| 105 – City of Death | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Doctor Who serial | |||
| Cast | |||
Others
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| Production | |||
| Directed by | Michael Hayes | ||
| Written by | "David Agnew" (Douglas Adams andGraham Williams, from a story byDavid Fisher) | ||
| Script editor | Douglas Adams | ||
| Produced by | Graham Williams | ||
| Music by | Dudley Simpson | ||
| Production code | 5H | ||
| Series | Season 17 | ||
| Running time | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
| First broadcast | 29 September 1979 (1979-09-29) | ||
| Last broadcast | 20 October 1979 (1979-10-20) | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
| List of episodes (1963–1989) | |||
City of Death is the second serial of theseventeenth season of the Britishscience fiction television seriesDoctor Who, which depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known asthe Doctor. It was produced by theBBC and first broadcast in four weekly parts between 29 September 1979 and 20 October 1979 onBBC1. The serial was written by "David Agnew" – a pseudonym for the combined work ofDavid Fisher,Douglas Adams, andGraham Williams – and directed byMichael Hayes.
City of Death features theFourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companionRomana (Lalla Ward). Set primarily in present dayParis, the plot concerns a scheme by Count Scarlioni (Julian Glover), in reality an alien called Scaroth, to steal theMona Lisa to finance experiments intime travel in the hope of averting the accident that killed the remainder of his racefour hundred million years previously, which began the existence of life on the planet as well.
The original storyline devised by Fisher was heavily retooled byscript editor Adams, aided by producer Williams. It was the firstDoctor Who serial tofilm on location outside of the United Kingdom; the production team worked in Paris during April and May 1979; studio work was completed in June.
Broadcast during astrike that tookITV (the BBC's rival) off the air,City of Death scored high ratings. The fourth episode was watched by over sixteen million viewers, thehighest UK television audience ever attained by an episode ofDoctor Who. Although retrospectively regarded as one of the best serials from the series' classic run, initial reception was mixed, with criticism of the humorous tone.[1] In September 2009, it was ranked as readers' eighth favourite story (of 200-to-that-date) inDoctor Who Magazine issue 413.
In Paris,the Doctor andRomana sense a time distortion. They observe the Countess Scarlioni using an alien device to scan the security systems housingLeonardo da Vinci'sMona Lisa at theLouvre. The pair meet Inspector Duggan, who suspects the Countess to be involved in anart theft scheme with her husband, Count Scarlioni. Duggan joins the Doctor and Romana in investigating the Scarlioni mansion. There, they discover Dr. Kerensky's temporal experiments, the source of the distortions, and six exact copies of theMona Lisa. The Doctor instructs Romana and Duggan to continue investigating while he returns to theTARDIS to visit Leonardo. The Count successfully steals the real painting and captures Romana and Duggan after the Doctor leaves. Learning that Romana is familiar with time, he kills Dr. Kerensky and forces Romana to continue the tests.
The Doctor arrives at Leonardo's studio but is captured by another Scarlioni, who reveals he is really Scaroth, the last Jagaroth. His people arrived on Earth 400 million years ago, but the others died when their craft exploded, and his own body was fragmented across time. Collectively, Scaroth's fragments manipulated humanity to invent technology that will let him go back in time to stop the explosion. To finance his work, he employed Leonardo to create copies of theMona Lisa to sell off after stealing the original. After Scaroth leaves, the Doctor escapes and writes "This is a fake" on the blank canvases before returning to the present.
Scaroth threatens to destroy Paris if Romana stops helping him. The Doctor tries to gain the Countess' help by showing Scaroth's true form, but Scaroth kills her. Romana completes the work and Scaroth uses it to travel to the past. The Doctor, Romana and Duggan follow him via the TARDIS, fearing that the ship's explosion created life on Earth, and if Scaroth should prevent it, humanity would not exist. Duggan knocks Scaroth out in time, returning the latter to the present, where he is discovered, unmasked, by his bodyguard. The ensuing fight sets the mansion ablaze, destroying Scaroth and the paintings save one marked copy. Duggan argues that they've lost an invaluable piece of art, but the Doctor assures him that the copy, still done by Leonardo's hand, will go unnoticed, and that art is worthless if its monetary value is all that matters before bidding him farewell.
