City Of Death (1979) Review

"Look at me, I'm in Paris."

City Of Death is an awkward story to tackle. It is one of Doctor Who's most revered stories amongst the fandom, celebrated for bringing together all the supposedly best parts of the Graham Williams era - Douglas Adams, Tom Baker's madness, Lalla Ward... in Paris. 
...
It's overrated.

WRITTEN BY

David Agnew, a pseudonym that combines David Fisher, Douglas Adams and Graham Williams. I love Fisher, I have warm feelings towards Williams and Douglas Adams wrote The Pirate Planet.

PLOT

Sprung into action by temporal disturbances in Paris, the Doctor and Romana meet Count Scarlioni, a splinter of Scaroth, the last of the Jagaroth, an ancient warrior race whose survival now depends on Scaroth's ability to reunite himself by manipulating history. 

ANALYSIS

It's certainly an unusual story for the classic era, with a heavy focus on timelines and exotic locales. City Of Death could easily be a run-of-the-mill Matt Smith episode, albeit much more patient and without Smith's jaw-clenching and quiet "menace".

My honest opinion is that it's fun, enjoyable and cleverly written, but a masterpiece... ? No. It certainly doesn't hold up to the Fisher classics from Season 16 or The Ribos Operation. As with Adams' earlier effort, The Pirate Planet(and indeed, any run-of-the-mill Matt Smith episode), there are multiple plot inconsistencies and problems with logic, although it manages to smooth over the cracks with its effortless charm and irreverent humour. 

Because of the Paris locale and focus on Mona Lisa, it feels almost like a vacation, like we're not supposed to bother with the why and the how, because everyone involved are just taking a break and filling a quota by filming it. And indeed, I can't. Why should I, when I can take joy from John Cleese's cameo as an art critic, or anything Julian Glover says or does(okay, his random orgasm face during the mental contact scene was really dumb, especially since none of the other Scaroths do it)?

City Of Death is best remembered as the one where Tom Baker and Lalla Ward chilled in Paris and chased after the seven Mona Lisas. Lovely.

CHARACTERS

People love to point out this story as the one that started all the Doctor-Romana shipping, but I can't really see it. All they do together is briefly hold hands during the Paris scenes. 

Julian Glover is fantastically matter-of-fact as the determined, completely self-interested Scaroth splinters. His enthusiastic approach to villainy(matching each of the Doctor's witty lines) is absolutely infectious. One of the greats, for sure.

Duggan is probably the coolest thug in the world. I love that his love of destruction isn't viewed as an immediately bad thing(although breaking open the beer bottle is a bit much, no?) and even saves them later on. 

I thought Countess Scarlioni was interesting, in that she was basically just a thief, not really a bad person per se and married Scaroth for the promise of excitement. She wasn't an atypical Doctor Who character.

The same cannot be said for Kerensky, an absolutely awful performance from David Graham, who seemed to think he was in a pantomime. One of the worst guest stars that has ever been on the show, I would say. What is it with random OTT performances in the Williams era? First Shapp in The Armageddon Factor and now this guy. All the script said was a scientist and we get this comical, fussy, Russian caricature. 

Towards the end of the story, there's an absolutely fantastic John Cleese cameo, where he plays an art critic who sees the TARDIS disappear. I won't spoil the punchline, but he's hilarious as always.

The only other character of note is the guard whom the Doctor has to tackle. Surprisingly talkative for someone only doing his job for money. He was played by Peter Halliday, who previously served Mavic Chen, GUARDIAN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM in The Invasion.

NOTES

*As per usual with Douglas Adams involved, there's several things left untidied. For example, in the first episode, someone draws Romana's face as a clock, which the Doctor theorised had something to do with the temporal disturbance. But this is never brought up again! Who was that guy??

*Why does Scarlioni need to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre if he's already got six genuines? I mean, how much money do you need? Why not just have Leonardo make one more?

*The Paris location shooting is a mixed bag. I mean, it's nice to see Paris and all, but it didn't really feel like Doctor Who. It felt like someone recording camera footage in Paris. I miss the wobbly sets.

*No more notes. I just want to see The Creature From The Pit already.

BEST QUOTE

"Is no one interested in history, hmmm?" - The Doctor trying to hail a cab.

CONCLUSION

I feel very neutral on this story. Quite frankly, the only reason why this review has taken so long to write is because I feel bored writing about it. It wasn't bad by any measure, it was brilliantly witty, charming and far above okay, but I just didn't get into the groove. It's a Doctor Who story featuring things that I don't watch Doctor Who for.