selenak

Being the fallout of the first ever DW cast change and a glorious romp through sandal movie clichés, respectively.

The Rescue: I imagine the departure of Carol Ann Ford originally caused some headaches, as while the Doctor could easily pick up new fellow travellers, he could hardly suddenly gain an alternate granddaughter, and yet they obviously wanted to continue the tradition of a young teenager whom the Doctor could behave grandfatherly towards. The solution of Vicki works out pretty well here; she's blonde to Susan's brunette (oh, I just realised: the first blonde - make of that what you will), orphaned, so she and the Doctor can adopt each other, and from several centuries into Barbara's and Ian's future, which gives her a different perspective from them. I have seen Vicki before - in The Time Meddler - so I liked her already; in her introduction story, she's somewhat more distressed and less amused, for obvious reasons (being crashed on a planet with nearly everyone killed around you will do that to you), but already shows the typical companion earmarks of compassion and bravery under stress. I also liked the twist of Barbara killing her beloved pet, believing it to be a dangerous animal, and Vicki's anger about this; it tied with the general twist of the story: the monstrous alien isn't a monstrous alien but a human in disguise, thinking nothing of genocide of humans and aliens alike to cover his tracks, and aliens appearing as humans save the Doctor and punish Bennet.

General observations: is it me or does the Doctor become extra nice towards Ian in the wake of Susan's departure? There were quite a lot of "my dear boy"s and no "Chesterfields". Also, Barbara and Ian talking about the Doctor's reaction to Susan's absence belies, like the Doctor's talk about Barbara, Ian and Susan in The Time Meddler, the cliché that out of sight is out of mind in classic DW. Lastly, Hartnell does a great bit of acting in the scene with Bennet when he goes from his usual "hm..." manner to saying "so you killed them all" in an icy tone conveying his disgust and outrage without actually getting louder.

The Romans: Given that it's stated right at the outset of this serial that the Doctor, Barbara, Ian and Vicki have been vacationing for a month in a villa in ancient Italy now, I wonder why Five's trip to the Eye of Orion with Turlough and Tegan is quoted as the only proof of the theory that the Doctor & Companions take holidays between adventures. What I had heard about The Romans in advance is that it contains the shippiest Barbara/Ian scenes, and on this, it definitely delivered. Both the opening and the closing scenes are so joyfully relaxed with each other and teasing that it's impossible to read them other than between a couple in every sense of the word. (I.e. this isn't UST, this is RST.) The actors look drop dead gorgeous in Roman costumes, too, and you can tell the script is written with a deep affection for them.

Speaking of the script, it's a mixture of black comedy, outright farce and some pretty grim stuff slipped in between gags. Opening and closing scenes aside, it mostly puts the Doctor and Vicky in the farce part of the story, which you could call Carry On Nero, while Ian and Barbara get to experience the grim side of Roman life. Though the division isn't that neat; when Ian, who already was put through a stint as a galley slave, is told he'll have to be a gladiator in the arena next, asks "but what will we fight against?", and the episode cuts to some BBC footage of roaring lions, this is an obvious gag meant to evoke laughter as much as tension, and works as such. On the other hand, when Ian and his comrade later find out they're supposed to fight each other, the sadness and horror at this is played straight and works that way, too. There are only two scenes where the farcical humour doesn't jell with what the story tells us, imo, as always. One is the overlong sequence with Nero chasing Barbara through the palace. We're in a comedy and in 1965 tv primarily aimed at children, so you know he won't force as much as a kiss on her, but I still couldn't buy into it as pure farce, especially as The Romans has been quite good at depicting slavery in Roman times and the utter lack of any right to anything, including your own body, that comes with it. So I could never forget that if she wasn't protected by the laws of farce and children's tv, this would have ended in rape for Barbara, and pretty quickly, too. The other scene comes later, when Vicki points out to the Doctor he was the one to give Nero the idea for burning Rome, and he finds this amusing and awesome.

