When the TARDIS arrives on the plains of Asia Minor, not far from the besieged city of Troy, the Doctor is hailed by Achilles (Cavan Kendall) as the mighty god Zeus and taken to the Greek camp, where he meets Agamemnon (Francis de Wolff) and Odysseus (Ivor Salter). Forced to admit that he is a mere mortal - albeit a traveller in space and time - he is given just two days to devise a scheme to capture Troy.

First Vicki, and then later Steven, are meanwhile taken prisoner by the Trojans. King Priam (Max Adrian) gives Vicki - the supposed possessor of supernatural powers - two days to banish the Greeks and thus prove that she is not a spy.

Having initially dismissed the famous wooden horse as a fiction of Homer's, the Doctor is eventually driven to 'invent' it himself, thereby giving the Greeks the means to defeat the Trojans.

Vicki, having assumed the guise of Cressida, falls in love with one of Priam's sons, Troilus (James Lynn), and decides to remain behind with him when the TARDIS leaves. Steven, having adopted the identity of Odysseus's dead friend Diomede, has been injured in a clash of swords with a Trojan warrior, and is helped into the ship by Katarina (Adrienne Hill), a handmaiden to the prophetess Cassandra (Frances White). The TARDIS dematerialises with Katarina still on board.

Synopsis from Doctor Who: The First Doctor Handbook by David J. Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker, reprinted with permission; further reproduction is not permitted. Available from Telos