Doctor Who - City of Death [1979] [DVD] [2005]

There are very few people who don't love CITY OF DEATH. I could point out that the sets for primeval Earth in episode 4 look pretty awful, that Professor Kerensky appears to be giving an impromptu impression of some kind of a tree when he's being killed, and that it's rather embarrassing that not one of the customers bats an eyelid when gun-toting gangsters threaten the Doctor in a Parisian cafe...yes,I COULD point this out, but it would be extremely churlish, as everything else in the story is(ahem)"exquisite".

Everyone is at the peak of their game here. Trust me, when I say that it's possible to wax lyrical about the cast, direction, incidental music and script for several million more words than I'm allowed for the length of this review. I'll confine myself to mentioning that Tom Baker gives one of his most charming, inventive and energised performances; that Julian Glover gives a masterclass in how to play a James Bond-style super-villain; that Dudley Simpson's Gershwin-inspired score thrums through your head for days after you've heard it; that the cinematic location shooting in Paris is terrific and that HITCH HIKERS' GUIDE TO THE GALAXY creator Douglas Adams' dialogue is some of the best ever in 42 years of televised DOCTOR WHO. Oh, and John Cleese turns up in a cameo in episode 4...what more could you want?

The extras are pretty wonderful as well. The good natured commentary by director Michael Hayes, Julian Glover and Tom Chadbon is nice to have, as are the informative production subtitles. There's a sporadically amusing spoof documentary "Eye on Blatchford" detailing another surviving Jagaroth's attempts to integrate himself into human society. A couple of interesting Behind the Scenes features showing the model work and a frustrating-looking sequence detailing Ian Scoones special effects work with both real and mechanical chickens!

There are at least 4 Easter eggs on the 2nd disc, but the real highlights are unquestionably the revealing documentary on the making of the serial: PARIS IN THE SPRINGTIME, and the poor quality, but nonetheless fascinating studio footage which gives a unique portrait of Tom Baker's shifting moods and a sense of what it was like to be there during the recording sessions.

Some people will lament the absence of Baker and Lalla Ward from the extras, but personally, I don't feel short-changed. One gets the feeling that the discs are really more about celebrating the work of Douglas Adams, and there's plenty of footage of him being interviewed from '85 and '92. It's pleasing for DR WHO fans to learn that he retained his affection for the show, even after the fame and acclaim that HITCH HIKERS'... gave him.

Excellent viewing and one of the real classics from the Tom Baker years, this is an inspired choice for release on DVD.

City of Death is the second story from the Seventeenth season of Dr Who, made at a time when the show was really flagging in terms of quality of stories and production. However this story is undoubtedly the stand out from the season by far, managing to combine all the necessary Dr Who elements with great success.

The obvious starting point is the story's main setting - Paris. This was the first ever time that the production team had used an overseas location and it works very effectively, giving the story an exotic and sophisticated ambience as well as tying in with one of the main storyline elements, involving the world famous painting, the Mona Lisa...Ok, some of the locations used are the obvious tourist attractions e.g. Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Metro, but they still work and are usually intrinsic to the story.

Writer Douglas Adams and producer Graham Williams (under the joint pseudonym David Agnew) have come up with an intriguing and original plotline. In Paris, 1979, the seemingly human Count Scarloni is in reality Scaroth, the last surviving member of the Jagaroth, an ancient race whose spacecraft became stranded on planet Earth thousands of years previously. Attempting take-off, the space ship exploded, killing all of the crew apart from Scaroth, whose being was splintered across different time zones throughout Earth's history. These twelve aspects have been guiding the development of mankind to a point where time travel is possible. In Paris, 1979, Scarloni/Scaroth is on the verge of perfecting a machine that will enable him to travel back in time and prevent himself from destroying the ship. However to do this, he still needs to finance his work and this involves stealing the expensive Mona Lisa...To find out more you will of course have to watch!

What of the other successful elements? There are excellent performances from the regular and guest cast. Tom Baker gives a more controlled and reigned in Doctor than some of his other recent performances (it could be down to the script) but not without his customary lunatic behaviour and humour. The scenes in which he baits the Count and Countess are particularly amusing.

Lalla Ward as the second incarnation of Romana makes an excellent companion and intellectual equal to the Doctor, as opposed to some of the more dim-witted screaming girl assistants of past adventures. She also sports a rather nice schoolgirl outfit which I'm sure will appeal to all male heterosexual fans of the show. Well alright, female and gay fans can appreciate these things too but from a more aesthetic point of view, shall we say. There's a strong and likeable rapport between both the Dr and Romana in this story (maybe reflected by the fact that Tom Baker and Lalla Ward were soon to become partners in real life).

