Doctor Who - City of Death | Dr. Who, Tom Baker | Script problems lead to cracking adventures for...

Doctor Who - City of Death | Dr. Who, Tom Baker | "Philospohically, we're going to lunch."

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Doctor Who - City ...

	Doctor Who - City of Death Dr. Who, Tom Baker 20th Century Fox, 1998 average customer review:based on 53 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Script problems lead to cracking adventures for the Doctor

The latest pair of DVD releases from the BBC's Doctor Who archive, the last for 2005, brings together stories from the second season of the third Doctor and the second to last of the fourth. The Claws of Axos and City of Death both came into being due to script problems which caused earlier ideas to fall through, with the latter story being written in one weekend by the production team themselves. Both stories certainly work well, but a lot will depend on how you view Doctor Who overall.

The Claws of Axos is the third story from the eighth season of the show, broadcast in the late winter of 1971. Starring Jon Pertwee in his second season, this was the third consecutive story to feature the Doctor and his U.N.I.T. colleagues facing the renegade Time Lord, The Master, on present day Earth. Even by this early stage, the repetitive use of The Master was beginning to bore, as was the "The Doctor exiled on Earth" storyline that had been in place since the start of season seven in 1970. However, there is a twist to this adventure in that The Doctor and The Master do manage to leave Earth briefly in the Doctor's TARDIS to defeat the Axon aliens.

Originally conceived as a seven-part adventure, the writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin who had never written for the show before, struggled with the cuts that were needed to bring the story initially down to five episodes and later to four. Clearly for
the writers, they were somewhat out of their depth; and it shows. Some of the concepts explored in the storyline don't seem to go anywhere as a result of the cuts and the science, particularly the nuclear science, is preposterous. Ignoring the weakness of the plot and script, there is still a lot to enjoy here. The design is truly astounding, particularly the organic Axon spaceship, and the striking lighting is remarkable. The alien costumes are very well executed and the assembled cast certainly put in very impressive performances, with the exception of a British government official who's just plain annoying. It's a simple, enjoyable romp and the commentary provided by producer Barry Letts and two of the show's regular cast, Katy Manning and Richard Franklin (making his DVD debut) provides a genuinely interesting and charming bonus.

In addition to the commentary and on-screen captions, there are also many other goodies to enjoy as bonuses. Unused studio footage and out-takes from episode one, a look at the locations used throughout and a short documentary about the making of the program are all genuinely interesting and entertaining, kept just to the right length. The same cannot be said for the companion release, City of Death, broadcast in 1979 as the second story of season seventeen.

City of Death enjoys exalted status in the Doctor Who canon, as it was penned by possibly the most famous and illustrious writer ever associated with the series, the late Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker's fame. This was the second of three scripts he contributed to the show, albeit in tandem with the show's producer Graham Williams from an aborted script by David Fisher, under the pseudonym, David Agnew. Adams had written one story for the previous season, the popular Pirate Planet and had been appointed the show's script editor as a result. A job, quite frankly, he was not entirely suited for. Indeed, season seventeen is widely regarded to contain some of the weakest scripts in the history of the series. Which is something of a paradox when you consider this season attracted the highest viewing figures in Doctor Who's entire forty plus year history. At this time, the UK only had three TV channels, and the most popular of these, ITV, was off the air due to a strike. With only BBC1 and BBC2 to watch, the BBC's ratings naturally soared and Doctor benefited from this is much as any other programme, with this particular story achieving ratings in excess of fifteen million. But what viewers saw clearly wasn't impressive to them as the ratings plummeted once ITV returned to the airwaves.

City of Death is indeed a very enjoyable and accomplished story, which does stand out in an otherwise dreadful season. The guest cast is highly impressive, featuring Julian Glover, Catherine Schell and David Graham amongst others, with John Cleese and Eleanor Bron making surprise cameo appearances in episode four. The script simply sparkles with wit and clever dialogue and the overseas location filming in Paris, a first for the show, makes the story even more impressive. All rather surprising considering that the scripts had to be written from scratch over one single weekend, with filming due to start the following week. Tom Baker is certainly at the height of his powers, and for once his over the top humorous acting does seem to fit the bill. Lalla Ward as Romana is still finding her way in this, her second story, but their relationship is building nicely and the addition of the British detective Duggan (Tom Chadbon) is a good foil for both characters. As a stand alone story, you probably can't beat this adventure, but in the context of the wider season, it's an oasis in a desert for sure. Adam's next (and last) script was abandoned midway through filming due to a BBC strike and he didn't continue beyond this season as the script editor. Nor was Williams retained as Producer. Why that should be is explained in the documentary bonus that comes on disc two, where pretty much everyone involved in the production admits Adam's limited abilities in this area.

