Farmer's 'Heel' opens with a startling premise: the Trojan War is a movie being directed by an alien named Zeus, who wears a cerise beret and hexagonal dark glasses. His wife Hera, draped in a scarlet web that translates her skin's micro-voltages into musical tones, watches the battle on a screen. The Director's casual power over the 'natives' of Earth is established immediately when he says, 'I may not look like a god, but as far as my power over the natives of this planet goes, I could well be their deity.' This collision of high-tech spectacle and ancient myth sets the tone for a story that constantly undercuts its own epic pretensions.

Script vs. Spontaneity

The Director insists he never changes the Script, only makes 'slight revisions required for dramatic effects.' Yet the narrative shows constant improvisation: Hera and Athena plot to kill Patroclos to get Achilles back into the fight, then plan to make the Director think it was his idea. The Script is treated as a flexible tool, not a fixed text. Characters argue over its interpretation, and the Director's revisions are driven by personal grudges and dramatic convenience. This tension between a predetermined plot and the characters' manipulations mirrors the story's own structure, where the Trojan War is both a historical event and a staged production. The reader is left wondering how much of the action is scripted and how much is genuine rebellion.

Alien Gods and Human Mortals

The aliens are immortal, technologically advanced beings who treat Earth as a primitive backwater. The Director's wife calls the Trojans 'savages,' and Apollo refers to Achilles as a 'barbarian.' Yet the aliens are not uniformly superior: they bicker, scheme, and fall in love across species lines. Thetis, a mere 'hundred years or so' old, loves the red-haired Achilles and plans to inject him with perpetuol to extend his life. Hephaistos, the five-thousand-year-old technician, warns her that love between man and woman is not worth tears. The story uses this contrast to explore the gap between cosmic power and human emotion, suggesting that even gods are subject to the same passions they manipulate in mortals.

The Heel as a Figure of Disruption

The title 'Heel' refers to Apollo, whom Thetis calls a 'heel' when he intrudes on her cabin. In wrestling terminology, a heel is a villain who disrupts the narrative. Apollo fits this role: he blackmails Thetis with a recording of her plan to run off with Achilles, and he taunts her with the threat of exposure. Yet the story complicates this label. The Director is equally manipulative, and Hera's hatred of the Trojans stems from a beauty contest. The heel is not a single character but a function of the power dynamics at play. The term also echoes Achilles' famous heel, the one vulnerable spot in his armor. In Farmer's version, vulnerability is not physical but emotional: Thetis's love for Achilles is her heel, and Apollo exploits it.

Readers should pay attention to the way Farmer uses anachronism and slang to deflate mythic grandeur. The Director's 'fourpluses' and 'cerise beret' are deliberately jarring, reminding us that this is a story about storytelling itself. The excerpts leave unresolved whether Thetis will succeed in saving Achilles or whether the Script will prevail. The incomplete text invites speculation about how the alien production will end, but the focus remains on the characters' struggles within their own narrative constraints.