WriterDavid Fisher had contributed two scripts toDoctor Who's sixteenth season –The Stones of Blood andThe Androids of Tara – and was asked by producerGraham Williams for further story ideas. Fisher submitted two proposals; the first of these becameThe Creature from the Pit while the other,The Gamble with Time, concerned a plot to rig the casinos inLas Vegas to finance time travel experiments.[2] Williams asked Fisher to reworkThe Gamble With Time as a spoof ofBulldog Drummond, a fictional adventurer from the 1920s.[2] Fisher's draft script centered around Scarlioni, a member of the Sephiroth race, who had accidentally become fractured in time. The script was mainly set in the year 1928 with the Doctor and Romana, aided by Drummond-esque detective "Pug" Farquharson, on the trail of the stolen Mona Lisa, pursuing Scarlioni from Paris toMonte Carlo where his partner, the Baroness Heidi, is using time travel technology to cheat atroulette at the casino to fund Scarlioni's time travel experiments. Other settings included Paris in 1979, Leonardo da Vinci's studio in the year 1508, and prehistoric Earth.[3] At this point, production unit managerJohn Nathan-Turner had worked out that the production team could afford to film on location in Paris with a stripped-down crew.[4] This necessitated a rewrite to Fisher's scripts to move the action to Paris and, for cost reasons, to drop the 1920s setting.[4] The Doctor's robotic dog companionK9 also had to be removed from the script as the cost of bringing the robot dog and his operators to Paris was prohibitive.[5]
However, Fisher was going through a divorce, and his personal situation meant that he was unable to perform the rewrites.[3] This meant that script editorDouglas Adams, aided by Graham Williams, had to perform a complete rewrite of the story over the course of a weekend.[6] According to Adams, Graham Williams "took me back to his place, locked me in his study and hosed me down with whisky and black coffee for a few days, and there was the script".[7] The revised script, now titledThe Curse of the Sephiroth, was credited to "David Agnew", a standard pseudonym used by the BBC and which had been previously used onDoctor Who for the season fifteen serialThe Invasion of Time.[8] The serial was subsequently retitledCity of Death on 8 May 1979.[9] Adams would later reuse elements ofCity of Death, along with the unfinishedDoctor Who serialShada (1979; 2003), in his novelDirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987).[10]
In Part One, Lalla Ward as Romana makes a throwaway reference to a great art gallery called the Braxiatel Collection; theVirgin New Adventures novel series would later expand on this, introducing the characterIrving Braxiatel, aTime Lord.[11] Braxiatel also appears in theBernice Summerfield series of novels and audio dramas and in theGallifrey[broken anchor] series of audio dramas which starred Ward as Romana.[11]
Julian Glover was a well-established character actor who had previously appeared asRichard the Lionheart inThe Crusade (1965). He was reluctant to don the Jagaroth mask as he felt the mask would impede his performance. As a result, he is doubled by Richard Sheekey in those scenes.[12]Tom Chadbon was cast as Duggan on account of his resemblance to theFranco-Belgian comics heroTintin.[13]Peter Halliday had previously appeared in severalDoctor Who serials includingThe Invasion andDoctor Who and the Silurians.[14]
Douglas Adams knewJohn Cleese andEleanor Bron through his connections withMonty Python and theFootlights.[15] On learning that both would be working inBBC Television Centre on the day the art gallery scenes were to be recorded, he persuaded them to make a cameo appearance in a short scene written for "two Englishmen".[15][16] Cleese and Bron agreed on the condition that there be no pre-publicity regarding their appearance; Cleese wanted them to be credited as "Helen Swanetsky" and "Kim Bread" but the BBC declined.[17] Cleese liked the name "Kim Bread" and used it in later projects.[18] During recording, Cleese and Baker also recorded two short comedy skits for the BBCChristmas tape.[17]
