Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...
Day 531: City of Death, Episode One
Dear diary,
City of Death is one of those Doctor Who stories that can’t be separated from its reputation. For years it’s been hailed as one of the all-time greats (it came in at number 5 in the recent Doctor Who Magazine poll, and by contrast, the next-highest Graham Williams era story placed at number 32… and it was Horror of Fang Rock, which was already underway before Williams fully arrived on the scene!). Former producer Julie Gardner has described the story as being the one which convinced her that Doctor Who could work upon its return to TV in 2005, and has praised the mix of drama and humour within. I’ve seen it a few times, but despite its status, I can’t really say that I have a strong opinion on it either way.
It certainly gets off to a good start in this episode, though, opening with a brilliant model shot which sweeps across prehistoric Earth and comes to rest on a rather unique design of spaceship. The Jagaroth ship is one of the more striking from Doctor Who history, and there’s a reason that it’s always stuck in the mind more than any of the mrs generic ships seen in other stories over the years. That the episode opens with it being blown up is also quite a strong way to begin the story, and gets you hooked in right away. There’s none of that leisurely pace we had in Destiny of the Daleks here…
…Well, not until we touch down in Paris, anyway. Joining the Doctor and Romana at the top of the Eiffel Tower reminds me of my problem with this pairing of Doctor/Companion - they’re just too… smug. I love the type of relationship that he has with Leela, or Sarah Jane, or Jo, where he’s the smart one, and he gets to explain things away to them as he goes. I seem to recall the Doctor and Romana sometimes becoming a little insufferable as they wander around the universe being very clever together. Still, I could be wrong about that, and I have a feeling that some of it may have come from the opening of this episode.
That slowed-down pace continues for a while, with the pair making their way through the streets of Paris. We follow them as they head from the tower to a cafe, then from thecae to the Louvre, and then back to the cafe once more… there’s an awful lot of walking, jogging, and running around in this story. That’s clearly the result of the production team trying to say to us ‘look! We’re actually in Paris! As in, really, honestly, there!’ This is the first of Doctor Who’s ventures abroad for filming, and it certainly does lend a slightly different feel to the story than I’m used to.
In some ways, it feels more amateur. There’s several shots where passers-by, or commuters on the Metro, simply gawp into the camera, wondering what the crew are up to, and it looks to all the world like a bunch of tourists have set up a camera in the middle of the street and shouted ‘action!’ to a man in a ridiculous scarf and a woman dressed up as a schoolgirl. I wonder if they thought all British television was like this? It also seems to constrain Tom Baker’s performance in places. I’m used to him being loud and booming, domination the screen for every second that he’s on it, but here and there - most noticeably during some of the scenes outside the cafe, it feels like he’s reigning it in. It’s a slightly odd experience, when I’ve become used to watching him get louder and louder for the last five seasons! He’s on his regular form in the studio scenes, though, flailing about when experiencing a time-slip.
Almost to counter-act the less polished feel of these location shots, it’s being directed more like a film than anything I’m used to seeing in an episode of Doctor Who. Shots taken though an empty slot in a postcard rack, or from the other side of a river, all have a slightly more artistic feel to them than usual, and although I enjoyed Michael Hayes’ direction for both The Androids of Tara and The Armageddon Factor, I can’t quite remember it being this filmic before.
I wonder if the story is simply suffering from that age old problem - because I know it’s supposed to be such a classic, I’m seeing faults more than I might otherwise do. Here’s hoping that as the story goes on, I can simply sit back an enjoy it, without the weight of its reputation bringing it down…
