead son. After some time, the two old men, Priam and the Doctor, then traverse the empty, moonlit, windy plain, the old but still strong King hauling the cart brim with gold and jewels behind him. On the long walk, they talk as grand/fathers who have lost grand/children…

Back in the Greek camp, Barbara and Ian’s conversation has by this point been interrupted and they have been watching on. Barbara then seizes the initiative: She hurriedly tells Ian what they must do, as informed by her study of Homer and how this critical moment must unfold as in the epic. As Athena, she steps into the middle of the arguing men and authoritatively cries: “Enough!”, informing them all that Zeus has decreed that this act of impiety against the dead be redressed before, ominously, it must be atoned for by Achilles. Ian as Apollo, the god of both medicine and plague, then takes his cue, chiming in that Achilles has acted beyond all measure and has further dishonoured the rite of the burial of the dead in the eyes of not only Apollo but moreover in the presence of the Gaia, the giver of life as the earth, from whom both Apollo and Achilles are descendent. Achilles, rebuked by the beautiful and wise Athena, the imposing and stern Apollo, and moreover by the honour of all his ancestors in the sight of all the Greek kings, defeatedly and dispassionately accepts the will of the gods – he will allow for the body of Hector to be returned.

As the Doctor and Priam near the Greek encampment, Priam asks Hermes how he should best ask Achilles for his mercy, to which the Doctor in the guise of Hermes suggests that he speak to Achilles similarly as he has spoken to him; as a father who has lost his son to a son who has lost his father. They at last arrive at the wooden gates of the encirclement to the Greek camp, the Doctor leading the way insisting that they be shown through to the Greek kings without delay.

The Doctor presents Priam to Agamemnon, Odysseus, and all the others before, lastly, to Achilles. Priam has come with treasure as ransom for Hector’s body, which Agamemnon accepts and divides between the Greeks as Achilles and Priam retreat to Achilles’ tent.

Achilles and Priam at last talk face to face. Priam recounts in tears that he lived a happy and fulfilled life until the war, claiming that he has had 50 sons, 19 to Hecuba and the others to various mothers, and that Achilles, the greatest warrior, had killed all of them (which we see in a montage of flashbacks that further fill in the detail of the ten years of the siege of Troy to date), including now even Hector, his last son and last great hope. Priam begs for mercy from Achilles; calling on him to remember his own father, Peleus, in taking pity on an old man who has had to do something that no other man has ever had to do before – to bury all his dead children. Weeping, Priam kneels and kisses Achilles’ hands that killed his son. Achilles is also weeping and comforts the grieving old man as he would his own father (whom we see with a youthful Achilles in flashback), saying that both their lives – indeed all their lives – have been shaped by this long war.

The Doctor talks with Ian and Barbara about what has happened, what was meant to happen as per Iliad, and of the horror that is to come. They quickly conspire amongst themselves about their next course of action, with the Doctor having to return to Troy under the guise of Hermes providing safe passage to poor Priam and his even poorer son in order that he may retrieve the TARDIS from the Trojans and have it returned to the Plain of Scamander before Ian and Barbara can join him and they can depart before the sacking of Troy by the Greeks. Meanwhile, Barbara and Ian are to keep out of trouble until they can all get away. Having agreed their plan, Barbara laments the horror of their situation, grimacing at the nearby body of Hector. She tells the Doctor and Ian that, when the body was returned, it was renewed by the gods so that its mortal wounds as well as the damage it suffered as a result of it being dragged behind the horses of Achilles. Barbara looks away and departs leaving the Doctor and Ian looking at one another – they realise that they must clean the body of Hector before Priam and Achilles have finished talking and Priam returns to Troy with his dead son.

Some hours have passed and the sun begins to rise. The Greeks are sleeping heavily, having meted out their share of the ransom as Achilles and Priam emerge from their colloquy. The Doctor and Ian have finished their grisly task, with the Doctor telling Ian that he should get some sleep. Ian, somewhat tellingly, goes in search of Barbara. The Doctor watches on as Priam and Achilles part, having agreed to an eleven day truce to allow for the funeral games with which Priam and all of Troy will mourn Hector and that the Greeks will similarly honour Patroclus. Before the Doctor escorts Priam back to Troy with the body of Hector, Achilles notices that Apollo, god of medicine, and Hermes with his caduceus, have made the dead prince presentable, relieving himself of some guilt and further convincing him of the divinity of the Doctor and Ian.

