City of Death: Part One

The song playing in the background is a version of Dan Fogelburg's "Power of Gold". OK, now I have to fill this out to the 150 character requirement. Well, that didn't do it. It is a great episode, the first filmed outside the UK and for some reason K9 could not be used in Paris.

Review of all 4 episodes:

This story is heralded as one of the greats and deservedly so. It is a joyous, thoroughly entertaining and wonderfully witty adventure.

The story begins as an alien spacecraft on primordial Earth has an accident causing the demise of the alien race the Jagaroth. We learn that one last Jagaroth called Scaroth is thrown into the time vortex and is splintered throughout Earth's history into 12 versions of himself all linked but unable to escape from their time. Scaroth in modern day Paris is carrying out experiments in time travel to reunite his splintered existence and go back to save his people. He funds these experiments by stealing and selling priceless works of art such as the Mona Lisa. The Doctor and Romana join with a private detective named Duggan to stop him as his plot involves the destruction of humanity.

This is written by Douglas Adams who had already taken over as script editor for this year and brought his eccentric humour to the whole season. City of death takes that humour to the next level with much of it played as witty farce. It is very funny - especially Tom Baker's banter and a scene where John Cleese and Eleanor Bron cameo, sending up art critics. Baker is effervescent and Lalla Ward establishes a nice chemistry with him. Duggan adds another humorous aspect and the dialogue is just sublime.

Julian Glover is superbly classy and menacing as Scaroth while Catherine Schell adds a further polished and impressive performance as the Countess. David graham is another great character as Kerensky having previously voiced Daleks in 1st Doctor stories (He also went on many years later to voice children's cartoon characters like Grandpa Pig in Peppa Pig and the Wise Old Elf in Ben & Holly!).

We get a couple of fabulous cliffhangers and amongst the fun there is some excitement and threat provided by the dramatic events.

The plot is great, the script is very amusing, the location filming in Paris adds some style and all the acting is superb. This is a real classic.

My ratings: All episodes 10/10.

This was one of the first Doctor Who episodes (Tom Baker era) I saw, and it's a shame that I almost forgot about it! Not out of any negativity towards the four-parter, not at all. Indeed when the memories of the episode came back it was like a pleasurable wave of wild twists and turns and the inimitable Mona Lisa staring at us, not to mention its copies. The episode was (ghost)written by Douglas Adams, and his sense of hilarity and strong story construction is evident in this episode, which takes the Doctor and Romana off to Paris, and into a plot involving stolen and faked versions of the Mona Lisa, including a visit to Leonardo's workshop (and hey, the guy sure can make copies)!

There's also a lot of fun with the villain in the episode, Scaroth nay the Count, played with delicious scene-chewing by Julian Glover, and there's a twist in the plot that, naturally, brings world destruction into the mix. The dialog is especially good here, another credit to Adams ("Where are we going?" "Are you talking philosophically or geographically?" "Philosophically" "Then we're going to lunch?"), and the whole aspect of the plot with art duplication works ingeniously with the bigger picture in the story. And, naturally, at the end of each 25 minute segment, you can't wait to see what comes next.

It is a general rule of science fiction, at least of the cinema or broadcast variety, that alien invasions always take place in the country that produced the film or programme in question. Thus Godzilla, being a Japanese creation, is always threatening Tokyo, whereas the aliens featured in Hollywood blockbusters like "Independence Day" or "The War of the Worlds" always start their invasion of Planet Earth with an attack on New York, Washington or Los Angeles. (In H G Wells's original "War of the Worlds" the first target of the Martian invasion was Woking, the Surrey commuter town where he was living when he wrote the book. For obvious reasons, no Hollywood producer has ever run with this idea).

Similarly, the monsters in "Dr Who", be they Daleks, Cybermen, Silurians or whatever, rarely show any interest in any part of the world other than Britain. "City of Death", however, is an exception in that it deals with an alien invasion of Paris. The BBC had evidently increased the series' budget enough to allow for location shooting abroad, but picked the wrong week for their jaunt because the French capital is grey and rain-shrouded, making it look curiously like Manchester. You can tell it's Paris, however, because although everyone speaks English one or two of them make an attempt at a French accent.

The alien invasion is unusual for another reason in that it is carried out by a single alien. He cannot call for reinforcements because he is the Last of the Jagaroth, the sole survivor of a cruel, aggressive race otherwise wiped out in a war some 400 million years ago. One Jagaroth- the word can be either singular or plural- is quite enough to cause trouble, however. This particular individual has successfully disguised himself as a human and is living the good life of a French aristocrat in an elegant Parisian townhouse, without anyone, including his beautiful young wife, suspecting that he may not be what he seems. He has concocted a plan to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, but the Doctor has discovered that he may have other, even more sinister plans involving time travel. (It is always a bad sign when anyone, other than the Time Lords themselves, starts monkeying with time). This is the only series in which the Jagaroth appear, possibly because their appearance, which is roughly that of a badly-knitted sock-puppet with no facial features other than a single eye, was more ridiculous than menacing. Their lack of a mouth, however, does not appear to prevent them from speaking- indeed, this one has rather a lot to say for himself.

It was a sad day for "Doctor Who" when the lovely Mary Tamm left the series after only one season, apparently because she did not like the way her character was being developed by the scriptwriters. The producers, however, felt that the character of Romana was too good to waste, and promptly brought in another actress to play her. As Romana is a Time Lady they could explain away the change in her appearance by her ability to regenerate herself in the same way as the Doctor, but I never liked Lalla Ward as much as Mary. With her too-perfect features and her smooth, flawless skin she always put me in mind of a porcelain doll and her personality seemed to be that of a rather prissy public schoolgirl, an impression reinforced here by a costume which bore a distinct, and doubtless deliberate, resemblance to a school uniform. Romana is supposed to have a brain the size of a small planet, but she can be surprisingly naïve, something shown here when she is easily tricked into assisting the Jagaroth with his nefarious schemes.

The serial was supposedly written by "David Agnew", but no individual of this name ever existed. It was a pseudonym for a writing team which included Douglas Adams, best known for his sci-fi spoof "The Hitch- Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Something of Adams' influence can clearly be detected in "City of Death", as it is one of the more comical of the Fourth Doctor's adventures. Apart from the weird appearance of the Jagaroth, the lack of seriousness is shown in the rather farcical scenes when the Doctor travels back in time to Renaissance Italy and in some of the secondary characters such as the pugnacious, bone-headed private detective Duggan and the wimpish mad scientist Kerensky. (The Doctor's purpose in going back to the Florence of 1505 is to meet his old mate Leonardo da Vinci, but finds he has missed him. There seemed to be a deliberate policy during the Pertwee/ Tom Baker/Davidson era of not showing real historical individuals, even in scenes set in the past).

The serial starts off slowly, but picks up and becomes more entertaining in later episodes. Overall, however, I felt that the balance between humour and tension was upset too much in favour of the former.

A goof. We are told that there was no life on Earth until about 400 million years ago. In fact, life on Earth began long before that. By 400 million BC, during the Devonian period, quite advanced life-forms, including vertebrates, had already evolved.

From the beautiful opening scene of the alien spaceship and its occupant to the cliffhanger ending, episode one of "City of Death" is very satisfying television.

With an excellent cast including baddie Julian Glover, punch-thirsty Tom Chadbon and the beautiful Catherine Schell, this is a quality production. Tom Baker and Lalla Ward are clearly having a blast making this Paris-based adventure and the fun is infectious.

With the script heavily influenced and written by a certain Douglas Adams (under the pseudonym of David Agnew), the episode is inventive and witty.

9 out of 10. Vintage "Who".