By Timothy, Moris Farhi writes good dialogue! This is another episode which gripped me throughout. Alexander's reaction to Cleitus's death fits the reported facts, too; there is uncertainty over his sincerity in history, but not in this story.
It seems as if Alexander really was a man of great passion, and it makes sense that his grief is writ as large as his anger. In fact, this episode is principally about emotions and personality, and how they interact. It makes for very engaging drama. We have Ian sunk in guilt for the part he played in Cleitus's death, while Barbara has taken on board the lessons of The Aztecs and attempts to comfort him with the historical inevitability of what happened. By the end, though, she has played her part in another death, and I wonder if that argument will help her to come to terms with that. In both cases our heroes did what did because of what would normally be considered virtues: Ian's fierce sense of morality, Barbara's honesty.
In between, stuff happens. We find out how persuasive Barbara can be - as does Alexander - and how different Antipater is from his fellow conspirators. Calanus gets to show off his wisdom concerning people, though not in the case of Antipater. And we learn that the Doctor is really a medical doctor.
Wait - what? I suspect that line would have been cut by David Whitaker if this had been made for TV. Sure, it makes sense that the Doctor can use his broad range of future knowledge to diagnose Calanus's sickness, and I can even cope with the ancient blood transfusion service (which provides another opportunity for some excellent debates); but that doesn't make him an M.D. Hmph, as he himself might say.
Incidentally, the historical Calanus was dying of pneumonia rather than from poisoning when he made his final request, but the rest of the details seem accurate.
There's a series of children's books that my son is really into at the moment called 'The Danger Zone', about perilous situations in history. The titles all follow the same pattern, and with this story I'm starting to feel as if we're in one called 'Avoid Being One of Alexander the Great's Friends'. I reckon Hephaestion's number will be up next episode.
Finally we come to the cliffhanger, and it's a clever one. In most cases we wouldn't worry about Ian being threatened like that, but over the last two episodes we've come to see quite how violent Alexander's rages can be. As a result, there's more of a sense of genuine peril than there would have been, say, two episodes ago. Of course we know Ian will survive; but that isn't the purpose of a cliffhanger, really. It's more of a "how will he get out of that?", a way of keeping us thinking about the show during the week and making sure we tune in next time to find out. If we thought that it would be resolved with an "oh, never mind, I'll let you off this time" from Alexander it wouldn't work. Of course, that might still happen; but if so it's a problem with the resolution. And that belongs to the next episode.
Development of a Script, Part 3: Choose Your Own Adventure
As script editor, it was part of Whitaker's job to match up writers with story ideas that (a) fitted with a slot in the schedule, and (b) matched the writer's ability and experience. He didn't always get it right - pairing Terry Nation with historical The Red Fort, for example, didn't get anywhere - but it worked more often than not. Whitaker wasn't sure Moris Farhi was right for Who, but recognised someone who could be an asset for the BBC anyway. He encouraged Farhi to think up exotic ideas, and they explored the possibility of doing something on Hayreddin Barbarossa before deciding that it would be too expensive. Once Farhi hit on the idea of exploring the end of Alexander's life, Whitaker asked him for a trial script - and I've already explained what happened next...
Rating:
8/10.
Next Time:
Episode 4, The World Lies Dead At Your Feet.
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