Doctor Who: Farewell Great Macedon

The Lost Stories #2.1a

by Moris Farhi

'Seeing history unfold before my very eyes.
I was once told one should look upon history objectively.
But now, I find myself emotionally involved — and it makes me very unhappy...'
-Barbara Wright

When the TARDIS arrives outside the gates of Babylon the Doctor and his friends find themselves in the presence of Alexander the Great. But there is treachery at work as generals plot to overthrow the king and his men. When the travellers stand accused the Doctor and Ian must face trials while still trying to uncover the real murderers.

Farewell Great Macedon, from the pen of young writer Moris Farhi, is one of DOCTOR WHO's earliest examples of a "missing story". Written in 1964, the tale shows many of the hallmarks of the first season of the fledgling science-fiction series while also including many suggestions for other ways the show might have developed. Now you can enjoy this glimpse into those early formative years.

This volume is rounded off with background on the real historical figures and reviews from several DOCTOR WHO historians, plus a special edition of the DWM Time Team.

Included is a bonus opening script for another early submission from Moris Farhi — The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance; and a brief history of Moris' distinguished career.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Time Travel, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2010

About the author

Farhi was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1935. Farhi received B.A. in Humanities from Robert Academy, Istanbul, in 1954. He came to the UK the same year and trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1956 and settling in London. After a brief career as an actor, he took up writing.

Farhi has written several novels, including Children of the Rainbow and Journey through the Wilderness. Children of the Rainbow has received two prizes: the “Amico Rom” from the Associazione Them Romano of Italy (2002); and the “Special” prize from the Roma Academy of Culture and Sciences in Germany (2003). The French edition of Young Turk (Jeunes Turcs) received the 2007 Alberto Benveniste Prize for Literature. His poems have appeared in many British, US and European publications and in the anthology of 20th century Jewish poets, Voices Within the Ark (Avon, US, 1979). He has also published short stories in anthologies and magazines in the UK, the US and Poland. He has written many television scripts; a film, The Primitives; and a stage play, From The Ashes of Thebes.

Farhi's essay, "The Courage To Forget", appeared in Index on Censorship (Vol.24, No.2, 2005). "God Save Us From Religion", is included in the collection, Free Expression is No Offence (edited by Lisa Appignanesi, published by Penguin Books, 2005). "All History is the History of Migration", given at the “Know Your Place?” Conference in November 2005, was also published by Index on Censorship in 2006. Farhi's works have been translated into Arabic, Dutch, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Turkish.

Farhi has donated part of his personal library, consisting over 19.000 books, to Boğaziçi University.

For over twenty-five years Farhi has campaigned, from the ranks of English PEN Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC), for writers persecuted and/or imprisoned by repressive regimes. Between 1994-1997, he served as Chair of the English WiPC; and between 1997–2000, as Chair of International P.E.N.’s Writers in Prison Committee. In November 2001, he was elected a Vice President of International PEN. He was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in June 16, 2001, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, for services to literature. He is a Fellow of both The Royal Society of Literature and The Royal Geographical Society.

Farhi also briefly worked on the BBC science fiction adventure TV series Doctor Who during its early stages of production in 1963.

Farhi was married to the late Nina Farhi (née Gould), a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and has a stepdaughter, Rachel Sievers, a speech therapist. He is related to the late prominent businessman Üzeyir Garih.

Reviews

[Ken]

Big Finish's Lost Story range is such and interesting and cool idea of recreating scripts of stories that never made it to screen.

This First Doctor story features the TARDIS crew arrive in Babylon during June 323 B.C. where they meet Alexander the Great.

One of the disadvantages of trying to recreate this serial is that all the cast members are no longer with us.
It takes the first part to adjust to they way the story is narrated through William Russell and Carol Ann Ford whilst John Dorney plays Alexander brilliantly.

This story can easy be described as epic which might explain why it never made it to the screen, the setting is well explained and the politics of the time are meticulously explored.
Once Barbara realises the significance of the date that the time travellers have landed in helps add to the dilemma of them being able to change history.

Wonderfully recreated but some of the episodes run over 40 minutes which doesn't really reflect how the episodes would hace worked in the 25 minute format.
But it feels churlish to complain about the detail.

This audiobook was free download with a promotioal code in DWM 556 but I'd highly recommend it to any fans of the historicals during the Hartnell era.

