DOCTOR WHO, SEASON 17 SERIAL 2:

CITY OF DEATH

Doctor: Fourth (Tom Baker)

Companion: Romana (Lalla Ward)

April 2023

City of Death is easily one of my favorite Doctor Who stories ever.

Part of that is undoubtedly due to nostalgia, but the whole serial has an undercurrent of fun running through it that is frankly wonderful. It’s one of three stories written by Douglas Adams (this time with David Fisher and Graham Williams), alongside last season’s The Pirate Planet and the uncompleted finale to this season, Shada. And this story has exactly the sort of buckwild high concepts and snappy comedy that defines both of those stories as well. City of Death is actually the story I use when I try to get my friends into the classic show. It’s a fun romp!

It hangs together as a whole really remarkably well—in a word, it’s solid. Is it a perfect story? No. But it is well-rounded, comfortable, and has no particular low points. Julian Glover acts his heart out as the callous Count/Scaroth, last of the Jageroth (which is also very fun to say)—Glover is just flat-out a good actor, and it’s great to see him play off and against everyone else, in particular the Doctor. City of Death is a very strong episode in terms of humor, and so it’s really rather nice how straight Scaroth is played. He provides a strong counterpoint.

Romana and the Doctor have a sort of communal companion-lite for the duration of this story, also, in the form of Duggan, who is one of my favorite one-off characters. His relationship with Romana is brilliantly funny, as is how Scaroth consistently doesn’t pay attention to him.

Romana in general is a brilliant companion and one of my favorites—it’s wonderful to see a companion who is truly the Doctor’s equal in many ways, not least in her knowledge of Time Lord things and all that. They have a brilliant repartee, and she also consistently has lovely interactions with the show’s antagonists and rotating supporting cast, as shown here with Duggan. Every time she’s on screen it’s clear that she’s having a whole heap of fun.

You know, there’s so much going on here that I fully forgot about the Mona Lisa, which is impressive, because it’s both a major plot point and the impetus for perhaps the strongest sting-in-the-tail joke this show has ever done. There is so much to love in this serial, even as far as the frequent self-indulgent shots of our cast meandering (or running) through Paris. It’s not perfect, but it is immensely strong, and strong enough that I’m legitimately having difficulty coming up with things to talk about it beyond “very funny” “seriously funny” “some very very cool and compelling high concept sci-fi” “great reveals” and just “generally all around good.” Go watch it! It’s wonderful 70s Doctor Who at its finest! It’s really very funny and interesting! Pirate it! I won’t tell!

Overall Thoughts

I’m definitely rating this above Destiny of the Daleks, if you couldn’t tell. Not that I particularly disliked that, but it doesn’t quite compare as well. It’s brilliant. Next up is The Creature from the Pit, which I’ve never seen (or at least, I don’t remember seeing). This particular stretch of episodes (from The Key to Time arc through season 17 or so) is the series that I watched with my parents when I was about 5, which means that I keep remembering things from my childhood idea of Doctor Who when going through them (like Romana faking her death or escaping the Daleks on a rope in Destiny of the Daleks). So maybe I’ll see some more moments that stuck in my brain!