The Dr and Romana team up with a Bulldog Drummond type detective, Duggan, who is on the trail of Count Scarloni. Portrayed with dry humour and appropriate thuggish tendencies by Tom Chadbon, Duggan makes an excellent foil to the Dr and Romana. I think he would have made a very interesting addition to the TARDIS crew, certainly more likeable and charismatic than the precocious and bratty Adric who was to regrettably materialise next season.

Julian Clover is aristocratic, charming and menacing in equal parts as the villainous Count Scarloni/Scaroth. The feline-featured Catherine Schell is his sophisticated, diva-ish wife (dig the cigarette holder!) who is blind to her husband's true ambitions and plans. Both form a suitably villainous pair.

We also get a lovely cameo from John "Basil Fawlty" Cleese and Eleanor Bron as a pair of art lovers, in one of my favourite ever Dr Who scenes. The Dr's time craft, the TARDIS, as always in the form of a police box, is parked in the corner of a gallery. Thinking it's just another exhibit, the art lovers spout lots of typically pretentious comments, before the Dr, Romana and Duggan dash inside the TARDIS and dematerialise, leaving the aforementioned pair completely un-phased and branding the experience "absolutely exquisite". Hilarious stuff.

City of Death boasts some excellent dialogue of the witty and sparkling, variety another definite highlight. For instance:

Countess (speaking of the Dr): My dear, I don't think he's as stupid as he seems.

Count: My dear, nobody could be as stupid as HE seems...

The special effects are also pretty impressive, given that this was an era when the BBC had approximately 20p per production to work with (compare to the much more high budget new series). Of note are the sequences featuring the spider-like Jagoroth spacecraft. Scaroth in his true guise does look rather like he's been constructed out of spaghetti, but that's part of the appeal. What I still can't work out is how Scaroth the alien has a much larger head than when in his human guise as the Count; how does he squeeze his real head into the mask? One of the great unsolved mysteries of the cosmos.

That just leaves me to mention the DVD extras - a slightly mixed affair. There's a good in-depth feature on the making of the story "Paris in the Springtime". "Paris W12" includes some interesting behind the scenes bits. "Chicken Wrangler" is a bit of a waste of time and I didn't find "Eye on...Blatchford" such an amusing skit as "Oh Mummy" (based on another Baker tale "Pyramids of Mars"). The story commentary is lively but I can't help feeling that Tom Baker would have made a more interesting contribution - these days he seems hard to track down!

However all in all this makes for a wonderful story and DVD - to be recommended even to the uninitiated Dr Who viewer and a great introduction to the Tom Baker years. Definitely one of the best Dr Who releases so far.

"City of Death", written by Douglas Adams and producer Graham Williams under the pseudonym David Agnew, is widely regarded by fans as a classic of the Tom Baker era of "Doctor Who" and the best script produced by the Williams / Adams production team that presided over the fifteenth to seventeenth seasons of the series. It is also memorable as "the one where the Doctor goes to Paris". Paris is presumably the city referred to in the title, although the title bears absolutely no relation to the actual events of the story.

Personally I feel that "City of Death" is somewhat overrated and probably seems better than it actually is due to the overseas location and the fact that the serial was produced during one of Doctor Who's weakest periods on the air. None the less, there is no doubting the fact that "City of Death" is a genuinely classy effort from a very cash-strapped production team, enhanced greatly by its Parisian setting, the strong guest cast and the excellent set design.

Headlining the guest cast is Julian Glover, who puts in a menacingly suave performance as the enigmatic Count Scarlioni. Catherine Schell is more than Glover's match as the sophisticated but deluded Countess. Meanwhile, Tom Chadbon joins the cast as the ineptly violent detective Duggan (whose tendency to hit first and ask questions later is a running gag that becomes much more important at the end of the story). All three revel in Adams' one-liners and display great comic timing, as do regulars Lalla Ward and Tom Baker, who is at his most irreverent in this production.

Although seemingly padded by numerous film shots of the cast running around major Parisian landmarks, "City of Death" proceeds at a swift pace and we really do believe that the events of the story, including the studio scenes, are taking place in Paris. There are enough absurdly inventive twists in the rather bizarre overall plot to keep the viewer interested from start to finish.

On the DVD, there is a 45-minute documentary about the making of the story, extensive behind the scenes material, an exclusive comedy sketch and a few bits and bobs from the archives. There is a full commentary with director Michael Hayes and actors Julian Glover and Tom Chadbon that is let down only by the absence of both Tom Baker and Lalla Ward. A thorough and entertaining package even if it didn't really need to be a two-disc release.