City of Death DVD NTSC Region 1 DVD PAL Region 2 VHS Video NTSC PAL

(Doctor Who Story No. 105, starring Tom Baker) written by Douglas Adams, David Fisher & Graham Williams under the name "David Agnew" directed by Michael Hayes produced by Graham Williams music by Dudley Simpson 4 episodes @ 25 minutes each Story: Paris, 1979. The Doctor and Romana abandon their holiday to investigate a series of cracks appearing in the fabric of time itself, and soon uncover an overly elaborate scheme to steal the Mona Lisa. What is the true purpose of Count Scarlioni's machinations? Will the Doctor's interference put all of Paris under threat? And will Private Investigator Duggan ever learn the true value of art?

DVD Extras include:

• Audio commentary by Julian Glover (Count Scarlioni), Tom Chadbon (Duggan), and director Michael Hayes.
• "Paris in the Springtime" making-of documentary (44 min.) adding Catherine Schell (The Countess), co-writer David Fisher,
  co-script editor Anthony Read, "The Pirate Planet" director Pennant Roberts, fan professionals Steven Moffat and Robert Shearman,
  and previously-shot interviews with the late co-writer / script editor Douglas Adams.
• Raw BW studio footage (20 min.) featuring bloopers, deleted and extended scenes
• Pop-up Production Note subtitles for main feature
• Pop-up Production Note subtitles for raw footage
• "Prehistoric Landscapes" (2 min.) - more unused model footage
• "Chicken Wrangler" (3 min.) - more comedic raw film footage
• Photo Gallery (9 min.)
• "Eye on Blatchford" (13 min.) - spoof featurette
• DVD ROM 1980 Doctor Who Annual .pdf
• Bonus Douglas Adams interview Easter Eggs

"City of Death" can quite easily be ranked as the most fun story of season 17. It is visually exciting, quite humorous, and also presents an interesting sci-fi concept - Art theft and fraud through time-travel and alien gadgetry. It's original, and more importantly, in the end it is used to express the thematic question: What is genuine quality in art?

Character-wise, we are dealt a lot of stereotypes with little dimension: The brutal body-guard, the absent-minded scientist, the thumping police detective. Thankfully though, the story has the finest cast of the season which more than compensates. Julian Glover and Catherine Schell play their roles as Count and Countess with absolute conviction, making their characters extremely watchable and enjoyable. Peter Halliday makes his role as a rather simple 16th century swordsman enjoyable and believable through a great deal of understatement. David Graham and Tom Chadbon, though threatening to go over the top, remain highly entertaining nonetheless. A cameo by John Cleese and Eleanor Bron also remains a highlight to look forward to in the final episode.

The TARDIS takes a backseat to the introduction of the characters; as their mode of time travel, it becomes something the villain needs to discover about them, and members of the audience unfamiliar with the TARDIS will have to wait until the later half of the story to discover it with him, when the police box proceeds to demonstrate its ability to materialize in many different times and locations and deliver the satisfaction that may have been missing earlier. Even then, the interior features as only a single still frame (probably pulled from "The Creature From the Pit" [story no. 106] or some other previously shot footage), used to construct a shot of the Doctor looking at the scanner screen. And since K9 has been banished to the TARDIS interior for the story, he also does not appear.

The Doctor and Romana are instead presented to viewers as mysterious, educated travelers, whose affinity for matters of time, not to mention ability to travel through it, slowly leaks out through the dialogue as the story unfolds. This very different approach works quite well in this particular story, and makes for a nice change.

This story is also able to boast a tour-de-force from incidental music composer Dudley Simpson, whose highly memorable Paris touring theme leads an exceptional score. Also of note musically is a wonderful piece for the prehistoric Jagaroth spaceship scene that helps cement in place the bookend nature of the story's structure, and some very enjoyable Renaissance music complete with a period rendition of the fourth Doctor's theme.

The strengths of this script clearly lie in its sense of investigating mysteries, its humour, and its art appreciation theme. Its biggest flaws show through after the mysteries are fully revealed and the on-screen plot needs to shift to action. (The spoilers required to prove my points can be read here.) Too much plot-time is then wasted wandering around Paris, and indeed chasing through a number of imaginative and visually stimulating settings, while the Doctor himself is reduced to a Doomsayer, nattering on and on like a broken record. It becomes slightly reminiscent of "The Time Monster" (story no. 64) and half a dozen other Jon Pertwee tales, although thankfully never becomes quite as irritating under Tom Baker's delivery. The real disappointment is his lack of having anything concrete to do.

Another problem with the story is the farcical level of importance placed on not changing history, which if not carefully checked, threatens to dredge up the old anti-heroism plaguing the William Hartnell era. The Doctor should know better by now, but seems to have forgotten what little he learned during "Inferno" (story no. 54):

"Yes, of course, of course.... An infinity of universes.... ergo, an infinite number of choices.... So free will is not an illusion after all!"

Feeling comfortable with my own view of choices in time-travel, I find it very difficult to root for the Doctor and party in the final stages of this story. More worthy of development might have been an attempt to see the Jagaroth safely off of our prehistoric planet, and back to their own interstellar political spheres.

But in the end, it must be said that director Michael Hayes manages to bring a lot of fun together into this piece, and even where it may be lacking in delivering great action to the adventure, there is a lot of creative camera work to emphasize the drama, and eye candy from the scenic shoots in Paris and the electronic effects wizardry of Dave Jervis in the studio. Ian Scoones' superb model work is yet another definite highlight of the story. "City of Death" is highly enjoyable, typically sits well with most Doctor Who fans, and ranks fairly highly with me also.

DVD NTSC Region 1 for the North American market: in the U.S. in Canada	DVD PAL Region 2 for the U.K.	VHS Video NTSC in the U.S. PAL for the U.K.

Contact page

LYRATEK.COM

Read the Buyers' Guide Review for the next story: "The Creature From the Pit" Home Page Site Map Star Trek Sliders Doctor Who Tom Baker Era Episode Guide Catalogue