‘Farewell Alexander! Farewell Great Macedon!’
This ‘Lost Story’ is an absolute gem, to my mind the match of the best of the TV historical stories. It was originally written for season one and such is the quality of the script it is a bit perplexing that it wasn’t made. Moris Fahri (an Anglo-Turkish writer, who unfortunately died earlier this year), worked on the scripts for David Whittaker and wrote most of it while watching the TV transmission of ‘Marco Polo’. Unlike many of the other ‘Lost Stories’ there were 6 almost complete scripts to work off (apparently, he was only asked for a treatment by Whitaker, but enjoyed it so much he wrote all of it) and the finished result is pretty close to what was originally written. The format of this production is a hybrid of full cast and spoken word narration – with the piece being carried by William Russell (on terrific form – what a joy it is to have more of Ian), Carole Ann Ford and John Dorney (an actor, whose often brilliant work as I writer I will be covering as we go) – excellent as Alexander. At 6 episodes, the story flies by. It is a mix of a thoughtful exploration of history and one of its key figures, combined with intrigue and action.
So where does it sit amongst the other Hartnell historical stories – well It is less of a journey than ‘Marco Polo’ (which given the subject matter it could easily have been), bound as it is to the outskirts of Babylon in the year 323BC. However, it does have elements in common with both ‘Marco Polo’ and ‘The Aztecs’ – dealing with both a central figure, surrounded by those trying to kill him and also the dangers of changing history, Barbara having already learned her lesson in that regard. It is also rather more like the ‘celebrity historical stories’ of the future, albeit a more detailed, mature and leisurely version. It is essentially a character study of Alexander the Great and his four appointed successors and friends – the blustering General (old Father Clytus – a father figure to Alexander), the wise man (the Indian Callanus – a trusted advisor), the bodyguard/warrior (Ptolemy) and the best friend, confidante – and possibly more (Hephaestion). They are all beautifully sketched and the collegiate atmosphere of brotherhood in Alexander’s camp is rather wonderfully captured. Soon, you feel like you know them all. Alexander is an idealist, he isn’t perfect and his idea of bringing together nations through conquest is questioned and challenged in the piece, but despite his impulsiveness at times (clashing with Clytus for example), he is shown to be a wise man and great leader.
The story works in patterns of four – the four friends matched against the four travellers. However, as ever there are vipers in this nest, manouvering to succeed Alexander – Iollas (the soothsayer who the Doctor gives tips to on how to cook lamb!), Antipater (the politician), Seleucus (a general with designs on Alexanders throne) and Glaucius (the physician). One by one they kill Alexander’s friends and conspire (rather unsuccessfully) to try to poison Alexander’s relationship with the travellers. The leader is far too clever for that and the conspirators are a very obvious bunch. However, that doesn’t stop the four friends dying one by one in a series of very moving scenes, culminating in the death of Alexander himself. Each time the travellers try to help the victims, fate intervenes and history snaps back into place.
This is also an excellent story for the regulars. Everyone gets something to do – Barbara commanding the respect of Alexander through her wisdom and compassion, Ian gets to be brave and courageous – besting Alexander’s men at wrestling, but also gets to use his scientific skills. The Doctor is in early season 1 grumpy mode, but he gets to show his ingenuity devising blood transfusions and an iron lung many centuries too early – only to be thwarted by the tide of history. In fact, there are some priceless moments for the Doctor – accepting Alexander’s challenge to walk barefoot through fire – which he does so gleefully, shamelessly showing off for the crowd – you can just imagine the great man chuckling delightedly to himself. My favourite though is at the start of the story when the TARDIS has crash landed after a fuel leak. They arrive in some gardens (actually the Hanging Gardens) and hear heavenly music – Susan fears that they have died and this is heaven – to which the Doctor tells her that this cannot be heaven – as he doesn’t know the way! Only Susan (as ever) is slightly left out, without a Ping Cho type figure to bond with. It never really feels entirely like this though as she is one of the main narrating characters and so is never far from the action.
If you like ‘Marco Polo’ and ‘The Aztecs’ and wish you had more of Ian, Barbara, Susan and the First Doctor in your life (and you really should), you could do very much worse than trying this. The Hartnell era is evoked so perfectly, that to my mind, by the end of the story, you almost feel that Phil Morris has found it buried in a desert somewhere and you have watched it in all its VidFired glory, with the hanging Gardens of Babylon depicted by Barry Newberry using a few painted backcloths. I don’t normally give out scores, but this one is effortlessly 10/10
A Journal of Impossible Things 