[Rick]

To be fair: I’m a big fan of Alexander the Great. Some people love King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table. Some people get off on all things Robin Hood. For others it’s the Monkey King, Sun Wukong (ok, I’m into Sun Wukong as well). Or maybe anything to do with the myths of Atlantis or Bigfoot or Area 51. Most people have something that really triggers their imaginative sparks. I do love a good tale of Alexander the Great (in fact I wrote a short fanfic of the first Doctor meeting up with an adolescent Alexander and Hephaestion). And I was deeply worried that this one would offer a watered down, safe and sanitized version of Alexander. And in some ways it did. It’s also not very historically accurate (but I’m not a Whovian for historical accuracy). But there is enough wiggle room and vagueness that allows for some interruptions of motivations and intention. So I found myself really enjoying this narrative, in fact I was nearly brought to tears on more than one occasion. Which admittedly had more to do with me adding information into the narrative, than what was actually there. But in any case, I really did enjoy this enormously. My ONLY complaint (well, there is another, but that one couldn’t be helped) was that this wasn’t a full cast production. It was great to have William Russell and Carole Ann Ford reprising their respective roles and alternating the narration, but it would be wonderful to hear the new cast lead by David Bradley as the Doctor doing this. Still, with how much I did enjoy this one I don’t really care that much.

[Paulo "paper books only"]

Good book / Audiobook. I really enjoy this story of how Alexander the Great fell. It was interesting to see some how the author did it. Besides the Doctor and his companions. We get to see Alexander and his 3 companions (and next in line to the throne). It was interesting to see the plot to assassinate them all.

One of the highlights was Barbara thoughts about changing history and most of the episode she had mix feelings about saving Alexander and at the same time, history should not be changed. In the end she says to Susan that story could not be changed and even if they do something "fate" or something like that would make that happen in other way.

What I did not enjoy?
Well, for one part is the liberty that was given to the maker of teleplay (book) and it changed dates (like the time of death of some protagonists). Other was the anachronisms that were in the play itself and most of all it was the Alexander the Great personality. Here is a champion of freedom and equality but for what I've read in history he was a Tyrant. I think he believed that all cultures had some interest and I also think he was one of the first to have a idea of a united world BUT under his belt, not free democratic system.

Can I advise you to read this story?
Unless you are a hard fan of Dr Who and saw every episode from th 60 until now, then I would advise you because this was supposedly to be a teleplay but they didn't film it. It's in the same vein of Marco Polo, Astects and The Crusades. It's slow paced and our protagonists have little part...

[Steven Poore]

This is the kind of thing that the Lost Stories range from Big Finish was made for. Tour de force performances from the then-venerable William Russell and the graceful Carole Ann Ford, alongside John Dorney's audiologically buff Alexander the Great, as the story sometimes veers between straight narration and dialogue in the same sentence.

Moris Farhi apparently wrote all six episodes of this story inside a week, and other than the necessary tweaking to fit the limited cast, it's all there in the three and a half hours of this swords and sandals epic. The style is deliberately declamatory, and William Hartnell's Doctor haunts Russell's voice. Even Ford does a decent impression of him - she's had to take on his mannerisms before in the Companion Chronicles.

Yes, it's very long. Recent Big Finish sticks to the modern TV format - single episode wham-bam stories that make Macedon feel old-fashioned indeed. Perfect for a very long drive.

[David Layton]

Stretching all the way to 1964 and the first TARDIS crew, sadly that crew is at only half strength. So, rather than have new actors step in to take the old roles, Big Finish chose to have these scripts done like the Companion Chronicles series, as though these are stories being read rather than full dramatic performances. One ought, therefore, to approach these as audio books rather than as audio dramas. Farewell, Great Macedon is a six-part historical centering on Alexander the Great. Though the CD extras segments emphasize the historical accuracy of the story, this is not truly the case. All the events in the story did happen, more or less, and there is much speculation that Alexander may have been poisoned. However, these events in history happened months apart and hundreds of miles from each other. For the sake of drama and TV budgets, therefore, some condensing had to take place, so that the events here happen only days apart and within the space of a couple of square miles. Alexander here is a touch more modern than probably the real Alexander was, and certainly is less brutal and hot-headed. However, the script is no more inaccurate than any other Doctor Who historical.

[D.G. Saunders]

In 1964, Moris Farhi was invited to submit a sample script for a Doctor Who story. Instead, he wrote all six episodes of his proposed tale, Farewell Great Macedon. The story was never made, but the scripts have now been published by the makers of the fanzine Nothing at the End of the Lane.

Reading the scripts makes for an odd experience, as they have not had the benefit of the process of editing and redrafting that televised episodes have undergone. The regular characters are well-realized most of the time, but occasional lines seem out of character (although this could happen even in transmitted episodes – see Ian’s line about his “pants” (by which he means his trousers) in The Web Planet). Moreover, there are a number of anachronisms here that David Whitaker might have removed. Some, like the changes of the dates of the deaths of Alexander the Great’s retinue, are justifiable on the grounds of poetic licence. Less acceptable are ancient characters continually speaking of “scientists” and the TARDIS crew giving Alexander a watch and a modern compass, undermining the early programme’s insistence that history can not be changed. This would be less noticeable were it not a key theme of this very story!