(It’s at this point that the events of Iliad end, and any account of what follows that may have once existed are no longer in the record other than as mere references, as in the opening books of Odyssey and Iliad and in much later works by the likes of Sophocles, Pindar, Apollodorus, etc. It means that we can do whatever we want in telling the story from here on in, and we at last arrive at the greater thematic turn from the Doctor Who historical to the Doctor Who pseudo-historical as a genre. What we do know is that there are three main events that reflet the wider understanding of the events of the myth: The Death of Achilles, usually told as resulting from an arrow shot at his heel by Paris, as though in revenge of his older brother; the Judgement of Arms, in which the Greeks – whether by secret ballot or by the judgement of the gods – awarded the armour of the dead Achilles to he who was deemed the greatest remaining warrior among the Achaeans; and the Sack of Troy, masterminded by Odysseus, and which marks the end of the Trojan War. We now begin the reinterpretation of these three set pieces through the lens of the first pseudo-historical of the reimagined version Doctor Who. But before we do so, we need to set up the cliffhanger that takes us into that telling of this story.

Crisis point

The Doctor arrives back in Troy with Priam. The city is in mourning as they enter into the eleven days of remembrance, with the court already having begun to prepare for the feast that will be the culmination of the funeral games to be held in Hector’s honour. In the meantime, night has fallen as his body has been interred to lay in state in the Temple of Ares before it will be buried after the eleven days are over. The Doctor has offered to conduct secret rites in privacy in exchange for his own temple to be returned to where it arrived. Priam agrees and the Doctor is left alone in the temple, which still holds the TARDIS. Giggling to himself with relief, the Doctor steps across to the TARDIS but is shocked by the sound of its engines kicking into life. But it isn’t his TARDIS that is dematerialising; instead, a pillar appears from nowhere to the accompanying sound.  A figure dressed in the battle garments of antiquity appears from within bearing the recognisable form of Ares depicted elsewhere in the temple: “Ah, Doctor. I’ve been expecting you.”

PART TWO 

Expositio

As the Greeks bury Patroclus, Odysseus urges that they must now prepare for a final assault on Troy while their enemies themselves mourn. They have eleven days to bring about the Fall of Troy– but no ideas.

The Doctor and Ares, Master of War, clearly know one another from their own home planet. Ares calls for Priam to reveal the ‘truth’, that the Doctor is mortal and that he is actually the Greek, Odysseus, in disguise – but the Doctor escapes, clambering down the great walls of Troy before Ares can return with Priam. It is of no matter, Ares tells Priam. There is a greater purpose to which they must know work…

The Doctor scampers across the Plain of Scamander, thankful that the moon has been hidden by a thunderstorm whose rain covers his tracks in the sand allowing him safe passage back to the Greek encampment. Meanwhile, Barbara and Ian huddle together in the cold, comforting one another…

We see more of Priam and his court as Ares prepares the Trojans for the attack that will see them push the Greeks back to their ships to flee – he has given them laser weapons.

The Doctor returns to the camp as the sun rises and the Greeks stir from their sleep after the funereal feast in honour of Patroclus the night before. He is met by Odysseus, who challenges him in front of the other Achaean kings, saying that Hermes isn’t known only for his running of errands on behalf of the gods but for his ingenuity. Odysseus demands that the Doctor as Hermes to solve the riddle of how they will capture Troy within the next eleven days.

The Trojans continue to be trained by Ares under the guise of the eleven days of funeral games. As they do so over that time, we cut in montage back to the body of Hector.

The Doctor has drawn up plans for the Trojan Horse, and the Greeks work furiously on a nearby beach that is out of the sight of Troy to build it before the eleven days is up.

First turning Point

Using artron energy (aka ‘regenergy’) from his own TARDIS, Ares resurrects Priam, much to the deep shock and inexpressible relief of Priam and the royal court of Troy. Ares says that he and Hector will lead Troy to the victory over the besieging Greeks.

The Greeks finish the Trojan Horse out of the sight of the Trojans; however, for the Greek warriors to be hidden inside it, the Doctor turns to Odysseus, telling him that he now needs his blue temple.