Normally the bonuses are what make the Doctor Who DVD's worth every penny, regardless of the quality of the particular story. In the case of City of Death, this is not the case. For no justifiable reason whatsoever, all the extras for this show have
been added as a second disc, jacking up the price quite unnecessarily. In addition, these bonuses aren't all that great. They're too long in the main and simply repeat information available in the text that accompanies the episodes. Some of the extras completely fall flat, particularly a mock-umentary about the alien character's life after the show. The commentary is also very disappointing, with neither Baker or Ward (nor obviously the late Williams or Adams) taking part with the job left to the director and the two main guest actors, Julian Glover and Tom Chadbon. Both actors think very highly of the show and are clearly delighted to see it again, but their limited Doctor Who experience and knowledge means it's impossible for them to relate to anything other than these four episodes and there are long silences for sure.

All in all, this is a disappointing release, the two disc format being totally unnecessary. The fact that I enjoyed the disc of the weaker, earlier adventure the Claws of Axos more, is quite shocking in many ways. Hopefully the BBC won't get carried away in terms of bonuses for the sake of filling space in the future which mars the otherwise excellent City of Death.

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"Philospohically, we're going to lunch."

This four-part story from Season Seventeen, The City of Death, was co-penned by then-script editor Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and producer Graham Williams under the pen name "David Agnew" from a story idea by David Fisher. With location filming in Paris, a brilliant villain in Julian Glover (The Empire Strikes Back/Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade/For Your Eyes Only) and cameo appearances by John Cleese and Eleanor Bron, TCoD is one of my favorite Doctor Who stories of the latter Tom Baker era. Baker and Lalla Ward show some of their best chemistry as the Doctor and Romana go to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa when they discover a plot to steal the painting. Glover plays Count Scalioni, who is revealed to be Scaroth, the last survivor of the Jagaroth. Scaroth's ship exploded while on prehistoric Earth, causing him to be splintered across several different eras of the Earth's history. In 1979 Paris, Scaroth seeks to build a time machine to travel back and prevent the explosion which destroyed his ship and scattered him across time. But doing so would prevent life on Earth from having ever existed. Other great performances here include Catherine Schell as the Countess, Tom Chadborn as Duggan and David Graham as Kerensky. The City of Death is a well-written Doctor Who adventure with great performances from both the leading and supporting actors. The show was nearing the end of its Golden Age by this time, but TCoD is a very good story, and one of my favorite Tom Baker stories.

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"You sit in Paris and talk of computer pictures?"

This fan-favorite and one of the all time Doctor Who greats, only emphasizes Douglas Adams' contribution to Who from a much maligned era. His wittiness meets Tom Baker's personality with great ease. City of Death is highly enjoyable from start to finish. Finally remastered to DVD and loaded with goodies. It's hard to imagine a Who fan not having this in his or her's collection.

Episode: Ethereal; DVD: Defective (for Now)

Watching this episode of Dr. Who is like reading Byron's "She Walks in Beauty": the effect is like floating through life on a particularly comfortable cloud. The episode begins with the Doctor and Romana looking down on Paris from the Eiffel Tower-and Romana suggesting they fly down from there (perhaps a cinematic allusion to one of Chagall's paintings of lovers flying over Paris). Tom and Lalla (in Paris--and in love) sort of LEVITATE through the whole story--and carry us along with them. Add to which the script is so deliciously witty! (The Doctor--in one scene--having been pushed to his knees by Countess Scarlioni's butler--grins--and compliments her on her choice of butlers because he IS "so deliciously violent.") Who could not LOVE this scene . . . and this episode? On the other hand, who COULD love this DVD? To put it simply: it simply doesn't work! (At least MINE didn't!) I received TWO copies of it (one to replace the other) and neither of them functioned satisfactorily. Pixels, pixels, pixels--here, there, and everywhere! . . . FRUSTRATING, because it IS such a good story.

The quality of the picture--what I DID see of it--is very crisp and clear--but they clearly have a little more work to do on it--for Region 1 watchers to watch it.

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Great, except for the commentary track

"City of Death" deserves all the praise it has gotten, and the DVD has only one disappointing feature: The commentary audio track adds absolutely nothing of interest. Fortunately, one can activate an "information text" that appears as the program runs, which is much more interesting. There are also entertaining extra features, including a "making of" that includes an illustrated summary of the original, very different draft of the story.

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

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