londonkds in his review points out that while throughout the serial, the Doctor's and Vicky's attitude is exactly the same as the Doctor's and Rose's in Tooth and Claw, the fact hat the episode blends from the Doctor's laughter to Nero's states that the series itself doesn't regard this as a good thing, but I'm not sure. Especially given that Barbara and Ian at the end also consider their adventure an amusing one, both when they're alone and later in the TARDIS when everyone has finished telling everyone else what they experienced. Though I might be influenced by the Dennis Spooner documentary on the dvd in which Rob Shearman points out Spooner also created the Meddling Monk, and shaped the Second Doctor's personality, and speculates that a more anarchic clownish Doctor might be what Spooner in general was going for, not a point about disregard of real tragedy in favour of touristy adventure thrill.

These two scenes aside, I had fun throughout the serial, and didn't mind inaccuracies like everyone sitting up when dining at the palace (especially since we got the previous reclining and luxuriating scenes at the villa). Nero of course is straight out of film versions of Quo Vadis, particularly the Ustinov one, not out of history, but who cares? And I got a kick out of the chat between Vicki and Locusta the poisoner. The Doctor getting out of having to play the lyre by using the Emperor's Clothes trick was neat, though it was unnecessary for the script to point this out, I think most of its audience, especially at the time, do know the story. If you are familiar with the epics of the 50s and 60s, you can also keep an inner checklist for all the topics used; as mentioned before, the serial lustfully indulges every single "Roman" cliché, and in such a fun way, too. Galley slaves, gladiators, slave auctions, crazy emperors, conspiracies to assassinate the emperor, poison, all check. Until the near end I thought they were giving one cliché a miss - Christians! - but no, in a last minute reveal we found out one of the characters was one. (Err, that little cross was anachronistic, too, but never mind, it got the point across without wasting time.) In an unintentional foreshadowing of Three's era, the Doctor, after having foiled an assassin who came after him, tells Vicki "my dear, through all my constantly outwitting the opposition I have forgotten how exciting the simple art of fisticuffs can be on occasion". (Here I do believe the script made deliberate gentle fun of his vanity; same with Ian earlier, when Barbara tells him he makes a good looking Roman and he replies "my innate modesty forbids me to agree with you".) In general, the rapport between Team TARDIS in this serial is just superb, and the sense of everyone really enjoying each other's company is in every frame.

The extras on the DVD are well done, as far as I have watched them: one "making of" documentary about The Romans, with an introduction sequence naming the Julian-Claudian emperors (of whom Nero was the last) which made me laugh because, bless the BBC, they weren't using portrait busts, oh no, they were using photos of from their very own I, Claudius series made to look like a mosaic, from Brian Blessed as Augustus onwards. Oh, British tv, never change your incestous ways. Anyway, they did interview the actor who had played young Nero in I, Claudius in the documentary as well as Anthony Andrews who played him in A.D., in addition to all the DW people, so I suppose there was some justification, other than digging I, Claudius and its credits sequence. The DW interviewees were mostly people actually involved in the production of The Romans, from William Russell onwards, but also James Moran, who wrote the script for New Who's The Fires of Pompeii and gleefully pointed to the homage it pays to The Romans. (I.e. the Doctor telling Donna "and before you ask, I had nothing to do with that fire... well, a little bit".)

Then there's the Dennis Spooner docu which I already mentioned, and one called Girls, Girls, Girls, about the female companions of the 60s from Susan to Zoe. (As this is an eternal point of debate, in said documentary Jean Marsh firmly denies that Sara Kingdom was a companion, and says "I was simply first bad Sara Kingdom and then good Sara Kingdom, but not a companion.) Which ends on the conclusion that Zoe was the product of Barbarella and 2001: A Space Odyssey, which... with the visuals actually makes sense, sort of. Also, among the interviewed people is Frazer Hines who doesn't look frail which makes me wonder whether the BBC can't bring him back for one "old Jamie" story after all.