A bigger problem comes with Alexander the Great’s character. While he is portrayed as a rounded figure, an idealist with a short temper and a fondness for wine, the author is clearly besotted with him and moreover is intent on using him as a mouthpiece for anachronistic ideas, particularly when he starts protesting about racial intermarriage leading to lynching, a concern from the south of the USA in the sixties rather than the ancient world. As Philip MacDonald points out in his review, the real Alexander was a tyrant and slave-owner; it is hard to see him as a spokesman for universal freedom and brotherly love. Moreover, even assuming for the sake of argument that Alexander’s conquests were motivated purely by the desire to spread Greek freedom and democracy across the world, the script refuses to question whether this dream is attainable or even desirable. To be fair, we have the advantage of being able to look back at recent history and see how such a policy has failed, examples that would not have struck Farhi in 1964 (although he might have pondered the ultimate failure of the French Revolution to spread its ideals).

Away from such thematic concerns, the plot is solid, but a bit hard to get into. The early episodes are rather slow and the TARDIS crew only real get involved in events in the second half of the story. Even then, key incidents occur without their input or even their presence. Typically for the time, there are many long dialogue-based scenes which can get a bit tiring, especially as they often lack the poetry of The Crusade; then again, maybe the script suffers from not having actors to bring the dialogue to life. With four regulars and nine main guest characters, it is perhaps not surprising that some characters, particularly Ptolemy and Glaucias remain ciphers. Furthermore, there is no mystery to maintain the audience’s attention. We know from the first episode who the villains are and what they intend to do; the only question is whether they will succeed. There is also a lack of humour, although that is less surprising for a season one story and the Doctor’s fire walking scene has comic value.

Despite these faults, Farewell Great Macedon could have been a strong story after a little editing. However, in retrospect, it is perhaps unsurprising that it was not made, as it shares some similarities to finished season one stories. Like The Aztecs, it focuses on changing history, with one or more of the regular characters trying to ‘improve’ on what really happened. Like Marco Polo, there is a linear plot about an assassination attempt on a famous ruler with the regulars blamed. From this point of view, Farewell Great Macedon benefits from being published some (considerable) time after those stories, when we have had time to grow nostalgic for something in a similar vein.

While I had mixed views about the story itself, I have no uncertainty about the production of this particular volume. Clearly a labour of love for all involved (for copyright reasons, this book is not for profit), it features cleverly faked telesnaps and Radio Times listings for the story and several interesting reviews by fans, as well as a short essay on the historical Alexander the Great. However, I was uncertain as to why the Time Team were included, given that their self-proclaimed mission is to watch all of Doctor Who “in order”, something they clearly were not doing with this story. There were a few typos and mistakes, inevitable in a non-professionally produced work, but overall the standard is very high. My main quibble is that the authentic reproduction of the scripts leads to a very tall book. I have widely-spaced shelves, but this is too tall to be shelved upright!

Also included is The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance, another unused Doctor Who script by Farhi, but this time only one episode long. It is a rather unusual story and it is easy to see why David Whitaker rejected it, as it reads more like a World Distributors annual story than a made television story. Set on a planet where people commit suicide when their hearts are broken, most of the story (which threatens to have a plot, but never quite manages it) involves the Doctor explaining how the TARDIS works. Reading this, it is quite clear why the series itself tended to avoid such explanations. While eschewing the technobabble that would blight the programme from the seventies to the present day, it is banal to the point of absurdity, not to mention scientifically laughable. It is not surprising that David Whitaker and Moris Farhi came to a mutual decision that Farhi would pitch for a historical story instead. However, it does provide additional insight into the thinking processes of the production programme on Doctor Who’s first season, by showing what they avoided.

[Charles Mitchell]

This was an incredible audio adventure and instantly became one of my favorite Big Finish stories.
If you're a fan of early Who historicals (Marco Polo, The Aztecs, The Reign Of Terror), and in my opinion everyone should be (although I understand why many Whovians greatly dislike them), this is one of, if not, the best.
Our original Who crew, Barbara, Ian, Susan, and the Doctor, find themselves amidst Alexander the Great's war party in the last days of his life. The intrigue and drama are in full display here, creating a tense thriller vibe. Excellent.

[Luiz Santiago]

4,5
http://www.planocritico.com/tag/docto...

[Hasselhh]

I don't need sad books to see the beauty in things or whatever people like about it. This story is so sad and depressing that it was only a promise which made me finish it

[Debra Cook]

The doctor, ian, babara and susan are around for the death of alexander the great.

[Billy Martel]

Fuck this colonizer apologist bullshit

[Maj]

I enjoy First Doctor's monster-less historicals. This audio recreation of an unused early story is no exception.

It does drag on in a few places and perhaps gets too wordy here and there but I love the time period it's set in, I love Alex the Great and I love the original TARDIS crew so despite its length it was very enjoyable story for me.

[Scott Haworth]

A strong historical tale, with political intrigue, philosophical debate, and, of course, death. A rather sombre affair, but what do you expect from a tragedy?

[Elizabeth]

Rather tedious murder nonmystery with many tangential exercises in futility.

[Sam]

What could possibly justify making this story 3 hours and 39 minutes long?