City of Death director Michael Hayes had previously directedThe Androids of Tara (1978) andThe Armageddon Factor (1979).[19] He also had experience filming in Paris, having worked there on adaptations ofMaigret (1960–63) and otherGeorges Simenon stories for the BBC.[13] Location filming took place in Paris between 30 April 1979 and 3 May 1979.[4] It proved a difficult shoot as the dates coincided with the May Day holiday period, which meant that many of the locations chosen for filming were closed, necessitating considerable improvisation on the part of the cast and crew.[4] Model filming was conducted atBray Studios between 8 May 1979 and 10 May 1979.[20] These concentrated on the shots of the Jagaroth spacecraft taking off from the prehistoric Earth and were overseen by Ian Scoones, a veteran ofThunderbirds.[20] Following rehearsals, production moved toBBC Television Centre where the remaining scenes were recorded in two blocks; the first between 21 May 1979 and 22 May 1979 and second between 3 June 1979 and 5 June 1979.[21]
Tom Baker found filming in Paris to be very different from what he was used to in the UK where crowds would gather to watch the filming and meet the stars.Doctor Who was not shown in France at the time and so the cast and crew were largely ignored.[12] Lalla Ward foundCity of Death the most challengingDoctor Who serial she worked on but was pleased with the outcome, saying, "We had to film loads of scenes in the rain and cold... there was no glamour in it at all... it was different from the ordinary stories too and I like the finished result".[22] Seeing her costumes as an important part in creating the role of Romana, Ward clashed with costume designer Doreen James, rejecting the silver catsuit James had designed for her for the story.[23] Ward came up with the idea for the schoolgirl costume she wore in conjunction with Baker, recalling, "I thought it would be fun to wear something that little girls probably hated wearing because it might cheer them up... I didn't bank on the fact that I'd also get loads of letters from their fathers saying 'Cor! School uniform!'".[24]
| Episode | Title | Run time | Original release date | UK viewers (millions) [25] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Part One" | 24:25 | 29 September 1979 (1979-09-29) | 12.4 |
| 2 | "Part Two" | 24:33 | 6 October 1979 (1979-10-06) | 14.1 |
| 3 | "Part Three" | 25:25 | 13 October 1979 (1979-10-13) | 15.4 |
| 4 | "Part Four" | 25:08 | 20 October 1979 (1979-10-20) | 16.1 |
City of Death was broadcast on BBC1 over four consecutive Saturdays beginning on 29 September 1979.[26] At this time,industrial action had blacked out rival broadcasterITV and as a result, the serial scored very high ratings, averaging 14.5 million viewers over the four episodes; 16.1 million watched the fourth episode, the largest audience ever recorded for an episode ofDoctor Who.[26] The story was repeated on BBC1 across four consecutive evenings from Tuesday to Friday, 12 – 15 August 1980, achieving viewing figures of 6.3, 5.5, 5.6 and 5.9 million viewers respectively.[27]
Audience appreciation ratings for the first two parts ofCity of Death were a respectable score of 64%.[26]Radio Times published two letters from viewers regardingCity of Death. Les Rogers ofHastings praised the serial's cast and the location filming; less impressed, however, was Paul R. Maskew ofExeter who felt the show was being played for laughs.[26] Responding to similar criticisms from viewers, Douglas Adams wrote, "If the programme didn't move and take a few risks then it would have died of boredom years ago".[28] Several viewers wrote to point out the discrepancy between the start of life on Earth of 4,000 million years ago and the date given inCity of Death of 400 million years ago. Graham Williams replied, "The good Doctor makes the odd mistake or two but I think an error of 3,600 million years is pushing it! His next edition of theEncyclopedia Galactica will provide an erratum".[28] Another viewer wrote that the atmosphere of the primordial Earth would have been poisonous to the Doctor and his companions; Douglas Adams responded to this criticism, citingartistic license.[28]
City of Death was voted seventh in a 1998 poll of the readers ofDoctor Who Magazine to find the bestDoctor Who story; the magazine commented that it "represented the height ofDoctor Who as popular light entertainment for all the family".[29] In 2009,Doctor Who Magazine readers voted it in eighth place.[30] In a more recent 2014 poll, the magazine's readers voted it fifth best Doctor Who story of all time.[31] A 2008 article inThe Daily Telegraph namedCity of Death one of the ten greatest episodes ofDoctor Who.[32] John Condor, writing in thefanzineDWB in 1991, hailed the story as "the best blend of kitsch, surrealism, fantasy, and comedy-drama seen in our favourite Time Lord's annals".[33]Vanessa Bishop, reviewing the serial's DVD release, described it as "imaginatively written, well-performed and beautifully made,City of Death is a story where pretty much everything works".