Rising action continued

Odysseus sneaks into Troy disguised as a beggar and manages to trick the Trojans into expelling the blue temple of Hermes out of the temple and their city, as requested by Hermes and as commanded by Agamemnon. He is able to pull a ruse that allows this to happen but is recognised by Helen at the last moment, almost giving the game away.

The Greeks take the TARDIS by ship to the beach where they are building the Horse. They it around the TARDIS, into which the Achaean warriors will conceal themselves.

A final spectacular battle commences and the Greeks are driven back from Troy, taking to their ships to depart. They are defeated – Troy has broken the siege on their walled city. Ian is swept away with the tide of fleeing Greeks, fearing for Barbara. Barbara, meanwhile, has found her way into Troy where she is helped to disguise as a servant to the royal court by Cressida. In the TARDIS, the Doctor muses that this was not in any of the stories, but reminds himself that stories, like histories, are multiple and conflicting.

Whilst shocked that the Master of War has resurrected Hector and equipped them with laser weapons, in doing so having reinvigorated the Trojans, the retreat itself is within the plans of the Doctor. They then turn to their plan of placing the Horse on the plain outside Troy that evening. The Doctor quietly hopes to himself that the Master doesn’t know his Homer… 

Second turning Point

The Trojans debate as to whether to bring the horse into their city, with Cassandra warning them not to before being consumed by a sea monster. The Trojans bring the horse into their city and that night the sack of Troy is set to begin.

However, the Master of War knows that it is a ruse, and knows of the Greeks’ plan that the burning horse is the signal for the successful overtaking of Troy and for the Greek fleet to return en masse. The Master then begins to burn the Trojan Horse to reveal the TARDIS unscathed inside it.

The Greek warriors emerge from the TARDIS and begin slaughtering many of the Trojan royal court, but the tide begins to turn against the Greeks as they are surrounded by the resurrected Hector and overwhelmed by the waking Trojan infantry who set upon them.  Each of the Greek kings is killed, while the Doctor is spared at the order of Ares.

The Doctor is taken to the Temple of Ares, which turns out to be a TARDIS itself. In it, the Doctor is told of the Master’s plan to create the greatest army on Earth, making Troy the great power of not just antiquity but of history, changing its course as a result. The Doctor condemns him for his meddling, saying that they cannot rewrite one line of history. At that point, the bodies of the Greeks are brought into the Master’s TARDIS. The Master has already rewritten history, and the Doctor has lost.

Climax

With the aid of Barbara, disguised as a servant to the court of Troy, the Doctor does something clever and through sleight of hand is able to apply the same trick of using artron to resurrect the Greeks themselves. The Greeks resurrect, and whilst Hector’s fifteen hours of regeneration has expired, the Greeks’ has only just begun.

So starts the Fall of Troy – and its atrocities. We also see Achilles mortally wounded when Paris fires into his heel a poisoned arrow that has been prepared by Ares and that effectively acts as a repressant of arton energy’s regenerative properties.

Resolution

The Master flees in his TARDIS but not before he condemns the Doctor for creating this massacre, and the Doctor is ashamed.

Amidst the chaos, the Doctor and Barbara escape back to the TARDIS with the Doctor attempting a short hop, appearing on the Plain of Scamander just as the Greek fleet returns. The armies sweep through the Trojan forces defending the city on the plain and through the open gates of Troy. In the battle, Ian is wounded by a Trojan at sword point but manages to spot the blue box. Clambering aboard the TARDIS, they at last depart.

Denouement

In the TARDIS console room, the Doctor and Barbara take stock of Ian’s wounds. It does not look good. They are shocked at the bloodshed, and Barbara challenges the Doctor when she hears that he brought the dead Greek warriors back to life, to which the Doctor retorts that he had to in order to save history. Ian asks what will happen to them. The Doctor says that it is not important and that he must land them somewhere they can find medical aid, but he is pushed again on the point by Ian. The Doctor relents, saying that the effects of the artron regenerative energy will wear off completely within fifteen hours, at which point they will be as mortal as they ever were. Barbara reminds him that they will be invincible in their rampage and will destroy Troy and all those poor people. She then recounts the fates of each of the main characters, Trojan and Greek alike, as well as of the atrocities and the noble acts that were committed that day. She ends with Odysseus, saying that the punishment for his involvement will be a long and terrible voyage ahead of him whilst staring at the Doctor, clearly implying the sub-text to the audience that Doctor and Odysseus are essentially one and the same character.