Doctor Who: City of Death

DVD features
Thanks to its popularity, the two-disc DVD of City of Death comes with an abundance of typically topnotch supplemental features. The commentary by Glover, co-star Tom Chadbon, and director Michael Hayes, is the longest and most informative of the extras, but it's well-matched by Paris in the Springtime, a 45-minute making-of featurette that offers rare archival interviews with Adams and many of the cast (but not Baker or Ward, sadly) and crew. Paris, W12 offers 20 minutes of studio footage taken from 1/2-inch videotape, while Prehistoric Landscapes and Chicken Wrangler are very different views of the story's special effects (the latter is a particularly amusing glimpse at the challenges of working with live animals). Finally, there's Eye on Blatchford, a wry parody of BBC "human interest" news items, here focusing on another alien attempting to live peacefully in the rural English countryside. Production notes and photos and a batch of well-concealed Easter eggs round out this highly enjoyable set. --Paul Gaita

"That Would look silly. We'll thake the lift"
"My dear, no one can be stupid as he seems"

and a lot more lines!


Gets my vote for most overrated story ever   May 7, 2003
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THE GOOD

There's alot going for this story. The location filming is excellent, some pretty funny dialogue(my favourite is the Doctor's "What a wonderful butler. He's so violent") and some intersting indeas and if you like detective stories it is a bit of a throwback to old gumshoe stories of years ago. But........

THE BAD

Cut away all that and you get a pretty routine story who's overall plot is just rehash of The Daemons and Image of the Fendhal(two stories I highly recommend). This story is the Doctor Who equivalent of a boy-band cd. You get all these bells and whistles in the story but very little substance and nothing really you haven't gotten before. Also Scaroth has to be the most unoriginal and generic villain in the shows history(even more unoriginal than the Mandril from Nightmare of Eden). I think this is a case where people have confused popularity with greatness. Sure the story is popular, but so what? Hey the Spice Girls outsold the Beatles does that mean the Spice Girls were the better band? Of course not. Just remember just because its popular doesen't mean its one of the best.

THE UGLY

While Scaroth maybe unoriginal he sure is ugly.


a touch of l'amour   April 28, 2003
City of Death is distinguished from the other Tom Baker Who episodes by virtue of two things: 1) it is essentially a comedy, rather than a campy drama with strong tongue-in-cheek humor (like most Who episodes) and 2) there is a definite, quasi-romantic vibe going between Tom Baker and his wife (and ex-wife) to be, Lala Ward. Maybe it was the Paris setting; maybe Tom and Lala were so ga-ga for each other at this point they couldn't hide it; but I can't recall any episode with any female companion where the relationship seems quite so intimate. These two factors make "City" a bit of a departure from the norm. I am not as enamored of this episode as many fans are, but it is still very enjoyable. On the downside, I found the long travelogue shots of Paris to be a bit boring and time-consuming, the actor who plays Professor Kirinsky to be a giant ham, and some of the plot elements to be absurd beyond the usual level of absurdity (no one in that cafe seems to care about the goons who keep coming in to stick up the Doctor at gunpoint). Those are, however, pretty weak criticisms. On the plus side, Baker, who was beginning to flag a bit in his enthusiasm for the role at this point in his seven-year run, clearly had a ball with the fast-paced, completely comedic script. His biggest strength as an actor was always his ability to recognize when a plot moment or bit of dialogue was ridiculous, and then use humor to make it fly. In this episode he gets plenty of chances and clearly enjoyed all of them. The Duggan character was hackneyed (nice trenchcoat) but also quite funny as a sort of male Leela who is not terribly bright but terribly keen on breaking things and punching people in the face. His interplay with the Doctor is very good ("Duggan, if you do that again I am going to take very severe measures with you." "Oh yeah? What are you gonna do?" "I'm going to ask you not to do it again."), and he works equally well with Romana. Skaroth's polite, homicidal butler is also a huge kick ("Kill those two fools please, Harold," says Skarroth. "With pleasure, sir," replies the butler). The brass ring however goes to Julian Glover as Skarroth/Count Scarleoni, who sci-fi fans will always remember as General Veers in "The Empire Strikes Back", one of the fortunate imperial officers who Vader does not strangle for ineptitude. Glover has beautifully campy dialogue and he plays it out with relish as a profoundly evil villain who never loses his sense of whimsy or humor ("This is going to be a treat. Please remain here while I bring the instruments of torture.") even when he has to wear the disgusting Jaggeroth costume. The plot seemed thin and somewhat confusing at times as it goes along, but everything ties in very nicely at the end....except for the fact that for such a warlike race, the Jaggeroth don't seem to be able to take a punch very well. I guess that's why they're extinct. Anyway, while I don't regard "City of Death" as a classic, it remains a must-have for the true fan's collection.


One of the Dr Who "gold" stories   February 10, 2003
Not just for fans, City Of Death is for those folks who either have never seen Dr Who or were unfortunate enough to see one of the truly BAD ones and never watched again. I mean, you can't sit them down to just any story. That is why, for Tom Baker's era, I recommend City Of Death as one of the gold list. A great story setting, great performances by cast regulars and supporting actors, an interesting plot that carries through four episodes, a minimum of cheap effects, etcetera, etcetera, and so on. City Of Death shines, especially since that season of stories produces very little classic Who otherwise.