[34] Reacting to the serial, as part ofDoctor Who Magazine's ongoing "Time Team" feature,Jacqueline Rayner said "you're suddenly, almost violently, made aware this is happening in our world... with people just getting on with their business and two Time Lords walking through it. I don't think I've ever experienced that withDoctor Who up till now... it's the tiny touches of mundanity amid the fantastical that lift the story even higher".[35]Charlie Jane Anders andJavier Grillo-Marxuach ofio9 included it on their list of "10 TV Episodes that Changed Television", citing "the sharp dialogue and clever use of time travel [that] prefigure everything Steven Moffat has done with the series in recent years."[36]The A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn describedCity of Death as the "gem" of the seventeenth season, finding Adams' subtle comedy script "easily the funniest and most quotable the series ever achieved". While he praised Scarlioni's costume and the mask, he felt that more could have been done with using Paris as a filming location.[14]
However,Doctor Who fandom's initial response was not so positive;John Peel, writing in the fanzineTARDIS in 1979, decried it as "total farce... I simply couldn't believe this wasDoctor Who... the continual buffoonery is getting on my nerves".[33] A similar view was held byGary Russell who, reviewing the VHS release in 1991, said, "City of Death, like most Douglas Adams material, is overrated and misses the mark for me, falling between the stools of good pastiche and bad parody and making fairly unsatisfactory viewing".[37] Vanessa Bishop countered that it was "theDoctor Who story it's alright to laugh at... we must now accept thatCity of Death is funny — because if we didn't theCrackerjack-style sleuths, scientists and all... would leave it knocking about near the bottom of all theDoctor Who story ranking polls"[38] and, responding to the criticisms about the levels of comedy, that "it's precisely these things that make it seem so special".[34] Reviewing the serial in 2011, Patrick Mulkern ofRadio Times awarded it three stars out of five, stating he disliked the smug tone to the humour and Ward's "snooty" portrayal of Romana. Despite this, he noted that the serial had good production values and direction, as well as a few jokes that he enjoyed.[39]
| Author | James Goss |
|---|---|
| Series | Doctor Who novelisations |
| Publisher | BBC Books |
Publication date | 21 May 2015 |
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | 978-1-849-90675-3 |
City of Death is one of fiveDoctor Who serials from the series' original run (1963–1989) not to have been novelised byTarget Books; the others areThe Pirate Planet,Shada,Resurrection of the Daleks, andRevelation of the Daleks. Target approached Douglas Adams to write a novelisation, offering their standard advance of £600; Adams replied, "I don't want to be embarrassing but I do have a tendency to be a best-selling author".[40] Target, concerned that their regular authors would seek better terms, refused to increase their offer.[40] Several years later, Target editorNigel Robinson offered an advance of £4,000 – double what was the standard advance at the time – but Adams again declined.[41] Adams was unwilling to allow another author to write the novelisation.[41] However, after Adams' death his estate allowedGareth Roberts to write an adaptation of the unfinished serialShada, which was published byBBC Books in 2012. In 2013, Roberts announced that he was working on a novelisation ofCity of Death,[42][43] to be published on 21 May 2015.[44] Roberts later announced thatJames Goss was working on the book instead.[45][46] An abridged version was published as part of theTarget Collection 5 April 2018.[47]
City of Death was released on VHS in April 1991 with a cover by Andrew Skilleter.[26] It was re-issued in 2001.[48] A DVD was released in 2005 with special features including commentary by actors Julian Glover and Tom Chadbon, as well as director Michael Hayes, and the behind-the-scenes documentary "Paris in the Springtime".[49] It was also released as part of theDoctor Who DVD Files in Issue 37 on 2 June 2010. On 1 January 2013,AudioGO released a two-hour soundtrack of the serial, narrated by Lalla Ward.[50] A vinyl release of the soundtrack was released in 2018 exclusively forRecord Store Day.[51] Ian Scoones'storyboards forCity of Death's special effects sequences were published inPeter Haining's bookDoctor Who – 25 Glorious Years in 1988,[52] and a Scaroth figure was released by Harlequin Miniatures in 1999.[53]
Fan novelisation
Doctor Who episodes | |
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| Season 17 | |
