The City of Death

“Romana, you know I think something very funny’s going on. You remember that man who was following us? Well he’s standing behind me poking a gun in my back” – The Doctor

When this serial first aired it was ridiculed for being far too farcical to be a story for Doctor who, yet the first time I watched it I fell in love with it, and it now stands as pretty much my favourite serial.

“C’mon, we’re on holiday”

The City of Death marks Doctor Who’s first shoot out of Blighty, crossing over to the shores of France. Paris to be exact. The setting makes for something unusual in Who, as it’s not a quarry, and it’s not somewhere you can quickly identify as Islington. The reason for the choice to shoot in the real deal is obvious. Trying to make the Louvre out of polystyrene is costly and pointless. All the same it allows for the comedy of the episode to be added to by using cheeky scenes such as the idea of the Doctor on a train and nearly getting killed multiple times by the insane driving style they have in Paris.

“I say. What a wonderful butler, he’s so violent. Hello, I’m called the Doctor.”

In it’s day, for an episode of Doctor Who this was not so much ground breaking as it was offensive. Even the occasionally daft Second Doctor didn’t pervert himself to the role of stand up comedian. All the same in what was new and shocking then, is rather typical for modern day Who, indeed a lot of the philosophy on what makes the Doctor for today seems to have been drawn from Tom Baker’s slapstick alterations during Graham Williams tenure. Delivering one liners, manically taking charge of the drinks cabinet, and did someone mention a crack in time? This serial would appear to have much to answer for.

“You remember the Mona Lisa? That dreadful women with no eyebrows who wouldn’t sit still?”

Yet as much as we may adore the comedy of the story today, we also have to appreciate how dramatic the story is as well. The cliff hanger for episode 2 is absolute Who gold, and adds a lot more mystery to the count, just when we thought we knew his background was ‘Okay, he’s an alien, he must want to blow up the planet and the Doc has to stop hi… oh but wait, he’s in renaissance France, WTF?!’. Whilst we’re on the subject of the Mona Lisa, the revelation of the second painting sent shivers through me, and with each new one being unveiled the whole thing became more intense and pulled me along with it. 7 Mona Lisa’s?! And all genuine? Wow, that beats the Daleks for me. What’s even better is the Doctor’s simple solution for making them fakes. Writing ‘THIS IS A FAKE’ on the canvases and leaving a note to his dear pal Leonardo.

“Exquisite”

The conclusion to the episode though does arguable take dramatic license a little too far, particularly when the Doctor earlier in the serial commented on the atmosphere of prehistoric earth being toxic. All the same the story has one last shocking revelation that the explosion of the ship is what creates life on earth, and so as one race dies, a better looking one lives. History in motion.